Stottie

That is the dumbest thing anyone has said in years. It is also insulting to his own club Arsenal, because he's overlooked their legend Herbert Chapman, widely credited as an all-time great tactical innovator. Read those Jonathan Wilson books for more info. Even in recent times, to suggest those four managers are in the same league as Clough/Taylor and Paisley is complete nonsense.

A suitable response to fans of other clubs saying Bruce was good enough would be to ask them how many games NUFC have played in the Champions League and Europa League, the new formats that is, not the old European Cup or UEFA. 99% of them will have no idea that the answer is 38 (24 CL plus 14 Europa), which is more than Everton or Leicester. Would a manager putting those teams into a relegation battle after 100M of spend be acceptable? If we are now a rollover joke club, it is only because shit managers like Bruce employed by a shit owner called Ashley have turned us into one.

Bruce came in on a wave of "I'm a Geordie" and then fed into stereotypes held elsewhere of us fans being deluded, just to save his own neck. Ashley himself said the same thing, that "I'm not rich enough to compete with Man City" interview, as if any of us expected that, but he was an outsider. I do not want to get deeply into the psyche of Northern working-class areas, but its a given that you do not slag your own. Bruce also claimed his hands were tied in spite of getting way more money in transfers than Rafa ever did. Rafa had to play a season with Joselu, a Stoke reject, and then wheeler-deal to get Rondon in on loan. Bruce shipped out our best defender and then played Matt Ritchie and Jacob Murphy as full backs with actual full backs on the bench. We have had several very poor managers over the past twenty odd years, but Bruce is also up there amongst the most unlikable. Right next to Kinnear and Souness for me. I'm old enough to remember Souness as a domineering midfielder, a fantastic been-there, done-that footballer, and Kinnear knocked it out of the park with the "c#nt" press conference, a real-life voyage into the surreal, so I probably dislike Bruce more than both of them. Pardew had some rogue charm about him, shagging players' wives and "the King eats your dinner" malarky, and Carver was clearly a drowning man out of his depth, but I really stuggle to find anything redeeming about Bruce. He's fake twat who winds me up. Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of Howay Five Oh, our greatest result in modern times, and as a pundit at that game, supposed Newcastle fan Steve Bruce could not have looked any unhappier. I seem to remember his half time analysis focusing on Man U not getting a penalty.

Echoes of that glorious Bowie song in Extras!

#BIGGER CANS

Interesting to see they've got a P8 W4 D2 L2 record off 40% average possession and three goals from Townsend. Classic Rafaball!

We probably deserved to be relegated that season. A combination of lingering Rafa organization in defence, Dubravka heroics, and major goal output from defenders kept us up. Shelvey top scored for us on six. Wilson made the team much better last year, but we still needed that miracle from Willock. I dunno about Howe. We really need to stop conceding goals. The new owners got to see it themselves, with three in one half against a team who'd scored six in seven. Maxi is just about the best player outside the top 8 or so teams, and Callum Wilson will be in the top fifteen. I'm sure we'll buy cover, but there are enough goals in the team for a simply competent manager to keep us up. What we need instead is a working defence and midfield and a better goalkeeper on the pitch. I don't think any team is going to collect many points with Darlow in goal, the fullbacks we've been playing, and tactics that give the opposition 65%+ possession. In fairness to him, Howe's teams at least try to keep the ball, and that alone is a huge improvement over the thick plastic Geordie we have now.

Just saying, but Tottenham had scored 6 goals in 7 games before today.

Strong contender for the most undeserved goal in the history of football.

C'mon crowd, you can at least manage a "we're so shit it's unbelievable".

The medical stoppage means the lads have had the equivalent of two Steve Bruce halftime team talks. No wonder we've created ferk all since.

He's lucky its not the Sad Mackem Bastard version of Daydream Believer.

I might head off into General Chat to see if anyone has bought some nice trainers.

Under Rafa we conceded three nine times in 86 PL games, once every ten games. Bruce has done in three out of eight games already this season, two goals in six (!) out of the eight games. That is nailed-on relegation defending.

Spurs have scored three and hit the bar off eight attempts. They've not had to work for it. It's like a charity game.

More Bruce defending. They just waltzed straight through. 19 conceded in 7.5 games. Easily the worst in the league. That's all on Bruce. The free organisation and drilling he got off Rafa is long gone.

RVI's nice and close at least. Fingers crossed for the person.

More great work from defensive coach Steve Bruce.

Nice strike but no pressure on him. Bruce out!

It's mostly okay. The "14th" comment is really thick, because it will turn Newcastle fans off when there is no need to score cheap points. Him, and the Guardian if they actually cared, should be trying to engage us. This will just push people away and encourage them to develop a siege mentality. Just for the frame with the fan upside down, but so many sports and organizations are taking KSA money that somewhere sometime you do indeed jump a whataboutery shark where accepting KSA money is ultimately normalized. Just as government ministers seem to have jumped an accountability shark where you can be corrupt and/or super incompetent and still not have to resign.

Mike Ashley sold the club to them, the fans had no say in the matter. Just as the fans had no say in Sports Direct Arena, Wonga, and Dennis Wise. If the UK Government and the Royal Family are happy to deal with Saudi Arabia, I don't see why a football club should be singled out for doing so. Ideally the club would be run by local people, but that would make us the extreme exception, not the rule. No other remotely competitive club has local owners. The UK Government was elected by the British people, so any appeasement from it toward any foreign power could potentially be stopped by the electorate, people currently claiming the high ground and attacking NUFC fans in spite of delivering Johnson, Truss etc. to power. For all the talk of sportswashing, is that what happens with the other stuff PIF owns, racehorses, the McClaren F1 team etc.? Do they operate as blatant representatives and not as sporting entities? Have F1 fans, horseracing fans, etc. been asked to boycott too?

I would sack him 90 minutes before the Spurs game and announce to the public with the team news for the game as "manager - TBD". Whatever happens, fatty is getting a payout, so we might as well have some fun with it. Let the players pick the team etc. if Jones won't play caretaker. It's only one match. Jones would be mental to not accept caretaker if a "do well and we'll keep you" (potentially fake) offer was dangled out there.

It says a lot that a good chuck of the current joy, for me a third, will be seeing the back of this plastic Geordie cunt. Ashley was bad enough, but he didn't stand there in front of cameras stoking every negative trope about the city and the fans. Expectations like players being coached or playing in their normal positions. The sooner it happens, the better.

Aye fuck off. Thank fuck for Hughton and Rafa for stopping the two big slides. It could have been much worse.

HT. Possession is back to 50:50 so the blip is over. All set up for them to adjust and Bruce to mess it up.