Shadow Puppets

Is Ando7 an ITK?

The club are recommending everyone brings their NHS COVID Pass tomorrow, with spot checks possible.

That is an excellent article and really puts it into perspective just how much has happened this week, and why Bruce hasn’t gone yet. Should make everyone feel better.

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Two perfect posts

Stopped caring whether he’s sacked this week or not. Happy to trust the new regime’s judgement on when is best to do it. Just going to enjoy Sunday ?

Yeah, I know. Point is, he most likely would have been told if Bruce was staying. He’s clearly going…it’s just a question of exactly when.

Downie still reporting on SSN that he is expected to leave before Sunday.

It isn’t a big decision from a sporting POV, but it is if you haven’t even got a board / sporting director / CEO / sporting advisors sorted.

I mean it’s blatantly obvious he’s leaving very soon. If he wasn’t, they would have said so.

Ranieri wasn’t sacked when their new owners came in for over 9 months. I agree they should be ruthless, but maybe it’s foolish to be ruthless without having any of the sporting setup in place to source replacements / coaches.

You need to calm down a bit man. They’ve been in charge for 5 days…in reality 2-3 working days. Barely have their feet under the desk. I fully expect everything to need signing off at boardroom level…but as far as I’m aware the makeup of the boardroom is not yet complete. You have to remember that Stavely and Mehrdad are the “current” day to day runners of the club…they are being judged by PIF too. So if they don’t perform well / make the correct decisions in the short term, they may be replaced too. There’s a lot of their shoulders to get the early decisions right, and to do that with nothing lined up / no boardroom in place etc, is a risk.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amanda-staveley-made-to-wait-for-permission-to-dismiss-steve-bruce-vn60v5bp2 Amanda Staveley, the Newcastle United director, is waiting for the green light from the club’s new Saudi owners before sacking Steve Bruce. The Times has learnt that all decisions must now be approved by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF), the majority shareholder. Despite it seeming inevitable that Bruce will be leaving the club — with conference calls having taken place to discuss his departure — that go-ahead has not yet been given.

He’s still leaving. Not a chance in hell Steve Bruce is managing us in a few weeks time.

Got a funny feeling we might see an announcement that Bruce is leaving immediately AFTER the Spurs game… perhaps “stepping down” / pushed with a thank you for his service keeping us in the league. Keeping it amicable, allowing him his 1000th game to be his potentially last game in top flight football, getting a full week of training in, keeping the fans off his back for the game etc… and then a fresh start from next week. Seems like a nice balance…keeping fans happy, giving them more time to get a plan in place, keeping the press on side by not appearing too trigger happy etc. Basically a compromise to suit everyone. Just a scenario that I’ve just dreamt up, but seems relatively plausible.

In many cases, sure. But the Steve’s are very much a coaching team. I’d put money on if Bruce is going, his mates are going with him.

From Craig Hope: Meanwhile, head coach Steve Bruce remains in post having met with Amanda Staveley at the training ground on Monday. However, it was always understood that it would take until at least the middle of the week before removing Bruce ahead of Sunday’s visit of Spurs. The focus of the new owners remains on the managerial situation, with appointments such as sporting director and chief executive to follow in due course. Sources have played down the likelihood of Frank Lampard being the man to take charge, although they have also stressed that many options are on the table given the number of voices involved in the process.

Weird idea? It’s pretty common place for a manager and HIS coaches to leave a club at the same time.

Yet.

Jones is part of that tried and tested dog shit ?

I’d prefer that too, but I’m not going to throw my toys out of the pram if he’s still there. Can see plenty of reasons from a business point of view why they might not want to cut and run without replacements in place.

Who knows? Purely playing devils advocate, I can’t imagine it being a good idea to be down to the barebones in the coaching department for weeks.

No doubt, and I’d prefer him not to be there too. But I also think it would be a risk of sorts for the new owners to remove the manager and his coaches with no official plan on who may be coming in. What if we’re left with Jones and a skeleton coaching staff for weeks?

Genuinely not convinced removing Bruce would have any impact on Sunday’s result. Graeme Jones is running the tactics anyway.

Yeah, but they’re professional people. I personally think that they’ll want to put a full new management / coaching team in place to take over, rather than sacking someone without any plan on who replaces him.