Tribesman

What in actual f*** is this? To think he's a Premier league manager is haunting but then to realise he's also in charge of us ??? I thought you added that last sentence yourself to make fun of Bruce, but its an actual quote from him.

Well done Bruce for predicting how tough the Christmas schedule is which every club and manager in history has had to deal with for decades. Really leaving Guardiola and Klopp in the dust with this depth of knowledge.

They always go on good and bad runs of form for long periods. At point this they were in the top 6 in the league. Injuries to key players like Ake and King and Fraser not hitting the same form as last season has not helped.

Grouping those two together is a genuine insult to Moyes. I wonder what it would take for Howe to be sacked. For a team that is now meant to be fairly established in the league, their results and performances have been horrendous recently. Has he earned the right to take Bournemouth down? That's a really good question - it's a paradox that the longer he keeps them up, the less valid it is to stick with him if they go down. They certainly should be doing better than they are. I remember thinking Wilson, King, Brooks and Fraser was one of the better attacking forces outside the "top six", but they've all been poo this season Not after what he’s spent no. Thing is he’d be the best man to win the Championship though. Managers like Howe, Farke, Jokanovic are more suited to the Championship than low Premier League clubs you wouldn’t want to be in a relegation fight with them 3. You mean the same Eddie Howe who has kept Bournemouth up for the last 4 seasons, that one's not good at keeping small clubs up? I said in a relegation fight this is his first relegation fight let’s see if he has the minerals to get them out of it. But if this is his first relegation fight then he has obviously managed well in the last few seasons to have them safely in mid table rather than fighting relegation.

Those matches are the ones which will be just as difficult as playing Chelsea and Arsenal. Southampton, Watford and Bournemouth will be desperate for points and our away record under Bruce is shite.

Dont look for excuses for his p*ss poor grasp and lock of general ability. Worst striker weve had in a long long time. He hasn't even got a fraction of the striking ability that f***ing Shola had man Its embarrassing watching him play 40m man 40 f***ing million

We have another 5 weeks and 5 PL games of him being "ahead" of where Rafa was. Could easily pick up no more points until the Norwich home game. Knowing us we will beat Chelsea at home but lose to Norwich. Be interesting to see what money Bruce gets to spend this window. Will the injuries allow him to spend? or will this be a Ashley wet dream where he feels we are on course for survival so why spend at all. Hard to see us winning with these latest injuries - so excuses are ready made on a plate for Bruce. It will come down to how the team does in its home matches because Bruce has shown he is terrible when approaching away matches. Norwich won't be easy, they will be targeting it as one of their winnable matches coming up and they already destroyed Bruce's system or whatever it was earlier in the season. If Bruce loses the next 3 matches then like with McClaren they will spend money and squad size will suddenly not be a big problem for them.

How does he head it backwards? https://twitter.com/BrutalBarton/status/1212448783235256320

For the majority of the time getting injuries to your players is down to luck, but for some of these injuries its down to poor squad management from Bruce. Schar, Saint Maximim, Manquillo, Willems and Lejeune they were asked to play 90 mins or multiple games in succession without any rotation or rest. I mean what was the point of buying Kraft if he can't even fill in during the Christmas period. Bruce could have switched to a back 4 and moved Hayden into defence for one match, played the Longstaff brothers more and even introduced a couple academy players to the bench. He is an experienced Premier League manager, Bruce should know rotation is required even if the quality is not there. He said himself last summer he thought Newcastle had an excellent transfer window then when the team started badly, he changed his mind that he doesn't have the quality to play his type of football. After the Crystal Palace match, he said he was happy with his squad again, but when results turned and injuries increased he says he doesn't have the strength in depth to cope with injuries. That in itself has been the problem with Bruce and what Newcastle have lost in Benitez. He is not proactive enough, doesn't think long term for anything and never plans ahead just as long as things look comfortable for him points wise he is happy to let things carry on as they are.

Its comments like this from the media and pundits that make you want Bruce to lead Newcastle to relegation this season. https://twitter.com/LukeEdwardsTele/status/1212661650865762304

I still think there is a better player than what we are seeing. If Benitez was in charge or even someone half decent we would have saw more from him. Before people say Benitez didn't want him, it was reported he did like him, but just not worth spending nearly his entire budget on 1 player when the squad is lacking in other areas which has proven to be the case. That said he is not a £40 million player and never will be a £40 million player. I reckon if we bought Rondon as well he would have been a good mentor for Joelinton and would have taken the goal scoring burden off him.

I still reckon Newcastle will stumble over the line to stay up this season, but that is not a confidant prediction. There is a lot more going against Newcastle this time. Better teams than the last 2 seasons fighting relegation, a worse manager, a defence that is now leaking goals, not enough goals up front and a lack of star quality to win matches by themselves.

Apparently FIFA want to change the offside rule where offsides will be judged if there is clear daylight between players. I hope that is just their way of saying offsides need to be clear and obvious because that will be just as bad as what is happening now with VAR calling offsides by the smallest of margins.

Weigl to Benfica. I'm not sure if its poor form or injuries, but I'm surprised Dortmund are selling him and he's going to the Portuguese league because he used to be seen as one of the most exciting young German players in the Bundesliga.

Bruce complaining about a lack of squad depth like Leicester have yet only 2 weeks ago saying how happy he is with his squad.

While I admire the work rate, it just looks like a team of headless chickens with a lack of coordination in its pressing. Its just too easy for intelligent teams to pick teams like Newcastle off on the counter attack and score.

That clearly shows the defensive organisation has gone and a bad turn of form is around the corner. Combine that with a team that can't score then its soon going to blow up in Bruce's face.

Right club. Wrong manager.

Pellegrini did a fine job at Malaga regardless of what he had to spend. Taking Malaga to 4th in La Liga and being unlucky to not reach the semi finals of the Champions League is an outstanding achievement. If you are a good manager which Pellegrini at the time was then its more likely you will get the chance to manage bigger clubs with lots of money to spend.

Which will probably be enough to stay up, but that sort of form will spill over into the following season.

I love this. https://twitter.com/iresimpsonsfans/status/1211401782485757953

Marcelino replacing Jardim at Monaco.

I think you have touched on why some fans are not prepared to back Bruce regardless of results. He is a similar kind of manager to Pardew and McClaren and fans just don't want to go back to those days again because they know they offer nothing as managers. If the club appointed the likes of Van Bronckhorst, Arteta or Potter then most fans even the ones that hate Bruce right now would be more than really to give them their backing. They may not be Benitez, but you could at least appreciate the club were at least attempting to take the club in a positive direction, but instead they went for a boring appointment who everybody knows offers nothing in the modern game and will most likely help relegate the club.

I could be wrong, but from what I have seen he seems more of a creative player rather someone that will score 10 to 15 goals per season under the correct coaching. I actually think him and Rondon up front would have been an interesting partnership up front. He is a warning sign though from what is to come from the club next summer if its still a Premier League club. They signed a player that was given no consideration if he would fit into a managers plans, they only cared about how much profit could be made from him which is the same mistake we have made from the likes of Thauvin and Cabella. The club will protest that no club gives any manager full power to sign who they want which is true these days, but no club sign players without any consideration for how they fit into a team. There will be more signings like this in the summer which will make the squad even more unbalanced.

I don't think 7 points is a huge gap at this stage of the season for Newcastle not to be dragged back into it, however even if Newcastle have a poor second half of the season I would still expect the team to at least stumble over the line. Relegation is inevitable though most likely next season because the organisation Benitez brought to the defence will have disappeared and the club will continue the past mistakes of the last relegation by signing players the team don't need or are not good enough. Ashley will probably spend again to bounce straight back up or more specifically use player sales to fund a promotion push, but there are no guarantees it will happen for a third time. Only Newcastle and Burnley in the last 10 years have bounced back up after relegation so its not exactly easy no matter how much money you throw at it. Ashley has been really fortunate that he had two really good managers in Benitez and Hughton in both promotion seasons and lets not forget the great character and chemistry both squads had which is not to be taken for granted. Whether Ashley decides to sell after a prolonged stay in the Championship time will only tell, but it seems fairly unlikely he will sell from a position of strength while Newcastle are in the Premier League. I can understand why some fans are clinging to the nuclear option because its unexplored territory with Ashley and are probably willing to roll the dice because they know a third relegation is on its way anyway. There is nothing really to lose from the viewpoint of these type of fans.