Everytime this comes up I can’t help but feel there’s a lot of recency bias. Pardew was so smarmy it was unreal. He also loved to drive down expectations and attack fans his staff would do this physically if memory serves correctly, to none other than our very own neesy. He protected Mike, at a crucial time. And is partly to blame as to why our fans turned in to a bunch of cucks.
Bruce’s excuses make far more sense, and are much more laudible. Not saying they’re right but they’re somewhat within the realms of normalcy for pfm’s. Bruce has protected the likes of Elliott Anderson, probably too much. Pardew threw a 17 year old Adam Armstrong under the bus. When Pardew had the chance to sign players he brought in Colback and Obertan. Obviously Bruce takes the blame for Hendrick, but equally the credit for Wilson, Willock and Lewis might turnout decent too i the future.