Abacus

He'll turn up in a Qatari flag

It's a good job for the Saudis that there's one special guy who knows what's really important and should really be the focus of the world's cameras. But it's not all about him, of course. The human rights and the fans or whatever. It's very very difficult. But don't forget it's big Steve's special 1000 game day and he's won a manager of the month award before and these journalists are a big distraction from that. He just wants a bit of respect and no criticism, they all deserve a slap let me tell you. Next question, Luke?

And actually, just to follow on from that point, it's not just his arrogance and thin skinned delusion, I'm going to come back to the lying point and his sheer contempt for the fans he supposedly represents. Here is one obvious lie. When he managed Sunderland, he claimed that it had never been his dream to manage Newcastle. But when he came here, whilst acting disgracefully towards Shef Wed, the narrative was that he'd be mad to turn down the dream chance to manage his boyhood club. You might think he had to say that when at Sunderland. But whichever way you look at it, he was clearly lying to one whole set of fans or the other. But I think he actually went one further, because it's clear that the real reason he came here was that he'd have been mad to turn down such a compensation package. I have noted that we are described time and again as his "boyhood club". I think we all know that his adult club, where he shifted his allegiances, was Manchester United, his real dream job. I think that repeating "boyhood club" is a snakey way of trying to suck up to Newcastle fans and also create a false narrative for journos to lap up. Whilst he goes out for dinner with Bryan Robson and his Man U mates as a Man U fan after we lose to them, and pining for his life in his big house in the North West, fleecing every other club with lies to pay for it.

The problem with this story, is firstly that Flintoff then took Bruce out the next night in return, so he was in fact repaid. And secondly, even if he hadn't been repaid, spending a few quid to suck up to a sporting superstar is one thing. But how about, on the other hand, according to a charity allegedly acting as a slum landlord to someone with no money or star status? That would be pretty despicable behaviour for any human being. But I detest him regardless of the truth of either of those stories. He's a sly hateful liar and an idiot.

Since this is now to be all about Steve's big 1000 game day on Sunday, hope they present him with a printed piece of A4 congratulating him on this milestone in the centre circle, right before the game. Before unfurling a 100ft colour montage of all the trophies he's won in that time.

She's saying there's going to be change right before his big press conference as well. But he's been very professional, apparently. Yep, turned up at the canteen at opening time every day on the dot. Even on his days off.

We've already let Bruce take training in the build up, so the game is as good as lost. Watch him throw Wilson on half fit and knacker him as well. I desperately wanted him gone from day 1, and not to have any part of him spoiling Sunday. If he knows he's a dead man walking, what possible reason does he have to even try, rather than to just cry about it to the press and the players? Jones was surely originally brought in as a ready made caretaker manager. He may indeed turn out to be worse than a self pitying Bruce, but I was ready to roll the dice on that gamble for a couple of matches. I'm not sure the consortium have any idea how bad Bruce actually is because I think he is actively damaging.

It cost Man Utd's owners 600m dollars in their own share value alone! Must have made Spurs just about worthless overnight That's why they're all fewming!

It's exactly why we're all so gutted about Benitez of course! He'd have done all that heavy lifting and would have loved it!

It would be quite nice if there was a semi regular fans forum again, with unredacted minutes. I don't need to agree with every decision the club makes, but I'd like to understand the reasoning for them. Maybe that's a job for NUST who have had a thankless task under MA, but equally, why not have someone from here or other fans groups on there too? We tend to squabble between ourselves otherwise, when we actually all want the same thing

May be more of a case of which manager is happy to break their contract, mind. Rodgers has hit a bit of a glass ceiling at Leicester, I think.

Could you ask Amanda whether, given how important a matchday atmosphere is to a club, whether they might reconsider the decision not to be part of the safe standing trial? And also, whether she likes buttercups?

As long as Southgate isn't in the conversation.

I idly wonder if there's something to be said for just getting rid of him, and encouraging the players step up and take some responsibility for a match. I don't know enough about Jones, or what he'd be like unencumbered from Bruce. But I do remember the dark times right at the start under Hughton where it took some of the senior pros to come together, show some leadership and help him out. You wonder who might have that kind of character in the current team, who might step up for Jones in a similar way.

I went in hoping to be outraged, and came out thinking it was alright. It's just taking a dig, like all his cartoons do, and pointing out some of the absurdities. Think we need to take this kind of stuff in our stride from now on, rather than over analyse for criticism. I expect we'd be saying the exact same thing if it were any other club or set of fans. I did laugh at the Mike Ashley Victorian mill owner bit. I say laugh, I mean not out loud.

I understand the point about doing things in the right way contractually etc, though that's never a problem for other clubs. Also, you can always put him on gardening leave just to get rid of him. Of course it is very possible that they simply have no idea how bad he is. But I personally really doubt he'll be there by Sunday, or be allowed to do another one of his awful bumbling press conferences.

Well here is the thing. It was clearly a part of the deal that he dropped the case, I reckon. Seems like we lifted up a rock and they had to scurry.

I always think, whenever you ask any football fan anywhere what they need, it will always be a commanding defender, a central midfielder, and a reliable striker. I.e., basically the spine of a whole team. Out of all those, I think another striker would be just enough to keep us up and that's got to be the ambition this season, while we get things sorted and rebuild in the summer.

Downie was also saying that he thought the decision was made, and he'd be surprised if Bruce was in the dugout on Sunday.

Fair enough, but stick him on gardening leave while De Marco goes through his contract. I have also voted 'yes', that I am happy with his performance. Because the whole charade has been exactly that, a performance.

Yes, get him gone. If he's not going to be here for Spurs, where is the sense in keeping him in charge for even another day? That self pitying fraud will just get in the way of preparations for Spurs. And the savings in butter alone would be worth a new striker.

I am so delighted that we can all hate the mackems again, in a comedy way, instead of each other! Football is back!

Except that if you can't manage genuine talent, then you're not really a good manager at all.

I'm all for Ragnarok as well. But I also think we need a transitional manager who is used to working with a limited squad rather than expecting everyone to be a galactico, because there are different skills needed to manage players from where we are to where we'd like to be.

I can understand that if you're a Derby fan, and your other options might be oblivion, or some leveraged chancer, that you might think Ashley is a great option. That seems to be the view on one of the Derby forums I had a peek on. It might even be right, in the terrible position they are in, who am I to say? But what you can't see from the outside, though, is his soul crushing behaviour and how he takes your club away and ruins your love of football. Firstly, he is not a 'great businessman' when it comes to football - he diminished his own asset here. Probably could have sold it for so much more if he'd made competent decisions. But the real trouble is that what their fans don't see is that they still care about their club and are desperate for hope. And hope is what he smothers, to the extent that by the end so many people here would have preferred Newcastle to even go out of business just to get rid of him. Or else they stopped watching their own sport. You just had to listen to the earthquake on Thursday night to see what it meant for him to be gone. I'm sure they could ask Rangers fans about this too.