Steve Brute

[LoveItIfWeBeatU]

Heard some of Totalsport earlier, and Ando turning Bruce apologist already. Saying 'Head Coach' is just words, and no-one knows that he wont have any say in transfers and stuff.

 

Also on Look North, talking to people in Wallsend, you know, where 'Boyhood NUFC fan' Bruce grew up, all saying he should be given a chance, and one bloke saying he's probably learned from past mistakes/experience.

 

They are really pushing the 'local' lad angle.

 

What sort of person talks on camera to local news? Morons and/or attention seekers. Most people swerve the cameras when the reporters are out seeking public opinion.

 

GEORGE CAULKIN - At best, the club is unconventional and at worst it is dysfunctional, incapable of putting two good decisions together. Something always lurks around the corner.

 

It's not "the club" though is it? It's Mike Ashley.

[James]

 

Another Judean Peoples Front?

[themanupstairs]

There's no better football writer than George Caulkin

[Wolfcastle]

I agree with that Caulkin piece almost entirely.

Bruce unfortunately has brought this on himself with a shambolic lifestyle choice for the sake of checking something off his bucket list.

There's a lingering feeling that Bruce, like McLaren before him, is in the same circles as the Ashley cult and that's the worst thing you could be.

He's going to fail. There is not possibilty of anything else.

Attention needs to remain on Ashley and not be distracted by managers (as with Pardew).

[Anon]

Andy Robertson defends him by saying "his record speaks for itself". That it does.

[Guest chopey]

There's no better football writer than George Caulkin

 

So true, "Mike Ashley's works team" a particular highlight.

[Tiresias]

Caulkin nailing it again.

 

twitter or in the times?

 

Times. Can anyone post the article please?

 

FOOTBALL | GEORGE CAULKIN

Mike Ashley’s Newcastle regime chews good people up – I wish Steve Bruce hadn’t joined

 

In February last year, I was asked to write a piece about Aston Villa. They were second in the Sky Bet Championship and so the time seemed right to appraise how they’d got there and their readiness or otherwise to return to the Premier League. Speak to people in and around the club, I was told, gauge the mood, reflect the atmosphere. Perhaps I could give Steve Bruce a ring; after all, I’d known him for a long time.

 

That last bit, though, was not on the agenda. Joe, Bruce’s dad, had just died and Sheenagh, his mother, was in hospital with a serious illness (from which she never recovered), and Villa’s manager was reeling, juggling his work with thrice-weekly trips up the motorway from his home in Cheshire back to Tyneside, where he was born and his parents still lived. In those circumstances, pushing for an interview would not have felt appropriate.

 

So I talked to a couple of fans, arranged a chat with a member of Villa’s coaching staff and decided to drive to Birmingham, to stroll around Villa Park and to pop in to Bruce’s regular pre-match conference. I sent him a text as a courtesy, just to let him know I’d be there. Within 30 seconds, he rang. “Why are you coming all the way down here, son?” he asked, even though he was in the middle of the same journey. “Save yourself the bother. What do you need?”

 

By the time the article appeared in the paper, it was no longer about Aston Villa. Bruce spoke searingly about “the horrible pain in the stomach that grief gives you,” his sense of “powerlessness.” Towards the end, Joe would often ask his son why he still put himself through the wringer of management. “It was his way of saying, ‘What are you doing, Steve? Are you mad?’” Bruce said. “We all ask that question of ourselves sometimes.”

 

Perhaps this is not much of an anecdote but, in my experience, it is a small illustration of the kind of man Bruce is; considerate, helpful and fundamentally decent. None of which are qualifications to manage Newcastle United, although that is precisely the point. The people who say that Bruce is not good enough for Newcastle have got it all wrong; he is too good. Way too good for Mike Ashley’s works team.

 

There are two reasons why Bruce, who has signed a three-year contract as head coach, should not be within a million miles of the job at St James’ Park. The first is that if Newcastle had even a modicum of ambition then Rafa Benítez would still be in the role, but after having the wit to appoint a manager who could still see the club in terms of potential and stature, they failed to understand what it entailed. That to improve means investment, imagination, speed of thought.

 

After Benítez, almost any manager would represent a step down, but he was the exception at Newcastle not the rule. Take the Spaniard out of it and Bruce is following Alan Pardew and Steve McClaren, all English, all experienced, all greeted with either bemusement or hostility. In both emotional and footballing terms, Benítez held the club together, keeping them in the Premier League and giving supporters a reason to believe. That glue has dissolved.

 

And so the second reason is more personal. Ashley’s Newcastle chews good people up; Benitez, Chris Hughton, Alan Shearer, Kevin Keegan. If anyone thinks it will be different with Bruce ... well, the last 12 years provides compelling, distressing precedent. At best, the club is unconventional and at worst it is dysfunctional, incapable of putting two good decisions together. Something always lurks around the corner.

 

The mood is noxious. Newcastle have lost Benítez, Ayoze Pérez has been sold to Leicester City for £30 million, Salomón Rondón, so impressive on loan from West Bromwich Albion last season, is not returning and they are yet to sign a player. Plenty of supporters are jettisoning season tickets, others are campaigning for a boycott of Newcastle’s first home match of the season. This is not fertile territory for optimism.

 

It will be said that Bruce knows what he is getting into, that by working for Ashley he is complicit with the regime, but nobody knows; not really. Benítez believed he was joining a club with designs on Europe, but is now working in China. McClaren believed he could change things; within months of his appointment, he and Paul Simpson, were given written warnings after the first-team coach spoke about transfers in public.

 

Bruce will back himself and so he should. “This is my boyhood club and it was my dad’s club, so this is a very special moment for me and my family,” he said today. Sheffield Wednesday and their supporters have a right to feel bruised, particularly regarding the timing of Bruce’s arrival and departure, but the 58-year-old has a chance to go home, into the Premier League. Like all managers, he will look at the peril and reckon he can wrestle with it.

 

New additions will arrive, belatedly. Newcastle have long been fixated on Joelinton, Hoffenheim’s Brazilian forward, who will cost around £36 million. They pressed the 22-year-old on Benítez, who demurred; he liked the player, but not at anything like that price and, if there was that much money available, why not let him spent it on his own choices? Who makes the recruitment decisions will be interesting. And what about the club’s ‘takeover?’ Where does that now stand?

 

At this mute club that shuns responsibility, everything Bruce says will be dissected and thrown back at him. He will be a very different figurehead to Benítez and, initially at least, the atmosphere will be toxic. As nufc.com, the independent fans website, put it, “this is the very opposite of ambition, but an appointment that nicely mirrors our grubby, unloved, derided shell of a football club”. I wish Bruce luck and victories. And I wish he wasn’t there.

 

Spot on

[huss9]

hmm, not sure what to make of that "stevebruceout.com".

[Guest Yerdas El Savon]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike fucking Ashley and only him until he's gone.

[Thumbheed]

 

Another Judean Peoples Front?

 

Are the PardewOut guys a part of any of these groups? They had a slick operation going on, could do with a few tips from them. This just feels so clumsy and doesn't really say anything poignant. Also, not a big fan of this protesting outside the local SD, I just don't think it has any meaningful impact so renders itself ultimately pointless.

 

They really should have concentrated more on unifying the fans before acting. At this point it feels like these groups are serving their own purposes rather than the club's (as an institution). There could still be +40k fans who make all these actions moot.

 

With SD going through the ringers at the moment, we have a golden opportunity to hurt his real interest. That should be the target. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest reefatoon]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

[mrmojorisin75]

Perhaps this is not much of an anecdote but, in my experience, it is a small illustration of the kind of man Bruce is; considerate, helpful and fundamentally decent. None of which are qualifications to manage Newcastle United, although that is precisely the point. The people who say that Bruce is not good enough for Newcastle have got it all wrong; he is too good. Way too good for Mike Ashley’s works team.

 

no

[Mattoon]

Stevebruceout.com although amusing and all is merely a distraction from the real underlying issue, we can't afford to water down our protests.

[Guest Yerdas El Savon]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

Go after the players, the kitman, the reseptionist, the tea lady etc as well then? I reckon there's a lot of decent people employed by the club, but they are not the problem - their boss is and only him.

[Thumbheed]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

It's a total waste of time and effort. Cut the head off the snake.

[Guest reefatoon]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

Go after the players, the kitman, the reseptionist, the tea lady etc as well then? I reckon there's a lot of decent people employed by the club, but they are not the problem - their boss is and only him.

 

What a melt

[Guest Yerdas El Savon]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

Go after the players, the kitman, the reseptionist, the tea lady etc as well then? I reckon there's a lot of decent people employed by the club, but they are not the problem - their boss is and only him.

 

What a melt

 

Cracking reply.

[AsprillasShinPad]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

Go after the players, the kitman, the reseptionist, the tea lady etc as well then? I reckon there's a lot of decent people employed by the club, but they are not the problem - their boss is and only him.

 

What a melt

 

So what are you going to do? Chin the tea lady? I doubt she's got a I heart MA tattoo under her apron.

[sbnufc]

[Wilson]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

Indeed.

[Disco]

 

Pretty sure being a runner up isn’t an honour.

[Wilson]

Going after Steve Bruce is just plain wrong. Go after Mike f***ing Ashley and only him until he's gone.

 

Go after them all.

 

Go after the players, the kitman, the reseptionist, the tea lady etc as well then? I reckon there's a lot of decent people employed by the club, but they are not the problem - their boss is and only him.

 

What a melt

 

So what are you going to do? Chin the tea lady? I doubt she's got a I heart MA tattoo under her apron.

 

Aye, that's what he meant 100%.

 

Gona chin Sandra from the box office ticket line as well.

[hakka]

Anyone see the Steve Wraith interview in SkySports? Proper nailed it.

[ToonArmy1892]

I'm feeling down about it all now, the hilarity is wearing off.

 

This is shit.

[Guest chopey]

Anyone see the Steve Wraith interview in SkySports? Proper nailed it.

 

Yep I was very impressed, its almost as though he took some quotes from here