Fat waste of space, tactically inept cabbage head Steve Bruce sacked by Newcastle United

[Monkeys Fist 42427]

10 minutes ago, ewerk said:

You know that in his head he’s thinking

You’re giving him way to much credit. 

[Alex 35079]

40 minutes ago, trooper said:

"We haven't done enough. We have to accept what's coming our way and dust ourselves down for what is a huge challenge ahead of us in the Premier League. They come thick and fast but I can't hide my disappointment because we have a great opportunity today to get into a semi-final"

 

What’s that? A quote from the cliché World Cup final? 

[Tom 14011]

 

[Dougle 3329]

"We have to accept what's coming our way and dust ourselves down and get ready for what is a huge challenge ahead of us in the Premier League."

 

Is this bloke for real?

The arse cunting wank bastard.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Dougle
Edited for suitable expletives.

[thebrokendoll 9204]

so he reckons 'we didn't run forwards enough'

 

well spotted brucey, been happening quite a lot. still, was wonderful for a club of newcastle's stature to make it as far as a quarter final against brentford's reserve team. was always going to be a challenge once we came up against the big clubs. 

 

[RobinRobin 11263]

19 hours ago, Sonatine said:

 

Always nice to have a factual reminder of how shit Brewcey really is  

17th - job done! 

[Sonatine 11375]

https://www.football365.com/news/steve-bruce-newcastle-saved-empty-stadium-mike-ashley

[ewerk 30602]

Quote

This was one of those nights for Newcastle United. You know, one of those nights that happen most weeks. They were poor against Brentford. Not cup-shock poor, not gobsmackingly poor, not they-just-didn’t-turn-up-on-the-day poor, not special poor, just run of the mill, bog-standard poor. They trudge through matches, hanging on, but sometimes you cannot hang on any more.

The Carabao Cup has gone and, you might argue, Newcastle’s season has gone with it. Presented with a stirring chance to reach their first knockout semi-final since 2005, Steve Bruce picked his strongest side available and still they blew it. They turned up, they kicked the ball around with little cohesion and they lost. They don’t always lose, but when they do, nobody who watches them regularly is surprised.

Not surprised but angry, because Bruce’s management has become the battleground on which a cultural war rages — read Twitter, or the comments below this article, or listen to the phone-ins to witness it — and there will be no laying down of weapons now. What could have been the equivalent of a Christmas Truce along the Western Front is now just another weary skirmish. Maybe it will be more bloody than that.

It is Bruce rather than Mike Ashley because Newcastle’s owner has become a weird quasi-ally, desperate to get out of the club as much as fans are desperate for him to leave. Ashley wants the Saudi-led takeover to happen (or, rather, he wants his £305 million) and he releases public statements sniping at the Premier League. As such, the symbol of Ashley’s Newcastle in this miserable time of waiting and limbo is no longer Ashley, it is Bruce.

Defeat rips a sticking plaster off the club and reveals what festers underneath, a sense of nothing really happening aside from a slow wasting away. Newcastle are 12th in the Premier League. They are always 12th in the Premier League, or 13th or 14th, unless they’re getting relegated and now that little bit of strange and nice and different has evaporated. Until it did, there was always that little tickle in the brain. They couldn’t do it, could they? Could this be the year?

Well, no. It turns out they couldn’t. And of course it won’t be their bloody year, because it never bloody is. They beat Blackburn Rovers — narrowly — and Morecambe and scraped past Newport County on penalties, in this charmed and charmless cup limp. Brentford were favourites to win before kick-off and that told its own story. Brentford were better. Even a half-reserve Brentford, who only brought on Ivan Toney, their best and most dangerous player, who of course was let go by Newcastle as a kid, when they were already ahead. Better and deserving to go through.

When all we have is the football, the football becomes more stark. There is no external pleasure on match day, no time with family or friends, no going to the pub and having a laugh and forgetting how bad it was or recalling those few, blissful moments. There is only the football and when there is little tangible improvement and Ashley is on the barricades, Bruce must take the strain. This, of all years, we have longed to smile and Newcastle cannot even give us that.

Brentford feels worse if only because it offered something else, an alternative to the weekly grind at a club which has won nothing of substance since 1969 and no domestic trophy since 1955. If judgment was not exactly deferred, then it came with an asterisk; maybe, just, maybe.

Maybe, like Bruce had promised, they would give it a go. And maybe they did, up to a point. There was no sense of prioritising. The League Cup was not disrespected with a flurry of changes or mention of fatigue and coronavirus and heavy limbs. As the game turned away from them, the manager looked to his substitutes bench and threw on strikers. Newcastle had a go, in the only way they do. Just one of those nights.

The waiting room awakes and Bruce’s face appears, waiting for virtual faces to probe away. He knows what is coming and, if he expects a soft touch, then he is mistaken.

If anything, Zoom press conferences remove some of the empathy reporters may have when asking a question. They are cold and they can even be callous.

But they almost always begin with general trivialities.

“I’m bitterly disappointed because we’ve missed a huge opportunity to take a club into a semi-final,” Bruce says, with the projector screen behind him slowly retracting, leaving a blank white wall and just the Newcastle head coach’s profile staring back. “We haven’t played well enough to win the tie. We should have had enough, which is why I’ve gone as strong as I have done.”

He does not attempt to sugar-coat the embarrassing exit, repeating that Newcastle deserved to lose and reiterating that, “I’m not one for excuses”. His tone is one of deflation, of reluctant acceptance of the “justified criticism” he expects to receive.

Does he accept the condemnation of supporters? He begins to answer before the question has even been asked in full, a regular habit and a bugbear of TV and radio producers who desire a clean soundbite.

“Of course,” he says with a shrug. “I have to accept what’s coming my way and be ready for the challenge of it. We have to dust ourselves down… and get on with it.”

But the fans, he is told, are “pretty angry on social media”. Does he have a message for those supporters who “don’t feel they are seeing the progress and excitement they want?”

There is a pause and a look of contemplation, before an almost dismissive answer.

“Well the progress was there for everybody to see if we’d got to a semi-final,” he replies, without any hint of irony. “The excitement? I’m not so sure where that comes from, but they want to see results and they want to see their team play better… I’m a resilient so-and-so, so I have to accept what’s coming my way, I understand that on social media (a lot of stuff is written). The only thing that you can do is come into work tomorrow, dust yourself down and get yourself ready to go for what is a hugely difficult period over Christmas.”

It is answers like this which have so fuelled the exasperation supporters feel when it comes to attempting to engage Bruce in discussing the team’s direction. Bruce has been asked, countless times, to outline how he wants his team to play and his vision for evolution. Thankfully there was no “work in progress” line this time, but there was little more substance to his answer.

Bruce does not do detail when it comes to explanations of tactics, style and aesthetics. That lack of clarity, his retreat to broad brushstrokes, does not help when supporters are calling for him to go and when #BruceOut is trending on Twitter, as it was after the defeat.

“Well the supporters are entitled to their opinion,” Bruce says. “That’s why they pay their hard-earned money (when they’re in the ground)… I’ll accept the criticism, that’s part and parcel of being manager of Newcastle. We shouldn’t be getting beat in the quarter-final of the cup with the opportunity we’ve had.”

And what about the players, who barely fired a shot in anger? Are they still behind the manager?

“I think they’re playing for us,” Bruce, a defiant tone in his voice, responds. “Maybe they’re not playing well enough, but I certainly think it’s not through a lack of effort and determination.”

With that, he sits back, wipes his fingers across his eyes and puffs out his cheeks. He looks physically shattered, he sounds mentally drained.

But there is no escaping, not yet. In this weird world of COVID-19 and fixture after fixture, he has just 30 seconds’ rest before the post-Brentford press conference becomes the pre-Manchester City media briefing. A renewed optimistic tone now belies the weary figure still on display.

The inquest lasts more than 22 minutes in total, and only then does he receive some respite.

The big question is whether Newcastle could do more, and many fans have made up their minds on that. Support or opposition is more difficult to quantify when the St James’ Park stands are deserted, but this result will only calcify opinions, even if those opinions are screamed into a vacuum. An empty stadium hears nothing. And a tone-deaf ownership will not listen. Bruce is doing what is asked of him.

All these circumstances make Newcastle feel like a migraine’s worst headache, but if the story of Bruce’s tenure has been of an honest team lurching between systems and personnel and formations, lurching from defeats to responses and back again, the equation is a little different now. The response to a 5-2 hammering by Leeds United was a sapping 1-1 draw against the 10 men of Fulham. The response to that was this, just one of those nights.

No more difference, not for a little while. No more dreams, not in 2020.

Next up: Manchester City, away. Next up: Liverpool at home. Next up: Leicester City, ditto. Next up: away to Arsenal in the FA Cup.

He has it all to do now.

 

[Ugly Mackems 133]

14 hours ago, RobinRobin said:

17th - job done! 

TBF that'll keep us up. 

[PaddockLad 17255]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/nov/30/steve-bruce-sunderland-sacked?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[Dougle 3329]

6 hours ago, Ugly Mackems said:

TBF that'll keep us up. 

 

Fuck Off.

[RobinRobin 11263]

8 hours ago, Ugly Mackems said:

TBF that'll keep us up. 

 

[thebrokendoll 9204]

has this repulsive, fat, morally bankrupt, cunt of a human being ever mentioned our training facilities/academy even once since he replaced benitez?

the spaniard placed greatest emphasis on trying to get ashley to realise the importance of and invest in the above, whilst life long newcastle supporter brucey is more concerned with telling us we're a club that should expect to finish in the bottom half of the league.

meanwhile, leicester, a club fucking light years ahead of us in planning and ambition do this...

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/seagrave-new-training-ground-leicester-4822129

Edited December 26, 2020 by thebrokendoll

[Ugly Mackems 133]

15 minutes ago, thebrokendoll said:

has this repulsive, fat, morally bankrupt, cunt of a human being ever mentioned our training facilities/academy even once since he replaced benitez?

the spaniard placed greatest emphasis on trying to get ashley to realise the importance of and invest in the above, whilst life long newcastle supporter brucey is more concerned with telling us we're a club that should expect to finish in the bottom half of the league.

meanwhile, leicester, a club fucking light years ahead of us in planning and ambition do this...

 

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/seagrave-new-training-ground-leicester-4822129

If Rafa couldn't persuade Ashley it was a worthwhile investment you think Wor Stevie would be more successful in persuading him? Nothing will change! And Rafa did all he could with all his World Class management skills to keep us punching our weight in the bottom half. It's what we are, sadly! 

 

[Isegrim 9774]

8 hours ago, Ugly Mackems said:

If Rafa couldn't persuade Ashley it was a worthwhile investment you think Wor Stevie would be more successful in persuading him? Nothing will change! And Rafa did all he could with all his World Class management skills to keep us punching our weight in the bottom half. It's what we are, sadly! 

 

Obsessed.

[Howay 12496]

 

[thebrokendoll 9204]

4 hours ago, Howay said:

 

 

he's at breaking point, literally can't make his mind up from one minute to the next whether the 3 games up to and including brentford were justifiably criticised or being subjected to mass hysteria and histrionics.

 

[Alex 35079]

It’s still very unlikely we’ll go down looking at the league. I’d be worried if Wilson was out for a while though. 

[thebrokendoll 9204]

9 minutes ago, Alex said:

It’s still very unlikely we’ll go down looking at the league. I’d be worried if Wilson was out for a while though. 

 

I think the 3 teams directly below us at present will all finish comfortably above us.

I reckon the 3 teams below them could feasibly overhaul bruce's newcastle.

even west brom, did allardyce save the mackems from a worse position?

[ewerk 30602]

On 23/12/2020 at 17:57, Ugly Mackems said:

TBF that'll keep us up. 

And that’s the problem

 

[aimaad22 4156]

What a wanker. How can someone with ties to the city and who's been in football this long get the fans so little? Mind you with his record keeping anybody in the league would be a massive achievement so for him that's as big as it gets. 

 

It was always going to come to this, we all knew it. Now the slow dreadful wait till things get so bad even Ashley has to get rid of him and make the next inspiring appointment.

[Ayatollah Hermione 13863]

“Safe pair of hands” When they’re not shaking with the drink anyway

[Ugly Mackems 133]

56 minutes ago, ewerk said:

And that’s the problem

 

Since Pardew got us to 5th the exact same remit has been the order of the day. Ashley only offers the extra £££ once the remit fails and we get relegated. We don't possess a single player that would get into a top 6 team. The vast majority are playing their level or above. We wont be troubling the top half with this squad. 

[Monkeys Fist 42427]

You’re saying that like it’s news to anyone. 
 

 

[Monkeys Fist 42427]

1 hour ago, aimaad22 said:

How can someone with ties to the city and who's been in football this long get the fans so little?

Because it’s likely his last mildly obscene payday. 
It’s downhill from here for Brucey, and he knows it.