The dignified cabbage’s 1000th game

[wykikitoon 20200]

More vending machines 

[Monkeys Fist 42459]

44 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

Others, meanwhile, grew frustrated with Bruce instructing them from the touchline to, ‘run, run, run’, and as one player said, ’Run where?’.
 

Fucking hell

 

“during a team meeting ahead of Newcastle’s 2-0 defeat at Manchester City on Boxing Day, sources say Bruce spoke of ‘hitting Big Andy (Carroll)’ with direct balls. The players, it is said, were confused, for Carroll was on the bench.”

 

Nice bloke, though. 

[Monkeys Fist 42459]

I’ve seen several mentions now that his being a former manager of the Tramps meant we were already against him- who are these journalists speaking to? 
No one I know has ever held that as reason they couldn’t stand him- it was all entirely because of his behaviour whilst with us. 

[wykikitoon 20200]

Yet Everton fans who put banners up telling Rafa to fuck off when he signed don't get a mention 

[The Fish 10858]

Long post, quite ranty, ignore if you like.

 

The job of the manager is to organise the players, keep them as fit as possible, manage their personalities, manage up, manage the press, manage the fans. Bruce did little of any of that and whatever he did do, he didn’t do well.

 

There’s been 2 years of pundits pointing out the huge gaps between defence and midfield, midfield and attack. Two years of criticism of the players, the on field organisation, the system. Yet hardly any of Bruce. He’s done a good job, we’ve been told.

 

That performance against Spurs could have been dumped in the first season under Bruce and you’d not tell the difference, so little has changed. Not one of the players has improved under Bruce and the attacking, midfield and defensive units have regressed dramatically. We went from having a top-half defensive record, to bottom in almost every metric. We went from organised if a little too pragmatic, to clueless and so easy to play against.

 

The players look knackered every game, with loads of days off surely not helping. He's brought players back too soon after injury.

 

He's had a bust up with Ritchie, blamed him for not passing messages, he's let Darlow find out he's not playing through the press, there've been more reports of training ground bust-ups and confrontation than under any other manager I can think of.

 

The only part of his job he’s done fairly well is managing up. He convinced Ashley to alter the approach and spend money on proven Premier League players like Wilson, Fraser, Hendricks and also on Lewis. But of those, only Wilson has been a real success, the others might be good, but haven't featured regularly.  And Ashley sharp went back to parsimony. Bruce says we had no money despite over £90m net transfer spend in 5 windows. Benitez had about £-5m net spend over 6. Bruce said in Edwards' piece that there wasn't the money for an overhaul. That squad didn't need an overhaul, it was a midtable squad that needed refining. 

 

 

He’d insist he could take the criticism, but would react angrily to journalists asking about yet another holiday in the Algarve. He said he’d maintain his dignity, then have pops at Howe, or Benitez. He’d talk about fans expectations, and trot out talksport cliches like signing Alan Shearer level players. He blamed the press for fan negativity. Dismissed criticism as keyboard warriors and histrionics, but then said those fans he spoke to were supportive. All the while his chums in the media were defending Steve Bruce the man, while damning the team he's responsible for managing. Now, apparently, our defenders are Championship standard, despite spending more time in the Premier League than they did in the 2nd tier. Apparently our midfielders aren't up to it, despite being linked with Man Utd, or England previously.

 

Some of them will point to the league positions or points tally and demand to know what the issue was. But long stretches of terrible form (2 wins in 22?), patently obvious problems in the team selection, shape, system. Terrible performances were pretty commonplace like Norwich (3-1) two games after his first full preseason in 2019, or Leicester 5 games later, twice against Brighton (20/21 3-0), the 1-0 loss to a Sheffield side that hadn’t won a game or kept a clean sheet all season, all the way through to the last 8 games. Football fans aren’t blind to these things. The bloke was outdated a decade ago, the criticisms levelled at him by Sunderland, Villa, Hull fans still ring true to this day. Bright start to the games, gradually retreat, disorganised system, no leadership on or off the pitch. That’s why they were supportive of Hughton, of Benitez. You might not get as excited by their system, but at least there fucking is one.

 

Through it all he was saying things like 'dust wuhselves down', 'roll up wuh sleeves', because that's all he knows to do, or that he’s going to do it 'his way' despite having been in the job for 18 months. Even now, after 97 games, I couldn't begin to tell you what 'way' he's trying to have them play. Newcastle paid £4m to Shef Wed so they could appoint Steve Bruce, and paid Steve Bruce £8m to get shot of him. There’ve been bigger wastes of money by Newcastle United, but not many.

[wykikitoon 20200]

Absolutely bang on Fish

[OTF 7297]

Yep, very well said. I will say though that in isolation, to be rid of him for £8M is the best possible spend of the money that the new owners could make. It will bring about a net improvement in the entire squad as well as delight from supporters who have endured his inept reign of destruction on the solid foundation left by the incumbent.

 

With financial investment and a stable platform to begin, versus Rafa starting with a wreck of a team essentially already relegated, Bruce managed to be inferior to Benitez in every aspect - Bruce's sides conceded substantially more goals (1.655 per game compared to 1.244 for Benitez), scored fewer (1.119 vs 1.128) picked up fewer points per game (1.095 vs 1.174) had less possession and were unquestionably worse to watch. The steady march backwards of the players who were here under Benitez tracks through Bruce's statistics with more and more goals conceded season on season with the current season on track for 90 goals conceded. His previous season tallies were 58 and then 62. Benitez's highest conceded tally was 48.

Edited October 21, 2021 by OTF

[OTF 7297]

FYI: Those stats are only on Premier League matches.

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

I know you don’t always get what you deserve,but I’m sure we’ve won more games that we didn’t deserve to win, than games we lost and didn’t deserve to lose.As well as being a poor manager,he’s been a lucky manager.

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

19 minutes ago, OTF said:

Yep, very well said. I will say though that in isolation, to be rid of him for £8M is the best possible spend of the money that the new owners could make. It will bring about a net improvement in the entire squad as well as delight from supporters who have endured his inept reign of destruction on the solid foundation left by the incumbent.

 

With financial investment and a stable platform to begin, versus Rafa starting with a wreck of a team essentially already relegated, Bruce managed to be inferior to Benitez in every aspect - Bruce's sides conceded substantially more goals (1.655 per game compared to 1.244 for Benitez), scored fewer (1.119 vs 1.128) picked up fewer points per game (1.095 vs 1.174) had less possession and were unquestionably worse to watch. The steady march backwards of the players who were here under Benitez tracks through Bruce's statistics with more and more goals conceded season on season with the current season on track for 90 goals conceded. His previous season tallies were 58 and then 62. Benitez's highest conceded tally was 48.

Let’s not forget that Brucey brought in players when we were a Premier League team.Rafa started his team building when we were a Championship club.

[ohhh_yeah 2967]

 

For mother fucking, butt plug inserting, ball gag, punchpin through the condom,  raw pork & eggs, and grandma porn, please learn the space                    bar.

Edited October 21, 2021 by ohhh_yeah

[Howmanheyman 33267]

16 hours ago, wykikitoon said:

Yet Everton fans who put banners up telling Rafa to fuck off when he signed don't get a mention 

Putting up a banner telling him they know where he lives. That's classy on a par with their wearside counterparts. 

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

Fingers crossed one of the Sunday papers have had a mole in the dressing and all these rumours of days off and piss taking behind his back come out.With regards to Brucey getting an easy ride from most of the media,David Moyes,Brucey’s pal,never received the criticism he should have had also.Fergie left him a team that had not only pissed the Premier League by 11 points,they were also top scorers and had the best goal difference.Moyes took this team to 7th following season yet his pals in the media said it was down to him taking over an ageing team/squad and that he’d need time to massively rebuild the team/squad.I hadn’t realised player can age considerably between the middle of May and early Augues.

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

9 minutes ago, Howmanheyman said:

Putting up a banner telling him they know where he lives. That's classy on a par with their wearside counterparts. 

Scouse makems.

[Dr Gloom 21940]

1 hour ago, The Fish said:

Long post, quite ranty, ignore if you like.

 

The job of the manager is to organise the players, keep them as fit as possible, manage their personalities, manage up, manage the press, manage the fans. Bruce did little of any of that and whatever he did do, he didn’t do well.

 

There’s been 2 years of pundits pointing out the huge gaps between defence and midfield, midfield and attack. Two years of criticism of the players, the on field organisation, the system. Yet hardly any of Bruce. He’s done a good job, we’ve been told.

 

That performance against Spurs could have been dumped in the first season under Bruce and you’d not tell the difference, so little has changed. Not one of the players has improved under Bruce and the attacking, midfield and defensive units have regressed dramatically. We went from having a top-half defensive record, to bottom in almost every metric. We went from organised if a little too pragmatic, to clueless and so easy to play against.

 

The players look knackered every game, with loads of days off surely not helping. He's brought players back too soon after injury.

 

He's had a bust up with Ritchie, blamed him for not passing messages, he's let Darlow find out he's not playing through the press, there've been more reports of training ground bust-ups and confrontation than under any other manager I can think of.

 

The only part of his job he’s done fairly well is managing up. He convinced Ashley to alter the approach and spend money on proven Premier League players like Wilson, Fraser, Hendricks and also on Lewis. But of those, only Wilson has been a real success, the others might be good, but haven't featured regularly.  And Ashley sharp went back to parsimony. Bruce says we had no money despite over £90m net transfer spend in 5 windows. Benitez had about £-5m net spend over 6. Bruce said in Edwards' piece that there wasn't the money for an overhaul. That squad didn't need an overhaul, it was a midtable squad that needed refining. 

 

 

He’d insist he could take the criticism, but would react angrily to journalists asking about yet another holiday in the Algarve. He said he’d maintain his dignity, then have pops at Howe, or Benitez. He’d talk about fans expectations, and trot out talksport cliches like signing Alan Shearer level players. He blamed the press for fan negativity. Dismissed criticism as keyboard warriors and histrionics, but then said those fans he spoke to were supportive. All the while his chums in the media were defending Steve Bruce the man, while damning the team he's responsible for managing. Now, apparently, our defenders are Championship standard, despite spending more time in the Premier League than they did in the 2nd tier. Apparently our midfielders aren't up to it, despite being linked with Man Utd, or England previously.

 

Some of them will point to the league positions or points tally and demand to know what the issue was. But long stretches of terrible form (2 wins in 22?), patently obvious problems in the team selection, shape, system. Terrible performances were pretty commonplace like Norwich (3-1) two games after his first full preseason in 2019, or Leicester 5 games later, twice against Brighton (20/21 3-0), the 1-0 loss to a Sheffield side that hadn’t won a game or kept a clean sheet all season, all the way through to the last 8 games. Football fans aren’t blind to these things. The bloke was outdated a decade ago, the criticisms levelled at him by Sunderland, Villa, Hull fans still ring true to this day. Bright start to the games, gradually retreat, disorganised system, no leadership on or off the pitch. That’s why they were supportive of Hughton, of Benitez. You might not get as excited by their system, but at least there fucking is one.

 

Through it all he was saying things like 'dust wuhselves down', 'roll up wuh sleeves', because that's all he knows to do, or that he’s going to do it 'his way' despite having been in the job for 18 months. Even now, after 97 games, I couldn't begin to tell you what 'way' he's trying to have them play. Newcastle paid £4m to Shef Wed so they could appoint Steve Bruce, and paid Steve Bruce £8m to get shot of him. There’ve been bigger wastes of money by Newcastle United, but not many.

Good rant and an interesting question posed at the end. Have we ever wasted more money than the £12m+ spent on Bruce? Joelinton for sure. Can’t think of many more 

[Dr Gloom 21940]

Michael Owen is the only other one I can think of 

[Monkeys Fist 42459]

5 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

Michael Owen is the only other one I can think of 

[Dr Gloom 21940]

Only £5m or something wasn’t he? A comparative bargain

[Monkeys Fist 42459]

2 minutes ago, Dr Gloom said:

Only £5m or something wasn’t he? A comparative bargain

£5.8. 
Rising to £5,800,015.25p with appearances 

[Dougle 3338]

The Boumsong £8 mil, taking into account inflation, works out about the same.

 

Although we did recoup some of that.

[Monkeys Fist 42459]

Just now, Dougle said:

The Boumsong £8 mil, taking into account inflation, works out about the same.

 

 

 

Although we did recoup some of that.

 

That was a very eco-friendly deal though, considering how many brown paper bags were involved. 

[essembeeofsunderland 811]

11 minutes ago, Monkeys Fist said:

That was a very eco-friendly deal though, considering how many brown paper bags were involved. 

Between 10am and 1pm tomorrow,talkSHITE are broadcasting from The Centurion in the Central Station 

Edited October 21, 2021 by essembeeofsunderland

[Tom 14011]

They’re Bloody obsessed! 

[Howmanheyman 33267]

51 minutes ago, essembeeofsunderland said:

Between 10am and 1pm tomorrow,talkSHITE are broadcasting from The Centurion in the Central Station 

 

[The Fish 10858]

Good post(s).