Steve Bruce.....

[Bradwell canary 109]

Why do they do it. He has had more clubs than Tiger Woods, walked from most, and sacked from a few.

why do ex players who must be worth millions do it. What pressure must he now be under once again.

Newcastle are a basket case, always will be while they have their present owner at St James Park.

Sir Bobby Robson and Chris Houghton both sacked when they were in the top half of the table.

Yet when Bruce has gone, there will be several very wealthy ex players knocking on Ashley’s door.

 

 

[alex_ncfc 647]

They are a car crash of a club. Like our neighbours down the road, they are deluded to think they are massive, but they've not won anything since the first half of the 20th century. They seem to think because they have a massive stadium and were fighting at the top end of the Prem for a couple of years 25 years ago that they deserve to be up there all the time. It's embarrassing that they get so much focus on MOTD just because Shearer is on there every week.

As you say, Bruce will go and there will no shortage of managers from the merry-go-round queuing up to take an impossible job.

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

In fairness I don’t think Newcastle fans are quite as deluded as people make out. Sure they have some fans who take it too far, but they’ve been served up some truly turgid dross under Ashley and there is clearly a total absence of goodwill between fans and owner and has been for some time. 

Their fans on their day are probably the most passionate around (perhaps why their discontent is always well documented), they have a packed stadium and a huge away following too. So I don’t begrudge them seeing themselves as a top 10 prem side as that’s roughly where they should be. 

But I think really all the vast majority want - from knowing a few fans and Twitter - is a manager and owner they can trust and get behind, and who plays half decent football. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed watching a Newcastle side - maybe under Pardew?

Their brand of football under Bruce is soul destroying, and Rafa wasn’t heaps better - but Bruce was actually given a budget to spend.

Stories such as Newcastle always make me very glad for our ownership and current management set up! 

[wcorkcanary 4,329]

There'll  be a slick talking Scottish, commission only double glazing salesman, sitting at home  right now, contemplating whether or not he and Mike Ashley  are a match made in heaven. ..."maybe give a him a ring, get together , over a pint(s) , I think I can do this."

[overthebordercanary 140]

If we was to be sacked from the Newcastle job, surely Steve Bruce will be the next secret agent to be placed at Portaloo Road

[crispeduk 282]

A former work colleague (a Man City supporter since before that was cool) used to goad NUFC supporters who kept telling him they were the best in the land by replying that just because there were more of them didn’t make them better. It’s a numbers game which the owner has exploited, but tellingly during last season they gave away 10,000 half-season tickets, filling in many of the gaps in the stadium. So a 52,000-seat stadium in reality had less than 42,000 paying customers. There’s still plenty of support, but many have had enough of feeling sold short and if the owner really does want to sell up, maybe in part because he feels his time has passed, perhaps a better price can be had by waiting for the post-Covid rebound and hoping to sell in a rising market with a full stadium bouncing on the back of a promotion season in the Championship. Have to say as much as I like him, I think the majority of fans are right that Brucie’s time and style has passed. Whatever the truth of the situation he's caught in the crossfire at the club he loves. So pleased to have the club I love. OTBC.

[sgncfc 1,221]

To be fair, that area of the country (including Sunderland in that location) is pretty fanatical. I think the stadiums are their biggest problems - when they are full and humming, they are awesome and intimidating but the crowds can turn very quickly and become a real problem to their own teams. Just playing in those huge spaces is a problem for many players, and the importance of the clubs in those areas means the pressure is relentless.

Both clubs are "basket cases" currently, but they have huge, massive potential to compete with the North West and London for dominance. It is probably the only other area, apart from Glasgow, with a high number of ingrained, generational supporters.

Like all fans, Newcastle supporters see "investment" as players, but the lack of success of their academy is breath-taking considering their locality and they have recruited extremely poorly over recent years, including our own Jamal Lewis, who was never going to fit there very quickly. Jacob Murphy (also a ridiculous signing) has taken ages to start contributing (even fitfully, and without fans) so Lewis might still have time, but moving to Newcastle from Norwich is a classically silly thing to do and agents/parents and advisors really should know better.

Steve Bruce obviously knows the area and the requirements. He might be a bit old fashioned, but I'm staggered he has recruited so badly over the last couple of years. Benitez's recruitment was equally awful. It's a bit like Man Utd - throw so much money around, one or two might work. That area doesn't have the patience for a Webber/Farke plan though, or even a Hassenhuttl or a Klopp, so they limp from one crisis to the next.

[Yellow and Green 334]

I'm not sure how much I buy into that whole 'Newcastle fans are the most passionate' argument. Unless 'passion' equates to 'complaining' I don't see how they can claim to care more about their football club than other fans.

As others have mentioned, they are a big club but seem to believe that they 'belong' in the top six. Funnily enough, so do all of the fans of United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Liverpool, Everton, West Ham, Villa, Leeds, Blackburn, Forest, Wednesday and, most delusional of all, Ipswich. 

Eventually Ashley will find a buyer and they'll hover around mid-table in the PL, but I doubt they'll reflect on it and be content. They won't consider themselves lucky that they didn't end up like countless other clubs who aspired for more, like Bolton, Birmingham, Wednesday and Blackburn, who have almost lost everything. They'll pressure for the owner to 'push the boat out' to compete for the CL places because that's where they 'belong'.