Every Newcastle fan is jumping for joy at the prospect of Saudi Arabia’s billions being pumped into our club.
Every Newcastle fan, except Steve Bruce that is.
Day one of Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s potential reign will be met by a massive elephant in the room – ‘what on earth do we do with Bruce?’.
Anyone with half a brain will tell you that the most important figure at a football club is the manager, and by splashing out £300million on NUFC, you can be sure that Staveley & Co will want their own man at the helm.
If you spent that much on a house, you certainly wouldn’t want the previous owners wall paper in your living room.
Whether you like him or not, Bruce could quickly become a dead-man walking on Tyneside. To say the reaction to his appointment last summer was poor is an understatement, with many voting with their feet and vowing to stay away from St James’ until Ashley was gone.
Many, myself included, thought we were dead and buried. The departure of Benitez, Rondon and Perez appeared too big a job for Bruce to fill. He was obviously going to be tainted by his stint at Sunderland too, with fans feeling this was another one of Ashley’s tricks to intentionally wind the fans up. Remember Kinnear and Sports Direct Arena?!.
The football has been woeful, but Bruce has surprisingly steadied the ship and kept us in the league, reverting to a back five has worked wonders and we even have an FA Cup quarter-final to look forward to – coronavirus permitting.
He has managed to convince the majority of the fanbase that he is just about up to the current task at hand (which is keeping us up these days), but you’d do well to find a single football fan who’d feel he is capable of achieving the ambitions our potential new owners are likely to have.
One man who springs to mind is Mark Hughes. The Welshman was in charge of Man City when Sheikh Mansour came strolling into town, and most feel he was always on borrowed time from the get-go.
When he was replaced by the more fanciable Roberto Mancini less than 18-months into the gig, this marked the beginning of a City era spent competing at the upper echelons of the Premier League.
Bruce could suffer a similar fate, and the romantic return of Rafa Benitez is what some Toon fans are already hoping for. Staveley is thought to be an admirer too.
Let’s not forget, Bruce hasn’t always been the most loyal of dogs himself over the years. As well as both North-East clubs, Bruce’s CV consists of Aston Villa, Birmingham, Sheffield United and Wednesday.
He has reached his ceiling as a manager. He certainly won’t be poached for a job bigger than Newcastle and any exit would likely see him make the move back down to the Championship.
If a takeover is to be the end of Bruce’s stint at the club then our fanbase should only wish him well. After all, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia certainly wouldn’t be interested in freeing us from Mike Ashley if we were sitting in the bottom three.
poor norman hunter gone with the virus r.i.p.
some people do my head in,my girl called on a 999 cal got there bloody woman wanted a tablet for her bad head ffs its unreal some people
icedog(Quote)
Check out the shirt at top of thread. Very good ?
https://www.readytogo.net/smb/threads/mags-new-home-shirt-looks-canny.1513944/
RIP Norman Hunter. My Dad used to bang on about the Leeds of old (he was a Yorkshireman) and I’ve always had a soft spot for them ever since.
Shamrock(Quote)
Yes the sad news of Norman Hunter quickly got Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher down from their soapboxes this morning when they were banging on about getting the season finished.
A truly sad reminder along with another 850 deaths today.
It really angers me that they are hospital only figures that the government are giving us as well. I really feel like whilst they are working hard to tackle this, they are still mugging us off by distorting the figures.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Personally I don’t see Bruce staying if new owners come in. New owners with new ideas will want a new manager that fits their model. And the sooner new guy comes in, sooner he’s bedded in and assesses the squad etc.
Shamrock(Quote)
Regarding the article. I think it’s a bit harsh to question Bruce’s loyalty when clubs sack managers as soon as results start to go wrong.
I think it’s inevitable that Bruce will be replaced. We will be a club with a lot of money – but that won’t immediately mean that top players will want to join us overnight.
Top players will want to play CL football and play for clubs that might win the league or trophies – we won’t become that for a few seasons at least.
So the only other thing that will attract top players is the idea of building something with a top manager – a bit like the Keegan era.
Bruce is not that top manager that top players will want to join.
But he has achieved more than most toon fans expected this season and I really hope he’s handled with a bit of respect and not just tossed aside. I wonder if there is a role for him within the club, if he’s had enough of management ??♂️.
Whatever the outcome, I’m grateful to him for the job he’s done this season (but acknowledge the football we got was awful for large parts of the season).
Sharpy17(Quote)
https://twitter.com/skysports/status/1251128023333720066?s=12
Sharpy17(Quote)
Yeah, agree about Steve Sharpy, he’s done ok considering what he came into. No striker, fans on his back and later injuries to contend with.
KIMTOON(Quote)
https://twitter.com/nufcflynn/status/1251101294628155392?s=21
Sharpy17(Quote)
I don’t think Bruce has done OK. The quality of football has been terrible and Dubravka has saved his bacon. Hmmm… Bacon! says Bruce (in Homer Simpson style).
When we hired him I was not as critical as some. I thought he was top 5 Championship, bottom 5 PL and that is what he has proved to be even though we are 13th but that is because of Martin, not Steve.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
As I said a few days ago, I stopped going to the pub to watch us the quality of football was so bad. Not even Ugly John had driven me AWAY from drink.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric – no one is disputing the football was awful for them most part – I said that in my post.
But I don’t know if you are saying he didn’t do ok because you believe that, or are fishing. You were grading him throughout the season without prompt or response to any other post – and your grading and rational was always fair I felt – but it was always around a C grading overall – which for me was always a real good result, but for the majority would certainly be seen as ‘ok’.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy, mate. I am not on a wind up.
I have seen myself go backwards and forwards all season on Bruce. The football was dire but I really wanted us to stay up and convinced myself that this may be the price. I had also read all of the Rafa lovers on Ed’s and they seemed to ignore the fact that we also played horrible football under him until the last 3 months.
I wouldn’t mind Bruce having a role at NUFC, just not as Manager. I don’t care that he managed Sunderland either. That would be like me saying I hated a mate because they worded at Nissan.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
It is time for a new start and as this article says we do not want a Mark Hughes at City situation. I didn’t realise he was there for 18 months after their takeover.
Bruce has turned out to be as you say. A B in terms of results with what he had to work with and an F in terms of entertainment. So, yes. A C minus overall.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I don’t agree with Paul Merson’s giant balloon heed either that no players would want to move to the North East. Has anybody been to Manchester or Liverpool!!!! Warren Barton moved to Newcastle from London and Ginola moved from Paris.
What we need is a charismatic manager like Keegan or Klopp and they will come. If we build it, they will come. Nagelsmann or Max Allegri. Not Bruce.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Completely agree mate. He’s done really well in certain areas and awful in others – which overall gives him an average grading.
I think one of his strengths is man management and a role on the coaching staff wouldn’t be a bad idea as maybe a player liaison or something like that.
It would be certainly worth having someone round who knows the club, knows what it means to the fans – why not Bruce?!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Eric – I never listen to that clown anymore mate. You are dead right. We attracted top players under King Kev, we will again. We are in a similar position now to Man City when they were bought out and the big players went there. Granted it wont happen overnight, but it will happen.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Is anybody else having problems with a giant F**** video add covering the text of the article??
PremAndUp(Quote)
Yes mate, and it’s slowing typing the comments out too – it’s really p!ssing me off
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think Bruce has to go.
A total break from the Ashley era is what is needed.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
And that means that we do not need Rafa back. We need a new start. Like Keegan. Nagelsmann, Nagelsmann, Nagelsmann!
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I’ve been in touch with Andy all morning about it so im hoping it’s sorted now! ??
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Olly – yeah mines gone, cheers mate ??
Sharpy17(Quote)
Just been watching the protests in America – there really are some stupid people in that Country like.
Trump is mental too, but saying all the right things to get re-elected.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Yep gone from me too
Thanks
PremAndUp(Quote)
15,464 hospital deaths from covid now, god knows how many home deaths and care home deaths to be added to that number too.
Bloody tragic, should of locked down earlier .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim – I think it’s disgraceful that we aren’t getting told the true extent of this pandemic – to not include home and care home deaths is disrespecting those deaths, and the British public by falsifying the figures.
I’m not sure the full lockdown was needed earlier, but certainly tougher social gatherings of more than 50 people, along with stopping flights in and out.
We needed to be quicker with testing though – and in particular the test to say if you have HAD it or not – which they still haven’t got sorted. The test to say if you HAVE it is pretty pointless really.
I also think we have accepted some really bad advice on face masks too – for me they should be worn whenever you leave the house.
The WHO advised not to wear them, I think they have got that one wrong personally.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Face mask,although not foolproof, will surely help stop you unknowingly passing it on. Think it can only be a good thing to wear one . You would need a good supply though as you can only wear once and need to bin it as soon as you get home then wash hands really well.
Sharpy, I think our total deaths could be as high as 30,000 or more by the end of the year . As for china saying they only have 4,500 ! yeah right.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Cannot see us reaching 1,000 test a day either, government shouldn’t set unrealistic targets .
KIMTOON(Quote)
100,000 doh
KIMTOON(Quote)
Kim – I was watching Question Time the other night and a doctor on there was saying even a cloth face mask would make it 36 times less likely for you to pass anything on to someone else. She admitted it did little to protect the wearer – but I guess no face mask is the same level of protection ??♂️.
WHO advised against it coz wearing one may cause you to touch your face more and you’d catch it from your hands to mouth or nose. But people will still scratch or rub their faces. They didn’t advise against eating sandwiches or crisps or hand to mouth type foods.
We should have been wearing masks imo.
As for tests. I don’t see the point in 100,000 tests that only tell you if you’ve got it and not if you’ve had it. It’s a disgrace how long it’s taking to get that test in place!!.
As for rolling out inaccurate figures – that’s unforgivable imo. It’s all well and good wheeling senior ministers, top medics and scientists out on a daily basis – but if they are feeding us duff gen – what’s the point!!.
I know our figures will be more realistic than China’s, but honestly, that doesn’t cut it for me.
At least Macron came out and said France got it wrong. Our lot have done some good, but I hate that they’ve tried to soften the blow with figures that are actually people who have died FFS.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Is everyone happy with a murderous tyrant taking over the club?
Troy Stavers(Quote)
Troy man, I thought you were in some Siberian jail or summink. Brucie is worse than average. Worse than Pards. Better than Ugly John.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Not the real Troy Stavers!!!!!
Doesn’t have the Les Kellett avatar.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric, it has been that long I have forgot my login details. 😆
Just done 3 yrs for dealing tac
Troy Stavers(Quote)
I can’t log in therefore no avatar
Troy Stavers(Quote)
good to have you back Troyster. You and Aussie in a few days.
Always liked you, even though you are a nut case.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Troy stavers !
Still alive then .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Brice will in the end get the chop. Unfortunate words for a club Potentially owned by the Saudi’s but hey ho.
On Coronavirus, I would love to see the figures that show how many died of coronavirus or died with it. Given 91% of the deaths were with people who had underlying health issues I think this is a good bit of information that could put a lot in perspective
Stuart79(Quote)
I meant Shamrock was back on. Not Aussie.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Just need Rodzilla now and Dave.
Anyone remember Woolfie? Nutter.
Shamrock(Quote)
Stu – if it’s to look at how the virus effected those people with a view of being able to try and save people with a similar underlying health issue, then I agree.
But if it’s to try and discount them as Corona deaths, then no, those people still died of the virus.
It was an unknown virus when it came over and still largely is. The only thing they knew was that the elderly and vulnerable were most at risk – which is why the way they have failed to support the care system is so inexcusable imo.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Talking of Saudi human rights I have no wish to play down in any way the criticism the Saudis have received, but I remember many years ago there was a strong movement to cut all ties with South Africa because of its policies on apartheid. The government at the time was of the view that the only way to get South Africa to change was to maintain ties otherwise we would have no influence to bring about change. I was very cynical about this approach at the time; but look at South Africa now. I was wrong. Likewise we have to keep the Saudis on board even if we are not happy with certain aspects of the regime. It is not in the too far distant past that women didn’t have the vote in this country – unimaginable now.
Groucho(Quote)
… and if they were trying to buy Sunderland? ?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Troy – I heard they were releasing the key workers early – welcome back on mate ??
Sharpy17(Quote)
Don’t think that would improve anyone’s reputation.
Groucho(Quote)
He was proper mad Sham, but funny as, used to lol at some of his post.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Yeah Dave is a big miss, Toonsy too.
KIMTOON(Quote)
I had a lot of time for Toonsy. He would have made a better journalist than many we have to put up with. Presumably, with the current embargoes on travelling, he won’t be driving a bus. I wonder what he makes of the current situation at NUFC. It would be good to hear from him.
Groucho(Quote)
They looked at Sunderland apparently mate, but weren’t prepared to lower their standards
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim – yeah Dave and Toonsy were sound. Toonsy ran the site and Dave was the muscle ? good blokes.
Who was the 3rd though, I feel bad I can’t remember but there was Dave, Ice and another ?
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stu, I don’t really feel it makes that much difference if they died of or with coronavirus, the reality is that covid will of shortened their lives in some way.
If someone has terminal cancer and dies with covid, who’s to say they wouldn’t of had another few months or a year without it. Yes they are going to die but every extra day they have is precious to them and their family.
It’s a cruel b*****d this virus, horrible way to die, all alone and not even a proper goodbye ceremony for the bereaved afterwards.
Yes you can hold a memorial maybe 6 months from now after lockdown but that will just open up wounds again when you are on the path to acceptance.
This government is going to have to put an awful lot of money into mental health care after this because a lot of families and certainly NHS staff will be suffering some form of PTSD .
KIMTOON(Quote)
Sharpy, There was Batty, but i think we’ve lost him ?
Moreno
Jill
Fans should own the club
Newkie
Norcal
And who was the young Scots lad and of course ZOE, who wrote the odd article too.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Richietoon was another
Getting a headache now 😆 this is like a mad word search.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Stardust
KIMTOON(Quote)
If we get new owners I might even start to pen the odd article again. Won’t be as frequent but used to enjoy it. Would be nice to see entries from a few others work back in too – Aussie did a few, Dubai etc. Moreno did a fair few. Solano’s Trumpet needs to come back too!
Shamrock(Quote)
Blinkin heck Kim your memory is way better then mine!!.
It was Batty I was trying to remember – lost as in passed away??.
Yeah I used to enjoy Ritchies and Newkies craic too – Newkies made the occasion guess appearance I think.
I enjoyed our Aussie friends coming on too.
Wasn’t there some connection between Troy and Stardust – are they brothers or something?
Sharpy17(Quote)
If someone with heart disease gets coronavirus and has a heart attack and dies putting that death down as coronavirus is just a nonsense. It really is. One hospital in Newcastle had 8 people in end of life care and 6 had coronavirus. They had been in their for a while and quite frankly they were there to die. 6 of them will now no doubt be put down as coronavirus deaths. Utter stupidity and does nothing to quell the panic. We need perspective.
If someone had terminal cancer and picked up a standard winter flu and died would you expect on the death certificate to say cause of death – flu?
But my main point is that there are many that will have underlying health issues that wouldn’t have died from their health issues but genuinely died from coronavirus but there will be many who were dying anyway and contracted it and died due to their underlying illness and not coronavirus. We should be differentiating between the two in my opinion.
Stuart79(Quote)
Beardsleysboots
Bristoon
Whumpie
KIMTOON(Quote)
Well every silver lining has a cloud doesn’t it Sham ??
Sharpy17(Quote)
Sharpy Troy had a running dispute with Blackley & Brownley ? his brother on here for yonks.
Batty , yeah mate i think he has passed, Sure Ice would know
Oh yeah , ICEPUP, there’s another 😀
KIMTOON(Quote)
Solanos trumpet, gosh forgot him, nice one Sharpy.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Sorry , Nice one Sham re Solanos trumpet
Sham, yes some articles please.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Cheeky git ?
Shamrock(Quote)
Stu – if someone has epilepsy and I punch them in the face which causes them to fit and die as a result – do I get off man slaughter charges coz it was an epileptic fit they died of?.
If someone had terminal cancer and has been given days to live and I suffocate them with a pillow – is that ok coz they’d have died anyway?.
(I have not, and would not do either of these things by the way).
You’re talking about people’s lives Stu – or deaths. It absolutely matters that it’s recorded correctly and that we learn from all deaths as best we can in order to try and avoid others with similar conditions dying.
There will naturally be deaths as a result, in the same way as people still die from the flu – that can’t be helped – and ultimately we all die of something. But surely we have to give everyone the best chance possible and not just write them off coz they are old or seriously unwell.
Sharpy17(Quote)
So, here’s the thing. Say someone with epilepsy caught corona, say the high temp caused them to go into status. If they died as a result of status, would it be the prolonged seizure on the death certificate or Corona ?
It has to be corona as that’s what caused the seizure which led to death.
KIMTOON(Quote)
Mr. Yasir Al-Rumayyan is MD of PIF and also chairman of Saudi Aramco. I find it almost impossible for Saudi Aramco not to be our new shirt sponsor if the purchase goes through. They’re the wealthiest and most profitable country on the planet with the highest value of over $1.5 trillion. Not bad. They could also sponsor our training ground for circa £20m a year. What’s the max rate for shirt sponsorship? £70m a year? They could technical sign a ten year deal and pay 50% up front…
Stuart79(Quote)
I’m asking for perspective. Nobody seems interested in having it for some reason. It’s almost like people are desperately trying to crow bar coronavirus in as cause of death regardless of whether it was the cause of death. I someone had coronavirus and then had a heart attack what you expect cause of death to be? From Kim and Sharpy’s comment above it seems that it would have to be coronavirus. Why? Just because it’s there? This isn’t a mega killer! Look at the reality and the facts. Put it in perspective. Scientist think it’s fair to say over 3m people have probably contracted the virus in the UK. Yet less than 20,000 have so far died and not all of them will have been from coronavirus directly.
Please, perspective….
Stuart79(Quote)
You are on a slippery slope with your comments Stuart. I have spoken in general terms about the fact the cure for C-19 might end up being worse than the disease. If you get into specifics it is bound to come across as heartless as we all have loved ones who are at risk.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Btw there’s also been a spike in deaths of other illness’. This is caused by the NHS being totally focused on this virus and people being in lockdown. Anybody bothered about them?
Also worth pointing out that no hospital has been over run by this virus and ICU have managed perfectly well. In fact we’re building Nightingale hospital that aren’t being used. Only 30 beds used in London currently.
Time to think of everyone in the country and not just a tiny, tiny minority. Harsh but we need a reality check.
Stuart79(Quote)
Eric, I’m not heartless I’m a realist. I have family members and friends who are at risk. I am classed as high risk myself due to my asthma But it doesn’t change anything. People are so focused on coronavirus that everything else seem irrelevant. There are people who exist outside the coronavirus bubble. Why are we casting them aside?
Stuart79(Quote)
Stu – who’s called it a mega killer? – certainly not me. Perspective is very different to accuracy of information mate.
Perspective is difficult to apply when the government aren’t giving us true figures by not including home and care Home deaths to their daily totals though mate.
But in a civilised society, it’s vital that we record things accurately mate.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Stuart: I am not calling you heartless, I am saying what you are saying may come across that way. I have mentioned on here that there are 500,000 deaths in the UK and 3 million in the US every year and that some perspective is needed. Not sure you read it coz I do tend to post a lot.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I am probably the last one to comment on C-19 as I have stopped watching the news. Partly because of Trump but also because the media seem to revel in the bad news. And also the other politicians, everybody trying to score points off the back of a tragic situation. It even extends to ads over here where Dominio’s are trying to sell more pizzas using C-19 as their hook line – if you are stuck at home Domino’s is here for you etc… FFS. And many other companies are doing the same thing, acting like they are caring about those suffering and in the next breath selling you car insurance.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Stu – my other example would be if someone went into hospital with a terminal illness. But whilst in hospital contracted MRSA and died as a result.
If their death is chalked up as the illness, how do we hold the hospitals to account for their cleanliness?!.
How do we get to fully understand COVID if we don’t record it properly – and it’s only by understanding it that we can produce the most effective vaccines and minimise it’s impact in the future.
Sharpy17(Quote)
They say up to 4,000 more should be on our death tally due to care home and in home deaths !
Stu I think a lot of the other deaths are from people not calling 999 promptly enough .
Some don’t want to bother the hospitals, others are fearful of contracting covid and others , especially parents are concerned they won’t be able to see their kids should they have it or get it in hospital.
There is a lot of fear out there right now, some irrational it has to be said,i agree. On the whole though it’s good to have a level of fear, that’s how you get compliance .
On a personal level i don’t wanna go anywhere near A&E right now or to the GP.
KIMTOON(Quote)