How pleased would you be if you were repeatedly stepping on rake so that it kept hitting you in the face (Sideshow Bob style) but then one time you stepped on it and it hit you in the crotch?
Well, if you’re Steve Bruce then you’d be “very very pleased”.
Newcastle are now 11 games without a win and despite some small signs of not being complete dross in the 2nd half, we were still abysmal to a point where an out-of-form, newly promoted team has successfully achieved doing the double on us.
I want to pick out these particular quotes from Bruce following our latest loss on Tuesday:
“I was very, very pleased, on another day we could have won the match.
“The performance was much, much better and gives us something to fall back on. It was much more like it.
“We had 20-odd shots, we hit the bar and we were unfortunate we didn’t score more.
“I don’t know if I’ve been on a worse run in twenty years but tonight, I have seen a little bit of something and we will start again tomorrow.
“I seen a little bit at Aston Villa and I’ve certainly seen enough today, that if we keep well and stay healthy in certain areas, then we’ll be fine.”
I just despair with him. How you can be “very, very pleased” with roughly 25 minutes of okay play which wasn’t enough to actually achieve anything, blows my mind.
We didn’t win the match, Steve, we didn’t win the match. The 25 minutes, in which we played better than the dreadful football we’ve been playing, wasn’t enough to even earn us a draw! It’s about points now, now improved performances for under 30 minutes of a 90 minute football match against a newly promoted Leeds side who were both below their best and out of form coming into this one.
Everything he says here from “20-odd shots” to the performance being “much, much better” means nothing when you see that 22.7% of those shots were on target (ignoring how good those actual shots were too) and that the better performance equated for about 28% of the entire game!
Also, let’s make something very clear with this “worse run” thing. Your entire management career has been the worst run. Marking your 450th Premier League match with your 200th loss (44.4% of all your games) is a pretty awful run.
If we come out “fine” from management under Steve Bruce then the dictionary definition needs to be rewritten.
It doesn’t matter how many times you say that you’ve “seen enough” etc. etc. because the results and facts tell another story. The idea that you can be almost giddy with not being awful for 28% of a game is one of the worst examples of a loser mentality I’ve ever seen.
Keep stepping on rakes, Steve, but please leave Newcastle United out of it.
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Cracking little article Jonny. Theres nearly enough silly quotes for a ‘Bruceballs’ publication – there must be at least one which Mr Coleman himself would have been proud of. A stocking filler for net Xmas, perhaps – by which time hopefully Mr Bruce might be a distant memory.
bradders(Quote)
supposed to be in talks to sign another defender when we have a perfectly good one out on loan why not recall him and use your time trying to get a box to box midfielder in to partner hayden or better still get 2 midfielders on loan then we might achieve something other than relegation which will happen with the 2 carthorses he keeps picking better still sack him and let jones have a go till the end of the season cant do any worse than this idiot as we get beat every game so it cant get worse
kev the mag(Quote)
I have to say that’s the best I have seen them play for a long time but when your best midfielder is a CBack ,Schar, it amazes me we don’t have better players than Hendricks and Lewis in the under 23s come on give the young guys a go
Bill Burn(Quote)
I just read the headline – that was enough for me.
Just out of interest – it’s 9 league games without a win. Were you equally as vocal when Rafa started the season without a win in 10 games?
Surely, as you think so much of Rafa, and think Bruce is such an inferior manager you should give him a little leeway. Say 14 league games without a win, before you start bitching.
What I’m saying is, if 10 games was acceptable for Rafa, why is 9 not acceptable for Bruce?
BykerBill(Quote)
Malcolm Rynn(Quote)
Its not acceptable for any manager to go 9 games without a win.
Malcolm Rynn(Quote)
Absolutely agree. The man is beyond belief. He has not got a clue. He starts with two centre forwards and doesn’t have a winger. Then he takes a centre forward off and puts on two wingers. ??
Haydn Watson(Quote)