According to The Athletic’s David Ornstein, it’s understood Mike Ashley feels Steve Bruce is ‘here to stay’ and could stick with the unpopular NUFC boss even if we suffered relegation this summer.
With us currently just a point above the drop zone and on a run that features just TWO wins in 18 games, the vast majority of fans want him sacked now – making the prospect of him sticking around in the second tier all the more unbearable and baffling.
Toon supporters have voiced their concerns on social media that we are sleepwalking into a third relegation of the Mike Ashley era with Bruce at the helm, however it would be no surprise if the deluded NUFC owner saw his Championship experience and four promotions as a reason to stand by his man.
Here’s what he had to say when speaking during his latest podcast for The Athletic:
“I’ve even received some indications that the view at the top of Newcastle is that Steve Bruce is here to stay and the players need to get their act together”,
“That may well even continue into the Championship if Newcastle are relegated.
“Mike Ashley does not want to get rid of Steve Bruce.”
If this all came true, it would surely be a devastating double blow to the Toon Army faithful who are now unanimously in favour of sacking Bruce.
Mike Ashley’s hopes of being promoted at the first time of asking would be dented hugely if he persisted with a manager who is clearly out of his depth in the modern day game, with Aston Villa fans sick of his excuses, poor results and awful brand of football during his time with them in the Championship.
Let’s not forget, as soon as fans are allowed back inside St James’ Park Bruce will no doubt feel the full wrath of the supporters. I struggle to see how we could keep him on if the worst were the happen.
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If Cashley is hanging on to Bruce in order to avoid a ‘pay-off’ and then sell the club IF we stay up then he is very deluded. The takeover with the PIF is not going to happen, especially as they are now showing interest in Inter Milan. The value of Inter would still be less than the money they would have to pay out for NUFC and its total upgrade, plus it could be a ten year work in progress. They have everything in place at Inter, with a potential title and Champions League football, not forgetting a 75,000 plus capacity stadium (state of the art not falling to pieces like SJP).
blaymag(Quote)
There’s a very real risk of the Mackems getting another two wins to add to their tally as it looks like they will go up next season and we will go down. ??? if Cabbage head is still our manager you can just see it can’t you.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I can well believe it.
Whether we stay up or not it’ll cost £4m to sack Bruce. If they stick with him through to us being relegated then the club will be in a worse financial post again.
I have no doubt Ashley will reflect that they paid to sack McClaren only to spend more to bring Rafa in & we went down anyway – he won’t consider Rafa had too few games to keep us up – only the cost to him making those changes.
You look at Bruce & whilst he doesn’t look comfortable in his press conferences, the rest of the time he certainly doesn’t look like a dead man walking – you’ve got 2 games to save you job.
But the other thing that people don’t consider is if Bruce is sacked – 1 who would want the job under Ashley 2 look at the managers under Ashley & remove Rafa – it’s not great reading, so why would he get a decent one in next.
Sharpy17(Quote)
In Bruce, you have a manager who holds the record of 4 promotions from the second tier. Of course Ashley will keep him if we are relegated. The only way we will be rid of him is if the club is sold to someone who knows something about football and can see what damage Bruce has done to the club since he came.
mactoon(Quote)
Not just Bruce and Ashley getting slaughtered from a packed st James park. Don’t forget Richard masters and the other buffoon Richard keys.
Stephen Lee(Quote)
Hope we do go down, only be struggling again next season, and the next and so on until that idiot Ashley is gone. 😥
Trevor Redman(Quote)
Christ…what a sick sad mess….
And ALL down to ashley
Pirciestreet(Quote)
If we go down which I think is certainly and he sticks with cabage head then there will be a lot less season tickets sold so he has s choice
Ricky(Quote)
If we do go down and Bruce stays, What kind of a gate will we get its bad enough watching in tv but not going to pay money to watch it.
Ken Hood(Quote)
Ashley can’t be that stupid.
1. The club decided not to add a wage reduction clause in the event of a relegation whereby wages drop by 40%.
2. I bet some of the players have a relegation clause in their contracts and will be away, if anyone wants them. (ASM, Dubravka and Miggy will be snapped up)
3. Loss of PL money and odds on to stay in the fizzy pop league.
4. With Bruce at the helm there will NOT be 40K+ attendance similar to the recent relegation with Rafa.
5. Many player contracts ending this year.
Conclusion: Many years in the Championship if we are lucky.
LA Toon(Quote)
Living with you guys must be unbearable.
It’s the dark side of every cloud.
We have 11 games left – that’s more than a a quarter of a third of the season – and you’ve got us relegated and you’ve got Bruce managing us to bring us back up again.
FFS lighten up!
Helen Clarey(Quote)