Our 3-0 defeat to Brighton on Saturday means that we have now won just twice in our last 20 games in all competitions.
Ever since Dwight Gayle bagged a late winner against West Brom back in December, our form has slumped to a state which we have not seen since John Carver was patrolling the St James’ Park dugout back in 2015.
The name ‘Steve McClaren’ may have just burst into your imagination there, but he actually managed to uphold a BETTER record than Bruce in the 20 games leading up to his dismissal.
In his final 20 games as Toon boss, “wally with a brolly” Steve managed 4W, 2D and 14L; getting the bullet after a humiliating 3-1 home defeat to Bournemouth led to a chorus of boos around St James’ Park.
More recently, Steve “I don’t do tactics” Bruce has mustered just 2W, 5D and 13L; meaning we now sit just two points above the drop zone with a tricky fixture list just around the corner and a dressing room no longer playing for the current manager.
One thing McClaren had to face up to was a deafening encore of: “you’re getting sacked in the morning” following his embarrassing loss. Mike Ashley ultimately listened to the fans and pulled the trigger with 10 games to go.
However, Bruce has not had to hear the harsh, brutal reality of what Newcastle fans really think after ANY of his shameful capitulations this campaign.
Both of these manager’s positions became untenable – at least from the supporters eyes – at similar stages of the season, yet McClaren was quickly peddled by Ashley while Bruce remains safe as houses?
Why is that?
Surely this serves as proof that playing in front of a soulless, empty St James’ Park is the only thing saving Bruce’s bacon right now.
If you put 52,000 fans into the ground the truth is that he would have been shown the door months ago. Ashley is rolling the dice on our Premier League survival because he knows he can’t endure any form of backlash by doing so.
While millions of ordinary people struggle to make ends meet after losing their job because of the pandemic, it turns out our manager is only still in one because of it!
So, Instead of attacking “negative” journalists, calling fans “keyboard warriors and calling fair criticism “mass hysteria”, perhaps Bruce should count himself as an extremely lucky man to still be in charge of Newcastle United.
He should never have been given the opportunity to manage us, Ashley thought he’d be out of it shortly after appointing him, now he’s stuck with the compensation he thought someone else would pay for sacking him.
Cc(Quote)
What ever made Ashley want Bruce in the first place, he’s a championship manager, not premier league who gets the sack everywhere he goes. So he was never gonna be good enough to manage a Premier league side let alone the toon. Benitez wanted to excel nufc to the next level but he was given nothing. Now we are stuck wit the clown Bruce who is gonna guide us into the championship well done Ashley
Marty(Quote)
“Surely this serves as proof that playing in front of a soulless, empty St James’ Park is the only thing saving Bruce’s bacon right now.”
Errr no!
There’s this childish idea being bandied around that the fans are everything.
They have the power! If they want a manager gone, then that’s it, he’s gone.
While that might be the case in an ideal world, where Ashley lives fans have no power at all.
The difference is that when Mclaren was sacked we were in the relegation zone.
With Bruce, we’re not. And that’s all that matter to our owner.
BykerBill(Quote)