It’s a real shame when someone says nice things about us but completely ruins it by talking absolute tosh.
Unfortunately, this is the problem that former Newcastle United coach Dean Saunders runs into when discussing why Steve Bruce ‘deserves a new contract’ live on TalkSPORT this week.
Have a listen to him here:
So, Bruce deserves a new deal for…
- ‘Working with Mike Ashley’
- Being a Newcastle fan
- Keeping us up
- Doing a ‘good job’ with a ‘minimal amount of money’ to spend
Saunders definitely gets some of it; he knows that Ashley is a problem and he speaks highly of us as a fan base, but he misses the point and problem with Steve Bruce – and conveniently forgets that we’ve spent almost £100m since he got the job.
I would hope that Saunders is the type of person who reflects on what he’s said because his defence of Bruce appalling.
It’s an easy and lazy statement to claim that Benitez and Bruce are playing in the same way because that’s simply not true. Football is a lot more complicated, as Saunders should know, than just setting up in a particular way and that being it.
As Wilson recently alluded to, Bruce is a leader who doesn’t know how to lead. He is a man without tactics and without any idea of how he wants us to play.
It could never be said that Benitez didn’t have a plan and that is a major reason that fans were patient with his squad. We all knew that Benitez hadn’t been adequately backed in the Premier League and we knew that certain things had to be accepted.
Steve Bruce, on the other hand, has received the highest net spend in the club’s history, making Saunders’s statement that he has kept us in the league with a “minimum amount of money” ludicrous.
There’s a massive reason that we fans are so worried at the moment and that’s because we know that we’re going into a season with no signings, a weak squad and the worst manager in the league.
The summer before, even with Bruce, there was some optimism due to the signings of Wilson, Fraser and Lewis. We had bought smartly and there was hope that we had adequate support to offset Bruce’s awfulness.
Now, we’re going into this season crossing our fingers that our main players will stay fit and Graeme Jones will play a worldie.
So, no, Steve Bruce doesn’t deserve a 3 year contract. Mike Ashley is awful and Bruce is too. Just because one is bad, doesn’t mean that we deserve the other.
Jonny – you conveniently forget that as Bruce came in we lost Rondon & Perez – pretty much all the goals in the squad … and I don’t believe he had anything to do with spending £40m on Joelinton either – so his spend was more like £60m.
That aside, you talk like £100m is a significant about these days – it’s a Jack Grealish mate.
The football wasn’t great last season, and it probably took Graham Jones coming in to freshen things up & implement some new ideas. But don’t misquote what Wilson said – or suggest what he was implying because he said nothing against Bruce at all.
Knock Bruce for the football by all means – but the rest is just nonsense & it’s so far past references to Rafa.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Smart taking net spend too though Jonny – that takes care of the fact that when we went down with Rafa, he recouped a hefty sum thanks to the players sold as a result of that relegation.
I was far from thrilled by a lot of the football on show last season. Until Jones came in it was largely a very difficult watch.
But whilst Rafa was more tactically astute – it was also a very difficult watch alot of the time too – certainly it wasn’t very entertaining.
Sharpy17(Quote)