An alarming picture from St James’ Park shows Steve Bruce left outside the Newcastle team talk as we prepared for the penalty shootout against Burnley last night.
Instead, it’s Graeme Jones who took centre stage, appearing to hand out instructions and motivate players after the 0-0 draw went to spot kicks.
Toon fans have praised Jones for the impact he has had on our team since arriving in January, with some sceptics believing he is effectively managing our team over Bruce.
Bruce himself has admitted in the past that he “doesn’t really do tactics”, however these images have spread like wildfire across social media, with one fan stating “this just isn’t normal.”
See the first photo for yourself below, which gained responses from thousands of baffled Toon fans on Twitter:
Why is our manager not geeing up his players ahead of a penalty shoot-out? Did he say anything to the players? Did he have any say as to who will take our opening five spot kicks?
Most importantly… is this what really happens behind closed doors on a regular basis?
Other images captured by fans in the Milburn Stand show a despondent Bruce standing alone during the shoot-out; a stark contrast to the Burnley bench, who stood arm-in-arm and in unison with manager Sean Dyche.
Hopefully he is quizzed on these worrying images ahead of our relegation six-pointer with Southampton this weekend, as the fans deserve to know what exactly is going on at our club.
Photos simply capture a moment in time & don’t give the full story – we all know that. But they really don’t look good do they – especially the one where they are in a huddle pre penalties & he’s not involved.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I agree, things can look far worse than they seem if taken way out of context, however this seems very odd and pretty alarming, doesn’t it?!
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Not sure why these pictures would cause you worry.
Also – are you actually saying we should blame Jones for the ridiculous decision to give 3 out of 5 penalties to the 3 players in our team who have religiously demonstrated that they can’t get the ball into the net?
I would have thought fans would be more than happy to blame Bruce for that.
You’re trying to make a story out of something that’s not a story. Bruce has already said himself that he does not take training and does not do the coaching.
BykerBill(Quote)
So What does he do?????
Seems like he’s just hanging around for the 30 pieces of silver…
…and let NUFC get a MANAGER
KK(Quote)
Not a team player
Dave(Quote)
Does he not pick the team or the penalty takers now either? If not, what on earth does he do – because he’s clearly not Mr. Motivator based on his body language here!|
Also, it was a schoolboy error to leave Wilson out. If he’s around for penalties we might’ve been through…
Olly Hawkins(Quote)