Steve Bruce

[bix01]

Hi, Newcastle fan here - we’re getting grief from all corners for our supposed treatment of Super Steve, which in reality amounted to a few chants of ‘Bruce Out’ at matches now that fans have been allowed back in and a sizeable amount of grumbling on forums like this.

Given that both Villa and The Toon, as well as Sunderland for that matter have been victims of him sucking the life out of our clubs, what can possibly justify the almost blanket defence of him as being a supposed great manager, great bloke, lucky to have him etc. etc.?

Most people who bother to post on the Footy Mad sites have a spent a reasonable period following their clubs and yet journalists, pundits, ‘experts’ and the like are telling literally hundreds of thousands of fans across the globe attached to the three clubs I mentioned above that none of us have a clue what we’re talking about when it comes to Bungle Bruce. You couldn’t write it, but they actually have.

Just wondering how you guys think on this one, of course I’m just a deluded Geordie who expects to win the league, champions league, FA Cup League Cup and the Olympic gold for figure skating every year so I haven’t got a clue what I’m talking about…

[Exiledvillan]

Well for starters you can’t win the league, champions league, FA Cup, League Cup, and the Olympic gold for figure skating every year, cos we are.

As for Mr. Bruce, I don’t think he’s been overly criticised. He has of course always put his boots on to go to work, whilst being there when the Daffodils come up. His teams have always ‘been there, or thereabouts, especially doing without all those injured (during his training sessions) players.

The press loves him, as they do ‘Arry’, all for the quotes, and the fact that neither of the two dinosaurs has actually managed their own club into the ground.

Social media is a whole new ball game though, it’s uncontrollable. A wise (insert gender or no gender here) wouldn’t read it anyway. So would that suggest those who do read their own press, are in fact only trying to inflate their own ego? Sh1t happens to those who go in search of it. The abuse is merciless. Sadly we are not a very nice species, some thrive in other people's misery, Bix01. Those of us, of the Claret and Blue persuasion, are obviously, nicer than most.

Enjoy the journey on the new Arabian flying carpet, due in at Sandcastle United shortly. I’d say the Mackems are delighted with your good fortune.

[bongosdad]

Its a bit like buying a volvo and complaining that it doesn't do 0-60 in 5 seconds. However its quite practical and does the job.

[TrianonDave]

Bongo, you been on the Gin before 11am again?
As for Bruce, he gets harsh treatment but does not cover himself in glory, a record of running out of clubs, relegations and promtions, he does come across as the Village idiot and you would hope now his 8 mill pay off would finally enable him to get a new nose. He will always be labelled 'potato head' even when he was our Manager, I gave him a chance, got frustrated with his team selections then could not wait for him to go, i did not however throw the cabbage, actually I think that fell out of his bag on the touchline as he had popped into Aldi to pick one up for his midnight kabab snack once, he had got home!
Its time for him to pack it in and go on the side of being a TV pundit... football has passed him by. I'm hooing it is not the case for our Deano?

[picasso]

Bruce clearly divides opinion but one thing you can’t accuse him of is he gives your club his best. That might well not be good enough but I do remember him standing by us when we were on the verge of bankruptcy and more poignantly on the touch line in tears when when one of his parents had just passed away when he really should have been with his family. Let’s face it, we’ve had far worse managers. I wouldn’t wish some of the abuse Bruce has got from some of us and the Geordie fans on anyone. Just unnecessary and unpleasant.

As for Newcastle, he may not have played the most exciting football but they are still in the premier league. No mean feat when you consider the overall quality of their squad. Bix01, give the man some space and look forward to what’s looks like an exciting future. Just don’t expect any trophies any time soon.

[bix01]

Cheers for that, some good points. I think it’s still a bit raw up here with the terrible start to the season and he did manage to keep the club up for two seasons even if it wasn’t a great watch. That at least kept the buyer’s interested because if we’d been relegated that would’ve probably been the end of that. A lot of the anger which was aimed at one of the most grotesque owners in the Premier League era - and I know you guys have had your fair share of those as well - and that anger was absorbed by Bruce, because that owner was hardly there in recent years and the club hardly ever communicated to the extent that transfer deadline days were a total irrelevance has nowt ever happened.

Good luck for the rest of the season, you’re a proper club that deserves better than you’ve had recently. The Bix01 was the result of a server change years ago and panicked when I registered again but can’t change it and now stuck with a cräp username

[westcountryvillain]

Bruce almost got us promoted, signed John McGinn, Axel T on loan, John Terry and stabilised us when we were in the bottom 3 after 13 or so games. He comes from a proper football stable where you "roll wor sleeves up" and keep your feet on the ground - he just got frustrated by the media circus that follows football and made the mistake of criticising the fans for their expectations.

I found his approach to be one dimensional, go 1-0 up and that'll be enough - it very nearly was, he just had no plan when we went behind. We did have some good moments under him, he's a decent fella and some idiots labelled him a bluenose when he's clearly a geordie. He'd struggle to win things with a brilliant squad however we have had far worse managers.

bix01 was it because he'd managed Sunderland that he wasn't wanted on Tyneside? In some ways our clubs are similar, massive support, want to be entertained and challenge for honours but have at times been a circus. I thought under Keegan you'd hit the jackpot and had a fabulous side, enjoy the coming years, the weight of expectation at SJP will be at a level not seen before.

[bix01]

The Sunderland connection didn’t bother me at all but I don’t think he was particularly popular with their supporters when he was there either. When we signed McClaren and Bruce, my initial thoughts were that it will end in disaster but I hope I’m proved wrong. McClaren was horrendous and we deservedly got relegated but as said by picssso, Bruce at least deserves some credit for two survivals even though we could still go down this season if things don’t improve. Bruce also had to follow Rafa which was always going to be tough as Ashley was never going to upgrade when he left, whereas McClaren only followed on from John Carver so we were already rock bottom when he took over.

It’ll be interesting when the next top flight manager goes, if any of Bruce’s media pals seriously talk him up for whichever role that is, I very much doubt they will though.

For what it’s worth, I don’t particularly think Sunderland deserve to be where they are right now, mismanagement on a big scale over the last few years - might get some grief on my own board for that final comment mind!

[samhubball]

As mentioned above he did have a good eye for a player. Maybe he would have been a better scout? Management wise his training allegedly consists of throwing a ball up in the air and saying "play".

He's not revolutionary or proactive but he's been in the business for a long time. Maybe his last paycheck and club. I'd take retirement if I were him.

[Zippity]

Bruce clearly divides opinion but one thing you can’t accuse him of is he gives your club his best.

I've got to disagree there, mate.

Maybe that used to be the case but, especially this season, there was definitely the air of a man who'd started, to an extent, going through the motions. Newcastle have more days off than any other club: the feeling among the players-if sources are to be believed-was that this suited him getting back home to Cheshire. In 11 days after the takeover, we had 7 days off, At the beginning of the first international break-what was it, 3 weeks after the beginning of the season?-he buggered off to Portugal despite having just had the best part of 2 months off. His team selections weren't those of a manager trying to think of ways to outwit the opposition or create problems for them, they were just tired attempts at not losing games whilst hoping that one of our two 'star' players managed to conjur something up at the other end.

Depending on which lens you view life through, events can take on a very different perspective and, as a fan, I'd feel quite differently about Bruce if I'd witnessed him in tears on the touchline-you'd need a heart of stone not to be touched by something like that-but the sort of abuse which had Lee Dixon on 5Live saying was disgraceful and disgusting...well, I'm stuggling to think what has happened other than 'we want Brucie out' and calling him a sad mackem bastard.Pleasant? Nope and that second one made me cringe if I'm being honest but the defence of Bruce by his media buddies has made it seem like we've been threatening his family and all sorts of stuff. Hasn't happened.

On a wider note, what do fans do if their manager is doing a shit job? Suffer in silence for fear of being hung out to dry in the press? There's a balance to be struck, for sure but fans have been calling for managers to go for decades with far, far worse abuse (like Pardew, for example ) and I don't remember this level of outrage.