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Former Magpies ahead has criticised Steve Bruce over the supervisor’s disastrous ways and angle in direction of gamers throughout his time on the membership.
Bruce, who’s at present managing at Blackpool in League 1, has but to return to Premier League administration since his departure from Tyneside in late 2021.
From threatening his staff with an absence of minutes to brazenly declaring “I don’t do ways”, Gayle has shed some severe mild on what was a comically-dark time for Newcastle followers…
As a lot of the mainstream media (and even Pep Guardiola) would have you ever consider, Steve Bruce’s ways and magnificence of play left a lot to be desired.
Gayle remembers one sport underneath Bruce in opposition to Guardiola’s formidable Man Metropolis facet the place the previous Manchester United defender seemed actually hopeless.
“I bear in mind a few of the boys received chucked into the Man Metropolis shift.. Mainly we had a 3 sport week, gaffer simply chucked a number of of the boys underneath the bus by way of who needed to play in opposition to Man Metropolis away.”
“Me and Matt Ritchie had been asking for tactical enhancements for weeks or months or no matter, and we got here in at half time, and it was two or three nil, and mentioned “Boys, you retain asking for ways, I don’t do ways. Simply put your boots on and work laborious.”
“And we’re like ‘Mate, it’s Man Metropolis, that’s not adequate.” That was one I used to be in shock about, however yeah that’s what he mentioned.”
😳 The bit on the finish from Dwight Gayle on Steve Bruce is completely damning:
“You retain asking for ways, I don’t do ways. Simply put your boots on and work laborious! That’s what he mentioned.”
Terrible, but unsurprising! #NUFC (By way of @opengoalsport)
pic.twitter.com/2gvJMx64K3
— NUFCBlog.co.uk (@NUFCblogcouk) March 21, 2025
Straight away, Gayle gives the look that Bruce’s effort and long run planning at Newcastle paled compared to predecessor Rafa Benitez.
“Once more it’s a kind of issues the place you simply get on with it. I’m positive plenty of gamers would’ve preferred Rafa’s method, however as quickly as somebody new is available in, you adapt to it and attempt to get on with it.”
“It was okay, I felt like he didn’t spend sufficient time engaged on plenty of issues with us. He would attempt to go sport by sport fairly than maybe growing us as a staff. I simply really feel like he might’ve improved with plenty of issues.”
However Gayle factors out that Bruce undertook a full 180 with reference to his method as soon as the Saudi takeover occurred, performing like a person who actually feared his days on the membership had been, maybe rightfully, numbered.
“Clearly you say, he didn’t do a lot on the coaching pitch. When the Saudi homeowners got here in, he slug his boots on and a whistle.”
“ ‘If I’m going, I’m going to run you into the bottom.’ so we had been doing a little operating drills, and he’s blowing his whistle, making it into a little bit little bit of a joke ‘They’re over there watching!’”
The place Eddie Howe is broadly lauded for his shut bond with each his colleagues and his gamers, evidently the identical can’t be mentioned for Bruce throughout his personal tenure at Newcastle.
Graeme Jones was one determine who there’s at all times been a lot hypothesis on if there was discontent between Bruce and the membership’s present assistant coach.
Gayle speculates: “I believe one thing occurred as a result of clearly he (Jones) received referred to as as much as England, after which from the next season they stopped him from going. Signed a brand new contract then they didn’t let him go, which upset him I believe.”
One other memorable saga off the pitch, Bruce’s tempestuous relationship with The Mail’s Craig Hope is nothing in need of superb.
With Hope’s reporting late evening leaks about poor staff morale, to Bruce accusing the journalist of calling him a liar, followers might solely despair on the supervisor lashing out the media in such a means.
“Craig Hope: this man, a journalist, completely hated him. We’d have conferences about him, as a result of somebody was leaking one thing from the membership, and Brucey clearly used to hate it.”
It culminated in Bruce threatening his gamers over any future leaks. “Whoever’s speaking to this Craig Hope, you’ll by no means play soccer once more. Not only for me, I’ll ensure you by no means play a sport once more. It was so humorous.”
Generally, Newcastle’s soccer underneath Bruce was the laughing inventory of the league: actually evening and day when in comparison with the current Carabao Cup successful heroics and magnificence of play.
However off the pitch, Gayle remarks that Bruce was typically unintentionally humorous along with his media quips and angle.
“He had some classics. In soccer you overlook plenty of issues, however he used to say some crackers in interviews. How’s the bacon was so humorous, we simply used to giggle about it me and Karl Darlow, we’d simply was once dying.”
