The Mighty Steve?

Any and every time a loser like Steve Bruce tries to say that Newcastle United’s natural station is to scrape by, amongst and below the also-rans, one word can settle that argument once and for all:

Leicester.

We have everything to be their equal’except well-intended ownership, competent executives and skilled management of our playing resources.

The raw ingredients of the club in terms of potential exceed that of Leicester.

I’m sure other clubs could make similar claims but surely no other party falls so short of what they could be, contrasted with they currently are.

Bruce must hate them because they expose him for the fraud that he is.

If not already self-evident, I’ve despised his time at the club. The perfect patsy for our equally despicable owner. A self-serving snide whose cowardice was rightly identified by those who work closest with him every day.

Matt Ritchie knows and appreciates honest endeavour. A more genuine pro you’re unlikely to locate. His brutal assessment of Bruce stung our indolent manager with its accuracy forcing him out of his office comfy chair lumbering down to the training ground for his Big Daddy tribute act.

As if the results, 2 wins in 21 at one juncture, and eye-bleedingly bad, surrender before we start, performances were not bad enough he consistently seeks to antagonize long-suffering supporters with his public utterances.

He loves to draw selective parallels with his predecessor, sneeringly referring to ‘The Mighty Rafa’.

1 Champions League, 1 Uefa Cup, 2 La Ligas (breaking the Madrid and Catalonian duopoly in the process) 1 Fifa Club World Cup, 1 European Supercup, 2 FA Cups, 1 Italian Supercup, 1 Community Shield and 1 Championship Winner (Thank you) Twice Uefa Manager of the Year, World best Coach Gazetta Dello Sport 2009, Best coach of the season 2001-2002 for Don Balon + El Pais and on and on’.

That Rafa Steve?

The Rafa who had one arm and four fingers of his other hand tied behind his back but had us as one of the best sides in the country in his final half season once he was allowed to actually buy a player again in Almiron.

That Rafa? I mean excuse my French but the FCUKing nerve.

‘Riddle me this’ as one of Batman’s famous foes would say: Steve, if you’re essentially achieving the same as Rafa then why was he beloved and you’re, well, very much not?

Because supporters are not fools. No matter how many chums and ex-team mates in the media you have telling us to ignore the evidence of our own eyes and ears you’re not fit to take off Rafa’s glasses and carefully put them in his pocket.

You’ve both stood on the shoulders of Rafa’s amazingly astute signings (for pennies in the pound) and the defensive stability they brought whilst simultaneously slating him as the reason why your team can’t play expansively.

The call after 18 months of ‘Right – now- I’m going to do it my way’ might have been the greatest self-own in football history. Who was doing it their way for a year and a half of YOUR tenure Steve? That pathetically self-excusing do-over that was sought was spit your drink out funny in its stupidity.

Rafa plucked the likes of Dubravka out of relative obscurity (‘3.6m), Schar (‘3.6) Fernandes (‘6m) Clark (‘5.4m) Hayden (‘2.6m) Gems for a pittance. He massively improved previous boo-boy target Dummett (never seen him lose an aerial content) whilst converting standard-bearer Ritchie into a hugely effectively wingback. These players are still the backbone of the side now.

As a former defender himself he should be immensely grateful for the foundation he inherited but instead he chose to blame the players and publicly decry their limitations as to why his side can’t play on the front foot. Just one of many stinking-rotten, garbage, excuses. Blaming anybody but himself. He’s no leader. He’s a loser. He’s also been proven wholly incorrect by Graham Jones inspired improvements latterly.

Contrast Rafa’s signings with the riches that Bruce has had to furnish upon the side. Imagine if you’d said to Rafa ‘ keep your defensive set upbut add in Callum Wilson, Saint Maximum in addition to Almiron as an attacking spearhead. Throw in the energy and goals of hyper-charged transporter Joe Willock for good measure. Oh and there’s another ’40m burning a hole in Mike’s pocket. Where do you imagine we’d be? It’s still a salivating prospect’were it not for the reality of what Bruce has actually done with this quality available to him.

The constant gas-lighting, and that’s what it is, of supporters by Bruce himself and his pals strewn liberally across the media that he’s doing a great job is reach for the paracetamol, headache inducing. The latest lie being that injuries have been his handicap is particularly hard to tolerate.

He has a history of seeming to push players to breaking point. Like setting off in a car running on an empty tank of fuel and expecting it to complete a road trip to John o’ Groats. He was especially careless with Lejeune as a glaring example. Pushed out and played when patently not in the player’s best interests after long term injury in several games over a short number of days, however willing he was. It’s a pattern that reportedly follows him from Hull, Villa and Sheffield Wednesday based on similar headlines.

There’s a speculative degree to what goes on in training but I certainly don’t recall similar levels of injuries with ‘The Mighty Rafa’ who rotated as much for welfare as tactically it would seem.

That aside, the attribution of a horrific run of poor form most recently pretty much singularly to injuries, backed up by ill-informed pundits, has stretched the struth to breaking point. In any event, 2 wins in 21 would get you sacked from pretty much any job in the professional game. Not at our ambition vacuum of a club though. He’s loyal you see. Unquestioning of parasite Mike.

Let’s be clear, he wasn’t getting a tune out of us with all available resources. Far from it. In fact, he was benching the likes of ASM and Almiron. The bloke will say anything to excuse himself. This is then lazily parroted by pundits paying superficial attention to the machinations at most clubs other than those they previously played for within the Sinister Six (apologies to Marvel). The hypocrisy related to Manchester United and their owners versus what we’re expected to accept from the likes of Ronald McFerdinand and co would be laughable were it not so infuriating but I digress.

And so we reach the point in the assessment of Bruce’s management of the club when we get to the semantics and precise definitions of ‘bust-ups’ versus ‘fall-outs’. The incendiary event that ultimately led to the banning of the free press in Moscow upon Tyne.

Although the, 100% true lest we forget, Matt Ritchie story brought matters to a head, the genesis of Bruce’s spite filled banning of a journalist simply doing what heis paid for ‘ to report newsworthy stories accurately ‘ lies in the ASM ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ debacle. For the record, I very much am Steve. Time and again. You make Donald J Trump seem like a paragon of honesty.

Sidenote: Less fake news more sheik news please ‘Arju Allah!’

The reporting of tensions between player and manager about being on the bench and the degree of fitness dictating whether this was dropping versus resting would not have reached a journalist, who we know has at least one first-hand source within the club, unless it was an issue. The back and forth on the precise wording and the ‘Are you calling me a liar?’ with the inclusion of first name was the classic bullying ‘I know you can’t say how you know’ played to the galleries.

Speaks to the man. A snide. A bully. Basically because he knows somebody has his number.

As for the claims repeated again by both Bruce on Talk Without Thought and his son on Twitter(the apple that doesn’t fall far from the tree) that there is an agenda, it’s typically classless and personal.

Given that he loves to compare with ‘The Mighty Rafa’ was there similar criticism of Rafa? No. End of argument.

Any and all criticism of Bruce is driven by the atrocious displays he has concocted out of first-rate ingredients and his self-serving public utterances. He should never have been appointed and how he has got away with it for so long in the professional game is bewildering.

There was a quote about Mourinho from Bale’s agent saying that he’s been ‘a very successful coach’but Julius Caesar was also very good. I don’t think he would be very good with armies now.’

The problem with Bruce is he’s never been much good. Seemingly relying on an accumulation of players and shoving them out on to the pitch to solve his problems. Infamously he ‘doesn’t do tactics.’

That’s particularly problematic given that the game’s development has moved on at light speed although his personal leadership qualities seem to be lacking whatever the era.

He is very much a Nokia 3310 in an i-Phone Pro world.

For further insight into Bruce’s management Rowan Vine, a former charge at Birmingham, can very much attest to how the bacon is under Bruce behind closed doors.

On the Undr the Cosh podcast he relayed that Bruce seemed to think it was just about the accumulation of centre forwards. A pair put in the side one week and swapped out for others if they didn’t score for another duo. A never-ending selection carousel masquerading as management. Vine was reportedly signed at great expense off the back of one goal-scoring performance v Birmingham without further scouting that would have revealed he wasn’t actually a centre-forward by trade. This supposedly came as a shock to Bruce who only had Nicholas Bendtner, Cameron Jerome, DJ Campbell and Mikael Forssell to rely on in the Championship.

The uptick in our recent performances, almost more than results even, is welcome for our weary eyes and spirits.

That this largely coincides with the appointment of Graham Jones is instructive. As was the dross that preceded his arrival. There is no chance that building from the back is at Bruce’s instigation. None. So let’s afford credit where it’s deserved. Not where it’s been attributed by our very own former goldfish Jermaine Jenas. The delirious glee with which the Manager of the Month award has been greeted, as justification for the previous backing of Bruce, is telling.

There is an agenda in play but it isn’t by Craig Hope carrying out his gainful employment.

We won 2 and drew 2 in April. That’s decent but matched and bettered. I’m deeply suspicious of a panel including Bruce partisans straining to validate their previous opinions. As has been said elsewhere, if you do a terrible job for the thick end of two years and have one good month you wouldn’t be given a prize you’d be out of a job.

For now, he’s unfortunately allowed the ongoing opportunity to seek to compromise the livelihood of a journalist telling the truth. Not opinion. Truth.

Speaking of opinions, Simon Jordan continues to embarrass himself to the surprise on no one who has endured his superior than thou schtick. A posh accent and a better than average vocabulary does not a thoughtful man make. Frankly, he’s a hair-trigger tempered narcissist who has shown his true colours calling those who rightly disagree with him ‘mouthy cowards.’ Physician heal thyself on that score or for simple Simon’s benefit: Takes one to know one.

Possibly the most poisonous thing Bruce could have done in the public sphere is to invoke the old ‘unrealistic expectations’ drivel to the Churchill nodding dogs of Jordan and Jim White grinningly thinking ‘Ohhhh yes!‘ He’s now furiously backtracking by basically saying he’s too thick to speak in public. I agree Steve. Maybe why you’re so ill-suited to your current role.

I do have an unrealistic expectation though in fairness. That as a 60 year old millionaire he might choose to walk away voluntarily from infuriating the supporters of Newcastle United.

He claims to count himself among our number but I’ll not forget in a hurry who the ‘we’ was when he was an ex-Manchester United player in the TV studios after the 5-0 defeat of his true love. Or the comments made when he managed the village of the damned down the road.

Remember this Steve after we won 5-1 and serenaded you with Cheer up Steve Bruce to Daydream Believer?’It is 71 days until the next derby at our place, not that we are counting. I hope we can repeat the same dosage when they come to our place. It was typical of that club’s etiquette.’

Your own etiquette in relation to the treatment of journalists is seemingly now extending further among the local press.Dripping with snide vitriol because they don’t simply fall at your feet. It tells us all we need to know about you as a person.

You’re not one of us and you never will be. Your predecessors Bobby Robson and Kevin Keegan, true Mags, who truly loved the club, oozed class out of every pore as did ‘The Mighty Rafa‘ immediately before you. That sobriquet you’ve given him shows your hand. Get out of our club and take Charnley and Ashley with you. Not an ounce of decency between you.

DAVID CROSIER