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Steve Bruce


Demitri_C

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1 minute ago, TrentVilla said:

I don’t think anyone says Rafa spent nothing, he did spend money. However the figures I’ve read suggest he made a net profit over three years in the market. As for Bruce he has spent in excess of £100m.

Net spend is a load of bollocks - but I’m sure they did as they (probably) sold their better players on relegation? 

I find it hard to fathom that Steve Bruce wanted Joelinton for £40m - I doubt he’d even heard of him - but hey, don’t let me take that stick away!

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4 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Net spend is a load of bollocks - but I’m sure they did as they (probably) sold their better players on relegation? 

I find it hard to fathom that Steve Bruce wanted Joelinton for £40m - I doubt he’d even heard of him - but hey, don’t let me take that stick away!

It really isn’t.

As for Joelinton he was clearly identified prior to Bruce but he sanctioned the signing, if he is sanctioning signing players he has never heard of then its just confirmation he shouldn’t be a Premier League manager.

“The kid’s got an exciting time ahead of him,” Steve Bruce, the Newcastle manager, said. “He’s a smashing young player and we’re obviously delighted to get him.

“It’s been going on for a little bit now, so to get him is great for everybody,” Bruce added. “He’s got everything that a modern-day player wants. He’s big, strong and athletic, and of course he’s got age on his side too, which is vitally important.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2019/jul/23/newcastle-united-sign-joelinton-club-record-hoffenheim-brazil

 

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1 minute ago, TrentVilla said:

It really isn’t.

As for Joelinton he was clearly identified prior to Bruce but he sanctioned the signing, if he is sanctioning signing players he has never heard of then its just confirmation he shouldn’t be a Premier League manager.

“The kid’s got an exciting time ahead of him,” Steve Bruce, the Newcastle manager, said. “He’s a smashing young player and we’re obviously delighted to get him.

“It’s been going on for a little bit now, so to get him is great for everybody,” Bruce added. “He’s got everything that a modern-day player wants. He’s big, strong and athletic, and of course he’s got age on his side too, which is vitally important.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2019/jul/23/newcastle-united-sign-joelinton-club-record-hoffenheim-brazil

 

He’s literally never going to come out in the early doors of his job and say “I have nothing to do with this” or whatever. Equally, he may have seen him play and thought “yeah, he looks good”. In any case, it’s clearly not his type of player - still, it’s £40m spent under his watch. 

I remember checking when this last came up, but I think “Bruce” has only spent money on 5 players whereas Benitez obviously brought in a lot more players to reshape a side. As ever with football, throwing around a blanket figure can be a tad misleading. 

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But like at Villa he is throwing big wages about which is a bigger issue than the transfer fees. Fraser and Hendrick were Bosmans and expensive wages at that. From previous demands thats probably 200k a week on them 2 average players plus the ridiculous Wilson contract 

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3 minutes ago, Zatman said:

But like at Villa he is throwing big wages about which is a bigger issue than the transfer fees. Fraser and Hendrick were Bosmans and expensive wages at that. From previous demands thats probably 200k a week on them 2 average players plus the ridiculous Wilson contract 

But again, I doubt Steve Bruce runs the finances of football clubs. If he does, then the clubs are **** stupid. 

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I doubt that the majority of managers are in the room negotiating how much a player receives in his contract.

However, I find it slightly incredulous to think they don’t have an idea how much someone’s wages will be be (approximately) and the subsequent knock on effect that will have towards funding elsewhere.

As an example, anyone interested in football will know John Terry joining a championship team is going to be fairly expensive in terms of wages. For someone who constantly banged the drum about “boxing clever” I would be massively surprised if Bruce wasn’t in the loop as to how much Terry was going to be paid and therefore in the dark about what was still available to spend.

Kinda like “Well Steve, we can get John, but if we proceed that will mean instead of X left available to you, you now have Y left to spend.” I would be stunned if that conversation doesn’t happen.

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1 hour ago, Zatman said:

But like at Villa he is throwing big wages about which is a bigger issue than the transfer fees. Fraser and Hendrick were Bosmans and expensive wages at that. From previous demands thats probably 200k a week on them 2 average players plus the ridiculous Wilson contract 

I know hindsight is wonderful but I am glad we never signed Wilson.

Not that I think he would have signed for us anyway given his Coventry connections but I could be wrong.

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13 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I think one of the most damning parts of yesterday was that they didn't even ask Bruce about the Watkins offside decision and the controversial law that's recently come to light, because Newcastle were never in the game and it wouldn't have made a difference either way. 

Probably the only game this season where there wasn't a contentious talking point where 1 manager didn't feel aggrieved. Probably the most routine win by any team this season

 

Maybe it's just because we're now seemingly a decent top 10 side rather than relegation battlers for the first time in a decade, but I honestly didn't even feel that elated after we won. Felt very "meh" just because of how routine it was.

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4 hours ago, bobzy said:

I’ve said it before - but this myth that Rafa spent nothing and Bruce has spent loads needs to stop. It simply isn’t true.

Where have I said Rafa spent nothing? I said he built them up from the Championship which implies spending. 

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One problem with the 'net spend' argument is that it suggests that Bruce has not benefitted from the ability of players who were saleable assets, because they were already sold. It's not clear that it's entirely the stick people think it is.

However, you can of course turn it round and say if Newcastle don't have any players who look like financial assets, whose fault is that? To which of course Bruce has to cop plenty of blame as well.

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Quote

Aston Villa give Newcastle a cruel look at alternate reality

Newcastle do not have a perfect squad but it should be far better than relegation quality by every metric. Aston Villa are laughably clear.

 

Zero shots. Zero chances created. Eleven passes completed. One touch in the opposition penalty area, described in The Guardian’s minute-by-minute commentary thus:

‘Wilson wins the ball and has to set a Newcastle attack all of his own. When five defenders surround him, he loses the ball.’

For Callum Wilson, it was an evening that underlined the stark difference between good and bad choices. The 28-year-old has failed to score in his last six matches, although he can take some consolation from the fact that the man Aston Villa signed as his alternative ended his own nine-match goal drought on Saturday.

“I wouldn’t say it was an easy decision,” Wilson declared in the summer. “Villa is back home for me, I looked at both of the squads, and I feel like I can fit into this team nicely. There are great players here already,” he added, before scanning through his fresh Newcastle contract and coming to the clause that insists all new signings must refer to Goal! and explain how the fictional exploits of Santiago Nunez tempted “the little boy inside me” to Tyneside.

It was that rejection which forced Villa to turn to Ollie Watkins as the spearhead of this vibrant, young, diligent attacking team. Neither he nor Dean Smith will regret the circumstances that reunited them.

But it is worth bearing in mind those words from Wilson when examining the wreckage of another Newcastle defeat. Only in hindsight has his choice of the team in 13th over a side that finished four places below and a single point clear of relegation last season proven to be a mistake. He was not the only one who would have assessed both squads and seen the Magpies as shinier by comparison. He was right that Newcastle have “great players”, at least in a Premier League sense. Yet as Steve Bruce meanders into a relegation battle, the tide of public opinion is slowly turning.

Not against him, it should be said, but in his favour. Jamie Redknapp suggested in June that the manager “can get more out of some of the players” while stressing that “sometimes you need a year for things to improve”. In the aftermath of the Villa surrender little over six months later, the Sky Sports pundit suddenly “can’t see many Newcastle players you’d get money for” and “the academy” is to blame.

The manager that has overseen ten games without a win, one goal – an 82nd-minute consolation in defeat – in eight matches, a League Cup exit to a Championship side’s second string, a loss to statistically the worst team in top-flight history and 3-0 and 2-0 setbacks since that self-confessed “absolute shite” showing at Bramall Lane prompted him to take “the gloves” off and declare things were going to be done “my way”? Well Redknapp “feels sorry” for that “warrior” who “must think to himself, ‘I don’t need this'”.

Poor Bruce, forced to play Andy Carroll without wingers and Miguel Almiron without confidence. He really doesn’t need this. And currently Newcastle really don’t need him.

 

It is a fallacy to say that this squad is poor. It’s not good enough for the Champions League glory many pundits assume Newcastle supporters are demanding, but it is a perfectly serviceable mid-table outfit at least. Their summer spending was sensible. It is not a perfect selection of players but there is proven experience in every position, some courted by many a rival over the years, with even the Longstaffs emerging from the supposedly barren youth ranks. One was a £50m target of the current league leaders less than a year ago; it is a failure of coaching that he was left out of the squad to face Villa to absolutely no discernible reaction.

These players should not rank in the bottom three for shots per game, shots faced per game, average possession, pass accuracy, touches in the opposition area or chances created. This is neither a defensive nor an attacking side but, as Jamie Carragher had it, a “nothing” club battling relegation by every metric, including a table that has them two points above Brighton with a seven-point gap to an improving Fulham side with a game in hand.

The Newcastle response, to back Bruce with the pursuit of Graeme Jones to add to his backroom staff, is tantamount to gross negligence. The 50-year-old respected in the game and will bring different ideas but he accompanied Bournemouth on their drop into the Championship last season. It is like treating a terminal illness by wrapping a bandage around it.

Saturday evening was particularly frustrating as it offered a first hand view of what Newcastle could be with ambitious, driven owners, a manager capable of learning from his mistakes and growing, a talented squad willing to work hard and together and a unified fanbase expecting little more than a team to be proud of each week.

Many may still claim they are fortunate to still be in the division, mere beneficiaries of one technological failure over a 38-game season in which they themselves fell victim to their share of unjust decisions. But few would argue Villa have not taken advantage and built on those foundations to create a solid team on an upward trajectory. They know what they’re doing. They know who they are. They have adapted and evolved. They have a plan, an idea.

Newcastle are utterly bereft in every sense. Only a handful of months ago they were considered a more attractive proposition than a Villa side that trailed them by nine points at the end of last campaign and has proceeded to lap them twice over. They have thrived since letting Bruce go; the supporters of his current club should be forgiven for wondering if they could do the same.

Matt Stead

 

 
 

 

https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-villa-give-newcastle-look-alternate-reality-wilson-bruce

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