LEGAL THREAT OVER BRUCE
++ Bruce said to be Newcastle’s 11th choice ++ He’ll be one of lowest-paid PL managers ++ Fans slam his appointment as a betrayal
SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY are considering legal action after discovering via social media that Newcastle have hired Steve Bruce as their manager. Bruce resigned as Wednesday boss on Monday. A Hillsborough statement said: ‘There remain outstanding legal issues to be resolved.’
One of Steve Bruce’s constant complaints in the last, unhappy weeks before Sunderland sacked him was the locals’ unwillingness to accept him because he was born north of the Tyne and grew up supporting newcastle United.
‘You fat Geordie b*****d — get out of our club,’ was the chant of a small-minded minority at the time. Yet his arrival at the place he really can call home was not how he can ever have imagined it yesterday.
One of the jokes doing the rounds after the confirmation of the 58-year-old’s appointment as newcastle United manager was that his honeymoon period had ended the day before.
A joint statement by nine of the club’s supporter groups declared Bruce to be ‘an unambitious appointment — who wouldn’t get a job at any other Premier League side’ and is ‘not even a safe pair of hands.’
Mike Ashley, for whom Bruce is a ninth manager in 11 years, has delivered newcastle to such a low that the club’s main selection criteria were finding someone who genuinely wanted the job and was willing to take it up immediately.
Bruce is thought to have been 11th on newcastle’s list — with Mikel Arteta, Roberto Martinez, Patrick Vieira, Steven Gerrard and Sam Allardyce all preferences — but was willing to take whatever terms he was offered.
The alternative was to continue life under a soft transfer embargo at Sheffield Wednesday, who are furious.
He will be one of the Premier League’s lowest-paid managers, with a salary of £2million — a third of the sum commanded by Rafa Benitez — and will not exert the same control over signings as the Spaniard.
In a return to the structure of the pre-Benitez Steve McClaren tenure, head scout Steve nixon will now identify signings and work in tandem with Bruce, who has signed a three-year deal, to bring them in.
The grief felt at Benitez’s departure washed over Tyneside again as Bruce’s appointment was confirmed. For some, the idea of a Geordie agreeing to work for Ashley is a betrayal. They recalled how Bruce turned down newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd in 2004, when he topped the list to replace Bobby Robson but would not leave Birmingham City.
‘Yes, he is a newcastle lad, which makes it worse,’ said Davey Drape, of the Magpie Group. ‘A lot of people feel that when he was winning at Manchester United, he never made anything of his background as a Geordie.
‘But he claims to have his heart in newcastle, he’s recently lost both of his parents and if he wants to come home then he should be entitled to. The aim should be to get rid of Ashley, not the manager.’
The supporters’ group have urged fans to boycott seasonticket renewals and believe as many as 13,000 may comply, raising hopes that St James’ Park will be less than half full when newcastle play Arsenal in a televised game, three weeks on Sunday.
Hundreds gathered to protest outside Ashley’s Sports Direct store on northumberland Street in the city last night.
The much-needed good news for Bruce, beginning his 11th job in management, is that newcastle are not burdened with bad players on expensive long-term contracts.
There will also be money available for several reinforcements providing they are under 25 and have sell-on value.
Joelinton, 22, the Brazilian striker, is expected to sign from Hoffenheim for a £36m fee plus £1.8m in add- ons. Goalscorers Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez, who loved Benitez, have gone.
But as things stand, newcastle are the only Premier League club yet to sign a player this summer and in Bruce they have a manager who football seemed to have left behind when he was sacked by