Sorry Newcastle fans,
THERE is no point owning a football club unless you make the decisions. Mike Ashley is standing by Steve Bruce. That may prove a mistake, but at least it’s his mistake. If Newcastle are relegated, it will be because Ashley got it wrong, remaining loyal to a man he clearly admires. At least he knows more about him than whoever made up the banner with a picture of Bruce, marked ‘coward’. Nobody ends up with that nose, unless they are the bravest of the brave. One imagines nobody ends up Sir Alex Ferguson’s captain, either. Bruce personally has won as many league titles as Newcastle since 1905. As far as trophies go, club and manager are neck and neck. They just had 87 more years to do it. No club can be run by a committee of 50,000. In 2008, when Kevin McCabe fired Bryan Robson at Sheffield United, he issued a statement lauding the manager’s performance. ‘I am
disappointed that the fans could not be more patient because I know more than anyone the tremendous effort Bryan Robson was putting in behind the scenes on our youth development as well as with the first team,’ McCabe said. ‘Sometimes, if they only sit and think, the people they abuse are actually the people that are doing their best, doing so much good for the club.’ Yet McCabe sacked him anyway, because the fans were screaming about it. Paul Heckingbottom, Sheffield United’s current interim appointment, is the club’s 12th manager since Robson, a span of 13 years. For once you have announced that if the supporters shout loudly enough you will sack a man you actually think is doing a good job, you are no longer the decision-maker. Micky Adams lasted 24 games at Sheffield United, David Weir 13 and Nigel Adkins 54. Loyalty was also harder to come by. Gary Speed left for Wales after 18 matches. Why stay and wait for the place to turn? Ashley’s support for Bruce may prove misplaced. The injury list is ruinous, and mounting, but Saturday’s abject defeat at Brighton went beyond the mitigation of rotten luck. Yet he could sack Bruce, go down anyway, and then he would never know. At least this way it’s his call; and if he’s wrong there is no one else to blame.