BRUCE LOVIN’ IT
United boss enjoyed his first season
NEWCASTLE United started the season in limbo and have ended it in exactly the same manner.
When I boarded a long-haul flight to Shanghai for the Magpies’ tour over a year ago, Steve Bruce was stepping onto the field for Sheffield Wednesday’s pre-season friendly at Lincoln City.
Rafa Benitez had left United weeks earlier after failing to agree a contract and Newcastle – not for the first time – had turned to the former Manchester United skipper and gone against public opinion.
United had handed the reins to Academy chief Ben Dawson and reserve team coach Neil Redfearn, with the duo taking charge of the team for the high-profile Premier League Asia Trophy.
As the red carpet was rolled out for clubs, and managers like Pep Guardiola, Manuel Pellegrini and Nuno Espirito Santo took their seats at the plush hotels where the tournament’s press conferences were held, everybody seemed organised for the season ahead – apart from the Magpies.
At an open training session amid the steaming heat of Nanjing, Toon players were asking the press: “What’s going on? Have we got a manager yet?”
Having toyed with the idea of taking Mikel Arteta from Man City and then pondered Roberto Martinez, United were in a contract wrangle with Sheff Wed to get their man.
However, just before the game with Wolves in Nanjing kicked off, the news filtered through from the UK that Bruce was the new boss and on a plane to Shanghai to join up with the squad for the second half of the club’s tour.
Fans who had made their way to Nanjing made their feelings clear ahead of the 4-0 thrashing to Wolves.
One said: “He is an absolute disgrace. I don’t want him anywhere near the club.”
But Bruce was now at the helm, and his first job was to meet the media at the Shangri-La Hotel. Days earlier, one senior Newcastle player had pulled myself and a colleague to one side to let it be known that the squad were behind Bruce before he’d arrived in China.
On the issue of how far United could be expected to go with teams in the top six spending money like it was going out of fashion, the noises coming out of the squad were clear. They were effectively saying: “We can’t compete financially with those at the top, but we’re a willing bunch and we’ll fight to keep the team in the Premier League again.”
The 12 months that have unfolded since have proved the players to be right. They can’t get into the top six or the top 10 but they can hold their own and won’t throw the towel in for the fans or the manager.
For all the stick flying around as we end another season, that can’t be said for the squad that went down in 2009 and wouldn’t play for Alan Shearer before many of them quit the next summer.
What about the class of 2016? They couldn’t hold their own in the Premier League and went down under Steve McClaren.
McClaren and Ashley were blamed, with Benitez’s appointment too late, but the likes of Daryl Janmaat, Gini Wijnaldum, Moussa Sissoko and Florian Thauvin just didn’t fancy it and were relegated.
Bruce’s first press conference saw him come out fighting and after some pundits had told him not to take the job, he stated: “I’m nobody’s puppet.”
So has Bruce produced results? It’s a question that provokes a lot of debate on Tyneside right now.
Newcastle have beaten teams like Man United, Spurs and Chelsea and nicked a point from Man City. But they garnered just one point from rock-bottom Norwich, one point from Aston Villa and one point from Watford from a possible 18 overall.
In short, Newcastle have struggled against the teams at the bottom at
times and it has cost them overall. However, Bruce’s side were never really in relegation trouble from October onwards and the ex-Man United star was proved right with his claim that Newcastle were safe after 29 games with 35 points, a tally that none of the bottom three could get to.
He vowed to improve fortunes in the FA Cup and took the team to their best run since 2006, only to fall short against Man City at an empty St James’ Park.
An early exit in the League Cup against Leicester on penalties was deemed unlucky by most people.
So Bruce’s side ended the season on 44 points, the same tally that earned Benitez 10th place two years earlier.
And 13th place matched Benitez’s final position overall, albeit Bruce just falling short of 45 points earned by the ex-Liverpool boss.
One of the biggest disappointments at United this campaign has been the way Newcastle ended the season. With 42 points in the bag after 32 matches, it looked inevitable that they were going to crush that tally of 45 points and there was even talk of the top 10.
But two points from an available 18 meant they spluttered over the finish line.
Bruce has done enough to stay on and have another crack next season but knows he will have to hit the ground running next term.
Yet the word ‘limbo’ still hasn’t disappeared at St James’ Park.
Newcastle’s takeover saga is still at the owner and director test stage and fans are yet to learn whether Amanda Staveley, the Reuben brothers and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have been successful with a £340m bid.
It seems strange that a country that could effectively own a Premier League club would pull the plug on TV coverage of the competition for the next couple of years.
Top-flight chiefs won’t comment but if you want a straw to clutch on to, look at the seven-month takeover saga at Southampton.
Otherwise, it is Newcastle limping on through another closed season under Ashley with a smaller kitty than last year due to the pandemic.
The backdrop is a gloomy one and looks even sadder without fans.
It’s been a long old campaign from Nanjing to Norwich from Shanghai to Sheff United and then lockdown to Liverpool at St James’ on the final day. But here we are. With 13th place secured for the fourth time in Premier League season, it could have been worse.
Bruce did not take Newcastle into the Championship like some pundits predicted but that does not mean this has been a season to celebrate. It’s had some big highs, such as Matty Longstaff’s winner against
Man United, and some excruciating lows, such as the 5-0 thrashing at Leicester or the meek surrender in the second half against relegated Watford recently.
The club has also gone backwards on communication, after vowing to be more open last summer, when the managing director said: “We want to communicate clearly and proactively, but it’s important that we do so at the right time.”
After four months of silence from the boardroom, surely that time is now?