Bruce vows to get tough with Toon brawl pair

NEWCASTLE manager Steve Bruce has vowed to discipline Jonjo Shelvey and Karl Darlow if they breached club rules after being caught up in a 3am street brawl. Darlow allegedly kicked a man during an altercation outside a Northumberland takeaway, hours before the club flew out on their pre-season tour. Shelvey was allegedly called a ‘bald c***’, which sparked the fracas revealed by Sportsmail. ‘I’ve spoken to Karl and I’ll speak to Jonjo,’ Bruce said. ‘I don’t know everything that has gone on, but we will deal with it. We’ll find out what’s gone on and, if needs be, they will be disciplined.’ It was hardly an ideal introduction for Bruce, who is in China on a 72-hour visiting visa and, as a result, will not be in the dugout for today’s Asia Trophy game against West Ham. He welled up when explaining how his parents, who both died last year, would have reacted to his appointment. The job is one this Geordie could not turn down after spurning the offer to manage his boyhood club in 2004. ‘They rejected me as a player, it was one of the big disappointments,’ said Bruce. ‘Newcastle said I wasn’t going to be strong enough. I was 12 or 13, I was fighting against it then and I’m fighting against it again now because I’m still not good enough, it seems.’ Newcastle have agreed to pay Sheffield Wednesday £3.5m for Bruce and will allow them to sign four players on loan — the maximum allowed by the EFL. JACK GAUGHAN reports from Shanghai