Newcastle United have had a steady, if somewhat unspectacular, start to life in the Premier League under Steve Bruce – with a shocking defeat to Norwich City balanced out by a superb victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
Many Newcastle fans were against Bruce’s appointment, but the Toon’s former striker Les Ferdinand has admitted that he thinks a lot of Newcastle supporters will learn to love their new boss.
Ferdinand, who scored 41 goals for the Magpies, was speaking to talkSPORT and was adamant that if Bruce can start winning games of football, then Rafael Benitez will be quickly forgotten about on Tyneside.
Ferdinand also believes that Bruce is determined to succeed at his boyhood club and hopes he can keep his old club in the Premier League.
Certainly, Bruce was not a popular choice, and there are still quite a few fans who have chosen to stay away from St James’ Park this season – the recent Rugby game between England and Italy was the highest attendance of the season at Newcastle.
However, despite this, the players seem to be behind Bruce, and after looking lost at times against Norwich Newcastle spent a full week working on defensive shape, and it produced one of their best results in recent years.
This result was massive for Bruce because it rubbished the claims that he does not work on tactics.
Rafael Benitez did wonderful things for Newcastle, but unfortunate circumstances have meant he has gone and some Toon supporters need to be like Les Ferdinand and back the new boss.