This isn’t directed at West Brom fans who are suffering greatly at the hands of our former Bacon in Chief, Steve Bruce, but every media outlet, every pundit and every football fan who thought we were being harsh: WE WERE RIGHT AND NOW YOU KNOW IT!
This time last year Newcastle fans’ association with their club was at its lowest ebb. The takeover we craved so much looked to have gone, Mike Ashley was too busy fighting off lawyers over his business practices to give any attention the club he already had little interest in, and we were still without a win in the Premier League, guided by the footballing dinosaur that is Steve Bruce. The dressing room was in shambles, even the most passionate players on the books seemed despondent.
#BruceOut ?
Well, we did warn you #WBA fanshttps://t.co/vY8l2crHz9#NUFC #SAFC #AVFC pic.twitter.com/yftB4PLEEP— Ever More NUFC ⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️ (@EverMore_NUFC) October 5, 2022
What made matters worse for the Toon Army was that they knew that Steve Bruce’s job was secure as Mike Ashley was never going to cough up the ridiculous fee to part company, so we were resigned to watching terrible football under a manager more obsessed with praising the opposition than trying to get a tune out of his players. Geordies found themselves under attack from pundits and fans of other clubs for being too harsh on Steve Bruce. Apparently being a nice bloke and a good family man means he should be allowed to run football clubs into the ground. Who knew?
Was Steve Bruce The Worst Manager Of The Ashley Era?
Absolutely
Not quite. We had Kinnear.
Fortunately for the Toon, the takeover was resurrected and pushed through at a blistering pace and Bruce was given mercy … for one game … and then the axe came down. Better late than never.
Bruce found himself back in a job in February 2022 when West Brom came knocking. Sitting in sixth place in the league and chasing a playoff place, they ultimately finished tenth, well out of the playoff places. Now, in the 2022/23 season, the Baggies have only one win and find themselves floating just about the relegation places in the Championship on equal points to Middlesbrough who recently sacked Chris Wilder.
IT’S A NAME GAME
West Brom’s fans have now reignited the #BruceOut trend and admitted that we were right all along. Although not many of their fans wanted Bruce in the first place. Even the media and pundits who chastised us as a fanbase should be able to see the light now. Bruce was never a Premier League-level manager and now he’s showing he can’t even cut it in the Championship.
It feels good to be vindicated.
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This reads like a bitter ex who’s still not over it, finding fault and making snide remarks wherever possible. Even great managers fail at some clubs. Just look at Joe Kinnear, who you use in your poll as though he was some sort of awful failure and a poison on football. He was a huge success at other clubs.
Having a bad season doesn’t mean they’re bad managers, it’s just an unfortunate bad partnership that felt right at the outset. But sometimes one half of a broken partnership won’t stop bleating on about the other one, who cracks on with life, putting you and your obsession of their everyday behind them.
Remember, Sir Alex Ferguson was 1 game away from the sack at Man Utd in 1990, 4 years after arriving and taking them from 2nd where Ron Atkinson left them, to 11th in the table despite making several big (at the time) transfers. He was lucky to have been given so much time. And even that one game (vs Notts Forest) they won 1-0 thanks to bobbles in the goalmouth saving a Forest goal, and another disallowed by the linesman. If you’d been writing about him back then, you’d have been calling for his sacking long before his plethora of trophies, awards and knighthood arrived!
Maybe if the likes of you and the West Brom fans stopped leaping on managers like Steve Bruce with your talons sharpened and poised to splice after less than a year, there’d be more greats like Ferguson to celebrate. Instead there are vultures on the sidelines, waiting to feed.
It’s good to know Bruce is a nice man with a good family at home. With all this vitriol, he needs them.