Buried on the Newcastle website beneath ticketing news and an interview with Les Ferdinand at 1pm on Friday was an extraordinary club statement revealing that Steve Bruce was not about to be sacked. Not yet, anyway.
As votes of confidence go, it was as hollow as an empty Gallowgate End. Twice in four paragraphs, Newcastle’s new mouthpiece, Amanda Staveley, spoke directly about her manager’s future.
‘Change doesn’t happen overnight,’ she said. ‘If we make changes then Steve will be the first to know.’
Newcastle handed Steve Bruce a hollow vote of confidence and he will take charge on Sunday
An extraordinary statement revealed Bruce will be in the dugout for the clash with Tottenham
It seems, then, that Bruce had better leave his mobile on and his keys in the ignition. He will be in the dugout at what is bound to be a febrile St James’ Park for the game against Tottenham on Sunday.
Beyond that, he will know as well as anybody that the 11th posting of his managerial career will soon be at an end.
Those who have known Bruce during his four and a half decades in English football might feel that he deserves better than to be subjected to the sporting equivalent of death by a thousand cuts.
Others will say a Newcastle win percentage of just 29 per cent renders him fortunate to have survived this long.
Bruce's win percentage of just 29 per cent renders him fortunate to have survived this long
Whatever the case, the 60–year-old looked every inch the condemned man as he appeared framed by the computer screen of a media Zoom call on Friday.
‘I hope you guys are getting a slap now from your bosses,’ said Bruce. ‘Whoever the source was who has been feeding you, they didn’t get it right.
‘I was told on Monday to carry on as normal. I said no problem.’
Bruce was referring to stories earlier this week that his end was nigh. A small victory in his eyes, perhaps, that he is still around.
But in the bigger picture, these are just the semantics of a future at the club that will soon not involve him.
If Newcastle’s new owners have just discovered it takes time to replace one manager with a better one then they are not the first to do so. Bruce is a good man and it’s never nice to see one suffer.
Nevertheless, when suggested that it is results and not the personal vendettas and the ghosts he sees round every corner that threaten to undo him, he could not bring himself to disagree.
