The inevitable sacking of Steve Bruce has a certain poignancy to it in the context of modern Premier League football.
Steve Bruce was a sitting duck for two weeks after the Saudi-led takeover of Newcastle United was completed. Under fire from the start, he was always going to be axed once the new era began.
Steve Bruce says it will probably be his last job in football after two years of being denounced on Tyneside. The significance of his final game also being his 1,000th as a manager will not be lost on anyone.
Elite football is an entirely different beast to what it was when Bruce first became involved with it. Some 800 games as a player and 1,000 as a manager come to an end amid tirades of abuse in favour of a new, super-rich regime. It’s as apt a summary of the avaricious brutality of modern football as you’re likely to see.
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“By the time I got to Newcastle, I thought I could handle everything thrown at me, but it has been very, very tough.
“To never really be wanted, to feel that people wanted me to fail, to read people constantly saying I would fail, that I was useless, a fat waste of space, a stupid, tactically inept cabbage head or whatever. And it was from day one.”
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“When we were doing OK results-wise, it was, ‘Yeah, but the style of football is rubbish’ or I was just ‘lucky’. It was ridiculous and persistent, even when the results were good.
“I tried to enjoy it and, you know, I did. I’ve always enjoyed the fight, proving people wrong, but that’s all it ever seemed to be. A fight, a battle. It does take its toll because even when you win a game, you don’t feel like you are winning over the supporters.”
