Steve Bruce has been sacked as Newcastle United‘s manager following the club’s takeover by a Saudi-led consortium.
“NUFC can confirm that Steve Bruce has left his position as head coach by mutual consent,” the club said in a statement on Wednesday morning.
“The club would like to place on record its gratitude to Steve for his contribution and wishes him well for the future.”
Bruce’s assistant Graeme Jones will take charge of the team for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace with Newcastle still waiting for their first Premier League win of the season after eight games. The Magpies sit just one place off the foot of the table.
“Jones will lead the team on an interim basis… and will be supported by the coaching team of Steve Agnew, Stephen Clemence, Ben Dawson and Simon Smith,” the statement continued.
“The process of recruiting a new head coach is under way and an appointment will be announced in due course. The club will not be making further comment at this time.”
Bruce’s record at Newcastle
- Played: 97
- Won: 28
- Drawn: 27
- Lost: 42
- Win ratio: 28.87 per cent
- PL finishes: 13th and 12th
- Current position: 19th
Bruce, whose final game in charge was the 3-2 defeat against Spurs on Sunday, said: “I am grateful to everyone connected with Newcastle United for the opportunity to manage this unique football club.
“I would like to thank my coaching team, the players and the support staff in particular for all their hard work. There have been highs and lows, but they have given everything even in difficult moments and should be proud of their efforts.
“This is a club with incredible support and I hope the new owners can take it forward to where we all want it to be. I wish everyone the very best of luck for the rest of this season and beyond.”
Former Roma and Porto boss Paulo Fonseca is the bookies’ favourite to replace Bruce in the St James’ Park dugout.
Bruce, 60, had said following the change of ownership that he would understand if he was replaced but he was allowed to take charge of the 1,000th match in his managerial career when Newcastle hosted Tottenham in the league, losing 3-2 last Sunday.
The signs were ominous, however, with Newcastle’s new director Amanda Staveley saying “change does not always happen overnight”.
Newcastle’s defeat by Spurs, attended by Staveley and others on the board, spoiled the takeover celebrations at St James’ Park, with fans also calling for Bruce to be sacked as Newcastle slipped to their fifth league loss of the campaign.
Bruce, a lifelong Newcastle fan, was an unpopular choice for some sections of supporters following his appointment after Rafa Benitez left the club and had said last week that he was pained by some of the criticism and abuse he had received.
“By the time I got to Newcastle, I thought I could handle everything thrown at me but it has been very, very tough,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
“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.
“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.”
Bruce guided Newcastle to 13th and 12th-placed finishes in the league and helped them reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup and the League Cup.
Next Newcastle manager odds
- Paulo Fonseca – 6-4
- Eddie Howe – 4-1
- Lucien Favre – 4-1
- Frank Lampard – 11-1
- Steven Gerrard – 14-1
- Unai Emery – 20-1
- Brendan Rodgers – 25-1
- Roberto Martinez – 25-1
- Jose Mourinho – 25-1
- Antonio Conte – 33-1
- Rafa Benitez – 40-1
- Zinedine Zidane – 40-1
- Roberto Mancini – 40-1
- John Terry – 50-1
- Wayne Rooney – 50-1
- Ralf Rangnick – 50-1
- Andriy Shevchenko – 50-1
Odds via Betfair and correct as of 19 October
Who is Paulo Fonseca?
Fonseca reportedly came close to taking over at Tottenham in the summer, but the former Roma boss has a mixed CV.
He has won trophies, including the Taca de Portugal with Braga and the Portuguese version of the Community Shield with Porto, but during his time in Italy he also made a string of bizarre errors – including accidentally making six substitutions rather than five in a match against Spezia. Had Roma not lost the game, they would have been disqualified from the cup.
In September 2020, he also fielded an ineligible player, Amadou Diawara, who was not in the matchday squad; that led to a goalless draw with Hellas Verona being overturned and Roma issued a 3-0 defeat.
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/30zAWJ6
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