Steve Bruce Fears For Newcastle Job After Saudi-Led Takeover
Newcastle United manager Steve Bruce says he fears for his job after a Saudi Arabia-led consortium completed a takeover of the club on Thursday.
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) shelled out £305m to end Mike Ashley’s 14-year ownership of the Tyneside club and is expected to usher them into a new era.
Bruce has been in charge of Newcastle United since the summer of 2019 and has led the club to 13th and 12th place finishes in the Premier League but his relationship with the club’s fans has always been on the edge.
Newcastle are yet to win in their seven Premier League games this season and with so much money about to be pumped into the club by their new owners, Bruce’s time at the club could soon come to an end.
The 60-year-old will reach 1000 games as a manager the next time he takes to the dugout but Bruce fears that might not be at Newcastle.
“I want to continue, I’d like the chance to show the new owners what I can do, but you have to be realistic and they may well want a new manager to launch things for them,” Bruce told the Telegraph.
"New owners normally want a new manager. I’ve been around long enough to understand that. That decision is not up to me. I accept that and I will accept what comes my way. I have to wait to have those conversations with people when the time is right.
“If I don’t make it to a 1,000 games against Spurs, you might say that could only happen to me, but I don’t think it would be cruel. It’s just football."
“This is not about me, I cannot stress that enough,” he added. “I have said from the first-day news of this takeover came out in public, that if it is the best thing for the football club, if it takes this magnificent football club forward then I am all for it.
“I am not going to be bitter or angry about anything, whatever happens. Of course there will be sadness if I lose my job, it’s the job I’ve wanted my whole life, certainly since I became a manager and as hard as it’s been, I have been enormously proud to be manager of Newcastle United. That will never change.
“What happens to me, well, it’s not irrelevant, but this is about the football club and its future. I really hope this is the start of an exciting new era, it certainly sounds exciting when you read about how much money Saudi Arabians have."
