So we’ll be playing them with a new manager in place. What’s the odds on Allardyce?
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Surely this is an elaborate troll now?
Seems it will be Claudio Raneri.
The thing is that Watford team could have been difficult anyhow so I’m not really sure if it will galvanize them.
Hardly enough time for any kind of rot to bounce back from.
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Don’t like Watford for this crap. Way too trigger happy. Generally with a smaller team like this you want them to hold their own, not least as a thank you for Johnny Barnes.
But any good will has evaporated.
Ranieri is a nice guy who has had a good career. The Prem title with Leicester will never be forgotten. Nowadays? Probably past his sell by date, and I don’t see him doing any better with Watford than the fella they had.
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Watford are a crazy place anyway. Thousand players, thousand changes, etc. Nothing new.
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The reality is he did a good job. Love his comments from The Telegraph.
“I think this might be my last job,” the former Aston Villa, Hull City and Sunderland boss said. "It’s not just about me; it’s taken its toll on my whole family because they are all Geordies and I can’t ignore that. They have been worried about me … especially my wife, Jan. What an amazing woman she is, incredible, she’s just a fantastic woman, wife and mother and grandmother. She dealt with the death of my parents, hers have not been very well. And then she had me to worry about and what I’ve been going through the last couple of years.
“I can’t take her for granted, she has spent her whole life following me around from football club to football club, and if I was to say to her tomorrow, I’ve been offered a job in China, or anywhere, she would say, ‘Steve, is this right for you, do you want to do it?’ And she’d back me again. I’m 60 years old, and I don’t know if I want to put her through it again. We’ve got a good life so, yeah, this will probably be me done as a manager – until I get a phone call from a chairman somewhere asking if I can give them a hand. Never say never, I’ve learnt that.”
"I really have to thank all the people who have worked alongside me, because I can be demanding and I can be hard work – especially when I was younger. When we get beat, I get very low, but when you are managing in the Premier League with Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic, Hull, Sunderland, you do get better at dealing with it. You have to. 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.
“When we were doing OK resultswise, 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. The best one was to be told we were a relegation team in all but points. … This was all in the first season. We finished 13th. It [the criticism and abuse] got even worse in the second year. We finished 12th, 17 points clear of the bottom three. 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.”
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I don’t know who is a fan of Bruce, but to a good portion, he’s right.
All the Newcastle frustration were aimed at Ashley and Bruce. Bruce as some sort of Ashley’s right hand. All the adoration for Rafa (I also love him and I don’t like Bruce) and all the hate for Bruce. I really don’t get it. He got too much stick for a solid job in this meantime post-Rafa and until the takeover. Could’ve gone much worse and it was probably even predicted when he took over.
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I think he is no worse than some managers cheating a living further up the table.
His record against Man Utd was a bit appalling mind though the win against Ole a few years back was amusing.
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I think Bruce did a decent job, under the circumstances. The club and the fans treated him appallingly. In fact, the fans should be ashamed of themselves. Bruce should stick two fingers up to the ‘Geordie nation’ and go and live in the sun somewhere.
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I was hoping Bruce was able to walk away with all of the reported millions severance he was due should he be fired. The headlines read “mutual consent”, which leads me to believe he did not.
Maybe he got more for it.
Let’s face it I wouldn’t believe it was raining if that lot said it was and I was being soaked.
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Agree with @mattyhurst, good chance this was a board instigated move that has seen him pocket a pleasant sum. Quite often when you read of mutual consent it is a polite way of saying the manager has been sacked. Moreso than the manager asking to leave.
They are probably looking for their own man to be in place ahead of the transfer window and to have had time to begin assessing the squad.
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The way bruce has been treated is appalling.
Meh. The only bit that bothers me is hearing him talk about the grief from the fans. You can never feel bad about a manager losing his job, but that’s part of the job and they get paid handsomely to make up for the lack of job security. But hearing a man so proud to have landed his hometown job talk about the grief he got from the so called best fans in the country was sad. There is so little authentic connection in football these days that a big part me wanted him to be appreciated there. Honestly you see him get treated like that by his hometown fans and it just justifies managers treating the game like mercenaries. Why put your soul into a job where youre going to be called a shit cunt 9 times out 10 regardless of what you do?
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He has kept them up for two seasons. Ashley wanted to spend enough to stave off relegation and not spend more. And he clearly didnt spend at all this season due to the impending sale.
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Only managers who were willing to take on ashley got some appreciation by the fans. Any others willing to toe the line werent appreciated one bit.
Mark of how ashley was hated that some of the hatred boiled down to his appointments.
I know that he’s red manc material, but I’ve nevertheless always had a soft spot for Bruce’s fat head. 
I’ll miss him as a manager in the PL, all the best to him (well, I’ll not miss him buckling down to the ƒ°©∆¡~@ red mancs twice a season, but apart from that…).
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Bruce knew the score with Ashley and what he was getting himself into from day one…
Hard to believe that he was not in cahoots regarding the plans for the takeover, and how if he kept the lid on the boiling pot that is Newcastle FC, he would be in-line for a bumper pay-out when it happened and his contract would be terminated by the new owners. Ashley has probably been giving him advice all along re his golden parachute.
Other managers of his limited ability are toiling daily in the lower leagues giving it their all because they ultimately love the game, picking up just a fraction of the income Bruce will be handed in one fell swoop…!
So no pity for Potato Head and his sob story exit from my end anyway
I’m surprised at how much they actually have spent in recent seasons. Bruce has spent about £90m more on transfers than he received from sales over the last 3 years (just over £30m raised from sales).
Bruce is shite, they’re well rid.
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