Steve Bruce tackles TOUGH questions on his future, a Premier League relegation battle & player commitment

Social media is awash with fans asking national and local journalists ‘why don’t you ask him x?’ or ‘why don’t you push him on y?’.

So, here’s a short transcript of Bruce’s pre-match Manchester City press conference, conducted in the hours after the club’s Brentford Carabao Cup embarrassment due to festive period logistics, to show that the manager IS being asked the questions fans want to hear.

In this interview the manager is questioned on a number of key issues surrounding the club at the moment – including, his own ability to turn this sliding situation around, whether the players are playing for him, if Newcastle United have enough quality in their dressing room – in Bruce’s eyes – to halt the decline and if the manager himself thinks the Magpies will be dragged into an ever-growing Premier League relegation battle this campaign, with many already looking over their shoulders rather than up.

This below interview, converted into a Q&A, was conducted by a selection of national and local reporters including the Shields Gazette’s Miles Starforth.

Q: Is there enough in the Newcastle United dressing room to turn this situation around?

Bruce: “I sincerely hope we’ll have a few back, certainly in the defensive areas, which then leads to putting midfield players in their right positions. The vast majority of the players have been here for a long time, so they know what’s required. They know what they need to do. We’re all disappointed, but what better place to get ready for. It’s a game of football again – let’s make sure they are ready.”

Q: Is the club – as previously mentioned by Bruce – moving forward?

“Since I’ve walked through the door, the first thing I’ve tried to do is take the club forward – that’s my job. I’m a Newcastle fan, like everyone knows. It’s slow, and after the result against Brentford, you have to accept that people are going to say there’s been no progress. I would beg to differ, but I’m never going to shy away from the fact that people have their opinions. Of course now, when you’re up against it a bit, you have to batten down the hatches and firmly believe in what you’re doing. We’ve got to go work, and get the squad and the team as good as I can get them. There’s no disputing the fact that we’ve had a poor week, especially when we’ve blown the opportunity that we had. Unfortunately, that’s been Newcastle over the last 40 years where we haven’t been to a semi-final (in the League Cup). I’m as disappointed as anybody else.”

Q: Are you confident you can turn this around?

“I’ve been up against it before. I’m as disappointed as everybody else that we didn’t get to a semi-final. But where we are in the Premier League, while we’d all love to be a bit higher….You know you’re going to be up against it sometimes as a manager, and it’s my turn because we’ve lost to Brentford. If you manage Newcastle, then you’ve got to deal with the consequences that are coming your way. Thankfully, I’ve been around the block a bit and have been in difficult situations before. The one thing I’ll never do is shy away from it, that’s for sure.”

Q: Could Newcastle United be dragged into a Premier League relegation battle this season?

“It’s your accumulation of points over a ten-month period that matters. If you’re a club like ours, or a club that expects to be in the bottom half of the Premier League, then it’s always tough. When you see Arsenal on 14 points, you realise how tough it is. This is what the Premier League is, this is what it throws up, and that will never change. You’ve got to ready for it. There’s going to be periods where you go up and down, and unfortunately we’ve had a bad week. It’s only three or four weeks that we were at Crystal Palace, where we were delighted with the performance, and we then followed that up with the West Brom win. Unfortunately, we’ve had a poor week since. We have to accept it and get on with it.

Q: Are the players giving their all at the moment?

“I’ve worked with the squad now for the past 18 months, and the vast majority – certainly seven that played the other day – are players that came out of the Championship. They’ve been at the club a long time, and they know exactly what it takes. The one thing you have to have is that ability to roll your sleeves up and get on with it, because it’s difficult. When you play for a big club like ours, that’s what it is. You have to face the music when it comes your way, and meet the challenge. Over the last 18 months, the one thing I can’t level at them is a lack of commitment. Yes, we can pass the ball better. Yes, we can play better than we did the other night. That is the biggest disappointment for me because unfortunately, in the last week in particular, we haven’t done enough with the ball. We’ve been so slow and pedestrian with the ball, and unfortunately that’s not been good enough.”