Steve Bruce did not hold back in response to Dwight Gayle's criticism of his training methodsSteve Bruce did not hold back in response to Dwight Gayle's criticism of his training methods
Steve Bruce did not hold back in response to Dwight Gayle's criticism of his training methods
Former Wigan Athletic manager Steve Bruce did not hold back in his response to Dwight Gayle's criticism of his training methods at Newcastle United
The much-travelled 35-year-old striker made the comments during a recent appearance on the 'Open Goal Podcast'.
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When asked what it was like to work with Bruce, Gayle said: “He was okay, I felt that he didn’t spend enough time working on a lot of things with us. Perhaps he was trying to go game-by-game rather than developing us as a team. I think we could’ve improved a lot of things.
"I remember some of the boys got chucked into the Man City shift. We had a free game week, and the gaffer chucked some of the boys under the boss in terms of who had to play Man City away.
“Me and Matt Ritchie were asking for tactical improvements for weeks and months. We came in at half time and we were two or three down, and he was like ‘boys, you keep asking for tactics, I don’t do tactics, just put your boots on and work hard.’ We were like, it’s Man City, it’s not good enough to just run around. That’s one I’m in shock about.”
Bruce was asked about the comments by reporter Amos Wynn from the Blackpool Gazette - sister paper of Wigan Today.
And on the back of the Seasiders' 2-0 victory at Northampton, Bruce took the opportunity to more than return serve.
“Is that the legendary Dwight Gayle, who missed the chance in the quarter-final against Manchester City?" he said. "Is that the same Dwight Gayle? Interesting.
“I’ve been around the block a long long time. I’ve only managed 1,050 games but according to Dwight I don’t know what I’m doing.
“I’ll let other people make their minds up who are a bit more established than Dwight ever was.”
Bruce enjoyed two spells in charge of Latics under the stewardship of Dave Whelan.
After a short tenure at the end of the 2000-01 campaign, Bruce was brought back to the JJB by Whelan to save the club from possible relegation from the Premiership in 2007-08.
In his second season, Bruce had Latics flirting with a possible European finish before a late collapse saw them finish 11th – and his departure for Sunderland.