Steve Bruce has revealed he was ‘surprised and disappointed’ to hear criticism from Dwight Gayle as their ‘war of words’ continues to rumble on.
The former Newcastle United manager was criticised by Gayle last week for his tactical approach during his time at St James’ Park. Gayle, who is currently playing for Scottish Premiership side Hibernian, was asked on the Open Goal podcast about Bruce’s time as manager of Newcastle United, with the former Crystal Palace man taking aim at his tactical approach, particularly during a 5-0 drubbing against Manchester City at the end of the 2019/20 campaign.
“He (Bruce) was ok but I felt he didn’t spend enough time working on a lot of things with us, Gayle revealed. “He tried to go game-by-game rather than trying to develop us as a team. We could have improved with a lot of things. Obviously, he didn’t do much on the training pitch but when the Saudi owners came in he stuck his boots on and had a whistle, he was like if I’m going, I’m going to run you into the ground so he’s just run us and he’s blowing the whistle and making it into a joke saying they’re over there watching you.
He continued: “I remember like some of the boys got chucked into the Man City shift, basically, we had like a three-game week, and I think the gaffer sort of chucked a few of the boys under the bus in terms of who had to play against Man City away. And me and Matty Ritchie were asking for tactical improvements for weeks or months or whatever.
“And then we come in at half-time, and I think we were 2-0 or 3-0 down, and he's like, ‘Boys, you keep asking for tactics – I don't do tactics! Just put your boots on and work hard’.”
Bruce responded to those comments at the weekend following Blackpool’s win overNorthampton Town, stating: “Is that the legendary Dwight Gayle, who missed the chance in the quarter-final against Manchester City?
“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 issues second Dwight Gayle response
On Tuesday morning, Bruce was invited onto TalkSport’s Breakfast programme and again addressed Gayle’s comments. In a less explosive response than he issued on Saturday, Bruce revealed he was ‘surprised and disappointed’ in the comments and was asked about how he got on with the striker.
“Obviously not very well,” Bruce responded. “Yeah, I was, listen, how I got regurgitated again when Newcastle have had their best week in 70-odd years is typical of my time probably in the North East, you know.
“I was surprised and disappointed with some of the comments that Dwight made because half of it was, well, exaggerated to say the least and the other half was just lies basically, which I found very, very difficult to understand.
“Listen if you're going to do this job then you're going to be criticised and you've got to be able to take it. I was disappointed with these comments and it was totally, in my opinion, out of order because half of it was a load of b-------. Sorry.
“And when I see some of the quotes like I put on my boots and put on a whistle because the Saudi Arabians were there, I mean what a load of nonsense. That is ridiculous.”
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