The former Newcastle boss has opened up on the difficulties of managing Newcastle despite guiding the team clear of the drop zone
Steve Bruce
Steve Bruce
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Steve Bruce has revealed he received death threats towards the end of his time as Newcastle United boss.
The former head coach has lifted the lid on the "toxic" end to his time as Newcastle coach after leading them to 13th and 12th placed finishes in the Premier League between 2019 and 2021. Bruce left after just one game following the Saudi-backed takeover in 2021 and says he would not change the way he went about his business at Newcastle.
Bruce told Sacked The Show host Neil Ashton at the launch of a new podcast: "Towards the end, it became a little bit toxic, and by the way, this is only a tiny minority when they're threatening you and you have to get the police involved – and we had to do that. We had to do that in the end where you knew that this is bordering on being ridiculous.
"I'm one of them. I'm a Newcastle fan and I could understand that frustration. They didn't want to be a team that’s aspiration was to just stay in the Premier League and that was my job. That was my remit.
"I wouldn't change it. I've managed Newcastle, my hometown club, which I thought in the circumstances I did okay with.
"However, there's no doubt it was difficult. But then again, so was Villa, so was Sunderland, so were they all."
Opening up on needing protection after things turned toxic on Tyneside, Howe said: "I needed a bit of protection on the house and it was something which I don't really judge that on the support of Newcastle**.** The supporters of Newcastle are a magnificent lot.
"We see it now and we've seen it for years. I believe it is all fed by social media in the hatred that brews up and was something that we had to call the police. When they are threatening to kill you and all the rest of it then it is ridiculous and it did border on being ridiculous at times.
"I managed through COVID too so towards the end my wife went back to Cheshire where she could breathe a little bit. It was pretty normal for everybody because football carried on during the COVID time so we handled it like that but it wasn't easy for any of the family at all. Thankfully my mum and dad weren't alive to see it but it was certainly difficult, difficult times."
Newcastle's 3-0 defeat at Brighton at the Amex Stadium looked to have put Bruce on the brink of losing his job in spring 2021. But he has reflected on getting a phone call from then owner Mike Ashley backing him to the hilt.
He said: "I remember when I was at Newcastle going back to Newcastle and we're playing Brighton away and we were poor on the night we got beat badly. I got a phone call off Mike Ashley and I thought: ‘oh, here we go’.
"You know, we're playing poorly, we’ve just been beaten by Brighton badly and the phone rang at quarter eight on a Sunday morning and said: Hello Steve, good morning. It’s Mike’. I just said: ‘I'm not good enough and I apologise. We’ve got to be better than what we were last night’.
"He (Ashley) said: ‘listen, don’t listen and don't read the newspapers, you are, you are my man, and I'll back you as best I can and if there's anything I can do to help you, right, I'll try and help you get on with it. Make sure you win next Saturday and keep your chin up’.
"Phone went down, didn't expect it."
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