Steve Bruce claims he recommended Newcastle should replace him with either Eddie Howe or Steven Gerrard while he was still in the job. The 62-year-old was let go by the Magpies in 2021, just 13 days after a Saudi-led consortium bought the club from Mike Ashley.
Bruce was already on borrowed time at the club with many supporters calling for him to be axed during his first season in charge (2019/2020). But he was given until October 2021 before eventually losing his job – a decision Bruce says was made on his own accord.
During a recent appearance on the Business of Sport Podcast, The Red Devils icon claims he told interim Co-Chief Executives Amanda Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi that he would “have to be taken out of the equation” in order for Newcastle to grow, and recommended either Howe or Gerrard should replace him as manager.
“The people that took over Newcastle, Amanda Staveley and her husband (Mehrdad Ghodoussi) they came to see me and if you remember back it was the Wednesday they took over and we were playing Spurs on Saturday and that was to be my 1000th game as a manager,” he said.
“And they both came in and said ‘listen Steve, how can we help you?’ and I said ‘look, I’m the only negative left.’ The Euphoria of Newcastle, the support, the crowd, everything about it. It was as if the doom and gloom had shifted and everything was Euphoric.
“And they’ve had an unbelievable rise in the last eighteen months or so. But I had to say to them ‘look, you might have to take me out of the equation’. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to say but I realise it was the best for the club because everything was euphoric around the club, the only negative was me.
“They even asked me who I would recommend and I did recommend Eddie [Howe] and I hope Steven doesn’t mind but I recommended Steven Gerrard too but I recommended that someone like Eddie or Steven that is young should take it on. It was difficult and I’ve never done it before, sort of given up, but I felt it was best for the club.”
Newcastle would, of course, go on to hire Howe as Bruce’s replacement and have seen a meteoric rise since then. The Magpies had spent the last five years dwelling in the Premier League’s mid-table but last season Howe steered the Tyneside club to a top-four finish for the first time in 20 years.
The future looks bright for Newcastle and it appears fans have Steve Bruce, in part, to thank for it.