The sight of Mike Ashley’s so called “Three Wise Men” at St James’ Park on Tuesday night can hardly have improved Steve Bruce’s mood.
Whenever Newcastle’s managing director, Lee Charnley, is flanked by Keith Bishop and Justin Barnes, the club tends to be embroiled in one of its regular periods of crisis and the owner has a decision to make.
This week the London-based Bishop, a public relations executive, and Barnes, a lawyer turned corporate fixer, journeyed north on what their good friend Ashley would most definitely have classified as essential business.
Newcastle’s owner presumably required an urgent first-hand managerial scouting report from what would turn into a 2-1 home defeat by Leeds, stretching Bruce’s winless run to 11 games in all competitions. Of the past 27 Premier League points on offer only two have been collected, and Miguel Almirón’s goal on Tuesday was only their second in seven league games.
With last Saturday’s defeat at Aston Villa having prompted a group of supporters to break lockdown and unfurl a giant banner outside St James’ Park featuring the words “Act Late, Seal Your Fate” adjacent to images of Ashley and Bruce, the owner’s dilemma seems obvious.
It is also unusually complicated. As the UK waits for Boris Johnson to draft a roadmap out of lockdown at the end of next month, Newcastle fans know a potential watershed legal verdict is due around the same time. Ashley acted too late in switching managers before Newcastle’s relegations to the Championship in 2009 and 2016 but a retail tycoon with an apparently rare soft spot for Bruce does not want to make an expensive change until the lawyers have spoken.
Late February is the current best estimate for a resolution to the arbitration proceedings brought by Ashley against the Premier League for what he regards as its blocking of the club’s £305m sale to a Saudi Arabian-led consortium last summer. For some months now Ashley’s QCs, the sports specialist Nick De Marco and the international law expert Shaheed Fatima, have been working towards a resolution which could yet preface the controversial takeover happening after all.
With the thaw in international relations between Saudi Arabia and Qatar likely to remove the obstacle previously represented by the former barring broadcasts from the Doha-based beIN Sports – a Premier League overseas rights holder – there is cautious optimism among those involved in the prospective buyout.
Should it proceed, there is a strong likelihood the new owners would want to reinstall Rafael Benítez as manager. Given that the Spaniard – who would not return under Ashley’s regime – has recently called time on a stint in China and his long-term confidant Owen Brown advises the consortium, Bruce is regarded as a glorified caretaker in some quarters.
Ashley’s dilemma is that the arbitration process could fail. Even if it succeeds, a Newcastle side currently 16th, but only six points clear of the bottom three, must face Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United away and Crystal Palace, Southampton and Wolves at home before February is over. A continued lack of wins would leave them in the sort of tailspin Benítez, Eddie Howe or anyone else could prove powerless to reverse. Although a fall into the second tier would not end Saudi interest it would substantially reduce the sale price.
Bruce remains adamant he can turn things round and cites an improved second-half performance against Leeds, which featured the return of the team’s creative talisman Allan Saint-Maximin following a two-month Covid-induced absence, as evidence of better times ahead.
Perhaps significantly he has been permitted to poach Graeme Jones from a first-team coaching role at Bournemouth and introduce the 50-year-old former Luton manager and Belgium No 2 as Newcastle’s “assistant head coach”.
No sooner had Jones joined a backroom already featuring Steve Agnew, Stephen Clemence and Steve Harper than he began talking about having “a direct input” in first-team affairs. Maybe the plan is simply to offer the squad a fresh voice that does not belong to a “Steve” but Ashley will seek swift evidence of improvement and Bruce knows it. His recent refusal to take questions from newspaper reporters allied to a sarcastic reference to “the Mighty Rafa” are indicative of a rattled manager.
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When some Newcastle fans recently championed Howe’s coaching credentials, Bruce retorted with a barb about “the fella from Bournemouth who was relegated last season”. He is much better than that but Newcastle remains a job apart.
Indeed the post is so uniquely stressful that it once reduced one of his predecessors, Alan Pardew, to headbutting the former Ireland midfielder David Meyler during a match at Hull.
Given that Bruce was in charge of the Yorkshire side at the time he can hardly say he was not warned.