If there’s one way to get supporters of your club onside, it’s to be upbeat during a Q&A session with them, but Steve Bruce’s disappointing response to one question has probably given Newcastle’s long-suffering Toon Army even more cause for concern.
Ever since Mike Ashley took over the club, things have gone from bad to worse at St. James’ Park, and even the hire of the experienced Bruce has never been a popular move.
Given that the Newcastle manager had, apparently, suggested that it was important that the club’s supporters heard from him directly, you’d have thought he would’ve seized the moment.
However, fans wanting to hear Bruce ensure that he would have the team playing like Kevin Keegan’s entertainers from the 1990s drew a typically tepid response.
“We’d all love to play that way. Look, up and down the country everyone wanted to watch Newcastle,” he said on BBC Radio Newcastle, cited by The Sun.
“Whether we’ll ever get back to those days, I ain’t so sure.”
Clearly, it’s going to be a while yet before success is likely to come Newcastle’s way, if that’s the attitude.