Newcastle United journalist Lee Ryder has been sharing some details on Toon owner Mike Ashley and whether or not their recent 1-1 draw against Aston Villa will have swayed him to make a decision on whether or not to keep Steve Bruce as the manager at St. James’ Park.
This comes after Ryder recently made an appearance on the post-match episode of The Chronicle’s Everything Is Black & White Podcast where he reflected on the draw against Dean Smith’s side.
During the podcast, Ryder was asked whether Jamaal Lascelles’ last-gasp equaliser would have had any impact on whether or not Ashley’s decision to keep or sack Bruce, Ryder had this to say on the matter. (8.23)
He said: “I think had they lost this tonight and then dropped in the bottom three, then they would have had a decision to make, and I would be absolutely amazed if Mike Ashley wasn’t ringing the people that he’s got around him saying, ‘okay, so what do we do next? We’re in the bottom three, we’ve got 10 games to go. Sheffield United just got rid of their manager, West Brom got rid of their manager as well. Do we follow them?’
“And that would have been a perfectly legitimate question for a billionaire owner to ask the people he pays so well to make decisions around him but the equaliser has possibly changed the context a little bit because Man City will hopefully beat Fulham and I can see Southampton getting a derby win against Brighton and then it just takes it to the next weekend as we touched on the pre-game show, we said that we’ll just ramble on for another weekend and that looks to be where we’re heading.”
An own goal from Ciaran Clark put Villa ahead just before the 90-minute mark before a header from Lascelles rescued a point for Bruce’s side in injury time.
Do you think Ashley will sack Bruce before the end of the season?
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TIF Thoughts on Lee Ryder’s comments on Ashley…
Taking into account how Bruce’s side managed to narrowly avoid a defeat against the Birmingham club on Friday night, this shows that they still have a bit of fight in them, despite being around the relegation zone with just 10 games left in the campaign, as Ryder said.
In our view, if Newcastle lose their next league match against Brighton & Hove Albion next weekend, who are also floating around the bottom of the table, then perhaps Ashley should make the decision to sack Bruce and bring in someone who can give his club the best chance of survival throughout the final stretch of the season.