Journalist close to Steve Bruce claims Mike Ashley considering unthinkable offer if NUFC stay up
According to The Telegraph's Luke Edwards - a well known friend of Steve Bruce's - the Newcastle United boss could be offered a new contract if we avoid relegation.
The 60-year-old's current deal is due to expire in 2020, however this latest report claims an extension could be on the cards - proving once and for all that Mike Ashley views any season that we avoid the drop as a success story!
If this is true he would be sealing our fate for another season and settling for worse than mediocrity, with Bruce's brand of football, abysmal relationship with fans and desperate man management methods destined to relegate us soon enough if it's not this season.
The same piece also claims that Mike Ashley's patience could be tested if survival still leads to low season ticket sales over the summer - something that seems inevitable to me if the club isn't sold and Steve Bruce remains in charge!
Here's a few snippets from his latest piece for The Telegraph:
Newcastle United could offer Steve Bruce a new contract if he keeps the club in the Premier League with owner Mike Ashley continuing to provide staunch support to his underfire manager this week.
Bruce will have one year left on his current contract at the end of the season and while a poll in the local newspaper Newcastle Chronicle showed that 95 per cent of the 14,000 supporters who took part wanted him to be replaced after the 3-0 humiliation at Brighton, it is understood Ashley will keep him in the dugout as long as the club are not relegated to the Championship.
Bruce’s remit when he was given the job in July 2019 was to keep Newcastle in the Premier League and despite a disappointing second season in charge, if he can get enough points from the remaining nine games to preserve top-flight status, he will have done what the club wanted him to do.
As things stand, there are no immediate plans to negotiate a new deal as the situation remains so uncertain, but if Newcastle avoid relegation, discussions will have to take place because Bruce will only have 12 months left on his contract, which does not help with long-term planning.
The club could even offer an extended deal on a better wage, but with a less generous compensation package if he is sacked.
Bruce is currently entitled to a pay-off estimated at around £4 million if he is sacked and that figure is believed to rise again if he enters the third year of his contract.
The prospect of low season ticket sales with Bruce continuing as manager will be the only thing likely to push Ashley into sacking him. But the fact the business has remained solid - albeit with little money to spend in the transfer market - make even this threat less crucial than it would have been before the pandemic.
Ashley intends to sell the club if he can and as long as Bruce keeps Newcastle in the Premier League - and justifies the £340m price tag - the owner will probably want to at least give him a chance to win over fans at the start of a new campaign.
For a man whose only objective is to keep the club in the league, it's quite baffling that he continues to back THE worst manager in the division in Steve Bruce - a man who'd be lucky to get a good Championship job once this horror show is all over.
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