It's never a dull moment at the Toon. But in recent weeks things seem to be taking a nose dive. Everybody appears to be falling out with the manager from the highly publicized bust up with Ritchie, to an apparent curse word spoken on the touchline to coach Graeme Jones. Moral appears to be low in such a crucial time for the club.
I'm sure by now everyone has heard about the bust up between Steve Bruce and Matt Ritchie regarding the confusion that lead up to the equalizer for Wolves in the fifth instalment of the 1-1 series. For those that are unaware, Matt Ritchie came on as a substitute for Emile Krafth but before Ritchie could pass on the message to Jacob Murphy, play was restarted and the players were forced into action. This left Murphy to be left out of position as he had not been told where to play. This led to a confrontation between Ritchie and Bruce which NFTV's own Jonny has gone into detail regarding this saga, you can see this here, I recommend you give it a watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubsY7gOMOTE.
There were also reports before the Wolves game that Karl Darlow has become unhappy at being dropped in favour of Martin Dubravka, and finding out through the press rather than face to face with his manager. to which Steve Bruce commented on the allegation: "I find that story disgusting. It's simply untrue and unfair on Karl (Karl Darlow). If I did that I'd resign tomorrow". This and the Ritchie ordeal has lead to questions of a "Mole" in the Newcastle United camp. Somebody appears to be leaking information about the club out to the press. "There is a leak from within and we are doing our utmost to find it", Bruce stated while speaking in a press conference.
Then we get onto the distraction of the ongoing Takeover debacle. SkySports News reporter Keith Downie has stated via Twitter "Newcastle have lost out on a High Court judgement to have Chairman of takeover arbitration panel removed. They also lose out on full case being available to public. However Mike Ashley tells SSN he is fighting tooth & nail & wants to give NUFC fans what they deserve. Essentially Newcastle go 0-2 down before the match kicks off. But Mike Ashley feels he has a very strong case that he can win and this takeover can still be pushed through. He feels he has a sale and is throwing everything at it".
As you can see this does not mean that the Takeover is over. however it is increasingly looking more unlikely. Mike Ashley appears to be committed either way. As I understand it PIF of The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are still interested, however, they will seek to halt negotiations until the summer in regards to the very real threat of relegation Newcastle United are facing. This does not necessarily mean if United are relegated the PIF will pull out, It means a new deal will have to be agreed with a new fee believed to be in the region of £100-£250 Million. So ideally Mike Ashley should sack the manager in order to preserve the clubs Premier League's status right? Not exactly. Mike Ashley believes that the takeover is still on the cards, so it is possible that they are sticking with Steve Bruce due to the new regime wanting to come in and hire there own manager. But, couldn't Graeme Jones take over on an Interim basis? Yes, he could. But this would require a fee paid out to Steve Bruce of around £1.5 million, which isn't a lot to Mike Ashley at face value, but factoring in all of the legal fees he's paying out to get the take over done, and still no fans coming into the stadium on match days Ashley's Net income and expenditure coming into the end of the tax year is already looking bleak.
Newcastle's relegation hopes look set to increase or decrease as they going into a vital couple of fixtures in the upcoming weeks, With games against West Brom, Aston Villa and Brighton. It's being said that Newcastle could welcome back top scorer Callum Wilson for the Brighton game but if he will return and indeed make the impact to drive us to safety remains to be seen. As I have stated in a previous article, the currently fit players will have to step up, but is morale too low in the dressing room, has Steve Bruce in fact lost the dressing room. Unless the "Mole" returns from the depth of the Earth to enlighten the media yet again, we will have to see how the players perform on Sunday to find out.
By Sam West
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