Newcastle United players appear to be behind Steve Bruce.
Newcastle United midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has told The Chronicle that he and his teammates were baffled by Michael Chopra’s recent comments.
The Magpies endured a tricky summer as Rafael Benitez left the club, Salomon Rondon didn’t stay permanently and Ayoze Perez left for Leicester City.
Steve Bruce wasn’t a popular replacement for Benitez, and deals to sign Joelinton and Allan Saint-Maximin left some a little underwhelmed.
Defeats to Arsenal and Norwich City mean it was a dismal start to the campaign, but four points from games against Tottenham Hotspur and Watford has left Newcastle a little more positive.
There have been some pundits offering strong criticism of the club and even Bruce, with ex-Newcastle striker Chopra particularly guilty of that.
Chopra recently told talkSPORT that he has spoken to Newcastle players, and they told him that they don’t even know their roles in Bruce’s side, claiming that Bruce isn’t working on shape at all.
Now, midfielder Shelvey has admitted that Newcastle players held a chat about the comments in the dressing room, with few even knowing who he is, never mind telling him details about training.
Shelvey added that Chopra’s comments were ‘just embarrassing’ whilst boldly claiming that Bruce is one of the best man-managers he has ever worked with, praising his early work at St James’ Park.
“We had a chat in the dressing room. It was like: ‘Does anybody even know him?’ I know he played here but he didn’t score loads of goals,” said Shelvey. “It’s just people being busy to get their name in the paper. It’s just people who are bored. If they saw you – or Steve Bruce – in the street they’d come up to you and try to talk. It’s just embarrassing. People can talk but we need to stick together and keep it all in house. We have to do our media duties and that but you can see in recent performances that we are together.”
“I understand it, but I think it’s because of Rafa Benitez. Rafa was such a great manager with a great CV behind him. He won everything there was to win. Steve Bruce is here now. For me he has been brilliant. The way he involves everybody is brilliant, even the lads who aren’t in the squad. He’s probably one of the best man-managers I have worked with. It is enjoyable and I want to see him do well. As a player he is putting his arm around you if you don’t make the team or make the squad. When that happens you want them to do well and stay here. Eventually he will stick by you because you’ve stuck by him,” he added.
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