I’m a bit torn with Jack Ross. Could he have been a decent manager for us? I really don’t know. I do know that he was on a hiding to nothing with the regime that brought him to Sunderland though.
Sitting in wearside farm yesterday for lunch and was sitting next to a group of about 7 people when another couple walk in and heads to the table, one lad gets up to greet them and says " long time no see, they'll let anyone into Newcastle nowadays". Our lass looked at me and said don't even think about saying something, lol.
I wouldn't say it was unbelievable mind. Pretty good, and has improved quite a few players. But Bruce's team had finished thirteenth the year before he took over. They have spent about £450m on players. Pretty good, above par, but that would be it for me
Won a cup. Battered PSG in the CL. Finished 4th, 5th. I hate the bloke but he’s done a hell of a job there
Mate you say that like he’s done it on a shoestring and up against it. They’ve spent half a billion quid man! When Chelsea did that and won the title it was because they’d bought it! Newcastle have bought the third best trophy and a top4finish for the same money!
I don't hate him. He's done well, but not wildly over par considering his starting point and the huge investment in the team.
He hasn’t, they’ve spent a fortune just like you have to if you’re wanting to compete. We’ve spent around £100m and likely to still get relegated. The levels are crazy.
I'm the same mate. At the start of his time here we played some good football and were decent to watch. He suffered when Maja left and he didn't want Grigg, which I think hamstrung him. I've always thought that the way the 2018/19 season ended was due to lack of support from Methven and Donald and him being used as a scapegoat, especially when the FPP takeover failed. He did pretty well at Hibs, but it fell apart badly towards the end with him clashing with some reporters and an awful run of form before he was sacked. Dundee United was just a disaster, going to a club who'd just list their manager to a mid table Hungarian team should have been a warning sign, but to last 7 matches including a 9-0 defeat to Celtic and a 7-1 Euro defeat to Alkmaar is a disaster that I don't think his reputation can recover from easily. Taking it as a whole, he had a narrow failure with us (defeat in a cup final and play off final) before being sacked, some success with Hibs (Scottish cup semi final and final, Scottish league cup final and finishing 3rd behind Rangers and Celtic) and a disaster with Dundee United. But in each case he had bad runs of form and had criticism of his style of play by fans, especially towards the end. Maybe with the right backing he'd have been a good manager for us, but also maybe he was only suited to a certain level and wouldn't have developed much further.