Section:OBS 2S PaGe:14 Edition Date:190804 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 3/8/2019 19:21 cYanmaGentaYellowbla
- The Observer
14 04.08.19 Football
Subhead Here
If Steve Bruce was nervous as he
stepped out of the tunnel and
glanced, instinctively, towards the
Gallowgate End, Newcastle ’s new
head coach need not have been.
Rafa Benítez’s successor received
an overwhelmingly polite – if
initially slightly reserved – reception
as he pulled on a brand new black
and white tracksuit and presided
over his fi rst home match.
An early watershed was reached
when 20 minutes into the second
half the 16,686 crowd assembled for
a highly encouraging 2-1 friendly
win over Saint-Étienne replaced
circumspection with optimism and
indulged in a maiden chorus Bruce
probably had not dared dream
about.
“Steve Bruce’s black and white
army,” piped up the choir. Granted
it was all a little tentative and did
not endure but Mike Ashley’s public
relations team will doubtless have
been congratulating themselves on
an almost blanket absence of anti-Ashley chants berating the retail
tycoon’s often soulless ownership of
Newcastle. Bar an isolated “get out
of our club” there was almost zero
dissent.
If it was still far from a case of the
king is dead, long live the king, there
were, signifi cantly, no haunting
laments in honour of the much
adored Benítez.
Instead, Bruce was defi nitely
afforded the benefi t of the doubt
and helped appreciably by the
extremely exciting presence of
£80m worth of new attacking talent
in the shape of the recently acquired
£40m Brazilian striker Joelinton
and the newly arrived winger Allan
Saint-Maximin to go with the
already resident Miguel Almirón.
“We missed far too many chances
but overall I’m very pleased,” said
Bruce. “Joelinton will drive me crazy
at times but he’s got electrifying
pace and gets people on the edge of
their seats.
“I accept I’m not Rafa, not
everyone’s cup of tea and it’ll be
different, certainly not as quiet,
against Arsenal next Sunday. But I’m
delighted to be here and I’ll do my
best.”
While Joelinton, signed from
Hoffenheim, wore the No 9 shirt
with some distinction and scor ed
the fi rst-half opener, Saint-
Maximin, bought from Nice on
Friday, prompted loud applause
as he showcased a repertoire of
pace suffused fl icks and tricks.
Meanwhile Almirón’s powers
of acceleration soon had Bruce
screaming “Go Miggy, go.”
At fi rst it seemed that a visiting
team who fi nished fourth in Ligue
One last season might dominate but
Saint-Étienne created little of note
against Newcastle’s 3-5-2 formation.
Encouraged by their new
manager’s exhortations of “press
high, press high” the home side’s
amalgam of pace and Jonjo Shelvey’s
long passing served them well. Longcrowd fi nd its voice as he seamlessly
controlled a conveniently dropping
long ball and, having held off a
defender, rounded Stéphane Ruffi er
before sliding the ball into the
unguarded net.
Even better followed. No sooner
had Matty Longstaff trotted on
than Saint-Maximin – courtesy
of an audacious backheel –
combined with his fellow substitute
Jetro Willems – a Netherlandsinternational acquired on loan from
Eintracht Frankfurt – to cue him. A
steadying touch later the academy
product’s shot arrowed into the roof
of the net.
Cue quiet euphoria. Yet as Bruce
stressed, infi nitely tougher tests lie
ahead and Newcastle fans are far
from a homogenous group. Not all
the diverse sub-groups housed in
a broad church are anything like as
polite as yesterday’s congregation.Steve Bruce poses for selfi es with
Newcastle fans before the startUnited tell
unsettled
Lukaku to
delete tweet
Romelu Lukaku is expected to leave
Ben Fisher Old Trafford before the window closesManchester United have told Romelu
Lukaku to delete a controversial social
media post revealing confidential
details of a training sprint session.
The striker, thought to be on the
verge of a move to Serie A, took to
Twitter on Friday to respond to crit-
icisms that he lacks pace by posting
statistics from a running test on the
Perth leg of United’s July pre-season
tour.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær was among
the United hierarchy to take a dim
view of Lukaku divulg ing such
information publicly. Lukaku, who
is keen on a move to Juventus or
Internazionale , has since removedthe post, which revealed the Belgium
forward was second to only Diogo
Dalot in a session, which charted the
speeds of 22 other fi rst-team players.
The tweet was accompanied by the
words “lack of pace” alongside run-
ning emojis.
Harry Maguire was undergoing a
medical at United’s Carrington train-
ing ground on Saturday morning
before fi nalising an £85m move from
Leicester City, while Solskjær is keen
to add further to his squad before
Thursday’s transfer deadline.
Pa ulo Dybala and Mario Mandzukic
have both been linked with moves to
Old Trafford, though the former isunderstood to be sceptical about any
move.
A 24-man United squad were in
Cardiff last night to play Milan in the
International Champions Cup butPaul Pogba, who admitted in June
that he wanted a new challenge, did
not travel.
United said the France midfi elder
did not go to Wales because of a recur-
rence of a back spasm, though some
reports have suggested Pogba skipped
Friday’s fl ight from Manchester owing
to his desire to force through a move.
“At the end of the session today,
Paul got a back spasm, the same issue
he had last week,” Solskjær said. “But
I think he’ll be available next week.”
There have also been unconfi rmed
suggestions an administrative error
led to him being wrongly named in the
squad for the Milan game in Cardiff.Quiet optimism
at Newcastle with
Joelinton offering
hope for Bruce
Premier League
Fans give their latest
manager the benefi t
of the doubt as a
new era takes shape,
writes Louise Taylor
£40m striker Joelinton
celebrates scoring Newcastle’s
opener against Saint-Étienne
IAN MACNICOL/GETTY IMAGESbefore half-time it was abundantly
apparent why Manchester United
are so keen to prise Sean Longstaff –
whose younger brother Matty scored
a fabulous goal with his fi rst touch
as a substitute – away from this
midfi eld.
Not even Mathieu Debuchy’s late
consolation goal against the run of
play could detract from the feelgood
factor.
Earlier Joelinton had helped theРЕЛИЗ
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