Steve Bruce has been Newcastle manager since July 2019
(Picture: Getty Images)Newcastle boss Steve Bruce accepts he may be sacked by the new ownership after the Saudi-backed consortium completed their £305million takeover of the club yesterday.
Rangers boss Steven Gerrard and out-of-work Antonio Conte and Frank Lampard are among the more glamorous names to have already been linked with the Newcastle job following the end of Mike Ashley’s 14-year spell as owner.
Bruce, who was appointed in July 2019 but never won over supporters, has a three-year rolling contract and would be due compensation in the region of £8m if he is dismissed.
Newcastle entertain Tottenham on Sunday week in their first match under new ownership.
“I want to continue,” Bruce said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.
“I’d like the chance to show the new owners what I can do, but you have to be realistic and they may well want a new manager to launch things for them.
“New owners normally want a new manager. I’ve been around long enough to understand that.”
The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) provided 80 percent of funds for the deal but the takeover earned Premier League approval after offering “legally binding assurances” that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would not control the club.
Amanda Staveley, the British businesswoman who brokered the deal, insists those assurances will be kept to and also dismissed suggestions the move is a “sportswashing” project.
“Absolutely not,” Staveley, who has targeted winning the Premier League title, told The Times.
“If that was the intention we would have bought a major franchise in the US; not a football club currently sitting in the relegation zone in the Premier League. This is about business investment and doing something special with a fantastic football club with the best fans in the world.”
Human rights groups have reacted with fury to the deal, with Amnesty International yesterday urging the Premier League to consider the “appalling” record of Saudi Arabia and its “catalogue of crimes”.
