Steve Bruce insists Rafa Benitez's refusal to rule out a return to Newcastle United under new owners does not bother him.
Benitez was asked directly if he would one day like to come back to St James' Park while making an appearance on BBC Radio 5Live's Euro leagues show on Thursday evening.
Having opted to stick with Newcastle following the club's relegation to the Championship in 2016, the Dalian Pro manager said 'if I decided to stay when we had no money, imagine with a takeover' before stating that a return to the Premier League 'was a target'.
Bruce previously hit out at 'disrespectful' talk of Benitez and Mauricio Pochettino taking his job last summer, but the Newcastle head coach did not take any notice of the Spaniard's latest comments.
"It doesn't me bother a jot," he told reporters on Zoom. "Rafa is entitled to talk wherever he wants and do whatever he wants to do.
"Look, he left 18 months ago for his own personal reasons. As far as I'm concerned, I can't get involved in that. It doesn't bother me one little bit."
Benitez spoke just a few hours after Newcastle officially confirmed the club had issued arbitration proceedings against the Premier League after a proposed Saudi-backed takeover fell through last summer.
The club made no comment on the substance of the arbitration and Bruce has just been focused on preparing his side for Saturday's game against Chelsea.
"It's quite easy for me really because I don't know enough about it," he added. "It looks all legal jargon to me at the moment. I've got enough on my plate, honestly, by concentrating on Chelsea.
"We're all really disappointed that it didn't go through because who was coming in charge could have probably been life-changing for the club.
"There's a lot of disappointed people, of course. Where it lies in the future or whatever, I really can't tell you because I don't get involved in that. We're all disappointed with it but we just keeping on unfortunately."
