It is one year ago today that Steve Bruce’s training ground bust-up with Matt Ritchie was reported by the Daily Mail.
Ritchie apparently took issue with being blamed for Wolves’ equaliser in the most recent match, which left Newcastle 17th.
There was a reported confrontation and Bruce’s job was in the balance but in the end he rode it out until the takeover went through.
So much has changed since then, not least that Bruce has of course been removed and replaced by Eddie Howe, who has turned the club around.
Results are good on the pitch and there is a sense of direction and togetherness off the pitch which was so clearly missing this time last year.
Ritchie knows Howe’s methods from Bournemouth and has been one of the leaders in the dressing room, along with Callum Wilson and Ryan Fraser.
The style of football is better and Newcastle are no longer circling the drain, just trying to muddle through and survive under a cloud of doom and gloom.
It is extraordinarily difficult to see Howe ever getting himself into a situation like the one Bruce created a year ago.
Similarly, the new owners are so ambitious and want things done in a certain way that anyone at the club who acted that way would lose their job anyway most likely.
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