Buried on the Newcastle website beneath ticketing news and an interview with Les Ferdinand at 1pm on Friday was an extraordinary club statement revealing that Steve Bruce was not about to be sacked. Not yet, anyway.
As votes of confidence go, it was as hollow as an empty Gallowgate End. Twice in four paragraphs, Newcastle’s new mouthpiece, Amanda Staveley, spoke directly about her manager’s future.
‘Change doesn’t happen overnight,’ she said. ‘If we make changes then Steve will be the first to know.’
It seems, then, that Bruce had better leave his mobile on and his keys in the ignition.