The revealing reaction of one Newcastle United player to key appointment

Cast your mind back to a year ago. Rafa Benitez had just left following the expiry of his contract – and the club was seemingly in crisis as the players reported back for the start of pre-season.

There was anger on Tyneside, where fans feared that everything was about to unravel.

The squad, without a new manager, left for the Premier League Asia Trophy in China a couple of weeks later. The club seemed in disarray, and United’s travelling party didn’t know what was happening with the start of the new Premier League campaign on the horizon.

They were in the dark. Everything, including recruitment, was seemingly on hold. Salomon Rondon and Ayoze Perez, so important the previous season had left, and the odds on relegation were shortening before a ball was kicked.

Players and staff were asking journalists what they’d heard – and vice-versa – and everyone was feeling the heat in a hot and humid Nanjing when news filtered through of Steve Bruce’s imminent appointment.

It was there, in the team’s plush hotel, that another journalist and myself spoke to Matt Ritchie in a corridor.

Ritchie had just been on stage for a press conference ahead of the following day’s game against Wolverhampton Wanderers. He’d had spoken of his “disappointment” at the departure of Benitez, and then added: “We now look forward to a new manager and a new season.”

There had been a lukewarm reception to the planned appointment on Tyneside, and this was a chance to gauge the reaction of the players to Bruce’s expected arrival.

Ritchie, recruited by Benitez three years earlier, spoke informally away from the TV cameras. The winger was positive, and, typically, had an answer for everything.

He enthusiastically tackled every question, and dismissed criticism of Bruce’s record at Premier League level. Ritchie backed the squad to stay up so long as everyone “stuck together”. Ritchie wanted the fans to pull behind Bruce once he was appointed.

It was a revealing conversation given Ritchie’s importance in the dressing room, and the following night Isaac Hayden – who had played under Bruce at Hull City – echoed Ritchie’s sentiments after a 4-0 defeat to Wolves at the Olympic Sports Centre.

Bruce met up with the team in Shanghai for the next leg of the tour as Tyneside started to come to terms with the appointment.

Some fans never really came to terms with the appointment, but, importantly, the players quickly did, and one of the things I took from the club’s trip to China was their openness to Benitez’s successor.

They just wanted to get on with it – and they’ve done just that.

Back to the present, and Ritchie was on the bench for last night’s behind-closed-doors game against Bournemouth, his former club.

Newcastle, safe from relegation, won 4-1 to move up to 13th place with 42 points. The club, of course, should be aiming higher, a lot higher, but Bruce, like it or not, has succeeded this season.

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