OPINION
The decision to drop players and name your squad is never the easiest job, and Steve Bruce has found that out the hard way at Newcastle United.
In the end, the former Sheffield Wednesday boss made the choice to leave out five players, with Jack Colback, Rolando Aarons, Henri Saivet, Jamie Sterry, and Achraf Lazaar all missing out.
The five names mentioned managed little, if any, impact on Rafael Benitez when the Spaniard was in charge of the Magpies, and now look set to leave St James’ Park.
Bruce described the decision to leave players such as Colback and Aarons out as “horrible,” but must not feel too sorry as the players he left out were never going to make much of a difference on his squad.
The Newcastle boss spoke about the decision, as quoted by the Shield’s Gazette, saying, “It’s the horrible part of the job that I have to tell them that they haven’t even got a squad number.”
Both Aarons and Colback spent the majority of last season on loan in the Championship at Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest respectively – and proved they were not cut out for the top-flight.
The midfield is an area that Bruce will have been happy with when arriving in the North East, with the likes of Sean Longstaff, Jonjo Shelvey, and Isaac Hayden ready to be utilised. The arrival of Allan Saint-Maximin, an exciting winger, surely all but closed the door on Aaron’s future.
Colback did average 3.2 tackles per game last season but also got dribbled past on many occasions, a stat which is brought to light when you consider the fact the midfielder received 15 yellow cards [Source: WhoScored].
Aarons also failed to make an impact on Bruce, despite the winger spending the second half of the season with the Magpies’ boss at Sheffield Wednesday in the last campaign.
Bruce must quickly forget about the so-called “horrible” decision and look to push forward and establish Newcastle as a solid Premier League side.
