STEVE Bruce has hit back at Dwight Gayle after the striker criticised the former Newcastle boss' methods.
Gayle played for the Magpies when Bruce was in charge and has now slammed his ex-manager's approach, saying Newcastle were under-prepared on the training pitch and claiming the experienced boss once said he "doesn't do tactics" and instead called for more desire.
That, claims Gayle, who was speaking on the Open Goal podcast, came during half-time of a Newcastle defeat to Manchester City.
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Gayle said of Bruce: “He was ok.
"I felt that he didn’t spend enough time working on a lot of things with us. Perhaps he was trying to go game by game rather than developing us as a team. I think we could’ve improved a lot of things.
“I remember some of the boys got chucked into the Man City shift. We had a three-game week and the gaffer chucked some of the boys under the bus in terms of who had to play Man City.
“Me and Matt Ritchie were asking for tactical improvements for weeks and months. We came in at half time and we were two or three down, and he was like ‘Boys, you keep asking for tactics, I don’t do tactics, just put your boots on and work hard’.
“We were like, it’s Man City, it’s not good enough to just run around. That was one I’m in shock about."
Gayle also claimed it was assistant Steve Agnew who led the training and suggested Bruce only took a hands-on approach when the takeover had gone through and the new owners were present.
But Bruce has now hit back.
Now in charge of Blackpool, the former defender told BBC Radio Lancashire: "Is that the legendary Dwight Gayle, who missed the chance in the quarter-final against Manchester City (2-0 FA Cup defeat in 2020)?
"Is that the same Dwight Gayle? Interesting. I've been around the block a long long time. I've only managed 1,050 games but according to Dwight I don't know what I'm doing. I'll let other people make their minds up who are a bit more established than Dwight ever was."
