Steve Bruce, the former Newcastle United manager, has hit back at Dwight Gayle's criticism of his tactical approach during their time together at the club. The 64-year-old manager, now at Blackpool, responded to Gayle's comments made after his move to Hibs.
Gayle had criticised Bruce's approach to matches during their time together at St James' Park. The ex-Magpies boss repeatedly defended his management during his time at Newcastle.
And in an astonishing riposte at Gayle, Bruce dismissed the striker's comments about his coaching acumen.
Bruce retorted: "Is that the legendary Dwight Gayle, who missed the chance in the quarter-final against Manchester City? 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."
Gayle had previously criticised Bruce in an interview with Open Goal, saying: "He was okay, 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 free game week, and the gaffer chucked some of the boys under the bus in terms of who had to play Man City away. 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's one I was in shocked by."
Gayle admitted that the players just had to get on with Bruce's coaching after the ex-Man United defender took over from Rafa Benitez.
He said: "Again, it's one of things where you get on with it. I'm sure a lot of players would have liked Rafa's approach but as soon as someone new comes in you just try to adapt to it and get on with it."
