‘Bang out of order’ – Exclusive: Bruce savages ‘Stupid…Ridiculous’ senior figure
Alex Bruce has ripped into the Health Secretary Matt Hancock after he urged Newcastle United and other Premier League players to take big pay cuts.
The former top-flight defender and son of Newcastle boss Steve, speaking exclusively to Football Insider assistant editor Russell Edge, called the senior figure’s comments “stupid” and “bang out of order”
At the Government’s daily Coronavirus briefing last week, Mr Hancock said: “The first thing that Premier League footballers can do is make a contribution, take a pay cut and play their part.”
Bruce was apoplectic when asked by Football Insider how Newcastle players might feel about Hancock’s controversial demand for them to take 30 per cent wage cuts.
“I think for someone to single out 500 lads, we all know they get paid good money professional footballers, they do, but the way he threw that comment around was absolutely ridiculous,” he told Football Insider.
“There wasn’t any kind of consideration for the tax that footballer’s pay, what they generate for the government – I think the figure was around £1.5billion a year.
“If they get them to take a 30 per cent wage cut it reduces wages by £500million a year. For them to do that, I just don’t understand what the hell he was going on about. I think it was a ridiculous thing to say.
“There’s two-and-a-half-million millionaires in the UK so why not ask them to make a contribution, not just the 500 footballers. I think he was bang out of order, it was totally ridiculous what he said.
“I think he would have been better approaching it by saying: ‘Premier League footballers, we would like you to make a contribution among yourselves at every club to give to the NHS,’ and it wouldn’t have been a problem.
“To come out and say they want footballers to take a 30 per cent pay cut, I think it was a really, really naive and stupid thing to do.”
In other Newcastle United news, Danny Mills has torn into a senior Magpies star.