If Newcastle Utd fans aren't careful, they could send Steve Bruce down the same path as Caroline Flack.

We all remember Caroline Flack. A celebrity subjected to unprovoked levels of harassment, public criticism, negative press coverage and social-media abuse, which ultimately led to her death by suicide. At the time of her tragic passing, there was (quite rightly) a coming together of people up and down the country who firmly got behind the #BeKind campaign. The basis of this campaign was essentially to remind people of the need to say nothing at all if they have nothing pleasant to say, because you never quite know what somebody is going through. Seems reasonable.

At the time of the campaign gathering momentum I was, whilst supportive, sceptical too. It struck me that many of those bearing the #BeKind hashtag and profile picture frames, were only seemingly happy to apply this fairly basic principle to people who they felt were deserving of kindness. Now of course this makes perfectly logical sense in many respects, for example very few on planet earth would argue that the likes of Robert Mugabe is worthy of kindness, irrespective of any turbulence or grief in his personal life. But it did and still does seem that #BeKind and “If you’ve nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all”, are reserved not broadly for people who fall squarely within the confines of being a good person or having honourable intentions, but rather exclusively for those they individually admire and agree with.

I am a football man, I love the beautiful game and everything about it but within the footballing industry there are many pundits, players and coaches I profoundly disagree with. Jermain Jenas, for example is, in my view, nothing more than a Fabergé egg as a pundit. A track record as a player which is captivating, but seemingly hollow as a pundit and lacking any ability to intelligently analyse 90 minutes of football. I believe his commentary to lack any intelligent insight and most of what he says I find boring, verging on senseless.

·     Do I rate Jermaine Jenas as a pundit? No.

·     Do I like what he has to say? No.

·     Should I be able to legitimately point out my views on his shortcomings? Yes.

·  Do my protestations about him mean he is fair game for me to say whatever I want about him, regardless of its relevance to his job? No.

·     Despite my objection to him as a pundit, is he worthy of my kindness? Absolutely.

The intention behind #BeKind was that one can make heavy and unadulterated criticism of others in the public sphere, but that criticism should be confined to either their ideas or their capability in whatever job they happen to be doing at the time. The point at which this crosses over to intrusion, insult and bullying is however, completely unacceptable. This is a perfectly laudable aim. Sadly, many appear to reserve kindness for people they either like, agree with, or rate highly. It would appear that for a significant number of people, those deserving of their kindness do not include good people who have perfectly legitimate views which they happen to disagree with, or approach their job in a way that doesn’t conform with how others believe they ought to.

This is the point at which I am going to make myself deeply unpopular with a large group of very passionate and vocal people, the fanbase of Newcastle United Football club. The lovingly dubbed ‘Toon Army’ are amongst the most committed, cohesive and heartfelt group of fans in modern football, of that there is no doubt. Sadly, the pack mentality which has earned NUFC supporters this reputation has, in recent years, also been the root cause of bullying, marginalisation, abuse and deeply unkind behaviour by this very group. The victim? There are many, but the most persecuted is their Head Coach Steve Bruce.

“What a nob”, “fat wanker”, “degenerated worm”, “that’s how thick the bloke is”, “he’s on glue”, “he’s such a wank manager”, “walk out Bruce or suffer a gruesome fate”, “he’s a cabbage, not a human”, “Steve Bruce your mother deserved to die she was a filthy whore”, “Steve Bruce slit your wrists”, “he’s hated”, “don’t worry about him, he has no soul”, “a human being with no moral fibre”, “greedy cunt”, “I hope you die of COVID”, “stupid fat mackem cunt”. I found these comments on a single post on a Newcastle United fans Facebook page within about five minutes of looking. I took the liberty of reviewing the profiles of those espousing this repulsive nonsense, and every single one of them appeared to be a legitimate NUFC supporter. Despicable and upsetting in equal measure.

I should probably declare that I am a big Steve Bruce fan, not just because he was one of the best players the English game has ever had, but because he is well-known to be a sincere and kind man, according to most people who have ever met him or worked with and for him. I also happen to think Steve Bruce is a brilliant manager who I would happily embrace as the gaffer at my beloved Arsenal. Brucie has given far more to football than any of the turgent little retches making these comments from the safety of their smartphone.

Notwithstanding my admiration for the man and my view that he is doing a solid job at St James’ Park, of course if any magpies fan believes he is not delivering as he ought to be or his performance is sub-standard, they are more than entitled to say so, but the nastiness with which the vitriol towards Steve Bruce has been spewed by a substantial number of the Newcastle fanbase is unacceptable and most certainly, not kind. And it isn’t just nasty comments Steve Bruce has received, death threats towards him and his family from alleged angry fans have also been sent his way.

The media, particularly the local press in Steve Bruce’s case have also played a major role in whipping up hatred towards the Manchester United and Norwich City legend. Craig Hope of The Mail has been routinely chipping away since Bruce’s appointment by citing unnamed sources who have alleged that things under Bruce behind the scenes at Newcastle are fractious with the gaffer reported (by Craig Hope through his unnamed source) to have had several bust ups with different players on the training ground. None of these allegations appear to have any basis in fact, certainly there is no evidence to support Craig Hope’s repeated character assassination of him and the players celebration with Mr Bruce after their recent late equaliser against current premier league champions Liverpool, would suggest relations are good and the team are right behind their manager.

Social-media trolling, hatred whipped up by the press, death threats, repeated abuse of a personal nature, vile insults about individuals’ relatives. I could be talking about Steve Bruce’s experience since joining Newcastle, or I could be talking about the abuse endured by Caroline Flack in the months leading to her suicide. In both cases, the component parts are the same, the only difference currently, is the outcome - Steve Bruce is still alive.

I know many NUFC supporters personally and I know them to have embraced the #BeKind movement at the time of Caroline Flack’s death. Many of those same group of people though, appear not to have practiced what they preached when it came to Steve Bruce and I find their inconsistency and hypocrisy, chilling.

Newcastle fans, Craig Hope and Bruce-hating twitter trolls ought to reflect, ought to be kind, ought to keep their criticism fair-minded and not personal, and ought to embrace that age-old mantra “if you’ve nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all” because until they do, the likelihood of  their actions causing Steve Bruce’s mental health to deteriorate remains significant. If we have truly learned the lessons of #BeKind and Caroline Flack, we know where this kind of nastiness will lead.