Leicester City

Speaking about Spartak Moscow's threat, Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers said: "They have real attacking players who have quality.

"Whatever team Spartak put out will be very competitive. We have to concentrate on our own performance. It's important to find that consistency in our performance level.

"From the start of the season we have been a little inconsistent but our last performance was over 90 minutes and that is what we want to replicate. It will be a difficult game, whatever team Spartak put out."

Leicester City

Let's hear from Leicester City boss Brendan Rodgers now in our first Europa League news conference.

The Foxes have one point from their opening two games and Rodgers says the trip to Spartak Moscow is "very important".

"We want to go as far as we possibly can and that is why this is a big game for us," said Rodgers.

"We should have won against Napoli but we took one point, then the second game we lost, so that makes this a very important game.

"If we want to continue and go far in the competition, this game will be really important, especially with two more games to go at home."

"We will pick a team to win the game, like we always do. We come off a really good performance [against Manchester United] and we want to continue with that stability in the team. We have all our fit players here because it's a really important game for us."

Andy Purchase: I can think of only two reasons why anyone would want the Newcastle manager job. A football challenge like no other, and money. And not necessarily in that order.

Steve Bruce joins a long list...

It gets to this time of the year and it feels like sacking season doesn't it?

And according to various bookmakers, the new favourite to lose his job following Steve Bruce's exit from Newcastle is Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

If United were to lose their home Champions League game with Atalanta on Wednesday it would leave them with a tricky task to get out of Group F, especially as they travel to Italy for the return game on 2 November.

And they play Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City, Watford, Chelsea and Arsenal in their next six Premier League games.

Xisco Munoz, Bruce?????

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Radio 5 Live

Finally from Newcastle fan Alex Hurst from the True Faith podcast on if the change will bring the best out of the players straight away.

"I think the fact that the players will be made to train will be helpful. The team look unfit, they look slow, if a manager can get the players in training and get them to work, that might be a vast improvement as a starting point.

"This is the highest level of football in the world and you're going to need a manager who is able to condition players correctly and set them up tactically, so you'd think a vast improvement on those two things alone.

"I think they'll be an immediate improvement, Graeme Jones takes caretaker charge for the weekend and I think you'll see an improvement."

Alistair Magowan
BBC Sport

Some fans might argue that the decision to part ways with Steve Bruce has come a week late, but by placing Graeme Jones in charge for the game against Crystal Palace on Saturday, it gives the new owners breathing space to make the right appointment for a permanent manager.

They are keen to take a considered approach, because they want to get this appointment right. Former Roma manager Paulo Fonseca has been linked with the role and almost joined Tottenham in the summer, while former Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe is another potential candidate and would link up with former Cherries players Callum Wilson, Ryan Fraser and Matt Ritchie, who are all in the Newcastle squad.

Whoever they go for, though, needs results, and quickly.

BBC Radio 5 Live

How fair were the conditions working under the former owner Mike Ashley?

Here's more from Alex Hurst on this.

"I think Bruce had more financial support from Ashley than almost all of the other managers or many of the other managers put together.

"He was granted players like Callum Wilson for £20m, Joe Willock, they spend £40m on Joelinton, this was kind of the antithesis of the Ashley era before Bruce came in.

"So, I think the conditions compared to a lot of his predecessors were incredibly fair having said that Mike Ashley is a difficult man to work for, no manager had succeeded under him but I think the performances and the results under Bruce have been worse."

Asked if the treatment of Bruce was unfair when the fans were heard singing Bruce out against Tottenham:

"It was fair but it I don't think it's harsh.

"If you're a football fan that spends thousands of pounds a year to watch your team, you're travelling to Crystal Palace on Sunday and Brighton in three weeks time when there's no trains back afterwards, you at least want to see some organisation, some sort of plan, some sort of passion from the team. The manager is very well paid to create those circumstances for the team to play well.

"He's been failing for a long time, this isn't a new thing. This is football, this is what happens."

Alistair Magowan
BBC Sport

Fans will argue that Steve Bruce should have left the club some time ago, given Newcastle's poor run in the middle of last season where they were drawn into a relegation fight before recovering in the spring.

But it was clear that once the new owners came in, Bruce was living on borrowed time and the reaction from supporters during the 3-2 defeat by Tottenham on Sunday would have delivered a clear message to part-owner Amanda Staveley and non-executive chair Yasir Al Rumayyan, who were both in the directors' box.

"We want Brucey out" started in the 74th minute of Bruce's 1000th game in management, but by the end, Newcastle fans had joined Spurs supporters in singing "You're getting sacked in the morning."

Three days later and Bruce, a boyhood Newcastle fan, has gone.

Antonio Conte is the early race leader in our poll at the top of the page.

The former Chelsea manager has pedigree in England after winning the title in 2017, of course.

Conte has 16% of the vote so far, while Eddie Howe (14%), Steven Gerrard (13%) are close behind.

Image source, Getty Images

Azrael: I think everyone saw this one coming

Jamie: Anyone defending Bruce, would you have him at your club? No, thought not. Nice guy, poor manager

BBC Radio 5 Live

So why was Steve Bruce just not good enough for the Newcastle United supporters?

Here's more from Newcastle fan Alex Hurst from The True Faith podcast.

"There's a lot I could go at here, if you look at principle, Newcastle are 19th in the Premier League after eight games played. Nine games including the League Cup game, which they failed to win against Burnley.

"No wins this season and quite simply if you look at Steve Bruce's record this season but also over the last 38 games as a whole, I think they've won seven of those 38 games. Very few football managers in any division in any country would be able to survive that sort of record.

"To put it simply, I think he was yesterday's man. He might have been a good manager 28 years ago but he's not any more."

The Daily Telegraph

More from Steve Bruce's interview with the Daily Telegraph.

"By the time I got to Newcastle, I thought I could handle everything thrown at me but it has been very, very tough.

"To never really be wanted, to feel that people wanted me to fail, to read people constantly saying I would fail, that I was useless, a fat waste of space, a stupid, tactically inept cabbage-head or whatever. And it was from day one.

“When we were doing ok results wise, it was ‘yeah but the style of football is rubbish’ or I was just ‘lucky.’ It was ridiculous and persistent, even when the results were good.

“The best one was to be told we were a relegation team in all but points. This was all in the first season. We finished 13th. It [the criticism and abuse] got even worse in the second year. We finished 12th, 17 points clear of the bottom three.

“I tried to enjoy it and, you know, I did. I’ve always enjoyed the fight, proving people wrong, but that’s all it ever seemed to be. A fight, a battle. It does take its toll because even when you win a game, you don’t feel like you are winning over the supporters."