IT is an old managerial adage – ‘Lose the dressing room, and you will quickly lose your job too’. As he battles to cling on to his position as Newcastle United boss, Steve Bruce’s immediate challenge is to repair the damage caused by the rift that has opened up between him and a number of his players this week.

For someone who boasts more than two decades of managerial experience, Bruce’s man-management skills have been found wanting to a surprising degree.

The handling of Karl Darlow’s demotion from the starting line-up was bad enough, with news of the goalkeeper’s intended absence from the side that faced Wolves last weekend appearing in a national newspaper long before Bruce actually told Darlow he was being dropped for Martin Dubravka.

Understandably, Darlow was extremely disappointed to have learned of his fate in such a way, but in terms of Bruce’s fraying relationship with his squad, worse was to follow in the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s 1-1 draw.

Frustrated at the breakdown of communication that led to Wolves’ equaliser, with a failure to convey an intended change of shape and positioning in the wake of Matt Ritchie’s introduction as a substitute for Emil Krafth contributing to Ruben Neves’ header, Bruce took aim at a number of his players.

Ritchie faced most of his wrath, with Bruce publicly criticising the Scotsman for failing to pass on the instructions he had been given prior to walking on to the field. Martin Dubravka was called out for failing to keep out Neves’ header, Jamal Lewis received a ticking off for failing to block Pedro Neto’s cross, and Bruce also criticised Joelinton for failing to convert the late opportunity that came to nothing when his shot was blocked by Romain Saiss.

Jamie Carragher, in his role as a pundit on Sky's Monday Night Football, delivered a coruscating assessment of what had gone wrong, highlighting the chain of events that meant Jacob Murphy was 50 yards out of position when Neves scored.

Bruce and his assistant, Graeme Jones, were heavily responsible for the communication mishap, yet rather than accepting culpability in his post-match interviews, the former attempted to shift the blame. Unsurprisingly, it was not a move that went down well with senior members of the Newcastle squad.

That was the backdrop that led to Tuesday’s altercation between Bruce and Ritchie, which has now emerged into the public domain. Ritchie is alleged to have called Bruce a “coward”, Bruce is reported to have challenged Ritchie by saying, ‘Who are you going to tell? Lee Charnley?’ In many ways, it is playground stuff, and as Bruce will no doubt state when he conducts his scheduled press conference this morning, it is the kind of argument that is played out in dressing rooms and training grounds across the country on a weekly basis.

But that does not diminish its significance as Newcastle find themselves fighting for their Premier League lives with 12 games of the season to go. In their current position, the Magpies desperately need to be pulling together rather than tearing themselves apart.

When the Magpies were relegated under Alan Shearer in 2009, it was widely felt that too many senior players were failing to give their all. When they tumbled out of the top-flight in 2016, Rafael Benitez was unable to repair the fractures that had emerged prior to his arrival. If Bruce is to avoid what would be a third relegation of the Mike Ashley era, he is going to need his players to dig deep over the next few weeks. Turning a number of them against him is hardly a good start.