Newcastle United’s Matt Ritchie has been involved in a training ground ‘bust-up’ according to Sky Sports’ Keith Downie.
Steve Bruce confirmed the rumours that Ritchie, 31, was involved in a training ground bust-up at Newcastle United, supposedly with Bruce himself.
But the Magpies manager is more concerned with how the information got out of said training ground, and so the hunt for ‘who leaked it’ has commenced.
Steve Bruce confirms training-ground bust-up with Matt Ritchie and and says most disappointing thing is there’s a leak within the training ground. “There is a leak from within and we are doing our utmost to find the culprit.” #NUFC
— Keith Downie (@SkySports_Keith) March 5, 2021
It comes little over a month after Ritchie saw his return to Bournemouth collapse.
The Scot was linked with a return to the South Coast over Janaury and come deadline day, a move was in the making. Newcastle were willing to part ways with Ritchie, but the two clubs couldn’t agree on a transfer fee.
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It left Ritchie at St James’ Park where he’s played just 19-minutes of football since seeing his Bournemouth return fall through, having only featured nine times in the Premier League this season.
Bournemouth fans were gunning for Ritchie to return to The Vitality and after seeing how he’s further falling out of contention at Newcastle, it could spike the Cherries’ interest.
Ritchie remains contract at Newcastle until 2023 and so it’d likely still take a hefty transfer fee to bring Ritchie back to Bournemouth.
Given their Championship status, and the fact that they’ve spent a lot of poor money in the past, Jonathan Woodgate’s side may be a whole lot more stringent in their transfer dealing and it could see them pass on Ritchie.
But something for the club to consider anyway, and an insight into the sour atmosphere currently swarming Newcastle United.