Newcastle United midfielder Isaac Hayden admits clashing with former manager Steve Bruce.

Bruce was sacked at Newcastle boss last October, shortly after the club's £305million takeover by a Saudi-led consortium, after becoming an increasingly unpopular figure with the Newcastle players and fans.

"He was our manager and we had to respect him," Hayden told The Beautiful Game Podcast. "I mean, to be fair, we had a few ding-dongs during our time between him and myself.

"As player-manager you get these sorts of things, but to be fair to him he's a typical man's man you know? You can have an argument or whatever it is but you shake hands at the end of it and that's it, it's done.

"There was no drag-on with him. You could say what he wanted to say and then bang. He was a proper old-school manager in terms of (being) a man's man."

Hayden continued: "You have to try and do your job and play the game plan from the manager as best you can and block the noise out.

"With Steve, sometimes he got caught up on the opposition and how good they were and what we had to do to stop them, rather than what we were good at and what we could impose on them.

"Let's be honest. Whether people like it or not, fans or whoever it is, we finished 13th and 12th with him as manager in two seasons - and comfortably the first year and 12th looked better than it what because it was tight. But we've been in the Premier League, this is our fifth season now."