Enrique believes things had to change at St James’ Park following the end of Mike Ashley’s time as the club’s owner.
Bruce’s future in Tyne and Wear was up in the air since when the news of a potential takeover came to light.
The 60-year-old was tipped to be replaced right after Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) took over as the new club owners, but Bruce was in charge when the Magpies lost 3-2 to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.
The club took to their social media account to announce the departure of Bruce, who had been with them since 2019.
“I’m sad for him. He seems like a nice guy, from what I’ve heard about him from players who played under him, he’s a very nice guy,” Enrique, who played for Newcastle between 2007 and 2011 told talkSPORT.
“But it needed to be done. In the way the change in owners needed to be done because Mike Ashley wasn’t the right one for Newcastle and I think with Steve Bruce it’s the same.
“It’s going to be like a stamp, where are they going to go now? Will they go for someone like Steven Gerrard, Zinedine Zidane? My favourite would be Antonio Conte because of the experience he has of winning trophies and winning trophies in the Premier League – I would go for him.
“If they go for someone like that it would make a stamp on every club in the Premier League. It would say ‘look, we’ve come here to make Newcastle big.’ They deserve to be signing someone like Conte.
“You know in the January transfer window they’re going to go big. The most important thing in my opinion is if they sign someone new like Conte – let him sign the players that can build the club around Conte. At Liverpool they did it around Jurgen Klopp.
“I believe in the next three, four, five years we can talk about Newcastle competing where they deserve to be.”
Newcastle are still chasing for their first Premier League win of the season and are 19th on the table.
