“I’m not everybody’s cup of tea,” says Steve Bruce with some regularity. Having managed 11 clubs over a total of 12 spells covering 1031 games, it is unsurprising that he has rubbed a few people up the wrong way. And after West Bromwich Albion’s 3-2 defeat to Swansea this weekend, he once again finds himself out of a job.
Albion are now in the bottom three in the Championship, despite having made a number of key additions to their squad in the summer. Bruce was meant to come in and repeat his knack of getting teams promoted to the Premier League but right now it is the other door out of the second tier that they stand adjacent to.
This is the end of the line for the 61-year-old. Some neutrals felt for him when he was sacked one game into Newcastle United’s new revolution in October 2021, but there are few who can claim he hasn’t underachieved at The Hawthorns this year. But if this is the last role for Bruce, what is his legacy?
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His four promotions from the second tier are his badge of honour. That is what has made him a prized managerial commodity for Championship clubs. None of what he has achieved at this level has translated to much beyond dour stability in the Premier League itself, but that has been an attractive enough proposition for the majority of clubs he has managed throughout his career.
He was twice promoted in a six-year spell at Birmingham City despite not always having much of a standing among the fan base. When they were on the way down in 2006 Blues fans called for his head, and the same happened as their side struggled at times the following season. But Bruce got the train back on the tracks and helped to secure an immediate return to the top flight before leaving amid a disagreement with the club’s board.
Hull City also went into the Premier League twice under Bruce in his only other gig to last beyond two years. A club which has only been in the top tier of English football for five seasons of its 118-year history has the former Manchester United defender to thank for three of them.
So why is he so pilloried? If he has been such a bad manager, why have 11 clubs chosen to give him a shot? Clubs of the prestige of Aston Villa, Newcastle, Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday have all called upon him at one time or another. But at none of them has he reigned for more than the 102 matches he presided over at Villa.
His failure to see jobs out has been the stick to beat him with at some places, his refusal to move on quick enough has been the trouble at others. He lasted only eight matches in his first spell at Wigan Athletic, then just 68 when he returned six years later. Having exited the JJB Stadium in 2001, he skipped straight out of Crystal Palace when Birmingham came calling.
In 2019 he was offered the opportunity to manage Wednesday but asked to honour a family holiday first in light of the recent deaths of both of his parents. After the club absorbed national criticism for allowing the request, he was at Hillsborough for only 18 games before quitting and heading for Newcastle. If he doesn’t have a particularly great reputation, these skittish career choices might be just a few reasons why.
And yet, he has more than deserved a reputation among club owners for having the clout to get a job done. Birmingham hadn’t been in the top division for 16 years before he came alone, while Hull had been there once in their history. He also took the Tigers to their only ever appearance in Europe, while Villa needed a steady hand after Roberto Di Matteo’s failed spell and Bruce took them to within one game of promotion. Even at Wednesday he took a club which was otherwise on a steady decline and led them to improved performances and hope of something better than mid-table mediocrity.
Sunderland? They sacked him after 13th and 10th-place finishes in the Premier League, then went through a string of replacements as they gradually slid towards an inevitable relegation in 2017 from which they have still never returned. Then when he was handed the keys to his local kingdom at Newcastle he was belittled from the first day by fans who hated owner Mike Ashley, and was never accepted even after matching beloved predecessor Rafa Benitez’s finish of 13th the previous season, then bettering it the following year.
Bruce was never going to win any Premier League titles. His selling point was turning failing squads into stable units. At some clubs it worked for a while, at others it was a shorter-term project. Still, wherever he went he found enemies. Fans always seemed to want more, some justifiably, some less so.
One can understand why this might be the final hurrah for Bruce. His time at West Brom is done, and many would argue his time in football was all but done a few years ago. But to file him as a chancer and nothing more would be to underestimate what he was able to achieve in a 24-year career many more cherished managers would long to have had.
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