Steve Bruce: I was a 'dead man walking' at Birmingham City
STEVE Bruce’s last Blues game as manager was the 2-1 defeat at home to Villa on November 11, 2007.After five years and 11 months in charge – making him the club’s longest-serving manager post-war – his win-loss-draw record from 269 games was 102 wins, 100 losses, 67 draws.Bruce joined Trevor Francis’ Blues as a player from Manchester United in 1996 and made 84 appearances, captaining the side and earning player-of-the-year honours, before taking the Sheffield United player-manager’s job in 1998.He returned to Blues as manager on December 12, 2001, following an extended period of ‘gardening leave’ after leaving Crystal Palace.On Saturday he brings his Sunderland team to St Andrew's, the first time he has been back since his departure to Wigan Athletic.In an exclusive interview, he talks to COLIN TATTUM about his exciting times at the helm and his exit, Carson Yeung and what Blues must do in the future.
The irony is hardly lost on Bruce, whose feats as manager of Blues have tended to be overshadowed by what happened at the end.
“Birmingham was a massive chunk of my career, my life,” he said. “Two years as a player, six as a manager. I look back with great affection, and I’d like to think I did a decent job, but that’s for others to judge.
“In hindsight, maybe I should have gone after relegation (2005-06). But I didn’t want to leave the club in the Championship, so I stuck it out and we got promotion.
“You could say that that team was arguably the best we had. Or should have been. Forssell, Dunn, Upson, Sutton, Pennant, Butt, Heskey... it was just getting them on the pitch, but that’s another story.”
Bruce said it was unfair to blame Yeung for his exit the next season.
As the club was in a takeover period, even though Yeung had a 29.9 per cent stake, he was unable to ratify a new contract.
“I don’t think you can say it was his entire fault,” Bruce acknowledged. “The contract became a big issue and, actually, the one person who stood firm on it was David Sullivan. And let’s not make any mistake, he was the one who called all the shots.
“But then all of a sudden, it became a board decision. David Sullivan was saying he would give it, but it was down to the board, and they felt altogether that they couldn’t. Never, ever, while I was there had the board made a decision like that. It was David Sullivan, or him and Karren Brady.”
Then the unseemly row over image rights that held up Bruce’s appointment at Wigan completely fractured what had been for so long a solid relationship. Bruce said it was ‘disgusting’ and that the board had ‘put greed before friendship’. It was strong stuff.
He said: “After so long, eight years, I felt very let down, and still do, and always will. Then there was David Sullivan saying getting rid of me for £3 million was the ‘best piece of business the club had ever done’ – thanks a lot!
“Washing the dirty linen in public like that shouldn’t have happened, I deserved better than that. I had every right to be all bitter and twisted.”
Bruce guided Blues to the Premier League for the first time, ending a 16-year absence from the top flight. Christophe Dugarry came and mesmerised, the tenth-place finish in 2003-04 was Blues’ best in 31 years. Players of the calibre of David Dunn, Emile Heskey and Muzzy Izzet happily joined Blues.
“It will be funny going back and walking down the track to the dug-outs on Saturday having done it so often before,” said Bruce.
“For me, Birmingham was the longest and most exciting time in management. And we really did have some memorable moments.
“They will always stay with me. That first night against the Villa, Dugarry – oh my God, what a player, he’s still the best signing I ever made – Forssell getting 19 goals and, of course, winning the play-off final at Cardiff after six months in the job.
“But one other thing always sticks out for me: the first season in the Premier League when we went to Everton. I remember a reporter in the north west said that all Birmingham, in their all-black kit, needed was a skull and crossbones and it would suit them down to the ground!
“That kind of summed it up; we had Savage, Cisse, Devlin, Horsfield, Grainger, Johnson, Tebily... a load of mongrels, but what a team.
“Unbelievable times and I doubt whether Birmingham will recapture those days and the kind of excitement and atmosphere that we had back then.”
