Steve Bruce

Stephen Roger Bruce (born December 31 1960, in Corbridge, near Hexham in England) is a British football manager. He is currently the manager of Birmingham City F.C.. As a player Bruce started as a midfielder but translated into a powerful and dependable centre-back who many described as the best player of the 80s and 90s never to appear for England. He has been occasionally mocked for a superficial resemblance to character actor Bernard Cribbins.

Playing career

Steve Bruce began his footballing career with Gillingham in Kent on leaving school in the summer of 1977. He remained at Gillingham until 1983 when he was transferred to Norwich City. He suffered the misfortune of scoring an own goal on his debut, but soon settled in to become a rock in the Canaries' defence. In 1985 Norwich were relegated from the top flight but the blow was cushioned by a win over Sunderland in the League Cup final. Norwich won promotion at the first time of asking but Bruce was transferred to Manchester United for £850,000 in December 1987 just before his 27th birthday.

Steve Bruce made his Manchester United debut in a game against Portsmouth on 19th December 1987 and went on to score 51 goals in more than 300 appearances for Manchester United in eight and a half years. He helped them win three Premiership titles (1993, 1994 and 1996), two FA Cups (1990 and 1994), one League Cup and one Cup Winners' Cup (1991). He took over from Bryan Robson as club captain in 1991 and got the position full time when Robson left three years later. As captain he helped United to the league title in 1993 - scoring two late goals against Sheffield Wednesday at Old Trafford - and again in 1994, forming a formidable partnership with Gary Pallister at the heart of a defence that lost only four league matches all season. That same year he led United to FA Cup glory against Chelsea and to the League Cup final against Aston Villa. The following season he once once again ever present at the heart of the United back line, but was unable to add any medals to his collection as United were pipped to the Premiership title by Blackburn Rovers and defeated in the FA Cup final by Everton. The following season, which was to be his last at Old Trafford, more than compensated for a barren previous campaign. Bruce once again was a lynch-pin at he heart of a United defence that managed to overhaul a 12 point deficit to Newcastle United at Christmas to lift the Premiership trophy on the last day of the season. However, a week later Bruce was left out of Manchester United's squad for the 1996 FA Cup final against Liverpool. Despite the fact that Bruce was club captain, he insisted that match winner Eric Cantona lifted the trophy at Wembley in an almost unprecedented show of professionalism. Within two weeks however he had joined Birmingham City on a free transfer.

In two seasons at Birmingham, Bruce was a regular first team player and continued to perform excellently but was unable to get them promoted to the Premiership.

Managerial career

A joke.