Steve Bruce

Where is Steve Bruce now?

Arguably one of the best defenders of the 1980’s and 1990’s to never win an England cap, former Manchester United captain Steve Bruce retired from his illustrious career in 1998 whilst in a player-manager role at Sheffield United.

Starting his professional career in 1979 with Gillingham, he went onto make 926 first-team appearances over a 20-year period for five sides including a golden era at Man United where he won the Premier League three times, the FA Cup three times, the League Cup and also the European Cup Winners Cup.

Embed from Getty Images 

After spending just a year at Bramhall Lane, Bruce then had a number of managerial jobs over the next three years including Huddersfield, Crystal Palace and Wigan Athletic before finally settling down at Birmingham City in 2001.

After successfully guiding the Blues to the Premier League on two occasions he returned to Wigan Athletic in 2007 after Birmingham were taken over by Carson Yeung who wouldn’t ratify his new contract.

Bruce had two decent years at Wigan where he avoided relegation in his first season and finished 11th place in his second season but a move to his native North-East with Sunderland was too much to resist and he joined the Mackems in June 2009.

Unfortunately he was sacked at the end of 2011 after a run of poor results but wasn’t away from football long as he joined Hull City in June 2012.

An extremely successful campaign in 2012-13 saw Bruce steer Hull City to automatic promotion to the Premier League but unfortunately after two seasons in the top-tier, they were relegated to the Championship on the last day of the season after they failed to beat his former side Manchester United.

He then successfully led his Hull City side back to the Premier League once again in 2016 via the play-offs but left the club before the new season started after being left disillusioned by the board’s lack of investment despite a huge injury list.

Days prior to his departure from Hull City, Bruce was interviewed for the vacant England manager’s job which eventually went to Sam Allardyce.

In October 2016, he returned to management with struggling Championship side Aston Villa and managed to steady the ship in his first season.

Bringing in influential defender John Terry during his second season in charge, Bruce led his side to the Championship play-off final but unfortunately they lost out to Fulham. With Terry leaving at the start of his third season his Villa side struggled, winning just one game in nine during August and September which ultimately led to his dismissal at the start of October 2018.

He wasn’t out of football for long and joined Championship side Sheffield Wednesday as manager in January 2019 but resigned six months later to join Newcastle United, the club he supported as a boy.

Bruce was sacked in October 2021 following the club’s takeover by a consortium led by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund. His final game against Tottenham Hotspur was his 1000th game as a manager.

He made a return to football management in February 2022 when he joined West Bromwich Albion but he was with The Baggies for just eight months before parting company with the club after a terrible start to the 2022/23 season which left them in 22nd place.

Back to Manchester United



Steve Bruce: Premier League Statistics

NationalityEnglish
PositionDefender
Appearances148
Goals11
Yellow Cards23
Red Cards0
Premier League Teams Played forManchester United

Statistics courtesy of www.premierleague.com

Last Updated on 11 October 2022 by Admin