Steve Bruce

Gillingham

Bruce spent the 1978–79 season in Gillingham's reserve team and, despite playing in defence, scored 18 goals to finish the season as top scorer. In January 1979, he was selected to represent the England youth team, and he went on to gain eight caps, participating in the 1980 UEFA European Under-18 Championship. He came close to making his debut for the club's senior team in May 1979, but Summers decided at the last minute that, as Gillingham were chasing promotion from the Third Division, Bruce was not yet ready to handle the pressure of the occasion. He eventually made his senior debut in a League Cup tie against Luton Town on 11 August 1979, and made an immediate impact in the team, winning the club's Player of the Year award at the end of the 1979–80 season. He went on to make more than 200 appearances for the club, and was twice voted into the Professional Footballers' Association's Third Division Team of the Year. Confident that he was being targeted by clubs from higher divisions, Bruce resolved not to sign a new contract with Gillingham when his existing deal expired at the end of the 1983–84 season. In an April 1983 match against Newport County, he attempted, in a moment of anger, to deliberately injure opposition player Tommy Tynan, but connected awkwardly and succeeded only in breaking his own leg, leaving him unable to play again for six months. He returned in time to play a key role in Gillingham achieving two draws against Everton in the FA…

Early managerial career

In his first season as a manager, Bruce guided Sheffield United to eighth place in the First Division, nine points away from a place in the play-offs. He caused controversy when he attempted to take his team off the pitch during an FA Cup match against Arsenal. Bruce felt that the Gunners had broken an unwritten rule of sportsmanship by scoring the winning goal from a throw-in instead of returning the ball to United, who had intentionally kicked it out of play to allow an injured player to be attended to. Although the game eventually continued to a finish, following a gesture by Arsenal the match was declared void and replayed. In May 1999, Bruce resigned from his post after just one season in charge, citing turmoil in the club's boardroom and a shortage of funds for transfers. He contemplated leaving football for a job in television, but was persuaded by Huddersfield Town owner Barry Rubery to become the club's manager. Huddersfield were early promotion contenders in the 1999–2000 season, winning six consecutive matches to rise to third place in the First Division table by late November, but lost form and failed to reach the play-offs. The team continued to struggle at the start of the 2000–01 season, gaining just six points from 11 matches, and Bruce was sacked in October 2000. From November 1999 until his departure, Bruce was on the club's board of directors. He then became involved in a dispute with Rubery, who accused him of "wasting" £3…

During the early part of his career, Bruce's sometimes over-enthusiastic playing style, which he later described as "rampaging", caused him disciplinary problems. He later developed into a solid and dependable all-round player, characterised as "an honest trier who made the absolute most of limited natural ability". In his prime, he was particularly noted for his calm and deliberate passing of the ball, and his ability to control it under pressure, often with his chest. At the time, Mark Wright of Liverpool was said to be the only other centre-back able to match Bruce's level of skill in these areas. Bruce was also known for his unusually high goalscoring rate for a centre-back, resulting from a combination of his ability to powerfully head the ball and his effectiveness in taking penalty kicks. Although lacking poise and grace, and often criticised for his lack of pace, his bravery and willingness to take knocks from opposition players made him the "heart" of the defence during his time with Manchester United. He was well known for continuing to play even when injured, including returning to the United team at short notice in 1992 even though he was awaiting an operation on a hernia. His indomitable spirit and motivational abilities were deemed vital to the United team, and Alex Ferguson has commented on his "determination and heart".

Bruce was born in Corbridge in Northumberland, the elder of two sons of Joe and Sheenagh Bruce. His father was local; his mother was a native of Bangor, Northern Ireland. The family lived in Daisy Hill, near Wallsend, and Bruce attended Benfield School. Bruce, a boyhood fan of Newcastle United, said that he sneaked into St James' Park without paying to watch the team play, saying "I have always been a Newcastle lad and when I was a kid, I crawled under the turnstiles to get in to try and save a bob or whatever it was. They were my team, I went to support them as a boy and being a Geordie it's in-bred, you follow the club still the same today." Like several other future professionals from the area, he played football for Wallsend Boys Club. He was also selected for the Newcastle Schools representative team, and at the age of 13 was among a group of players from that team who were selected to serve as ball boys at the 1974 League Cup Final at Wembley Stadium. Having been turned down by several professional clubs, including Newcastle United, Sunderland, Derby County and Southport, Bruce was about to start work as an apprentice plumber at the Swan Hunter dockyard when he was offered a trial by Third Division club Gillingham, whose manager Gerry Summers had seen him playing for Wallsend in an international youth tournament. He travelled down to Kent with Peter Beardsley, another player from the Wallsend club, but although Gillingham signed Bruce as an apprentice, they turned…