Steve Bruce admits: “It’s personal for me at West Brom.”
The Baggies chief is plotting his fifth Championship promotion. And following a chastening experience at Newcastle, this one means more. Bruce did not need too much by way of persuasion to return to management – and he did so in the Black Country in February with a point to prove.
He said: “I couldn’t finish my managerial career on what happened at Newcastle. I’d taken too much stick – I was being ridiculed. And there’s nothing worse. You can accept it if you have picked the wrong team. But I was being pulled to pieces because people were saying I couldn’t take a warm-up... that I had given the players too many days off.
