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.
“I knew what the team was doing on the pitch wasn’t what Newcastle United fans wanted. And I knew they were fed up. They wanted change. But I had a brief to keep the club in the Premier League. And we finished 12th and 13th in my two full seasons. I know we weren’t entertaining or attractive to watch, I’ll hold my hands up.
“We were pragmatic, defensive. I did what I had to do. Keeping Newcastle United in the Premier League was worth something. Would the sale to the new owners have gone ahead if the club was in the Championship? I’m not so sure.”
The Geordies’ loss could be the Baggies’ gain. Bruce has a drive to succeed at a club where the pressure has been turned up a notch. This is the second year of their parachute payments, and the 61-year-old knows he needs to make it count. West Brom were heading around in circles under Valerien Ismael. His playing style was unloved by supporters and players alike.
Would Newcastle have been taken over by the Saudis without Steve Bruce's stability? Have your say here
Reaching the play-offs was a long shot when Bruce arrived. Five matches later, without a victory, and hope had been extinguished. Form picked up but it wasn’t enough. Sweeping changes are needed. And Bruce is ready.
He said: “The problem was I couldn’t arrest the slide quickly enough. If we had been little more than average during the first month, it could have been different. Instead of losing four or five we might have had a squeak. I wanted to make a bigger impact. But the reality is that the club has been damaged.
“In the last 20 years it has either been in the Premier League or in the top four of the Championship. That’s a fantastic achievement. But we’ve been nowhere near that this year. So, we have a job on our hands. The squad here – a large part of it – has been together for a long time. It needs to be freshened up, changed.
“In a way, perhaps, like when I took Birmingham up... or Hull. We are not going to have a mountain of money to spend. We have to be shrewd. Wheel and deal and be ahead of the queue. There’s enough players out there to improve us and have a hungrier, fresher group than we have at the minute. Until now, we haven’t coped. Given a bit of time, we will.”
