BRUCE'S SPROUT
Now Aston Villa has kicked him sprout...
POLICE want to nab a fan who threw a cabbage at Aston Villa boss Steve Bruce in his last game before he was sacked.
The angry supporter tossed the vegetable towards Bruce before his team’s 3-3 draw with Preston on Tuesday. It missed him – but the Championship club is now working with West Midlands Police in a bid to identify the culprit. Former Manchester United captain Bruce, 57, was being subjected to abuse from sections of the Villa Park crowd following a poor start to the season. He said of the flying cabbage: “Unfortunately it sums up the society we are in at the moment. There’s no respect for anyone.
“I find the whole thing hugely disrespectful.” Bruce was told after the match that his contract was being terminated by the club’s owners.
But many Villa fans backed Bruce and took to social media to speak up for him yesterday.
One tweeted: “I just found out Steve Bruce lost both his parents this year and now I feel really sad that someone threw a cabbage at him.”
Another said: “Got to say whoever threw a cabbage at Bruce is a class-A tool. No need for that.
“Guy lost both his parents and stood by us in the summer.”
A third fan wrote said: “Steve Bruce sadly lost both his mother and father recently and some moron decides to throw a cabbage at him.”
Fans have previously been banned from football grounds for life throwing objects at players or managers.
But vegetable-tossing is a rarity. However, former England manager Graham Taylor was compared to a turnip when the nation failed to qualify for the World Cup in 1994.
The Star Says: Page 6