BRUCIE BONUS!
New Owls boss starts with win at Ipswich
STEVE Bruce expressed his relief after sub Lucas Joao popped up with a last minute winner at Ipswich to ensure his reign as Sheffield Wednesday boss began with a win. Joao beat Bart Bialkowski from close range for the winner.
Bruce, right, said: “When you miss so many chances, you think it’s going to be one of those days, but we were comfortable in the game.”
Norwich went top with an impressive 3-1 victory at former leaders Leeds.
APRIL, 1993. Manchester United trail Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 at Old Trafford. Fergie’s famous watch ticks to 86 minutes. A first title in 26 years slips agonisingly from reach.
Then, as supporters gnaw nails and wallow in memories of the previous Easter’s catastrophic collapse, Denis Irwin flings in a corner.
Steve Bruce evades his marker, dodges team-mate Gary Pallister and flicks a stupendous header over Chris Woods from nigh-on the edge of the penalty area.
But Bruce, who scored a remarkable 19 times from central defence in 1990-91, isn’t done. Deep into injury time, Pallister swings in another ball. It’s a terrible cross, low and aimless, but a lucky deflection loops it onto the penalty spot.
And there’s Bruce again. This time, he doesn’t even need to jump. The ball simply hits that gnarly forehead and sails into the bottom corner.
Old Trafford erupts. On the touchline, Ferguson and his assistant Brian Kidd break into a giddy jig of delight.
It will be three games and 11 days before United are crowned champions but it is this moment that becomes the iconic image. This is the day an empire is a born.
“If I really, really wanted to, I could live off that moment,” says Bruce, now 58 and freshly unveiled as the manager of the club he downed three decades ago.
“Not many people know this, but I actually took Chris Woods out for dinner that night. He was a big pal of mine. We lived next door to each other in Norwich. It’s funny how things work out.
“And it’s remarkable how history remembers things, isn’t it? We went to Coventry three days later and Denis Irwin scored a great goal to pinch it 1-0. But nobody ever talks about that. Everybody sees my goals as the ‘defining’ moment – thankfully, mind – but there were still six or seven games to go. I think it was just how it happened, with Fergie and Kiddo running onto the pitch. But it’s a long time ago 1993. A long time ago.”
Don’t Wednesday know it. Back then, the Owls were legitimate rivals to United, blessed with some of the finest players in their history. John Sheridan, Chris Waddle, David Hirst.
This, though, is their 19th season outside the top flight - and a return has rarely looked further away.
Taken over by Thai Dejphon Chansiri in 2015, Wednesday spent lavishly and twice reached the play-offs, losing in the final to Bruce’s Hull side in 2016.
Now the chequebook is shut, the squad is ageing and Financial Fair Play restrictions have left Bruce – in his own words – with no budget.
Motivation
Having lost both parents and his job at Aston Villa last year, did Bruce really need such a testing return to the game?
“The big question after what happened last year was ‘Do I still have the same drive and motivation that I did when I was younger?’,” admits Bruce, who delayed his arrival at Hillsborough to spend time with his family in Barbados.
“Because let’s be honest. As a manager, and as a player, the reason I survived so long was enthusiasm and hard work. When you’re younger, those things come naturally. As you get a bit older, it’s not so easy.
“I spoke to my family. Mostly with my wife. I think she always knew that I’d go back to work but she demanded that I have a break. And she was right. “Medically, I also needed to be checked out. I’ve had a full MOT. All the tests. They’ve been up every orifice you could imagine. But I’m OK. “And this job, it didn’t frighten me. I know the chairman will help me to the extent he can. He’s put a very good team together here and they very nearly got there.
“But when you don’t get there – as about 10 or 11 Championship clubs are experiencing – you’re under that restriction and you have to box a bit clever.
“When I went up with Hull four or five years ago, we had waifs, strays, frees and loans. It didn’t put me off then and it doesn’t put me off now. Half the Championship operate that way.
“Of course, we’d all love a big warchest to go and sign everybody. Clearly, that isn’t going to be the case. But I’ve been around the block often enough to say ‘Ok, I can work with this’.” He’s certainly got experience of fighting such fires. Defeat to Fulham in May’s Championship play-off final precipitated total financial collapse at Villa, with owner Tony Xia reportedly unable to access funds in China.
Takeover
An eleventh-hour takeover averted disaster, but the damage was done and Bruce was sacked in October with the club struggling in mid-table.
“When you’re the manager of a club like Aston Villa, you don’t expect the chief exec to say ‘Hey, I don’t think we’re going to get paid next Friday’,” he says.
“Or that we can’t pay the tax bill. Then he loses his job the week after the play-off final. Then the director of football, Steve Round, loses his as well. You’re thinking ‘I’m next’.
“And that was after the first season, when I was told we had to raise £25m. I’d only been there five months by that stage.
“It wasn’t as easy as some people believe, but we nearly made it. We got to the play-off final, despite big restrictions which made life very difficult.”
Bruce, of course, has fonder memories of Wednesday than he does of Villa, and not just thanks to that glorious day at Old Trafford.
“You know, I think that’s me
lying on my arse up there,” he says, pointing to a picture of Sheridan scoring his iconic winner in the 1991 League Cup final against United.
Sleeping
“They were a great side then. And my son, Alex, played here. I went to Cardiff with big banners saying ‘Come on Wednesday’ when he played in the playoff final against Hartlepool.
“Sheffield Wednesday is a mountain of a club and it’s been sleeping a long time. But how long have we been saying that about so many big clubs in this division? Leeds up the road. Forest, Aston Villa. But somebody has got to be the man to rouse them.”
And talking of rousing struggling giants, can Bruce take inspiration from a fellow Fergie alumnus, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the Norwegian currently lifting the gloom around Old Trafford?
“I’m so pleased for Ole,” adds Bruce. “He’s one of football’s good lads and he’s been given a wonderful opportunity. He’s put a smile on everyone’s face and long may it continue.
“He’s given himself a great chance. Won eight out of nine. If he keeps doing that, the rest will look after itself, I’m sure.
“Me… I’d take half of that start here!”
The big question was ‘Do I still have the same drive and motivation?