Happy to be back home, says Black Cats boss Bruce
Jul 24 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal
Steve Bruce has only been back in the North East a few weeks but he has already made big plans for the future as Sunderland manager. Chief Sports Writer Luke Edwards reports
IT has been almost 30 years since Steve Bruce left the North East to carve out a career in football, but there was also part of him that never left.
Rejected by all of the North East clubs, Sunderland’s new manager was forced to make the most out of an opportunity at Gillingham, an opportunity he took with relish.
Yet, through all of the success at Norwich and Manchester United which followed after those formative years in an unfashionable corner of Kent, for all of the highs and lows of management with Sheffield United, Huddersfield, Crystal Palace, Birmingham City and Wigan, Bruce never felt quite at home.
It would be ludicrous to suggest he was homesick, constantly pining for a return to Northumberland, yet there has always been something missing.
Only now that he has returned to his roots – albeit at Sunderland rather than childhood club Newcastle – has he fully appreciated what it was.
“They used to call me a plastic Geordie, but it’s good to be back,” said Bruce in a North East accent which has become markedly more pronounced since he agreed to take on the manager’s job at the Stadium of Light.
“The accent is back, it didn’t take long. I’ve been away a long, long time. It’s 30 years since I went to Gillingham and I’m loving being back home, I really am.
“It still feels very much like that to me and coming back has confirmed what I always felt. It looks like we’ll have somewhere to live shortly and I’m really happy.
