Former Leeds United defender Alex Bruce, son of current Newcastle United manager Steve, has revealed that his father regrets leaving his managerial role at Crystal Palace.
The former Manchester United defender was in charge of the Eagles in 2001 for a just couple of months before eventually moving on to manage Birmingham City.
When speaking on talkSPORT on Tuesday morning, Alex said:
I was speaking to him [Steve Bruce] this morning, it’s one of his big regrets in football really. He walked away from Palace, he’d admit himself, probably too early.
He regrets it, it’s a big regret of his. He had a good time at Palace on the whole.
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The Eagles finished the 2001/02 season in tenth place in the Championship, whilst Birmingham finished in fifth place and secured promotion to the Premier League, winning the playoffs under Bruce’s guidance.
As seen on the official Premier League website, Bruce has gone on to manage multiple top-flight clubs, including Sunderland, Wigan Athletic and Hull City.
The fact that he regrets leaving Palace goes some way to show that he felt he could have maybe achieved good things with the club if he stayed for longer.
He’s currently doing rather well as the Newcastle boss, guiding the team to 13th place in the league so far this season.
With current boss Roy Hodgson’s contract with the Eagles expiring in the summer, we feel Bruce may be tempted to return to Selhurst Park because judging by his son’s remarks, the manager feels as though he has unfinished business at the club.
However, whether he’d be a target for the Eagles and whether he’d leave his hometown club Newcastle to move to Selhurst Park if he was, remains unknown at this time.
