Big Interview: Heat’s on but Steve Bruce sticks to his Aston Villa recipe

On two of those occasions, while manager of Hull City, the subsequent campaign ended with him celebrating a promotion from the Championship.

Now he believes the same tried and tested formula can lay the foundations for delivering a third, this time with Villa, as he seeks to be the man who finally end what is approaching a decade of decline at one of the country’s biggest clubs.

At the very least, he hopes it can help them make a flying start to a season which is now just four weeks away.

“After coming here, I’ve always seemed to get off to a good start,” said Bruce, who is eager to explode any myths surrounding the location of the training camp.

“People think because I’ve got a house in Portugal is why we do everything over here but that’s not true,” he said.

“I’ve been coming here (to this hotel) for seven years. It was Nick Barmby who introduced me to this place.

“He had it set up. It was his idea of doing all the preparation away, not looking for games necessarily, but doing all the hard work in the heat.”

Just how much work Villa’s players have been doing over the past week becomes quickly apparent. Every day but one since their arrival last Sunday has featured a double training session, so intense the workout it has led to some members of the squad being physically sick on the pitch.

“They’re here to work,” said Bruce, bluntly. “To be fair to them they have come back in really decent condition. I haven’t got anyone in the fat club. It’s been excellent.

“What’s important on trips like this is bringing the 45 people together, players and staff. In the hotel it’s pretty quiet, which is why I choose it.

“The facilities are great, the weather is good, the food is great, pitches are great. We’ve got it all.

“Even the golf course is great, although I’ve been useless!”

Such self-deprecating, jokey diversions are common with Bruce, a man who remains a master at quickly putting others at ease, whether they be players, members of club staff or even journalists.

To many outsiders, the job of managing Villa must appear one of the most thankless in the game, a poisoned chalice which over recent years has claimed victims at an increasingly alarming rate.

Yet it is a challenge which Bruce, with two decades of managerial experience behind him, has embraced with gusto and no little good humour since replacing Roberto Di Matteo last October. His time at the helm has already had its ups and downs, there is no disputing that, yet he still claims to have loved every minute.

It is telling though, that Bruce admits to have only recently started to feel settled. Last season was one of almost constant upheaval which began before he had even arrived with a £40million splurge on players last summer and continued with his own January dealings which saw eight signings arrive and eight depart.

More change is inevitable in the current transfer window but on a significantly reduced scale and there is a sense that, nine months into the job, Bruce is finally starting to shape things the way he wants them.

“There was so much change last season, too much change arguably,” he says. “The club has had turmoil for too long. Not just player wise but staff wise. This is probably the first time now in six or seven months that the staff feel secure.

“They have had whirling around – one manager coming through the door, then another one, then another one and people lose their jobs.

“It’s important I create a spirit throughout the club, including the staff, which will stand us in good stead. I think the staff, now, have a trust in me. I hope so anyway. They are just as important as the players.

“I have had six months at it and probably now I have my feet under the table. I aim to keep them there. I want to stay here for as long as I can.”

With four promotions from the second tier already on his CV, there would appear no better candidate for getting Villa back on the right track.

Yet while his core method has never deviated drastically from the one which first brought him success during a six-year stint with Blues, at 56 Bruce remains open to change and willing to embrace new ideas.

“I think you have to do that,” he said. “When I first started 20 years ago I didn’t have a media man, I didn’t have two masseurs, I didn’t have three physios, I didn’t assistant manager and first-team coach, I didn’t have a goalkeeping coach. You maybe had one, two or three in your backroom team.

“Even now, compared to others, we are quite a small staff. You have to have your beliefs and what you stand by but also embrace what is there before you.

“With the satellite system we have now to monitor the players, I now know how far they have run, when they are in the red zone for the heart rate and all sorts. It’s mind-blowing, really. “You have to embrace these things because everyone else is doing it. Of course, it is still the margins but you still have to embrace it.

“They are certainly not putting black bags over their heads and running around in the heat, until they faint like we did in the old days!”

Bruce remains under no illusions as to the importance of the season ahead, even if he dismisses pressure as merely a natural hazard of the job.

Much of the blame for last season’s 13th placed finish could hardly be placed at his door, yet the honeymoon period which saw Villa embark on a seven match unbeaten run following his appointment has been long forgotten and results will be expected from the start.

Bruce’s ambition is for this year’s team to have a greater resilience and escape the fragility which was particularly apparent away from home.

The arrival of John Terry, in that respect, appears key. For Bruce, the former England international’s agreeing to drop down into the Championship, despite receiving more lucrative offers from the Premier League and abroad, simply reaffirms the club’s status.

It also reminds him of the potential if he can be the man who finally gets Villa heading back in the right direction.

“I have waited some 20 years for a club like this,” he said. “If I ever need reminding of that, I just need to look what has happened this week.

“With the club behind me we have been able to persuade one of the great players in English football to come here and it wasn’t all about money.

“Yes, he is well paid. But it wasn’t all about that. Had it been money, some of the offers I have seen he received from abroad have been unbelievable.

“I think the club has shown its true colours. We are still Aston Villa. We now have to turn round the four, five, six years of turmoil.

“I hope I am the one who can do it. I have done it before elsewhere, so why can’t I do it here?”