Steve Bruce aiming to replicate Hull City success at Aston Villa
Steve Bruce reckons he will be “carried through the streets” if he can replicate his success at Hull with Villa.
The 56-year-old will on Saturday evening come face-to-face with his former club when they visit Villa Park for their Championship opener.
Bruce spent four seasons on Humberside, twice winning promotion from the Championship and taking the Tigers to the FA Cup final in 2014.
He quit 13 months ago in frustration at a lack of transfer activity and despite initially vowing to take a year out of the game was back just three months later to take the reins at Villa, charged with leading a turnaround after years of decline.
Villa finished 13th in the Championship, while Hull were relegated from the Premier League and head to Villa Park under the guidance of new boss Leonid Slutsky. Bruce has no regrets over how things have panned out.
He said: “What’s done is done, as far as I’m concerned. I hope I can replicate here what I did in Hull in four years.
“If I do that here, I’ll be carried out in the streets. We got to a cup final, two promotions and they’ve still got a sprinkling of players left from my time there who will make sure it’s going to be a difficult game, that’s for certain.”
The glare of a televised opening day fixture is a long way from where Bruce found himself 12 months ago, on holiday for the start of the season for the first time since he began his playing career.
“I’d be sitting having a gin and tonic, a little umbrella, a little bit of ice and lemon,” he said. “It was the first time last year, for 40 years, that I wasn’t involved on the first day of the season.
“It was strange, brutally strange, though I went to the beach the next day! But there’s only so many holidays you can have.
“I had a great long holiday, and got the call in October. I came back in a heartbeat.”
Bruce insists the challenge of reviving Villa was one of the few which would have broken his sabbatical.
“The lure of Aston Villa is the only one I would have come back for and I’m delighted that I did it,” he added. “I have enjoyed it every minute. Though it’s been tough, don’t get me wrong.”
