Steve Bruce

“Jurgen Klopp coming into this country, you just have to applaud him for his tactics and the way Liverpool play.”

“I've been fortunate enough to have some big games as both a player and a manager.”

“This country always wants the underdog to win, that's in our nature.”

“For any Geordie, if you can't manage to play for Newcastle, then to get back and manage them it's something special.”

“I'm a Newcastle lad, so to be manager is every Geordie's dream.”

“The one thing that's easy to do is go and sign players. What you've got to try and do is try and improve them, and get better.”

“I remember going 14 games at Man U without winning.”

“I am a Newcastle fan like everyone knows.”

“When I got the sack from Huddersfield it hurt me badly. I became reclusive, I never went to a match, don't think I left the house for five months.”

“Flexibility isn't a bad thing.”

“Every time I took another job, my dad would ask, 'Why are you putting yourself through it again, haven't you got enough money?' I wish I'd spent more time with them, I think anyone who loses their parents will understand that, but I also know what he would have said. 'You crack on Steve, get on with it, son.'”

“I don't think I was a control freak. I just couldn't get my head around things. When I joined Sheffield United I was told I had £5m to spend, then when I went to see the chief executive he told me if I didn't raise £350,000 no one was getting paid.”

“It's very difficult to win a title.”

“The Hull job had been offered to me and while watching Chelsea against Bayern Munich I was thinking: 'I'm going to give it a crack.' I'd rather be managing than commentating.”

“Stats can do anything you wish. When we got the sack at Aston Villa it came out there had only been Man City in that calendar year who had scored more goals than Villa.”

“It's not always about money, we got Hull promoted with a collection of loans and waifs and strays.”

“To manage your country, there's no bigger job.”

“My record is good with Birmingham and Wigan. Just study the facts.”

“If Mauricio Pochettino can get the sack, then we all can because he did a wonderful job at Tottenham.”

“You have to keep that equilibrium - not getting too carried away or beating yourself up too badly. As a manager you have to be in the middle all the time. If you take water in, people look at you and say - 'look at the state he's in today.'”