Steve Bruce

“Alan Shearer is a friend of mine and he is entitled to his opinions.”

“My loyalty was questioned for a long time when I was younger, and that's understandable. I found it very difficult to conform and I wanted to do it all my way.”

“I've said it for a long time that Aston Villa is a special club.”

“I was just too young to retire as a 52-year-old. I didn't want to be going out of football after loving it so much.”

“When I was younger I was a nightmare. I let people down. I resigned from Sheffield United because things were promised to me that weren't forthcoming. I let people down when I was younger, certainly in management.”

“I'm always sad to see a manager go.”

“If you manage Newcastle, you have to deal with the consequences.”

“I think in management, if you lose the drive to succeed you may as well not be in it.”

“Without that real spectacle of a big, noisy St James' Park or Old Trafford or the Emirates, the certain beauty of watching a game of football even live on the telly is not the same as far as I'm concerned.”

“If there is one thing that runs through all Geordies, from grandmas to small children, it is a love of Newcastle United.”

“They rejected me as a player. Newcastle said I wasn't going to be big or strong enough to make the grade, Burnley said the same. Most people said the same to be fair.”

“One of the hardest parts of management is trying to bring a club back after it's been relegated because there is a lot of doom and gloom around, especially among supporters.”

“Not many managers have been in charge for as many games as I have, that should tell you something.”

“Any club at the top needs stability, guidance and deep pockets.”

“A lot of people forget that I played for seven years in the lower divisions; it wasn't always 'this glittering career.' I had to wait a long time and even in the early days at Man U, for three years we didn't win anything.”

“I believe in what I do on the training ground.”

“When I was younger, I was a bit awkward to work for, hence why I had about five clubs in two years. I was a bit petulant, shall we say. But you're never too old to keep learning because every day in management, something is thrown at you which throws you a curveball.”

“I saw my mates go off to get apprenticeships on the shipyards and I went off to chase the dream of playing football and made sure I worked hard at it.”

“At Sunderland I balanced the books and managed them to this position of 10th and 13th. My record stacks up.”

“Nobody wants to lose to bloody Rochdale.”