Steve Bruce is currently plying his trade at Villa Park, in an attempt to resurrect a Villa side who have been on a downwards spiral for the past couple of years.

In doing so, he arguably faces the toughest task of his managerial career so far, with the fans demands to get Villa back in the top-flight, which at present, are unrealistic given their low league position.

Bruce has had a long and illustrious career as a player and now manager.

He was part of a highly successful Manchester United side, which won a countless amount of trophies.

After finishing his career at Sheffield United, Bruce went into management and has taken charge of nine sides so far, including Villa’s fierce rivals, Birmingham City.

Bruce achieved promotion to the Premier League last season with Hull City but was surprisingly sacked just a few months later.

Everybody knows about Steve Bruce as a manager and player, but here, FLW's Chris Wilson will identify TWO things you never knew about Bruce…

 

Goal scoring prowess

Bruce is widely regarded as a goal scoring centre back, if there has ever been one, which nowadays we don't see, but really highlights the strength of Bruce as a player.

In the 1990-91 season, Bruce notched up 19 goals in 50 appearances, to give him a record of just over a goal every two and a half games, a return that even a striker would be proud of.

Bruce was a threat from set-pieces and he was even dubbed as a penalty king, but the vast majority of his goals came from being on the end of corners.

Bruce is an author

Bruce is also an author!

He has a range of books on the market, none to do with football, but all titled by the positions on a football pitch.

The books Bruce has written are called 'Sweeper', 'Defender' and 'Striker', all of which are murder novels, but it has only recently come to fruition that they are written by 'the' Steve Bruce.

Bruce's book was not published in the thousands, so getting your hands on one would be evry difficult, with books selling for £250 on eBay in the past.