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The last time Steve Bruce stood on the touchline at the KCOM Stadium it was to bring up 200 games in charge of Hull City . 

A 2-0 defeat to Derby County was not the perfect way to reach the milestone but still proved enough to seal a play-off semi-final victory and a third Wembley trip in just over two years. 

A narrow 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday would follow 11 days later to guide the Tigers back into the Premier League at the first attempt, only that was where the story ended for Bruce and City.  Promotion and out before the next challenge could begin. 

Twenty months have now passed since Bruce handed in his resignation on July 22, 2016 and still he questions the logic behind his decision. “ Have you ever known anyone walk away from a club just after taking them up to the Premier League?”  Bruce asked ahead of his return with Aston Villa this weekend. 

The fact he did illustrates just how bleak things had got during his final months at the KCOM Stadium.  Relations with vice chairman Ehab Allam were beyond repair and Bruce saw no alternative but to quit 22 days before the club’s Premier League return. 

“I genuinely thought at that time that the trust between myself and Ehab had evaporated,” Bruce told the Mail. 

“The one thing you need at any football club is that stability and trust between a manager and a chief exec or technical director.  That relationship has to be watertight and you have to sing off the hymn sheet. 

“It was fairly obvious for the sake of the club that I needed to walk away.  And that’s what disappointed me most.  I was walking away from the Premier League but I knew if I stayed we wouldn’t get anything done.  Too often, mainly over players, we were in disagreement.” 

(Image: Getty)

If there was a turning point in City’s modern history, a juncture that sent the club down the road that sees them struggling at the wrong end of the Championship, it came in that pivotal summer of 2016. 

Bruce had toyed with the idea of leaving in the months before winning the second of his two promotions at Wembley but the victory over Sheffield Wednesday, sealed by Mo Diame’s wonderful goal, momentarily extended his patience until pre-season brought the infamous “Ask Ehab” responses. 

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“It was fairly evident that (Ehab) wanted to run the club his way,” Bruce explained. “ I know he said recently in a radio interview that I wanted to leave in February (2016) and that was because what had gone on in January had disturbed me that much. 

“I just said ‘Whatever happens, prepare yourself’ because I made it clear that if it carried on as it was he would need to find himself a new manager.  I didn’t want to go with a few months of the season left because I didn’t think that was right for the club. 

“I remember having a conversation with Mick Phelan (his then assistant and eventual successor) and he told me it was important to try and repair that relationship.  But I’d tried and unfortunately Ehab wanted to do it his way. 

“As the manager I couldn’t let it go any further.  I’d gone as far as I could with it and I had to take the step to walk away.  We hadn’t spoken all summer so how can you carry on like that? 

“In the end Mick Phelan was left with an awful deal where he had 14 players to kick off the season.  It was ludicrous.” 

Bruce has not spoken to either Assem or Ehab Allam since leaving City and the disappointment felt when walking away has partially tainted all that went before it. 

“It was such a shame I couldn’t make it work but I had to take the action I did,” he added. “ You work and strive to be in the best league in the world and we’d just got there with a good team.  We needed to add four or five players to it and he saw it differently.  It’s fair to say we had to go our separate ways.” 

(Image: Getty)

Among the bones of contention between Bruce and Ehab Allam was player recruitment.  Attempts to sign Andre Gray from Brentford in the summer of 2015 had been blocked and by the time January rolled around, only a move for reserve goalkeeper Dusan Kuciak and a loan deal for Nick Powell were sanctioned by the club’s board. 

Allam’s preference was for a modernised scouting model, one that has since been implemented with the appointment of Lee Darnbrough as City’s head of recruitment last summer. 

“The recruitment staff I had were second to none,” said Bruce. “ I didn’t have many and they weren’t into computers but they knew a player when they saw one.  Players like Moses Odubajo, Andy Robertson, Harry Maguire and Sam Clucas.  How could you question that? 

“We had a bloody good team in that play-off final.  The balance of it and the age of it, it was an excellent side.  We needed more once we went up but the nucleus was there. 

“If we’d have signed a few proven Premier League players to lend a hand, there’s no doubt we’d have had a good team with players like Robertson and Odubajo at full-back, players like Maguire, Diame, (Jake) Livermore and Clucas.  I could go on and on.” 

For all Bruce wonders what might have been with City, he will return as Aston Villa boss this weekend armed with happy memories.  As the first man to lead the Tigers to an FA Cup final in 2014, he was also responsible for an unprecedented, albeit short, European adventure.  And then there was the promotions that book-ended his tenure, achievements that cemented his bond with supporters. 

“The fans were always terrific with me,” said Bruce. “ They appreciated someone like myself, from a working-class city like Newcastle, because they appreciated the fact I didn’t give them any flannel.  I tried to be as honest as I could with them and I think they knew that. 

“Yes, we had some tough times and got relegated, but the days out at Wembley will stick with you.  It’ll be lovely to see the people who were good to me, that’s for sure.  I’ll always be eternally grateful to the support I had there. 

“I had the most enjoyable four years with Hull City and I would give my right arm to replicate it now with Aston Villa.  We’re a big club and I’d love to have the success I had with Hull here.  That says it all.” 

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