IT’S hard to believe that before the lure of 15,000 crowds and the Wigan Pier Experience came calling, Steve Bruce was the Premiership’s third longest serving manager. Today we’re taking you back to the last time he upped sticks, but that time it wasn’t as easy. But then again, when Simon Jordan’s involved, things rarely are. Crystal Palace’s infamous perma-tanned chairman saw fit to take Bruce and his prospective employers to the High Court today in 2001 to slam the brakes on his move to Birmingham City.

Back around the turn of the century Bruce was going racking up jobs quicker than he did broken noses but this didn’t stop Birmingham head honchos David Gold and David Sullivan giving him the eye. In the three years after retiring he’d taken the top job at (deep breath) Sheffield United, Huddersfield, Wigan and Crystal Palace before deciding that St. Andrews was for him.

In a fitting piece of symmetry Simon Jordan was halfway through a four year period that saw five managers at Selhurst Park. That didn’t mean that he was willing to let his gaffer go easily. The case at the High Court saw the judge rule that Bruce had to stay on at Palace until at least January 14th when the case would go back to court, after Jordan had refused his resignation in early November. Legal jargon flew around, the lawyers got stuck in and Birmingham finally got their man on December 12th.



Did Jordan hold a grudge? “If I see another David Gold interview on the poor East End Jewish boy done good I’ll impale myself on one of his dildos,” he would later claim, making reference to Gold’s nefarious money-making ways. Five years later he was issuing writs again, as his solicitor burst into Charlton’s press conference where Ian Dowie was being unveiled, claiming Dowie had lied about his reasons for leaving Palace.

Check out Jordan talking about the subjects he loves - himself and sacking managers - and come back tomorrow for the greatest blag in Premiership history.

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