Quotes from Steve Bruce

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.

I judge people, and myself, when you are up against it. When you've been beaten like that you have to find out who is alongside you, you roll your sleeves and come out fighting and those are my principles.

My dad worked all his life, an engineer, 30 years, week in, week out at the same machine. That is mind-boggling to me. I do not know how the hell he did it.

You have to be as truthful as you possibly can. That's always been my philosophy.

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

No one hates someone spitting at someone more than I do and it is frowned upon in our country. It is a horrible, horrible thing to do.

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.

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

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.

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

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

I want to entertain, I want Newcastle United that is the best it can possibly be.

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

I'm delighted and incredibly proud to be appointed as head coach of Newcastle United.

Coming to manage Newcastle was never going to be easy. But there was never a side to me that thought, 'Oh no, I do not want that.'

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

I am a Newcastle fan like everyone knows.

My job's about the accumulation of points over a 10-month season. And if you're with a team expected to be in the bottom half of the Premier League it's always going to be tough. There's going to be periods when you go up and down.

That's what the Premier League is, that will never change. There will be periods when you're up and down.

Your boyhood club, the one you've supported, the one result that you look for more than anybody else because of my upbringing, has always been Newcastle so to go and manage it is arguably the pinnacle but it's a really difficult job, I have to tell you.

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've got the utmost respect for Mauricio Pochettino at Tottenham.

It's the manager's job to always knock on the door, to always strive to improve, but there has to be a reasonable degree of common sense too.

I've never been involved with anyone who's set out to hurt people, to break legs. It is a bit of a dying art