Steve Bruce reveals ‘lack of respect’ led to managerial exit and left him with regrets

Steve Bruce says he resigned as Hull City manager following a ‘lack of respect’ from ex-chairman Ehab Allam and regrets not sorting the problems out.

Bruce resigned as the Tigers’ boss three weeks prior to the 2016/17 season starting, which ended with the club getting relegated. They did not get back into the Premier League until nine years later.

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The 65-year-old has always maintained he left with a heavy heart, but had no choice to leave after his relationship with the owner’s son, Ehab Allam, became irretrievable.

Due to Assem Allam falling ill, his son Ehab became keen to sell up and refused the manager a chance to strengthen an injury-ravaged squad with only 13 fit senior players.

His departure was sudden, and after he failed to appear at the training ground, the coaching staff had to inform the players that he had quit the evening prior.

Recalling his fairy tale managerial start at Hull, Bruce said on White and Jordan: “I had a wonderful relationship with his [Ehab Allam] father. Unfortunately, his father took ill. He was a fantastic man, in and around Hull.

“I mean, his first words he said to me was he bought Hull for the community because he didn’t want it to go bust, but he doesn’t know anything about football.

“He needed somebody experienced. Here you go, Steve, come and run it. And we had a great time. We had four years, two promotions, FA Cup final, 2-0 up in a Cup final, and got into Europe.

“We had a really, really wonderful time. And this was with the Alam family. It’s just fair to say, ten years later, I’m disappointed that I couldn’t make the relationship work.

“And I do believe that any successful football club, really, you have to have a link between the top and the head coach or the manager.

“There has to be a little bit of respect down the road. And unfortunately, there wasn’t any between both of us. And we were both to blame. And I took the decision at the time to say, ‘I can’t work like this.’

Hull City remains the club where the former defender enjoyed his longest managerial tenure, sitting in the MKM Stadium dugout for four full years.

On his departure, Bruce said: “It was after a conversation with Ehab. I said ‘I think it’s best I go’, yeah. And he said ‘yes’. He couldn’t wait for me to get out the door.

“He couldn’t wait. And fair enough, I just regret that I couldn’t make it work because it was happy times, we had just gotten the Premier League and we should have been looking to rebuild the team. And we had a nucleus of a very, very decent team.

“I had bit the bullet for the last four or five months. And I suppose, the interference of the scouting network and all the rest of it, after running it, it all of a sudden disappeared.

“And we were successful in the transfer market. We found people like Jarrod Bowen and Andy Robertson and Harry Maguire. But I became not happy with the recruitment part of the club and wanted to go down a different route.

“But it was not healthy for the club in particular. So I made the decision to walk away from it.”

Hull’s revival under Sergej Jakirovic

After narrowly avoiding relegation to League One in 2025, Hull City staged a remarkable turnaround to crash the Championship play-offs last season.

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They went on to defeat Middlesbrough in the play-off final at Wembley, securing their return to the top flight for the first time in nine years.

So far, the underdogs have made a perfect start in the Premier League under head coach Sergej Jakirovic, even beating the Red Devils 2-0 on the season’s opening day.

Bruce complimented the current atmosphere surrounding the club, as he said: “I have to say the new manager walking through the door, everybody was predicting that last year they would be relegated.

“Not to get to the top end and get them into the play-offs and ultimately get them promoted.

“I was particularly impressed defensively the way they were because they had to from last season. They conceded something like 60-odd goals.

“They conceded and still managed to get up. And yet this year they look rock solid defensively.”