Alex Bruce ⭑ From A-Z since '92
The indignity is not necessarily his heritage or his puking, but that Leeds could just as easily signed any of a hundred other players who didn't look like Steve Bruce who would have been exactly the same.
This is part of my (eight year long, it'll fly by) attempt to write about every Leeds United player since 1992. For more about why I'm doing this, go back to Aapo Halme, then check out all the players featured so far on this page. Or you can keep going below, with his father's son.
It would be petty of Leeds United to screen incoming players for obnoxious links to Old Trafford, so in that sense it would be as acceptable as every other pettiness in football. What defeats the policy, though, is the risk of counter-production: no Johnny Giles, no Gordon Strachan. John Stiles: borderline case.
Nonetheless there was something unseemly about Elland Road becoming a dumping ground for Old Trafford's cast-off nepo babies at the start of the 2010s. The place had already been so lousy with Chelsea that it had fallen apart like a chewed up chest of drawers and fallen into the third tier — owner then 'non-owner' Ken Bates, sporting director Gwyn Williams, manager Dennis Wise, assistant Gus Poyet (he was okay), Tore Andre Flo (ditto) — that fans were pretty much beaten down into taking anybody from anywhere. Why not a few sons of the beaten team in 1992's league title race? At least we had Simon Grayson in charge, with Glynn Snodin helping, reminding them — according to Kasper Schmeichel — of that fact in training.
Schmeichel was an early arrival in the post-promotion summer of 2010 and at least had some pedigree as probably a good goalkeeper like his dad but no John Lukic. Alex Bruce, though, who joined him on the eve of the season, had the pedigree of someone whose name was opening doors but whose ability was closing them. Of course he'd been a youth player at Old Trafford while his dad, centre-back Steve Bruce, was there. Of course he'd been one of only two players in his year group who wasn't good enough for a contract. Even Phil Bardsley was being kept. "I had to step out of that office, look the rest of the lads in the eye and wish them all the best," Bruce said. His subsequent move from Blackburn's youth team to Birmingham set the tone for what followed: he went on loan from there to Tranmere Rovers in League One but, according to Rovers' chair Lorraine Rogers, when Birmingham's manager was courteously informed Bruce was being dropped the club sought special dispensation from the Football League to recall him. Birmingham's manager was, of course, Steve Bruce. "I suppose if the club chose to put in a courtesy call to the parents of every player who was being dropped we would doubtless be besieged by indignant fathers and mothers," said Rogers.
As if to prove Tranmere wrong, dad started putting his League One failson into his Premier League team, including a nice three minute run-out at Old Trafford, when they were 3-0 down. But after Birmingham were relegated Bruce Junior got out from under his father's shadow for a while at Championship Ipswich Town, getting a taste of Elland Road's unique atmosphere amid the pitch invasions and flying bottles of United's relegation in 2007. After 100 games at Portman Road Bruce must have thought his luck was in when Roy Keane took over as manager and made him captain — until the new boss had a look at him playing, took the captaincy back, and loaned him out to Leicester.
Which is where Leeds United came in, beating Sheffield United's offer of around £200,000. "Our parents lived next to each other, so I know him very well," said Kasper Schmeichel. "We used to play in the streets together for hours and hours when we were kids, we saw each other every day." Great stuff, just what everyone at Elland Road wanted to hear. He didn't specify whether this was around the time Leeds United were beating their dads' team to the First Division title but I have done the maths: Alex was seven and Kasper was five, just old enough to properly understand that Leeds United were the champions.
To be fair to Alex Bruce, he took his reception from Leeds fans in 2010 better than his mate. "Me and Kasper in goal used to have some very, very funny chants for us both about our dads," he told Graham Hunter a few years ago, the same chants Kasper still whinges to Jake Humphrey about to this day. "I made it no secret that I was a Man United fan," Bruce went on. "That's never going to get you player of the year, however you perform. But listen, great club to play for."