Bruce: Daglish is out to get Man Utd's crown

Mar 20 2011 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

STEVE BRUCE reckons Kenny Dalglish came out of retirement to try knock Manchester United off their perch.

Kop legend Dalglish returned for a second spell in charge of Liverpool in January – 20 years after the pressure of managing at Anfield led him to quit the club.

Dalglish went on to manage Blackburn, Newcastle and Celtic, but has been out of management altogether since leaving Parkhead in 2000.

Bruce was part of Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United side that succeeded the Reds as the dominant force in English football in the 1990s, but he says Dalglish will be fired up by the challenge of turning the clock back to Liverpool’s 1980s heyday.

“If Kenny gets the job permanently at the end of the season, that’s what he will want to do,” said Bruce.

“When I first went to Manchester, that’s what Sir Alex was obsessed with – overtaking Liverpool.

“A similar sort of thing will happen with Kenny. If he takes over permanently, which it looks as thought he will, he will want the assurances that he can make Liverpool great again.

“Let’s be fair, Liverpool have not won the Premier League. For Liverpool, in over 20 years, it’s unheard of (not to have that sort of success).

“I’m sure he’ll want to achieve that. The first thing he will ask is whether he can take Liverpool back to the glory days of when he was playing and managing.

“It will take time because you have your Man Citys and Tottenhams. Liverpool finished seventh last year – will they finish any better this year? They might finish sixth or seventh, but they haven’t really been in contention now for years, so it’s a tall order.’’

Bruce and Dalglish will come up against each other in the dugout for the first time this afternoon.

But they crossed swords as players in the 1980s, with Bruce recalling his disastrous debut for Norwich City against Liverpool back in August 1984.

Bruce said: “Kenny was one of the greats. I’ve never managed against him, but I remember playing against him on my debut for Norwich – I scored an own goal after about 30 seconds with my first touch!

“Then, after about 20 minutes, he dummied Dave Watson to shoot - that famous one where he dragged it back through his legs.

“And he bent it into the top corner. I tried to get my head on it and I headed it into the net – so it was like two own goals in 20 minutes! We drew 3-3 in the end, but Liverpool were a great team then.”