'Not holding his nose' - Steve Bruce's Blackpool link-up applauded by one of his 11 former club chairmen

Simon Jordan, who appointed the now 63-year-old as Crystal Palace boss in 2001, said the ex-Manchester United captain’s desire to work again in football had to be admired.

And he said it was a measure of the man that Bloomfield Road and League One was his next career move, having managed regularly much higher up the footballing pyramid since his retirement from playing in 1998.

Bruce was appointed the Seasiders’ successor to Neil Critchley on Tuesday night - nearly two years on from his last managerial post at West Bromwich Albion, which came to an end in October 2022.

Blackpool are the former centre-back’s 12th club he has taken charge of and his 13th managerial appointment in total having twice managed Wigan Athletic.

Five months of his career in the dug-out was spent working for Jordan at Selhurst Park - a working relationship that turned sour at the time, after Bruce was lured away by Birmingham City.

But more than 20 years on from their acrimonious parting of ways, there’s clearly no ill-feeling between the two. Speaking on talkSPORT, for whom Bruce has also worked with in recent years, Jordan revealed his admiration for the challenge his former employee was embarking upon at Blackpool.

He said: ‘I mean, the economics will probably take him back to what I paid him 20-odd years ago, in terms of what he’s going to be paid for doing it. But he wants to manage football teams.

‘I didn’t like the observation that he wanted to do something more meaningful than working in the media - it’s a direct swipe at what we do! But he wants to work and there’s something to be said for it.

‘It might be a project. I don’t know what the fella (owner, Simon Sadler) is like down there in terms of his ambition. But Blackpool is a lovely football club with a great history. The only thing I didn’t like about it was they nicked Palace’s song “Glad All Over” and played it as their opening song as well, which I didn’t appreciate!’

Jordan continued: ‘But it’s one of those great institutional football clubs that exists within the framework of English football that once upon a time had these great players that played for them in great cup finals going back into the 50s.

‘And what it shows is, this is a guy who has managed - and you know I’m very fond of Steve - my club, who’s managed Sunderland, who’s managed Newcastle, who’s managed Villa, who’s managed Birmingham, who’s managed Hull, who’s managed West Bromwich Albion, who’s managed Sheffield United, who’s managed Sheffield Wednesday. I mean, these are all clubs that have been operating around the top end of the English pyramid and a lot of them in the Premier League. Newcastle is a big football club and when he was managing Sunderland, I think they finished seventh in the Premier League.

‘So he’s going right back down the pyramid, not holding his nose. And I think that’s something to be said, at 63 years of age.

‘Let’s be clear, the economics of Steve Bruce’s life do not detail that he needs to go and do a job - this is about wanting to do a job.’

Bruce has signed a two-year contract at Bloomfield Road. His first match in charge is against Exeter City on Saturday, September 14. The Seasiders go into the game third from bottom of League One and without a league win this season.