Birmingham City Morning Recap: He Must Be “down” So far As Football Is Concern And…

‘Let him down’ – Ex-Birmingham City midfielder makes Steve Bruce admission after Blackpool reunion

The former England international was signed by the legendary Manchester United captain during his time at St Andrew’s, and made 69 appearances for the Blues between 2003 and 2007, before returning to his first club Blackburn Rovers.

After nearly two years away from management, Bruce returned to the dugout with Blackpool back in September, and has proven to be a popular figure around Squires Gate.

Dunn was in attendance at Bloomfield Road on BBC Radio Lancashire commentary duty for last weekend’s 3-3 draw with Mansfield Town, during which time he was able to catch up with his former boss.

Speaking to the Gazette, the retired midfielder admitted he had an honest conversation with the 64-year-old about his own time playing under him.

“I had a good chat with him the other day, and to be honest he’s not changed a great deal,” Dunn said.

“I’ve always had the utmost respect for him – he’s a really good guy. He was a really popular manager with all of the lads, he gave us the freedom to go out and do what we wanted.

“He signed some really good players, (Christophe) Dugarry was obviously there, who was a World Cup winner, so good times.

“In terms of myself, it probably wasn’t great in terms of my game time, but nevertheless, I enjoyed myself, and probably grew up a lot while I was there.

“I had a couple of things with my family, and my injury record at Birmingham was really poor. I felt like I let him down a little bit to be honest, because he was actually too good to me.

“I was young and a little bit daft. He knew my problems at the time, and was understanding of that and gave me a little bit of leeway. Looking back, that was really good of him, but I said to him on Saturday I probably needed a boot up my backside.

He was so good with me, but on the flip side, I probably needed someone to say, ‘look you need to take your career more seriously.’

“I started off really well there. I had already made my debut for England, but I remember pulling my hamstring just as I was about to get another call. It wasn’t a great time career-wise, but the lads and the manager were really good with me.”