Source: Northern_Echo
Bruce full of praise for Liverpool boss
HE may have spent much of his playing career playing for Liverpool's arch-rivals Manchester United, but Steve Bruce has nothing but praise for the Reds and their manager Kenny Dalglish.[LNB] Sunderland's manager Bruce welcomes Dalglish and Liverpool to the Stadium of Light on Sunday, and after coming so close to an Anfield victory in September, Bruce is pleased to see Liverpool returning to form.[LNB] Bruce said: "He has galvanised Liverpool again and got them talked about for the right reasons. I had a conversation with Kenny in the summer and he was distraught over the turmoil at the club.[LNB] "You never associated Liverpool with controversy, or turmoil. That disappointed Kenny. He immediately got the hugest respect from players and supporters. It is a different Liverpool now.[LNB] "So you can only say 'well done Kenny'. He has picked them up by the boot laces."[LNB] Dalglish, who managed Liverpool between 1985 and 1991, returned to the Kop for a second spell in a caretaker capacity after Roy Hodgson's five months in charge ended in acrimony.[LNB] Despite poor records in charge of Celtic and Newcastle, Dalglish won the Premier League in 1995 with Blackburn Rovers, at the expense of United, where Bruce was in his penultimate season at Old Trafford.[LNB] And Bruce added: "He was out 20 years! Ouch. He is Liverpool. He is probably the only one who could galvanise them in the horrible situation they found themselves in.[LNB] "He has got the club moving forward again. They will be a different proposition this time around. There was an air of gloom and doom about them."[LNB] Dalglish, who broke the British transfer record in 1995 with the £5m signing of Chris Sutton from Norwich City, broke the Reds' own record with the £35m signing of Newcastle United's Andy Carroll in January - a player who so nearly became a Wigan Athletic player when Bruce was in charge of the Latics.[LNB] The Gateshead-born striker is expected to make his full debut against Sunderland, a team he has only faced three times in his career.[LNB] And Bruce said: "I hope that niggle lasts for a bit longer. That will present a challenge both to him and to us. Of course it will. I honestly wish him the best of luck.[LNB] "He has had a meteoric rise, he is a throwback to the good old days when I used to play against the likes of Joe Jordan, an old British No. 9. It will be interesting to see how he does, how he manages himself and how he hangs on and plays for Liverpool.[LNB] "The big thing for him is that he has got a wonderful opportunity and I am sure he has a fantastic future ahead of him because he is different.[LNB] Carroll caught Bruce's eye when he came on as a substitute during Wigan's 2-1 win over the Magpies on Boxing Day in 2008, and Bruce recalled: "I said to Joe Kinnear 'would you sell me Andy' and they quoted me £4.5m and to be honest, I seriously thought about it but in the end, we could only go to £2.5m.[LNB] "I had Heskey at the time and I did wonder if Heskey and Carroll would work. So back in my Wigan days, Andy Carroll could quite easily have ended up being my player.[LNB] "When I came here just after Newcastle had been relegated, I never really looked at any of their players then.[LNB] "He is like Duncan Ferguson at his best, though I do not think they saw the best of him (Ferguson) at Newcastle.[LNB] "On their day, big lads like that are very, very difficult. Obviously they are about 6ft 4in and the thing about Andy is that he can jump. He has got this great balance which allows him to go and jump and compete.[LNB] "That is why Kenny has paid £35m. He is different to anything else out there."[LNB]
