"It's taken its toll" - Former Sheffield United manager Steve Bruce considers retirement after being sacked by Newcastle United

Bruce, whose first managerial job was at Bramall Lane, leaves his boyhood club less than two weeks after the club's takeover by a Saudi-led consortium.

His last game in charge of Newcastle, Sunday’s 3-2 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur, was his 1,000th as a manager – but he admits there may not be any more after his uneasy time at Newcastle took its toll.

“I think this might be my last job,” Bruce admitted in an interview with The Telegraph. “It’s not just about me; it’s taken its toll on my whole family because they are all Geordies and I can’t ignore that.

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“I really have to thank all the people who have worked alongside me, because I can be demanding and I can be hard work - especially when I was younger.

"When we get beat, I get very low, but when you are managing in the Premier League with Birmingham, Wigan, Hull, Sunderland you do get better at dealing with it. You have to.

“By the time I got to Newcastle, I thought I could handle everything thrown at me but it has been very, very tough. To never really be wanted, to feel that people wanted me to fail, to read people constantly saying I would fail, that I was useless, a fat waste of space, a stupid, tactically inept cabbage head or whatever. And it was from day one.

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“Why have I kept coming back? It’s me. It’s who I am. Football has been my life. It’s what I do. Why does anyone have a career? This has been mine and I’m very grateful for that.

“Someone reminded me the other day of the two headers I scored against Sheffield Wednesday that helped Manchester United win the first Premier League title in 1992.

“To still be involved 40 years later, well, I’ve been very lucky. I must have done ok, as a player and a manager. It’s been a lifetime really.”

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