Bruce: ‘Wenger has been a detriment to English managers’

Steve Bruce has told talkSPORT that Arsene Wenger’s success at Arsenal has been detrimental to the development of British managers within the Premier League.

The Sunderland manager stated that, although Wenger has continually produced consistent results, other foreign managers who have tried to replicate his success haven’t.

Bruce said: “I applaud all the old-school managers when they’ve got this huge desire to keep working. With Arsene Wenger, and I think I’ve said it repeatedly, he’s been to the detriment of the English [or] British manager because he’s been that good.

“He’s been that good for so long other clubs have said ‘well, hang on a minute, we’ll go and get another Arsene Wenger’, a foreign manager, and obviously they’re not all like him.

“He’s done a fabulous job, the way his teams play. Arsenal have always got this bit of class about them and it epitomises in him. He’s up there with the best there’s been.

"You have to say repeatedly without the money of the other big clubs to keep Arsenal where they are and the way they play you can only take your hat off to him.

“You can sometimes criticise him, he’s been famous for ‘I didn’t see it’, but he does that to protect his players. The one thing you can’t hide away from, year after year, he keeps Arsenal at the top, in the Champions League.”

Bruce’s views came on a day in which Blackburn boss Sam Allardyce also claimed that he and Mark Hughes had not been given enough time during their reigns in charge of Newcastle and Manchester City.