Every Current Premier League Manager As Footballers Ranked - Worst To Best

Though he may not cut a particularly imposing figure these days, Steve Bruce is one of the best defenders in English football history to have never received a cap at full-international level, despite turning out for both the England youth and B team.

Bruce's footballing career began in rather inauspicious circumstances and even he considered ending his career before it had even begun after a failed trial at current club Newcastle United.

Better things were to come for Bruce though, and he would eventually establish himself as a staple of the first great team that Sir Alex Ferguson moulded at Old Trafford, ultimately donning the captain's armband en route to three Premier League titles and a European Super Cup before making the jump into management with Sheffield United in 1998.