Steve Bruce confirms that he did in fact write those murder mystery novels!
Back in the early noughties whilst manager of Huddersfield, Bruce put his name to a trio of books (Defender!, Sweeper! and Striker!) about a definitely fictional character called Steve Barnes, who moonlighted as a detective alongside alongside his role as Leddersford Town boss.
Wonder how he came up with those names?
Anyway, it's never really been clear to what extent the former Man Utd skipper was actually involved with the novels. You'd hope and pray they were all his own work, but the presence of a shadowy ghostwriter could never be fully ruled out.
Our worst fears came true last week when his son, Hull defender Alex Bruce, went on 5Live and claimed that his dad had nothing to do with them.
It had been revealed that Steve Bruce was a budding novelist.
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) October 21, 2016
However, @AlexBruce84's revelation will break hearts: https://t.co/Jd79vzlNtO
Heartbreaking stuff. However, there was to be one final twist...
He's just done an interview with Sky Sports and confirmed that he did in fact write them himself!
Though unfortunately, no further instalments to the series are planned.
Let's end with an extract from Defender!
Some properly captivating prose right there.
