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Could Steve Bruce be England’s man in waiting?

With the news that Hull City manager Steve Bruce has interviewed by The F.A. in regards to the vacant England job it shows that it’s not just a one horse race in terms of who will be the man to take from Roy Hodgson after his post Euro 2016 departure.

The 55 year old announced that he held talks on Monday but as yet there has been no official approach from The Football Association. Even though these talks have taken place, Sunderland’s Sam Allardyce is still very much the favourite to be Hodgson’s successor.

Has Steve Bruce done enough to warrant being England manager though. On the face of it you would say probably not but maybe this highlights the paucity of candidates that are in the running for the England job, then again credit must go to The F.A. for wanting to hire an English man for the job.

With their being 5 English managers set to start next season in the Premier League it’s very slim pickings and with both Alan Pardew and Sean Dyche not set to be in the running then there are only a trio of candidates who could feasibly become the next England boss.

Eddie Howe could be viewed as someone a bit too young at this time but you get the feeling his time will come but for someone like Steve Bruce this could be the perfect time to make his foray into international management. The only thing that is arguably standing in his way is Sam Allardyce.

But you get the feeling that Bruce is happy to be Number 2 on the list, it hasn’t necessarily been angling for this move but at the same time if you were in Bruce’s position you certainly wouldn’t be turning down the opportunity to at least talk with your future employers

After getting to the Premier League with Hull again thanks to a play off victory against Sheffield Wednesday in May the challenge now for Bruce is to make sure Hull don’t once again become a yo-yo club in the top flight and now try to become an established club in the top flight.

That won’t necessarily be easy as the club is currently in a backdrop of takeover talks plus there is the ongoing row about changing the name of the club to Hull City Tigers, distractions that Bruce doesn’t really need and distractions that also make the England job very appealing.

Perhaps The F.A. are talking to Bruce just so that it doesn’t look like a foregone conclusion and in fairness they would be silly to rush into making an appointment so soon after Hodgson’s departure. With no England game until September there’s no great rush just yet and even then Gareth Southgate is capable of holding the fort for the first few qualifiers should he be required.

Whether Bruce is the right man for the job remains to be seen as I don’t think he would have been people’s first choice when the vacancy arose but realistically is one of very few viable options. We could do better but then again we could do a lot worse.

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