Steve Bruce laughed off his links to Birmingham during his Aston Villa unveiling and said: ‘I've been used to being called Potato Head for 20 years. I always took it as a bit of a compliment.’
Bruce was a player at Birmingham for two years in the Nineties and then managed the club between 2001-07.
He earned two promotions to the Premier League and became a persona non grata among Villa fans.
The 55-year-old has kept his house in the outskirts of the city during since then, even while managing Wigan, Sunderland and Hull, and returns now believing a fifth Championship promotion is possible.