In 2022, Steve Bruce disclosed that he never had a conversation with Guochuan Lai, the former controlling stakeholder of West Brom, during his disastrous tenure as manager at The Hawthorns. Bruce took over as Valerien Ismael’s replacement in February of that year, but he was fired in October of the same year due to a string of unsatisfactory performances that put the Baggies in the Championship relegation zone.
In his eight months in charge, Bruce collaborated daily with then-CEO Ron Gourlay, who initially hired the former manager of Birmingham City and Aston Villa. Bruce oversaw the hiring of players like Josh Onomah and Steven Alzate, but was perplexed by the club’s inability to secure moves for them on the day of the summer transfer deadline.
Despite this, he never once spoke to the less well-known Lai, whose final match was a 1-1 tie with Cardiff City in January 2022, near the end of Ismael’s rule. This was true even though Lai named himself chairman instead of fellow countryman Li Piyue after Ismael was fired. There was optimism for better communication after touring Albion’s training ground at the beginning of the year, but Lai fell short of expectations.
“I never had any contact with the previous regime at all, which tells you something. I just spoke with Ron. That tells you everything about the time. It was difficult,” Bruce said in an interview with BirminghamLive .
