STEVE BRUCE might have taken on “the biggest” managerial job of his career, but there will be something familiar about his team as he attempts to take Sunderland into the top ten, writes PAUL FRASER.

Bruce has returned to the holiday he left to be installed as Ricky Sbragia’s successor with Wigan’s Titus Bramble and Lee Cattermole players already under consideration.

He has also been linked with Middlesbrough’s Stewart Downing.

But rather than be wasteful with the cash made available by club owner Ellis Short over the summer, Bruce is determined to attract the type of player capable of making Sunderland relegation proof next season.

Bruce insists it will not just be about cherry-picking the best players and more about keeping a good relationship with them afterwards.

He said: “You can have big stadiums and big support but it’s what goes over the white line and at Wigan, particularly before Christmas and we had to break the team up, we might not have had the biggest support or the biggest stadium or training ground, but my God we had an unbelievably good team. That’s what I want to create again. You’ve got to manage people”

Roy Keane lost the dressing room at the Stadium of Light in his final days in charge, having introduced hot-tempered global stars like El-Hadji Diouf and Djibril Cisse.

And while Bruce will not steer away from controversial players, as he proved when he acquired Mido from Boro in January, he will be careful when plotting his assault on the transfer market.

Regardless of the signings Bruce makes, he will not be scared when he leads Sunderland into the new season in August.

“It doesn’t frighten me,”

said Bruce. “It’s the right time for me.

“I’ve done ten years and in my early days it was very, very difficult when it wasn’t quite what was written in the brochure and I struggled with that. Over the years I’ve been able to get a bit of experience and this is the right time for me to take on this challenge. I’ve done over 500 games now so it’s the right time.”