Steve Bruce discloses what he thought of Sheffield Wednesday’s Carlos Carvalhal when Portuguese was appointed at Hillsborough

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Bruce’s Hull side take on the Owls in the Championship play-off final.

Steve Bruce has admitted that he did not really know who Carlos Carvalhal was when the Portuguese was appointed as Sheffield Wednesday’s new manager at the beginning of the season, the Sheffield Star reports.

Bruce will be going head to head with Carvalhal at Wembley on Saturday when his Hull City side take on the Owls for the final place in the Premier League.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Carlos Carvalhal

And while he will surely have studied the Wednesday boss’ work extensively ahead of this weekend, he conceded that he would have struggled to have told anyone much about Carvalhal when he was initially given the job at Hillsborough.

“I have to be honest and say I wasn’t aware of him [when he arrived] but if you look at his CV he’s been around the block a bit,” he told the Star. “He’s obviously experienced different countries but he’s made a big impression in his first season.

“He couldn’t have wished for better. It’s up to us to make sure he only gets in the play-offs and doesn’t get to the Premier League.”

Hull manager Steve Bruce

Bruce’s honestly reiterates just how surprising Wednesday’s success has been this term.

Carvalhal came in with no knowledge of managing in England, and had struggled to stay with any of his previous 15 clubs for any prolonged period of time.

And with the Owls failing to finish in the top half of the table since their return from League One, it appeared that the appointment could have perhaps been something of a recipe for disaster.

However, Carvalhal has guided his side to the top six, and done it with a style that few managers in the Football League can say they also adopt.

He has had no fear when it comes to dropping his best players if he feels that another player can do a better job against certain opposition or if he feels that that player would perform better after a rest.

And that strategy has meant that his team go into the final looking a lot fresher than a lot of the sides that reach this stage would, which means that Bruce’s men will have to be near their best to get the result they crave.