Interview ~ Michael Forsyth

Former Wycombe defender Michael (Bruce) Forsyth is back at Wycombe as Reserve Team Manager. I managed to have a chat with him.

WWISC: Well Bruce, it’s really nice to see you back here again and I think I can speak for most of the supporters of Wycombe Wanderers and say that we’re delighted to see you back again. We were sad when you left, but we understood that the injuries and not being quite as young as you were it was possible that you would be released. But while you’ve been away, what have you been doing?

Bruce: Well, when I left Wycombe Wanderers I retired from pro-football I did my coaching badges straight away and had an operation on my other knee. Then about six months after I finished I got a phone call from Michael Clough who is manager up at Burton. He wanted to know if I’d be interested in helping them out against Woking as they’d got through to the FA Cup 1st round. I hadn’t kicked a ball for six months and I hadn’t done any work with a ball at all but I said "yes" so I ended up playing there for a season and a half and had a really good time there. Clough is brilliant, I really learnt a lot off of him as well.
In the meantime I was coaching the under fourteens at Walsall and then last season I was back at Derby County again coaching at the academy there with the under thirteens. I was also coming down to Wycombe Wanderers once a week helping out Lawrie.

WWISC: We heard that you were doing a bit of ‘moonlighting’ down here...

Bruce: Yes! I was coming down and helping with a bit of the ‘quick fix’ stuff. It was good to still be involved. Then in the summer Lawrie phoned me and asked if I’d be interested in coming down full time. It was "yes defiantly" as I think that Lawrie is a really good manager and I’m learning a hell of a lot from him.

WWISC: It’s not a bad club is it!

Bruce: Certainly not! I really enjoyed my time here even though I was out for about a year with injury but then I came back and played in the last four games of that season.

WWISC: Your comeback game was a bit interesting!

Bruce: Yes it was a nice quiet little game. For me that was the best thing that could have happened, I’d had twelve months of hard slog where you’re trying to get back, and then you come back in a big match at Maine Road which we won. We were fighting to stay up at the time and they were going for automatic promotion. It was a brilliant game to play in and the lads played really, really well.
Then we had the last game of the season against Lincoln and that was a real nail-biter when we had to win to stay up. The lads did the business in the last ten minutes when Embers got the goal. That was my last game in pro-football and what a way to go out, Great!

WWISC: I suppose it’s a bit like Jamie Bates did last season?

Bruce: Going out on a high.

WWISC: Tell us a bit about your early career...

Bruce: When I started I was an apprentice at West Bromwich Albion and I signed pro at seventeen, made my debut at seventeen against Arsenal at Highbury marking Tony Woodcock and Charlie Nicholas, nothing special just a couple of internationals against me! Funny enough we won one-nil. I played well in my first team debut in pro-football and the next week we played Liverpool at home which of course was my ‘home debut’ and I was marking Rush and Dalgleish.

WWISC: No problem there then!

Bruce: We lost that one two-one. I went on to play about twenty-nine games for West Brom and was then transferred to Derby County when I was twenty. I spent nine years there and played four hundred and six for Derby which is quite a lot of games. I’ve seen a few good games and I’ve been lucky enough to represent my country at England Youth, Under 21 and the England ‘B’ team. In fact it was nice to see Teddy Sheringham at the Spurs game as we grew up in the same England teams. I haven’t seen Ted for a few years so it was good to get together with him again, he’s a good mate, top man; he’s a good bloke. After nine years at Derby I moved to Notts County.

WWISC: You weren’t there very long were you?

Bruce: Well! Howard Kendall signed me and unfortunately Howard got the sack after about seven weeks and because I was one of his ‘new boys’ the new guy wanted me out so I spent about a year training with the youth team because he was trying to get me out. That’s the way it goes in football sometimes. I spent two months on loan with Graham Turner down at Hereford Utd which was ok! 

WWISC: At least you were playing!

Bruce: Yes! I was playing and John Gregory who was at the time the assistant manager at Aston Villa had seen me play in the reserves at Notts County and when he got the job here he phoned me up and that’s why I tell everyone "every game you play in and no matter where you’re playing, always do your best as you never know who’s watching". I only got a move down here because Greg’s saw me play in a reserve game against Villa and he thought that I could do a job for him down here. Coming down here gave me two and a half years work. I tell people "if things aren’t going right, don’t talk about it, just keep your head down and the right people will see". There are always people watching. I had those two and a half years here which was nice, but a bit frustrating with the injuries. In my last season I only played four games, which were the last four.
I’ve been a pro for sixteen years, which was brilliant, and lucky enough I’m still involved in the game now and hopefully I can pass on some of my knowledge to others. 

WWISC: You’re in at the start of a new career now so what are your responsibilities? 

Bruce: I’m the reserve team manager, I obviously do as the gaffer tells me, but I’ll be taking the reserves during the week and for matches. They’ve all worked hard during pre-season that the whole squad. Everyone has got through more or less ok; there have been no bad injuries, which is the main thing. We play our first game on the 15th away to Swindon, so we’ll see how we go from there. 

WWISC: We don’t have a very big squad so will you be using Youth team players? 

Bruce: There will be the ‘older’ young ones that a coming through, there will be three or four of them and of course the fringe squad players so there will be a good mixture. 

WWISC: There seem to be a few good lads coming through. 

Bruce: There’s Ian Simbemba, Leon Phelon and Roger Johnson and they’re just young men starting in they’re career so hopefully they can go on to be successful. 

WWISC: I’m very impressed with young Mark Osbourne and what I want to know is ‘is he going to stop growing?’ 

Bruce: He has grown! He went away on a goalkeeping course for a week and when he came back I’d swear that he’d grown a couple of inches. He’s taller then me now. 

WWISC: I was very impressed with his performance against Tottenham. 

Bruce: Yes he made a couple of very good saves from Sheringham free kicks, and that will be great experience for him. He’s a genuine person and he’s is the sort of player who will put his head in where people won’t put their feet in, which is what you want from a goalkeeper.

WWISC: Are you still living in the Midlands?

Bruce: No, I’ve down to Bicester and its ideal. It’s only thirty-five to forty minutes away from here.

WWISC: How about your family?

Bruce: Yes! I’ve got two children, a little boy whose not a little boy now, as he’s eleven 

WWISC: Kicking a ball then?

Bruce: Yes and so is my girl who is nine.

WWISC: What sort of contract do you have here?

Bruce: Well, I’ve just signed a years contract here and obviously it depends on how I’ve done at the end of the season but I’m just thankful to have a chance to try and do something.

WWISC: At that point I decided that I’d delayed Bruce enough and wrapped up the interview. I think most of us are delighted to have Bruce back here as he was a great player and hopefully he’ll progress to become a great manager someday.