Palace the ideal home for Bruce

The Premiership dream: Manager breaks his silence to reveal that Selhurst not St Andrew's will be his springboard

As an aspiring young manager who fell foul of boardroom machinations in his first two jobs – at Sheffield United and Huddersfield Town – in next to no time, Steve Bruce was not the most obvious candidate to leap from the Yorkshire frying pan into the Crystal Palace fire.

Eight changes at the top in as many seasons under three volatile chairmen made Selhurst Park the sort of ground where it was not worth painting the manager's name by his car-parking space. Furthermore, the newest chairman, Simon Jordan, had already declared (as the team struggled against relegation to the Second Division last spring): "I know I will have a Premiership club on my hands in a very short space of time. It will happen." Disenchanted supporters were wondering which club he had in mind.

The twist in the tale was that when speculation began a fortnight ago about yet another change, only four months after Bruce was appointed, it was for once because Palace were doing so well. Birmingham City's brutal sacking of Trevor Francis led to informed reports that they wanted the man Francis had once made his club captain to replace him. The good news for Palace followers ahead of today's top-six game at home to Norwich City is that Bruce, who refused to discuss the matter for two weeks, has intimated for the first time that he is happy to stay put.

Having served only 10 months at Sheffield United, before walking out in frustration, a little over one season at Huddersfield and then two months with Wigan, he seems to accept that it is time to bring a little stability to his life and his new club. "That's what I need to do," he told the Independent on Sunday. "All the speculation surrounding Birmingham has been off-putting because it's detracted from the players and what they've achieved. I could have done without it. I'm extremely happy here. I want to manage in the Premiership and I'd love to take Crystal Palace there. End of story."

A reputation as a Freddie Fly-by-night would not be helpful at this stage of his career. He is therefore keen to set the record straight about his previous clubs, and to spell out some strongly held views about the recent cull of managers. "I walked out of Sheffield because of all the boardroom wrangles, which were impossible; people said it was financial but it wasn't. There was just disharmony above me," he said. "I lost my job at Huddersfield after taking them to the top of the First Division, the highest position they'd been in for 30 years. I had to sell Marcus Stewart to Ipswich, one of our arch-rivals for promotion, which was absolutely ridiculous.

"Then I went on to Wigan, where I had an agreement to give them a hand to get into the play-offs, which we did, only to lose in the semi-finals 2-1 at Reading. What it's all taught me is that the relationship with your owner or chairman or chief executive or whoever, is paramount. When you look at the statistics, 19 managers gone this season, it's totally obscene."

Others might have thought more than twice about putting their professional life in the hands of so abrasive an owner-chairman as Jordan, the thrusting young mobile-phone millionaire who famously marched into the dressing room to tear the players off a strip, then sacked Alan Smith with two games to play at the end of last season; Palace won both of them, avoiding relegation thanks to Dougie Freedman's goal at Stockport with three minutes to spare. Bruce, however, found the chairman's passion one of several positive factors about the club.

"The first thing that stood out was the support the club has had over the years, when it's been in administration and turmoil, and the supporters have rallied round to protect it. The chairman is Crystal Palace through and through and wants to succeed, which is a massive bonus," he explained. "The biggest thing, though, is the playing staff, with some very good young players. I thought there was something there to work with, if I could add that little bit of physical strength to cope with the First Division."

His signings were therefore designed to strengthen the spine of the team: Matt Clarke, the experienced Bradford City goalkeeper; the centre-halves Tony Popovic ("a typical Australian who likes to win") and Steve Vickers, whose loan from Middlesbrough has just expired; and Jovan Kirovski, a United States international who once appeared for Borussia Dortmund in the Champions' League and fits in well behind the prolific strikers Freedman and Clinton Morrison. Early on, most matches seemed to finish 4-2 either one way or the other; latterly, a run of seven successive wins, ended by Burnley last Tuesday, was only one short of an 80-year-old club record, and took the team to the top of the table.

As a study of that table shows, competition in the division this season is intense. There will be many twists to come and Bruce will deal with them in the manner he handled the country's leading strikers in eight successful seasons with Manchester United. "I was not the most naturally gifted, but I got to the top with enthusiasm and by giving 100 per cent, and that's what I believe in," he said. "I'd love to say you can copy Alex Ferguson, but that's impossible. You do it your way, because it's your head on the block."

As he knows better than most.