Steve Bruce will insist that West Bromwich Albion’s players live or have a second home within an hour of the training ground next season but has explained why he will continue to commute from Cheshire.
Bruce feels the longer journeys made by a number of his players are having a negative impact. West Brom are 13th in the Championship and Bruce had targeted promotion when he took over as manager in early February with the club sixth.
“I have told them all,” Bruce said of his plan that they must live within an hour of the training ground. “Where we are going to finish in the league is not good enough. I have put forward what I would like to do next year – that is a rebuild of the squad. And the players that are here – along with the ones we bring in – have got to commit.
“We have too many people travelling and that cannot be good for you. That is not good for you as a professional. I’ve pointed that out. And going forward that is the way we will look at it. They have been positive towards that change. I think they understand my feelings on it.”
Bruce said that having “eight, nine, 10 travelling away” did not help team spirit and that spending hours in a car “catches up with you and probably takes a little bit of your career”.
Bruce outlined why he did not feel the need to move too. “[People] are going to throw it at me and say: ‘Are you going to relocate?’” he said. “But it doesn’t work with us, when we sign a contract we usually get sacked.
“For the players it’s difficult. You can have an apartment around the area. But you have to be here the majority of the week.”