Ex-Birmingham City striker lifts lid on playing under Steve Bruce - and questions the Newcastle United head coach's selection calls

Vine played under the 60-year-old for half-a-season at St Andrew’s after joining from Luton Town in January 2007.

The 38-year-old helped the Blues earn promotion to the Premier League before being shipped out on loan to Queens Park Rangers in the October.

He was then sold to the Championship club a few months later – and Vine admits he was left impressed by Bruce’s management

Speaking to Undr The Cosh, Vine said: "My philosophy on managers... if you play centre-halve then it's very hard to know about strikers.

"So if you've got eight strikers, Iike he (Bruce) did have, he just thinks 'I'll throw four of them on and we'll win 7-0'.

"The reality is, you need to pick the right team and the right formation and do it that way. He (Bruce) just kept changing it and changing it.”

Vine felt he was the “fall guy” under Bruce, who also had forwards Mikael Forssell, Cameron Jerome, DJ Campbell, Nicklas Bendtner and Gary McSheffrey at his disposal.

He continued: "Mikael Forssell was trying to come back from a knee injury and his knees were bad.

"We had a lot of options - I started playing right and left midfield because I played there before and I was doing well.

"I got six man of the matches from seven home games. I played 17 games and scored one goal but I still felt I was the fall guy all the time."