Steve Bruce aiming for a return to the Premier League with new club Hull City Yes, there are times when it's the most difficult and lonely job in the world, especially when you're in the big league. It's a difficult, difficult job and you wonder sometimes why you put yourself through it. Am I a sadomasochist, am I glutton for punishment? Possibly, but if it was that bad, nobody would do it. If you've done it for a long time, you know round the corner, unless you are very, very fortunate or a genius like Jose Mourinho, that there is going to come a time when you're under severe pressure. It puts a huge strain on you mentally. It puts a huge strain on your family. It is gruelling and demanding, but it's great when the results are going well. It's the best job in the world when you win on a Saturday and the worst when you lose. Less than a year ago, Bruce was sacked as manager of Sunderland, leaving Wearside with the spiteful chants of 40,000 people ringing in his ears. He spent several months out of the game, was turned down by Wolves at the last minute and then not even considered for the vacant posts at West Bromwich Albion and Norwich City in the summer. "I had nine or 10 months off for the first time in a long, long time," added Bruce. I had a taste of retirement, but I'm 52 and I wasn't ready for that yet. Every manager has their dark days, look at Alex Ferguson after losing 6-1 at home to City, look at Roy Hodgson, he got a crack at Liverpool and it went sour after six months. Now he's the England manager. Football management tires you out and it can retire you, but some of us thrive on it, dust ourselves down and come back for more. I was disappointed when the jobs arose in the Premier League I didn't have a chance. I wasn't looked at, but I had a call from the people at Hull, we had a chat and I thought "why not"? Some of my most enjoyable times in management were taking teams out of the Championship - or at least trying to. I've really enjoyed the last few weeks, being out on the training pitch, trying to improve the younger players, the team. It's what I do, football is all I've known and I've still got that motivation to get back into the Premier League. If I'm going to do that again, I'm going to have to take Hull with me. It will not be easy. Of the 24 teams in English football's second tier, 18 of them have experienced the Premier League and aspire to get back there. Hull are one of them and if Bruce does not look as though he can secure a top-six finish in May, he knows from bitter experience the sort of criticism that will come his way. The break recharged the batteries and it refocused the mind. I've learnt from what happened at Sunderland and I hope it makes me better, that's what you always hope. Bobby Robson described management as a drug and it is so addictive. When you look at the footage of Bobby he became a national treasure, but there were times for years, b----- hell, did he get put through it. We didn't appreciate him until he was gone. I'm not sure many managers are appreciated at the time. When I was under pressure at Sunderland, so was Arsene Wenger at Arsenal and if he's getting it... his record is phenomenal, OK, so no trophies for a few years, but 15 years of Champions League football, buying players for a couple of million and selling them for £30 million, building them a new stadium, wow. I don't think there is any appreciation until you are gone and then there might be a bit of, you know, he did a good job here. If I can get Hull back into the Premier League, hopefully people might think I've done a half decent job - like I did at Birmingham, like I did at Wigan and, if you look at where they were when I took over, at Sunderland.