Bruce was released by Blues after being in charge for eight years at St Andrews to take on the managers role at Wigan Athletic before moving to Sunderland. "After so long, eight years, I felt very let down, and still do, and always will," Bruce told the Daily Mirror. "Then there was David Sullivan saying getting rid of me for £3million was the 'best piece of business the club had ever done'. Thanks a lot! "Washing the dirty linen in public like that shouldn't have happened, I deserved better than that. "I had every right to be all bitter and twisted. "There were broken promises and for everyone it was very, very difficult to actually concentrate on what mattered: the football. "There was takeover talk all the time and whether or not Carson Yeung could come up with the money. "I was vulnerable and everything filtered through to the players." "In hindsight, maybe I should have gone after relegation in 2005 but I didn't want to leave the club in the Championship, so I stuck it out and we got promotion."
When Blues meet Sunderland at home on Saturday it will be his first visit back to the club since his departure almost two years ago.
"Dead man walking, that was me," he added.