WHAT is the difference between Steve Bruce and Dario Gradi?

The answer: loyalty.

Bruce has managed four clubs in three years and wanted to make it five by walking out on Crystal Palace for Birmingham City.

Palace were riding high in the First Division and deserved better from a man they employed just a few months earlier.

Palace, to their credit, fought back and Bruce is now on 'gardening duty', serving the notice of his contract before he is able to take up his new job.

On the other side of the loyalty scale is Gradi. The country's longest serving manager has been at Crewe for going on 20 years without a murmur of discontent.

His record is second to none, having taken a club regarded as one of country's real minnows up from the old Fourth Division to establish them in the First Division, build a renowned youth set-up and rebuild the stadium.

He could have moved and, while he could be accused of lacking the ambition to manage at the top level, nobody could accuse him of failing to do the decent thing - unlike Bruce.