Steve Bruce ready for head-to head with old mate Sam Allardyce over England job
Hull boss on challenging Big Sam: 'It's got to be pinnacle of your career to take charge of the English national team'
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STEVE BRUCE is ready to take on big pal Sam Allardyce for the England job.
Hull boss Bruce and Sunderland chief Allardyce have been best buddies for more than 25 years, but they have emerged as fierce rivals to replace Roy Hodgson as Three Lions coach.
Big Sam, 61, is set to hold talks with the FA this week after jetting back from the Black Cats Austrian training camp.
And the FA's head of elite development Dan Ashworth is believed to want an 'informal' chat with Bruce, 55, when he returns from the Tigers' pre-season base tomorrow.
Bruce, who has won four promotions - two apiece with Birmingham and Hull - to the Premier League, has impressed the FA with his man-management skills and often under-rated tactical acumen.
And the former Manchester United skipper last night admitted his interest in succeeding Hodgson, who quit following England's miserable showing at Euro 2016.
He declared: "For any English manager, surely, it's got to be the pinnacle of your career to take charge of the English national team.
"Wow, of course I would be interested in talking to them, and I'd expect any English person in my position to be. It's the top job that anybody would love."
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Bruce insists there has been no contact with the FA, and that no talks are planned - "unless you know something I don't".
But he added: "It's a great honour to even be considered and I am highly flattered, like any English person would be.
"To be linked with the job is terrific but, so far as I am concerned, it's only speculation and hearsay."
Bruce, meanwhile, aims to steal a march on top flight rivals Everton, Swansea, Burnley, Middlesbrough and Watford by snapping-up Wales Euro 2016 hero Hal Robson-Kanu by the weekend.
Hit-man Kanu, 27, is available on a free after rejecting a new deal at Reading, and Bruce revealed: "We are booked in for talks with him and to see him in the next few days.
"Of course we are interested, and we intend to offer him a deal.
"Hal is a good age, he's big, strong and powerful and somebody who can go down the middle or burst into life on both wings.
"He had a wonderful time with Wales in France, but you don't sign somebody on the back of one tournament and we've been aware of him for a while now.
"I know we've got competition, but we'll see how it progresses and what we can do."