Aston Villa boss Martin O'Neill says Steve Bruce will continue to work in the Premiership if he is forced to leave Birmingham City.

"Steve will do absolutely fine wherever he goes," said O'Neill, whose Villa side resume Premier League hostilities with their neighbours at St Andrew's on November 11.

"I'm sure that this will not go down well with every Aston Villa fan but I thought Stevie Bruce did a fantastic job last year.

"To turn the whole thing around, to turn the crowd around and get promotion was terrific, really terrific.

"But I'm not going to go running around saying I've got a lot of sympathy for Stevie or anything like that.

"He wouldn't want me to - and sympathy would be the wrong use of the word.

"It's just a collection of circumstances, but is job last year was as good as anything.

"He'll be all right. He's got age on his side."