Mike Phelan

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For other people named Michael Phelan, see Michael Phelan (disambiguation).

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Mike Phelan
200px
Phelan with Manchester United in 2012
Personal information
Full name Michael Christopher Phelan
Date of birth (1962-09-24) 24 September 1962 (age 61)
Place of birth Nelson, Lancashire, England
Height Script error: No such module "person height".
Position(s) Midfielder
Right-back
Team information
Current team
 Hull City (assistant manager)
Youth career
Burnley
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1979–1985 Burnley 168 (9)
1985–1989 Norwich City 156 (9)
1989–1994 Manchester United 102 (2)
1994–1995 West Bromwich Albion 21 (0)
Total 485 (21)
International career
1989 England 1 (0)
Managerial career
1995–1996 Norwich City (assistant)
1996–1997 Blackpool (assistant)
1997–1999 Stockport County (assistant)
1999–2001 Manchester United Reserves (assistant)
2001–2008 Manchester United (first-team coach)
2002 Manchester United Reserves
2008–2013 Manchester United (assistant)
2014–2015 Norwich City (first-team coach)
2015 Norwich City (caretaker)
2015– Hull City (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Michael Christopher "Mike" Phelan (born 24 September 1962), also known as Mick Phelan or Micky Phelan, is a former player and current assistant manager at Hull City.

Born in Nelson, Lancashire, he spent most of his playing career at Burnley, Norwich City and Manchester United, with a short spell at West Bromwich Albion before retirement. While he was with Manchester United, he also earned a single cap for England. In 2002, Norwich fans voted Phelan into the club's Hall of Fame.

After the end of his playing career, Phelan moved into coaching. He first took a position as Gary Megson's assistant at his former club, Norwich City, before following Megson to Blackpool and then Stockport County. After Megson left Stockport, Phelan was hired by another former club, Manchester United, taking over as the assistant manager of the club's reserve team. Two years later, he was promoted to become Alex Ferguson's chief first-team coach, and in 2008 he replaced Carlos Queiroz as Ferguson's assistant manager. He remained in the position until Ferguson's retirement in 2013, when Ferguson's successor David Moyes replaced the entire coaching staff. After a year out of football, Phelan was appointed as first-team coach back at Norwich City in November 2014 and took temporary charge of the club when manager Neil Adams resigned in January 2015, only to be relieved of his duties by Adams' permanent replacement, Alex Neil. A month later, he was appointed as assistant manager at Hull City under former Manchester United team-mate Steve Bruce.

Playing career

Phelan began his career at Burnley, signing as an associated schoolboy in July 1979, as an apprentice two years later and as a professional in July 1980. He made his league debut in January 1981 against Chesterfield and whilst at Turf Moor, gained England Youth caps and a Third Division champions medal in 1982. But in 1985, Burnley were relegated to the Fourth Division, and Phelan moved to Norwich City for £60,000 on 13 July 1985.

Norwich won the Second Division title in his first season at the club. He became club captain when Steve Bruce joined Manchester United in December 1987, captaining them to fourth place in the First Division and a place in the FA Cup semi-finals in his first full season as captain.

He was called into the England squad for the Rous Cup games against Chile and Scotland but did not play due to a hamstring injury. His success drew the attention of larger clubs and he followed Steve Bruce to Manchester United for £750,000 on 1 July 1989.

At Manchester United, he finally won his first international cap (against Italy in 1989) and an FA Cup winner's medal in his first season. This was followed by the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1991, the League Cup in 1992.

Phelan was often deployed at right-back during his first season at Manchester United, but following the arrival of Denis Irwin in 1990 he mostly played on the right or in the centre of midfield. He had played on the right side of midfield before Irwin's arrival, most notably in the FA Cup final win over Crystal Palace in May 1990, when Paul Ince was switched from central midfield to right back.

By 1993, however, he was very much a bit-part player due to growing competition from younger players like Andrei Kanchelskis, Paul Ince, Ryan Giggs and Lee Sharpe.

By the time he was given a free transfer at the end of the 1993–94 season, even his place on the substitutes bench was being threatened by a new generation of young midfielders such as David Beckham and Nicky Butt. He had missed out on a place in the 1994 FA Cup winning squad, and had not played in enough Premier League games to merit a title medal. He had, however, played enough games to earn a Premier League title medal in 1992–93. With the introduction of Premier League squad numbers for the 1993–94 season, he was issued with the number 23 shirt which was next worn by Phil Neville.

After leaving Old Trafford, Phelan signed for West Bromwich Albion, where he spent 18 months and played just 21 games, his first-team chances limited by younger players such as Kevin Donovan and Lee Ashcroft, who were more favoured by new manager Alan Buckley (appointed in the autumn following the dismissal of Keith Burkinshaw, who brought Phelan to the club).

Coaching career

He returned to Carrow Road in December 1995, as assistant manager to Gary Megson (another former Norwich player) and managed the club's reserve team. When Megson was fired and joined Blackpool, Phelan followed him to take a similar role, returning to his native North-West. A year later, he followed Megson to Stockport County.

Following Megson's sacking as Stockport County boss on 25 June 1999, Andy Kilner took over as manager. Phelan moved on shortly afterwards, taking up a role at Manchester United's Centre of Excellence. With Steve McClaren's departure to Middlesbrough in the summer of 2001, Phelan was promoted to first-team coach. He was appointed assistant manager of Manchester United on 3 September 2008, replacing Carlos Queiroz who had left to manage the Portuguese national team.[1] For many seasons, Phelan was seen conducting interviews with BBC programmes such as Match of the Day due to United manager Alex Ferguson refusing to speak with the BBC following corruption allegations made in 2004 by the BBC's Panorama programme towards one of Ferguson's sons, football agent Jason Ferguson. Ferguson finally agreed to BBC interviews once more in August 2011.[2]

In January 2010, Phelan was linked with a return to his first club Burnley as manager following the departure of Owen Coyle to Bolton Wanderers.[3]

He was Sir Alex Ferguson's right-hand man during three Premier League title wins, a Club World Cup, two League Cups and two runs to the final of the UEFA Champions League. He departed the club shortly after Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement.[4]

On 20 November 2014, Phelan was announced as a first-team coach at Norwich City.[5] Following the resignation of Neil Adams on 5 January 2015, Phelan was briefly named caretaker manager of Norwich. On 9 January, however, Norwich hired Hamilton Academical manager Alex Neil and Phelan returned to his first-team coaching duties. He did not take charge of any matches for the club. On 20 January 2015, Phelan left the club by mutual consent.[6]

Honours

Club

Burnley
Norwich City
Manchester United

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ "Alex Ferguson ends BBC boycott" Guardian.co.uk (25 August 2011)
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by Norwich City Captain
1987–1989		 Succeeded by
Mark Bowen
Preceded by Manchester United F.C. assistant manager
2008–2013		 Succeeded by
Steve Round
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