Carl Tiler (born 11 February 1970) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He made more than 250 appearances in

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

and the Football League and was part of a number of successful sides during his career despite rarely establishing himself as a first choice player in his position. He notably played in the top flight for

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

, Aston Villa, Everton and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

as well as other spells for Barnsley,

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

and

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

. He is also a former

England U21 The England national under-21 football team, also known as England under-21s or England U21(s), is considered to be the feeder team for the England national football team. This team is for England players aged under 21 at the start of the calen ...

who earned 13 caps between 1990 and 1991.

Playing career

Tiler was born in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and metropolitan county, metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of City of Doncaster, Doncaster and City of Sh ...

. A tough central defender, he started his career at Barnsley, where his form attracted interest from top clubs, before a £1.4million move to Brian Clough's

in the summer of 1991. He played regular first team football for his first two seasons at Forest but then sustained a serious ankle injury, around the time of Forest's relegation in 1993, which kept him out for the whole of the following season, when Forest won promotion. He regained fitness and went on loan to

in the 1994–95 season, with his place in the centre of defence at the

City Ground The City Ground is a football stadium in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England, on the banks of the River Trent. It has been home to Nottingham Forest Football Club since 1898 and has a capacity of 30,445. The stadium was a venue when En ...

now occupied by

Colin Cooper Colin Terence Cooper (born 28 February 1967) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a defender who notably played in the Premier League for Nottingham Forest and Middlesbrough. He played ove ...

. Having played a total of 85 games for Forest, Tiler joined Aston Villa for £750,000 in October 1995. He sustained a ruptured hamstring after 70 minutes of his debut against Everton which took a full 10 months to heal. He then played a further 14 games for Villa before sealing a £500,000 move back to his home town team

. With Sheffield United he reached the 1996–97 First Division playoff final at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

against

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, which ''the Blades'' lost in the last minute 1–0. After a short spell of 23 games and a £750,000 transfer fee the commanding defender Tiler followed his old Blades boss

Howard Kendall Howard Kendall (22 May 1946 – 17 October 2015) was an English footballer and manager. Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice and stayed with the club when he turned professional. He was a runner-up in the 1964 FA Cup with Preston, ...

to Everton, where he played the remainder of that season helping keep the

Goodison Park Goodison Park is a association football, football stadium in the Walton, Liverpool, Walton area of Liverpool, England. It has been the home stadium of Premier League club Everton F.C. since its completion in 1892. Located in a residential area ...

outfit in the Premiership.

Walter Smith Walter Ferguson Smith (24 February 1948 – 26 October 2021) was a Scottish association football player, manager and director, primarily associated with his two spells as manager of Glasgow club Rangers. A defender, Smith's playing car ...

took over the reins the following season and his first team appearances were limited. He scored his only goal for Everton in a 2–1 loss at

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

on 7 March 1998. In 1998 Tiler moved to Premiership side

, again for £750,000. He played 47 games for the club and spent a brief period on loan at

before in March 2001 signing for

Graham Rix Graham Cyril Rix (born 23 October 1957) is an English former professional football player who later became a coach and manager. He is the current manager of Fareham Town. He played for Arsenal for thirteen years, then Brentford (on loan), Cae ...

for £250,000, where he stayed for a couple of seasons, scoring once in the league against Crystal Palace, before finally retiring from the game in 2003 due to injury. In his final season he contributed two appearances as Portsmouth won the First Division Championship and promotion to the

Honours

Nottingham Forest * Football League Cup runners-up 1992 * Football League First Division runners-up: 1993–94 Aston Villa * Football League Cup winners 1996 Charlton Athletic * Football League First Division winners: 1999–2000 Portsmouth * Football League First Division winners: 2002–2003

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tiler, Carl 1970 births Living people Footballers from Sheffield English footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football central defenders Barnsley F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Everton F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Premier League players