Paul William Bracewell (born 19 July 1962) is an English former professional football player and manager. Bracewell played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was a member of the Everton side that won the League title in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

as well as the European Cup Winner's Cup in 1985. He also played in the

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 ...

for Newcastle United and Sunderland and in the Football League with Stoke City and Fulham. He was capped three times by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and earned thirteen

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 ...

caps. Following his retirement, he managed Fulham, before being replaced by

Jean Tigana Amadou Jean Tigana (born 23 June 1955) is a French former footballer and coach. He has played in midfield and managed professional football extensively throughout France, including 52 appearances and one goal for the France national football team ...

. He later had a spell in charge of

Halifax Town FC Halifax Town is a professional association football club based in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. They currently compete in and play at the Shay. They replaced Halifax Town A.F.C., which went into administration in the 2007–08 season. ...

but following his departure in 2001 he has not returned to management. He has since had several coaching roles at former side, Sunderland.

Club career

Bracewell was born in

Heswall Heswall is a town on the Wirral, Merseyside, England. At the 2001 Census, the population was 16,012, including the nearby villages of Barnston and Gayton. Before local government reorganisation on 1 April 1974 it was part of the administr ...

and started his football career with Stoke City progressing through the youth ranks at the

Victoria Ground The Victoria Ground was the home ground of Stoke City from 1878 until 1997, when the club relocated to the Britannia Stadium after 119 years. At the time of its demolition it was the oldest operational ground in the Football League. History ...

and made his professional debut away at

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

just before his 18th birthday. He soon became a regular in the first team and went on to complete three full seasons before in June 1983 he moved to Sunderland for a fee of £250,000 linking up with Alan Durban. He made 141 appearances for Stoke scoring six goals. Sunderland had an unsuccessful 1983–84 season and Durban was sacked by the

Roker Park Roker Park was a football ground in Roker, Sunderland, England, which was the home of Sunderland A.F.C. from 1898 to 1997, before the club moved to the Stadium of Light. Its final capacity was around 22,500, with only a small part being seated ...

club and new manager Len Ashurst did not believe Bracewell could play for him and so sold him to Everton for £425,000. It was at

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 ...

where Bracewell enjoyed the most successful spell of his career. As part of a midfield that included

Peter Reid Peter Reid (born 20 June 1956) is an English football manager, pundit and former player. A defensive midfielder in his playing days, Reid enjoyed a long and successful career. He built his reputation as one of England's brightest midfield tale ...

, Kevin Sheedy and

Trevor Steven Trevor McGregor Steven (born 21 September 1963) is an English former professional footballer who played as a right-sided midfielder. He progressed through the ranks at Burnley, making his debut in 1981 and becoming a regular supplier of goals o ...

, they won the

1984–85 Football League The 1984– 85 season was the 86th completed season of The Football League. Final league tables and results The tables and results below are reproduced here in the exact form that they can be found aThe Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundationweb ...

and also enjoyed success in Europe when they lifted the

1984–85 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1984–85 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup was won by Everton in the final against Rapid Wien. Everton also won the English Football League that season and would therefore have entered the European Cup the following season. However, ...

. Such form prompted a call-up to the full England squad where he went on to win three caps but missed out on a place in

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

's 1986 World Cup squad with a broken leg. Bracewell also played in four losing FA Cup Finals, the last of which came following his return to Sunderland in 1992. This is a record for the most FA Cup Final appearances by a player without winning. He left Sunderland for the second time to join archrivals Newcastle United but returned to

Wearside Wearside () is a built-up area in both Tyne and Wear and County Durham, Northern England. It is named after the River Wear which flows through it and traditionally all in the County of Durham. In the 2011 census, its official name was the Sunderl ...

in 1995 and helped Sunderland gain promotion to the

. Unable to keep down a place in the years that followed, Bracewell reunited with his former Newcastle manager Kevin Keegan at Fulham in 1997. He retired from playing football in 1999 to take up a Managerial role at Fulham.

International career

In 1985, he earned three

caps.

Managerial career

In September 1997, Bracewell took a similar role with ambitious Division Two club Fulham, working under head coach

Ray Wilkins Ray may refer to: Fish * Ray (fish), any cartilaginous fish of the superorder Batoidea * Ray (fish fin anatomy), a bony or horny spine on a fin Science and mathematics * Ray (geometry), half of a line proceeding from an initial point * Ray (gra ...

and director of football Kevin Keegan. When Wilkins was dismissed at the end of the season, Keegan took sole charge of the first team and kept Bracewell as his assistant. Keegan accepted the offer to become

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

manager in March 1999, but remained in charge of the Fulham team until the end of that season, guiding them to the Division Two title with 101 points, before quitting as Fulham manager. Bracewell was promoted to the position of manager, and despite them competing in the top half of Division One throughout the campaign, he was dismissed on 30 March 2000 in favour of the more experienced

, who achieved promotion to the Premier League a year later. He scored once during his spell with Fulham in a 2–0 win against Wycombe Wanderers in September 1998. In October 2000 he became manager of

although his stint there lasted less than a year. He resigned from the club 4 games into the 2001/02 season. During his brief spell in charge he steered to the team to just 11 wins in 41 games, which included a 2–0 home FA cup exit at the hands of non league Gateshead.

Coaching career

In 2013, he was appointed as Development Coach for the Sunderland Under 21s and 18s and helped with the transition between the two. In June 2015, after assisting

Dick Advocaat Dirk Nicolaas Advocaat (; born 27 September 1947) is a Dutch former football player and coach who is currently the head coach of Eerste Divisie side ADO Den Haag. Advocaat was successful as a football player and as a coach, including three stint ...

with first team duties at the end of the 2014–15 season, he was appointed First Team Coach at Sunderland, and shortly afterwards was promoted to the role of Assistant Manager. He left his role with Sunderland on 17 June 2017.

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

*
Paul Bracewell Tribute
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bracewell, Paul 1962 births Living people English footballers England international footballers England under-21 international footballers Everton F.C. players Sunderland A.F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Fulham F.C. players English football managers Halifax Town A.F.C. managers Fulham F.C. managers Premier League players People from Heswall English Football League players Association football midfielders FA Cup Final players