Paul Bracewell

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Paul Bracewell
Personnel
Surname Paul William Bracewell
birthday July 19, 1962
place of birth Heswall ,  England
size 175 cm
position Midfield (defensive)
Juniors
Years station
Stoke City
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1980-1983 Stoke City 129 (5)
1983-1984 Sunderland AFC 38 (4)
1984-1989 Everton FC 95 (7)
1989-1992 Sunderland AFC 113 (2)
1992-1995 Newcastle United 73 (3)
1995-1997 Sunderland AFC 77 (0)
1997-1999 Fulham FC 62 (1)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1982-1984 England U-21 13 (0)
1985 England 3 (0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1999-2000 Fulham FC
2000-2001 Halifax Town
1 Only league games are given.

Paul William Bracewell (born July 19, 1962 in Heswall ) is a former English football player and coach . The three-time England international , mostly used in defensive midfield , won the English championship and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1985 with Everton . He was also four times in an FA Cup final , but won none of them. Immediately after the end of his active career, he briefly coached professional teams, but had little luck with both Fulham FC and Halifax Town .

Player career

Club career

Stoke City (1980-1983)

Bracewell came from Stoke City's youth work and was promoted to the pro division in February 1980. He was one of a number of promising "Potters" talents at the time, including Adrian Heath and Lee Chapman, two other English champions. In March 1980 Bracewell made his debut as a substitute against Wolverhampton Wanderers (0: 3) for the first division team coached by Alan Durban and in the 0: 1 defeat at Anfield against Liverpool the following month he was in the starting line-up for the first time. Shortly after his 18th birthday, the former captain of the Stoke youth team matured into a regular player in the 1980/81 season. This was mainly due to the fact that after Sammy Irvine's car accident there was a gap in the central midfield, which the two-footed, two-way and passing newcomer was now able to close. By the summer of 1983 he established himself in his position in the top English division, also made it to the English U-21 international and followed his ex-coach Durban to Sunderland AFC for a transfer fee of 250,000 pounds .

Via Sunderland to Everton FC (1983–1989)

The 1983/84 season was the first of three "Sunderland periods" in Bracewell's active career, because after only a one-year stint at the first meeting, he should return to the "Black Cats" later in his career. At the end of May 1984 he went to the ambitious league competitor FC Everton for £ 425,000 and there he immediately delivered the best performances of his career in the 1984/85 season. Together with Peter Reid , Kevin Sheedy and Trevor Steven , he formed the midfield of a very successful team that won the English championship and the European Cup Winners' Cup in the spring of 1985 . Only in the FA Cup did he lose out in a 1-0 draw against Manchester United , which marked the beginning of four lost English Cup finals in his career. The following year, Bracewell lost with the "Toffees" to local rivals Liverpool FC in the FA Cup final and in the fight for the league title , but this was less due to Bracewell's continued performances.

Subsequent injuries caused a serious setback and not only brought his career to the English national team to a sudden end. Even for Everton, he did not appear once in a league game until the end of the 1987/88 season, which is why he was deprived of a championship medal after winning the English championship in 1987 . In the 1988/89 season he finally made the longed-for comeback and at the turn of the year and towards the end of the season he consolidated his status in defensive midfield a little. In addition, he was back in the starting line-up in the new cup defeat against Liverpool (2: 3 a.s.), but was replaced there after just under an hour for the later double goal scorer Stuart McCall . In August 1989 he returned for 250,000 to Sunderland AFC, which had meanwhile been relegated to the second division.

Sunderland, Part 2 & Newcastle United (1989–1995)

In Sunderland he helped the team to reach the playoff games in the spring of 1990 and although he was defeated there in the final against Swindon Town with 0-1, the team rose after the financial disagreements in Swindon became known "at the green table". The stay in the English elite class lasted only a year and as the penultimate it went straight back to the second class. In his third and initially last year at Sunderland, he reached an FA Cup final for the fourth time in his career and again Liverpool FC were the opponents, who ultimately got the upper hand 2-0. Bracewell's transfer to local rivals Newcastle United, of all places, was a bit bitter for the supporters in the summer of 1992 .

Decisive for the change was that Bracewell did not get the desired two-year contract and since Newcastle's new coach Kevin Keegan even offered him a contract with a three-year term, the courted did not hesitate long. Fears that the supporters in Newcastle could have problems with the rival's ex-player proved to be irrelevant after ten minutes in the first game against Southend United (3-2), when Bracewell scored an instant goal. With his aggressive and persistent midfield and defensive work, he brought stability to the game of the "Magpies" and was particularly important within the team as a safeguard for more offensive players such as Gavin Peacock , Rob Lee , Scott Sellars and Peter Beardsley . He got his nickname "Iceman" during his time in Newcastle because he used ice to cool the pain after every game due to his constant ankle problems. At the end of his first year in Newcastle he was promoted to the Premier League as a second division champion in 1993 and in the second season he was mostly “first choice” in the defense center. He scored his first and only Premier League goal on April 27, 1994 against Aston Villa (5-1) and in the end managed to qualify for the UEFA Cup via the surprising third place . However, he was denied a job there and a serious pelvic injury ultimately ensured that Bracewell's third year in Newcastle was his last. In the summer of 1995 he was hired for a third time in Sunderland and served his former teammate Peter Reid as a co-trainer in addition to his duties on the field.

Sunderland, Part 3 & Fulham FC (1995–1999)

With his 33 years of experience, he was Reid's extended arm and a key player in a team that, as the previous year's “almost relegated”, was promoted to the top English division via the second division championship - Bracewell had only missed eight league games. However, like six years earlier, he could not manage to stay with Sunderland in this case in the first year, although the decline in 1997 was narrower with 40 points. But it also became clear that he could no longer keep pace at the highest level due to his advanced footballer age and after three match days in the 1997/98 season he found a new club with Fulham in the third division.

In Fulham, his ex-trainer Keegan and Ray Wilkins took over the sporting direction in the early days of Mohamed Al-Fayed and Bracewell worked - as in Sunderland - in a similar position in the coaching staff. However, the first season 1997/98 was disappointing, as the targeted with great energy first promotion to the second division failed because of the playoff loss to Grimsby Town . In his last active season in 1998/99 he won the third division championship with the "Cottagers" with 101 points and when Kevin Keegan was the new England coach, Bracewell followed him in May 1999 as head coach.

English national team

As a 13-time English U-21 selection player , Bracewell had consistently recommended himself for higher tasks and was in the starting eleven in all six competitive games from the quarter-finals to the final against Spain when he won the European Championship in 1984 . When he matured in the mid-1980s at Everton at the side of Peter Reid to one of the best central defensive midfielders, coach Bobby Robson appointed him for an international trip to Mexico in June 1985. There he came in a 3-0 win against Germany in the late stages of the game for Bryan Robson on a short stint. This was followed by two more games from the start against the USA (5-0) and in November 1985 in the World Cup qualification against Northern Ireland (0-0), but there were hopes of a possible participation in the upcoming 1986 World Cup in Mexico were not fulfilled, as he sustained such a severe injury in training that he was incapacitated for almost two years. Afterwards he was unable to build on his previous level even after the comeback and from then on he was not considered by the "Three Lions".

Coaching stations

Bracewell's first position as the chief coach in professional football was not a good star. This was initially due to the fact that he had little luck with his numerous new signings for Fulham FC, with the exception of Lee Clark , and as a young coach, who as a former player had more of an athletic merit and had earned respect in this regard, the charisma of his predecessor was alien to him. In the first second division season of Fulham FC after 13 years, the expectations of the fans were high after the offensive performances shown in the previous year and when Bracewell placed more emphasis on tactical discipline and a more defensive structure, this quickly caused disagreements. When the good results failed to materialize and the team did not score a goal in eight consecutive games with the exception of an own goal in December 1999, the farewell was announced before the end of the 1999/2000 season. A place in the upper midfield was not enough in view of the high demands, which led to his dismissal at the end of March 2000 - Karl-Heinz Riedle , whom Bracewell had lured to the Thames before, took over his successor on an interim basis , before joining Jean Tigana before the start of the season 2000/01 the desired "big name" for Fulham took up his duties.

Bracewell found a new club in Halifax Town in October 2000, two leagues below . There Bracewell was able to ensure the desired relegation, but his era - among other things with transfers of players like Neil Redfearn - prove to be extremely costly, which was made in retrospect as partly responsible for the later financial problems in the club. In addition, there was a sensational 0-2 home defeat in the FA Cup against lower-class Gateshead FC and when Paul Harsley and Andy Woodward , who were signed for expensive money in the summer of 2001, as well as the injury-prone Dominic Ludden after their opening win against Lincoln City FC, did not cause any further success, Bracewell resigned two days after a 2-0 home defeat by Oxford United in late August 2001. In the end, he had won only eleven of 41 games with Halifax Town.

His head coaching career in professional football was effectively over after these failures; later he worked for two more years as a coach for the English youth national team.

Title / Awards

literature

  • Johnny Meynell: Halifax Town - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2011, ISBN 978-1-85983-974-4 , pp. 390-392 .
  • Turner, Dennis: Fulham - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-566-1 , pp. 236 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "England - U-21 International Results 1976–1985 - Details" (RSSSF)
  2. ↑ "Paul Bracewell: Newcastle United FC 1992-95" (Sporting Heroes)
  3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-96 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 0-09-180854-5 , pp. 32 .
  4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1996-97 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1996, ISBN 1-85291-571-4 , pp. 37 .
  5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 38 f .
  6. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1998-99 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1998, ISBN 1-85291-588-9 , pp. 42 f .
  7. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1999-2000 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1999, ISBN 1-85291-607-9 , pp. 41 f .
  8. ↑ "Paul Bracewell: England Biography 1985" (Sporting Heroes)
personal data
SURNAME Bracewell, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bracewell, Paul William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Heswall , England