Ian Brightwell

Who is Ian Brightwell?

Ian Robert Brightwell is an English former professional footballer and manager. As a player he was a defender from 1986 to 2006 and who played 468 league games in a 20-year career the Football League and Premier League.

He started his professional career at Manchester City in 1986, having won the FA Youth Cup with the club, and remained at Maine Road for the next 12 years, helping City to win promotion out of the Second Division in 1988–89. He joined Coventry City in 1998, before moving on to Walsall two years later. He helped the "Saddlers" to win the Second Division play-offs in 2001, before he joined Stoke City in March 2002. After playing for the "Potters" in their Second Division play-off success in 2002, he moved on to Port Vale. He was appointed as a coach at Vale Park in June 2003, before joining Macclesfield Town as a player-coach a year later. He served the club as caretaker-manager in October 2006, before being given the job permanently in June 2007. He left Moss Rose in February 2008 after a poor start to the 2007–08 season.