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Date and Place of Birth 24th September 1962 - NELSON
Transfers to and from Burnley youth from summer 1979 to NORWICH CITY - July 1985 (£70,000)
First and Last Burnley Games CHESTERFIELD (a) - 31st January 1981 sub: replaced Steve Taylor
WALSALL (a) - 11th May 1985
Other Clubs ---------------------------------------- NORWICH CITY, MANCHESTER UNITED, WEST BROMWICH ALBION |
Burnley Career Stats
| Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Others | Total | |||||
| apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | apps | gls | |
| 1980/81 | 15(1) | 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 15(1) | 2 |
| 1981/82 | 22(1) | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | - | 3 | - | 28(1) | 1 |
| 1982/83 | 42 | 3 | 7 | - | 9 | 2 | - | - | 58 | 5 |
| 1983/84 | 44 | 2 | 4 | - | 2 | - | 4 | - | 54 | 2 |
| 1984/85 | 43 | 1 | 3 | - | 4 | - | 4 | 2 | 54 | 3 |
| Total | 166(2) | 9 | 16 | - | 16 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 209(2) | 13 |
Profile by Tony Scholes
Not too many local lads and Burnley supporters have made it in the game after starting their careers with Burnley, but one who most definitely did and is still doing so is Micky Phelan who signed for the Clarets as an apprentice back in the summer of 1979.
The youngster had been earning rave reviews with Barrowford Celtic prior to arriving at Turf Moor. His was the name to look out for and his progress was rapid at Burnley. He was very quickly playing reserve team football and such was his potential that he was one of two players chosen by Granada Television for a documentary on two young footballers, the other was Oldham's Darren McDonough.
He was filmed throughout his apprenticeship and Granada hit lucky with two very contrasting players, both on and off the field, who had both made it to the first team by the time the programme was ready to air.
Micky's arrival in the first team came in January 1981 at the age of 18. Vince Overson was out injured and Billy Rodaway, who had been out of favour for much of the season, had come in for him. However, in a 3-0 defeat at Chesterfield, Phelan came on for Rodaway as a substitute.
A week later he was in the starting line up against Exeter at home, and he kept that position for the remainder of the season, indeed missing just one game. He'd made that debut in the centre of defence and that's where he played most of his games for Burnley. But he showed his versatility by playing occasionally in midfield and it was whilst in that position he scored his first Burnley goal at Barnsley although we fell to a 3-2 defeat.
The 1981/82 season, his first full season in the first team, proved to be one of mixed fortunes for him. By now an automatic choice in a teenage back four playing in front of experience in goalkeeper Alan Stevenson and sweeper Martin Dobson he twice suffered serious injuries as we won the 3rd Division Championship.
Just before Christmas he suffered a broken ankle in training but with many games called off in a harsh winter he missed only five league games. Unfortunately the next injury was no accident. Playing at Plough Lane against Wimbledon in March his face came in contact with a stray elbow. It caused a depressed fracture of his cheekbone and his season was over.
During the next three years things weren't too good for Burnley. In the season after promotion we reached the semi-final of the League Cup, the quarter final of the FA Cup and incredibly were relegated again.
Without Overson for virtually the whole season we played with Phelan and Dobson at the back. The injury problems of the previous season were gone and he played in every single league and cup game. Such was his form that he lifted the Supporters Club's Player of the Year and Young Player of the Year Award.
In the 1983/84 season new manager John Bond was so impressed with his young defender that he recommended him for the England Under-21s. He'd won young caps but no one ever took up Bond's recommendations. However he continued to turn in a string of excellent performances for the Clarets as he did in the following season.
That 1984/85 season proved to be his last for Burnley as we sunk to another relegation and 4th Division football for the first time in the club's history. Phelan had looked a cup above the level he was playing at and so it was no surprise that in the summer of 1985 he opted to move on.
He signed for Norwich in July 1985 for £70,000 and I think to this day they will consider themselves very fortunate to have signed a player of Phelan's quality for that price. But such were the finances at Turf Moor we had very little option but to accept it.
A year later he was preparing for top flight football after he'd helped a Norwich side to promotion. He'd played alongside the likes of Dave Watson and Steve Bruce and a season and a half after that promotion he was appointed captain after Bruce moved on to Manchester United.
Norwich were having a good run and he captained them in an FA Cup Semi-Final in 1989 in a season when they finished fourth in the old 1St Division. He was being watched by a number of top clubs. Everton were strongly linked with him that summer but he followed the same route as Bruce and signed for Manchester United.
Whilst at Old Trafford he was called up for England but played just the once in Bobby Robson's team, coming on for Bryan Robson as a substitute against Italy in a game that saw David Platt make his international debut.
In his first season at Old Trafford he was in the side that beat Palace in the FA Cup Final and a year later he won himself a European Cup Winners Cup winners medal after United beat Barcelona.
He won another FA Cup winners medal in 1992 but in the following two seasons as United won the inaugural Premier League titles his first team opportunities were limited and he was released at the end of the 1993/94 season.
By then Burnley had won promotion and Jimmy Mullen tried to bring him back to Turf Moor. However Phelan opted for West Brom, and played against us for them that season. But he didn't complete the season and retired through injury.
He joined the coaching staff at Norwich and was there when Gary Megson had a short spell as manager. When Megson moved on so did Phelan and he was assistant manager to Megson at both Blackpool and Stockport.
Megson moved again to Stoke but this time Phelan, in the summer of 1999, opted for a coaching role at Manchester United and that's where he remained for 14 years. He worked his way up, and after two years became first team coach and then, in 2008. assistant manager under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Manchester United had a reserve team in our league in the 2004/05 season and we met at Accrington late in the season. Phelan was there and sat just to the right of us. We jokingly said that he'd sat in the home section and he said that was okay because he was neutral. He probably was, though working for Manchester United he was still a Claret.
His time at Manchester United came to an end on 24th May 2013 when new manager David Moyes revealed he was making some changes and that Phelan, along with goalkeeping coach Eric Steele, would be leaving the club.
He was out of the game for 18 months before returning to Norwich City, one of his former playing club, as first team coach on 20th November 2014 but by January he'd asked to leave prior to taking up the position of assistant manager at Hull which was confirmed on 5th February 2015.
Links
Micky gets number two role at Old Trafford (11/09/08)
Phelan ends 14 year Old Trafford stay (24/05/13)
Micky Phelan back in football (20/11/14)
Phelan asks to leave Norwich for a possible Premier League return (20/01/15)