Keith Curle

Football player infobox
playername = Keith Curle


fullname = Keith Curle
height = height|ft=6|in=0
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1963|11|14
cityofbirth = Bristol
countryofbirth = England
currentclub = Crystal Palace (coach)
position = Defender (retired)
years = 1981–1983
1983–1984
1984–1987
1987–1988
1988–1991
1991–1996
1996–2000
2000–2002
2002
2002–2005
clubs = Bristol Rovers
Torquay United
Bristol City
Reading
Wimbledon
Manchester City
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Sheffield United
Barnsley
Mansfield Town
Total
caps(goals) = 032 00(4)
016 00(5)
121 00(1)
040 00(0)
093 00(3)
172 0(11)
150 0(10)
057 00(1)
011 00(0)
014 00(0)
706 0(35)
nationalyears = 1991–1992
1992
nationalteam = England B
England
nationalcaps(goals) = 004 00(0)
003 00(0)
manageryears = 2002–2005
2005–2006
2007
managerclubs = Mansfield Town (player-manager)
Chester City
Torquay United

Keith Curle (born 14 November 1963 in Bristol) is an English former professional football player, who is currently a coach at Crystal Palace.

Playing career

Curle bagn his career at hometown club Bristol Rovers, for whom he made a goalscoring debut on 29 August 1981 in the (old) Third Division against Chester. He left two seasons later to join Torquay for £5,000 but remained at Plainmoor only a four months before returning to his native city, this time with Bristol City.

The "Robins" won promotion from the fourth tier at the end of the 1983/84 season soon after Curle's arrival. He remained with the club for three full seasons in the third flight, amassing 128 appearances in total. He finally left Ashton Gate to join Reading for £150,000 in October 1987.

After a year at Reading - which saw relegation from the Second Division - he made a £500,000 move to Division One and FA Cup holders Wimbledon. He spent two and a half years battling with the "Crazy Gang" before Manchester City paid a club record £2.5million for him in August 1991.

His first season at Maine Road saw a 5th place league finish and earned him a call-up to the England squad, debuting on 29 April 1992 as a substitute in a 2-2 friendly draw against the CIS in Moscow. After starting in a further warm-up game (a 1-0 win over Hungary), he was selected for the squad for Euro '92. Here, he covered at right-back in their opening goalless group game against Denmark, but played no further part as the nation crashed out at the first stage and was not selected again.

Back with his club, Curle was promoted to club captain but they were unable to match their 5th place finish after manager Peter Reid was fired and eventually suffered relegation in the 1995/96 season. Curle remained with the club during pre-season for the following campaign but was soon stripped of his captaincy and transfer-listed before being sold to Wolves in August 1996 for £650,000.

He spent four seasons at Molineux as the club tried to win promotion to the Premier League. His first season with the team saw them lose in the play-offs to Crystal Palace, but they failed to qualify for them in his subsequent seasons. He was however made club captain and led to the side to an FA Cup semi-final in 1998, where they lost to eventual double winners Arsenal.

The promise of a coaching role saw him move to Sheffield United in 2000 and he spent two years working with manager Neil Warnock in this capacity. He joined Barnsley in 2002 but stayed just two months before ending his contract by mutual consent and joining third flight club Mansfield Town, where he was soon appointed player-manager. He played through the remainder of the 2002/03 season before focusing solely on management.

Management career

Curle began his management career as player-manager of Mansfield Town in December 2002 after the firing of Stuart Watkiss. He took over with the side struggling in the relegation zone and could not prevent the drop to the fourth tier, but took them to the play-off final in his first full season in charge, where they lost on penalties to Huddersfield.

He was controversially sacked in December 2004 after allegations that he bullied a youth-team player. However, in August 2006, Curle won a case for wrongful dismissal against the club and was awarded undisclosed damages. The judge in the case cleared Curle of any wrongdoing, and described Mansfield's disciplinary process as a "sham". [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/5246602.stm Curle wins undisclosed damages] ]

Despite the outcome of his hearing not yet being clear, he appointed as manager of Chester City in May 2005 and began brightly with the club challenging for promotion from League Two and eliminating Nottingham Forest from the FA Cup. However, a disastrous losing run of 11 games in 12 cost Curle his job in February 2006 after just nine months in charge.

In February 2007, he was appointed "Head Coach" (effectively manager under Director of Football Colin Lee, his former manager at Wolves) at Torquay United, where he had played earlier in his career. He was on a short-term contract that ended in the summer of 2007. After failing to save Torquay from relegation, Curle's contract was not renewed and he was replaced by Leroy Rosenior [cite news
title = Rosenior unveiled as Torquay boss
url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/torquay_united/6665151.stm
publisher = BBC Sport
date = 2007-05-17
accessdate =2007-05-17]

Curle reunited with Neil Warnock, when the latter was appointed manager of Championship side Crystal Palace in October 2007 and immediately brought Curle into his coaching team. [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/c/crystal_palace/7037569.stm Warnock appointed as Palace boss] ]

References

External links

*soccerbase|1845|Keith Curle
*soccerbase (manager)|1842|Keith Curle