Phelan: Terence Michael (Terry)

1983-1986 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

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Born: Manchester: 16-03-1967

Debut: v Shrewsbury Town (a): 07-09-1985

5’8” 10 st 0lb (1986)

A product of Cathedral High School, Manchester, Phelan represented Salford and Greater Manchester Schools but qualified to play for Ireland as his mother was Irish, originally from Sligo. He joined Leeds from school in 1983 and won Eire Youth International honours before turning professional on 3rd August 1984. He first appeared in the Northern Intermediate League line-up in September 1982, at Doncaster, and he made his Central League debut later that season at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He played regularly for both the Reserves and Juniors in 1983-84 and 1984-85 and his consistent performances finally reaped reward with his inclusion in the first team squad to travel to Brighton & Hove Albion on 20th April 1985, but did not make the bench. He made his League debut early in the 1985-86 season, and enjoyed an extended run in the side before being ruled out by injury. One of many exciting young players produced by Eddie Gray he had just started to establish himself in the team when Gray was sacked. New boss Billy Bremner purged Leeds of many fine Gray products and Phelan was just one of many who found much fame away from Leeds. He was freed in in May 1986 and joined Swansea City in July 1986. He was selected in the Football League Fourth Division PFA Team of the Year for 1986-87 after an excellent season with the Swans, where he was almost an ever-present with forty-five League appearances, as well as five starts in the F.A. Cup, four in the League Cup and another three in other matches. He signed for First Division Wimbledon for £100,000 on 29th July 1987. He had already been capped by the Republic at Under-Twenty-One level for what proved to be his only appearance at that level when he played in the UEFA Group qualifier against Scotland at Easter Road, Edinburgh on 17th February 1987 when they were beaten 1-4 in front of a crowd of 4,136. At Plough Lane he joined John Scales, a former Leeds junior who played alongside Phelan at Elland Road. Phelan played in Wimbledon’s 1988 FA Cup winning side and Scales, who joined the Dons via Bristol Rovers, came on as a substitute. Scales later went on to play for Liverpool and England, while Phelan made his mark with the Republic in the 1992 World Cup as a pacey left-back. He stayed at Plough Lane for five years, making one hundred and fifty-five League starts and four more from the bench and scoring one goal. He also scored twice in sixteen starts in the F.A. Cup, started thirteen and came off the bench twice in the League Cup and made eight starts in other games. While at Wimbledon he earned his only "B" International cap for the Republic this time in a 4-1 win over England at Turners Cross, Cork, on 27th March 1990, when he came on as a fifty-ninth minute substitute for Dennis Irwin in front of a crowd of 10,000. This was followed by his only Under-Twenty-Three cap in a 3-2 win over Northern Ireland at Shamrock Park, Portadown, watched by a crowd of 1,500 on 15th May 1990. He had commenced his International career at the top level on 11th September 1990 when he started the game with Hungary at the Raba ETO Stadium Gyor when a meagre 4,000 were on hand to witness the Republic win by 2-1 as Phelan played all but the last eight minutes when he gave way to Chris Morris. His second cap soon followed when he came on as a fifty-sixth minute substitute for Steve Staunton at the KKS Lech Stadium Poznan when Eire drew three goals each with Poland in a Europa Qualifier on 16th October 1990. Less than a month later he received his third cap again in a Europa Qualifier at the Inonu Stadium in Istanbul when the Republic beat Turkey 3-1 on 13th November 1991 in front of a 40,000 crowd. He brought his tally to five with two friendlies in Dublin in early 1992. The first was a 0-1 loss to Wales on 19th February 1992 at the RDS Arena in front of 15,100 when he started but gave way to John Aldridge after ten minutes of the second half and then on 25th March at Landsdowne Road 23,601 were on hand to see him play a full game as Switzerland were beaten by 2-1. He then picked up three more caps to take him to eight when the Republic played in a Friendly Tournament in the USA, which saw them go down to the hosts at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium Washington D.C.by 1-3 as a crowd of 35,696 were on hand on 30th May 1992. There was another defeat five days later as Italy beat them 0-2 at the Foxboro Stadium, Boston, when Phelan came on as an eightieth minute substitute for Eddie McGoldrick witnessed by a crowd of 34,797 and three days later at the same venue a larger crowd of 41,227 saw the Republic beat Portugal 2-0 and Phelan played virtually a full game as Eddie McGoldrick replaced him in the final minute. He was selected as FAI Young International Player of the Year for 1992. By this time he was in the £2.5 million class, signing for Manchester City on 25th August 1992. The fee was a World record for a full-back. He made his debut Maine Road on 26th August 1992 in a 3-1 win o0ver Norwich City in the EPL. He was a regular in the City side for several seasons scoring once in forty-five games in 1992-93, once in thirty-six games in 1993-94 and then thirty-one games in 1994-95. He had made a further ten in 1995-96, before leaving. He played his final game for City at home against his first team, Leeds United in a 0-0 draw on 21st October 1995. He scored one League goal in one hundred and three League games for City, including one from the bench and one goal in eight starts in the F.A. Cup and there were eleven starts in the League Cup without scoring, before Chelsea paid £900,000 to take him to Stamford Bridge on 15th November 1995. While at Maine Road he added nineteen more caps to his collection. Ten of them were in the World Cup Qualifying games. He was a seventy-sixth minute substitute for Kevin Sheedy in the 4-0 win over Latvia on 9th September 1992 in front of 32,000 at Landsdowne Road, but he played a full game in the other eight as there was a 0-0 draw with Denmark at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen in front of a crowd of 40,100 on 14th October 1992, and another goalless game with Spain at the Sanches Pizjuan Stadium, Seville before a crowd of 52,000 on 18th October 1992. A 4-0 home win at Landsdowne Road with 33,000 in attendance on 31st March 1993 over Northern Ireland, and then 10,000 were on hand at the Qemal Stafa Stadium in Tirana as Albania were beaten 2-1 on 26th May 1993. This was followed by two games in the Baltic States in quick succession as on 9th June 1993 Latvia were beaten 2-0 before 7,000 at the Daugava Stadium Riga and a week later in front of a 5,000 crowd at Zalgiris Stadium Vilnius, Lithuania were beaten 1-0. The return fixture was played at Landsdowne Road on 8th September 1993 before a crowd of 33,000 and the Republic won 2-0 and on 13th October at the same venue and with the same attendance Eire were defeated 1-3 by Spain. He brought up his eighteenth cap as a crowd of 10,500 ay Windsor Park, Belfast, saw a 1-1 draw with Northern Ireland on 17th November 1993. The Republic had qualified for the World Cup in the USA and prior to that they played four friendlies in the summer of 1994 in the build up. The first was on 20th April 1994 at the Willem II Stadium, Tilberg, in front of a crowd of 14,000, with Phelan starting and playing eighty-four minutes before being replaced by Alan McLoughlin in a prestigeous win over the Netherlands. There was another 1-0 win, this time over Bolivia in front of 32,500 at Landsdowne Road on 24th May 1994 and five days later before a crowd of 50,000 at the Niedersachen Stadium, Hanover, there was another famous victory as Germany were beaten 2-0. The fourth game at Landsdowne Road with a crowd of 43,465 saw the Republic beaten 1-2 by Czechoslovakia on 5th June 1994. The Republic had been given a hard Group in which to try and progress, but they were off to a flying start on 18th June 1994 in front of 74,826 at Giants Stadium, New Jersey, where they beat Italy 1-0. Six days later in front of 61,219 at the Citrus Bowl, Orlando, Florida they went down 1-2 to Mexico and Phelan was rested from the third group game fixture in which there was a 0-0 draw with Norway. This saw a four-way tie with all countries having attained four points and the Republic took second spot having exactly the same goals for and against as Italy but going through because of their win over Italy under the rules of the competition. On 4th July 1994 they were eliminated at the Citrus Bowl, Orlando, Florida in front of an attendance of 61,355 when the Netherlands beat them 0-2 in the first knock-out round. His twenty-sixth cap was for the abandoned so called friendly with England at Landsdowne Road on 15th February 1995 when the game was abandoned after twenty-seven minutes, due to trouble in the 47,000 crowd, with the Republic leading 1-0. His final game while at Maine Road came on 11th October in a 2-1 Europa Qualifying game in front of 33,000 at Landsdowne Road against Latvia which saw Eire win 2-1. After making his Chelsea debut in a 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge against Newcastle United on 9th December 1995, his stay at Stamford Bridge was injury plagued and full of conflict with Manager Ruud Gullit so he only managed thirteen starts and two off the bench in his almost fourteen month stay, but did start eight F.A. Cup ties and was a substitute on one occasion in the League Cup, before making his final appearance in a 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge with Sheffield Wednesday on 28th December 1996. His International career carried on and in that period he gained a further eight caps to take his tally to thirty-five. The first of those was gained at Anfield, Liverpool on 13th December 1995 when 40,000 saw the Republic eliminated in the Europa Qualification Play-off tie as they went down 0-2 to the Netherlands. The other seven were all gained in International friendlies, which saw Eire in a run of poor results, the first three being at Landsdowne Road. On 29th March 1996 Russia scored twice without replay in front of a crowd of 41,600, then Portugal got the only goal of the game in front of 26,576 on 26th May 1996 and Croatia left with a 2-2 draw in front of 29,100 four days later in a game where Phelan started but was replaced by Ian Harte at half-time. The defeats continued as the Netherlands inflicted a 1-3 defeat at the Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam in front of 17,000 two days later and then there were three games with diverse results from a short tour of USA which started with a 1-2 defeat by the host nation in front of 25,332 at Foxboro Stadium, Boston on 9th June 1996. This was followed four days later by a 2-2 draw with Mexico in front of 21,322 at the Giants Stadium, New Jersey, when Phelan came on in the seventy-third minute as a substitute in place of Mark Kennedy, and finally a 3-0 win over Bolivia at the same venue, with a crowd of 14,624 two days later in which Phelan played the full game. He left Chelsea for Everton on 30th December 1996 for a fee of £850,000. He made his Everton debut on 1st January 1997 in a 0-2 defeat at Goodison Park by Blackburn Rovers. Bought as a replacement for the seriously injured and very popular Andy Hinchcliffe, he had just started to win over the Goodison fans when injury again struck in November 1997. He was out of the team for the rest of the season and almost the entire 1998-99 season, making just fifteen League starts in 1996-97 and eight starts and one game from the bench in 1997-98 and no games whatsoever in 1998-99. This obviously had a bearing on his International career making only three appearances for the Republic in that time. His thirty-sixth cap came in a 0-0 draw with Wales at Ninian Park, Cardiff, watched by a crowd of 7,000 on 11th February 1997, followed by a 2-3 defeat by Macedonia before a crowd of 8,000 at the City Stadium, Skopje, on 2nd April 1997, a game in which he started but was replaced by Ian Harte in the fifty-seventh minute. His thirty-eighth cap came on 11th October 1997 in a 1-1 draw with Romania in a World Cup Qualifier at Landsdowne Road watched by 49,000, in which he played almost a full game, with Curtis Fleming coming on as his replacement in the eighty-seventh minute. Finally, after eighteen months out, he regained match fitness with forty-five minutes in the reserves, only to be sent off for handling against Aston Villa Reserves. Although he regained match fitness for the start of the 1999-2000 season, he was not used much in the opening games, making one substitute appearance and one Worthington Cup appearance before he was again laid low by another injury. He played his final game for Everton on 14th September 1999 in a 1-1 draw at Oxford United in the League Cup. When his injury finally cleared up in October, he was farmed out to Crystal Palace for a month's loan on 22nd October 1999, where he managed fourteen matches with seemingly no ill-effects as his loan was subsequently extended, while Walter Smith continued his controversial policy of playing centre-backs in the full-back positions. He returned to Goodison Park on 22nd January 2000. After proving his fitness and showing excellent form at Selhurst Park, Phelan felt let down by the club when not allowed to play for the first team for tactical reasons and he left Goodison on a free and joined Fulham on 2nd February 2000. At Goodison he did not find the net in twenty-three starts and two games from the bench in the League, and one F.A. Cup start and one start and one game from the bench in the League Cup. It was while at Craven Cottage that he played his made his final four appearances for the Republic. The first was as a substitute in a Friendly with Scotland at Landsdowne Road in front of 30,213 on 30th May 2000, when he came on as a sixty-second minute substitute for Stephen McPhail in a 1-2 defeat. The final three came in the US Nike Cup Tournament in USA in June 2000 and all were full games. On 4th June 2000 at Soldiers Field, Chicago, 36,469 saw the Republic draw 2-2 with Mexico. Two days later they drew with the host nation watched by 16,319 at the Foxboro Stadium in Boston and his forty-second and final cap came five days later as the Republic beat South Africa before a crowd of 45,008 at Giants Stadium, New Jersey. He was part of the Fulham team which won promotion to the EPL in 2001. However, Phelan was released by Fulham following promotion having played eighteen League games, including one as a substitute and getting two goals and also starting one League Cup game. He was noticeably omitted in favour of Rufus Brevett and only played three games after the appointment of coach Jean Tigana. He moved to Sheffield United on 10th August 2001 and started eight League games and one League Cup game, before deciding to try football in the USA with Charleston Battery and managed thirty-nine games in his spell there. He moved to New Zealand as Player-Manager of Otago United but his appearances on the pitch diminished as the years progressed. He remained as the coach but as the teams results grew worse so his position weakened until after four years he gave way to his Assistant coach, Malcolm Fleming as Phelan took over the club's youth team and was also placed in charge of the primary schools development programme. He went to Goa, India, in March 2011 as the Technical Director of the Sesa Football Academy, a position he held for almost two years. Phelan is one of the coaches at the new Templegate Training Academy in Ardwick, Manchester where he passes on his skills to the next generation.