Ian Brightwell

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Ian Brightwell
Personal information
Full name	Ian Robert Brightwell
Date of birth	9 April 1968
Place of birth	Lutterworth, England
Position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Macclesfield Town
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1986-1998 1998-2000 2000-2002 2002 2002-2004 2004-present	Manchester City Coventry City Walsall Stoke City Port Vale Macclesfield Town	321 (18) 0 (0) 81 (0) 4 (0) 37 (0) 17 (0)
National team
1988-1989	England U21	4 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of the end of the 2005-06 season.

Ian Robert Brightwell (born 9 April 1968 in Lutterworth, Leicestershire) is an English footballer who is currently player-coach at Macclesfield Town, but is probably best remembered for his time at Manchester City.

Brightwell is the son of Olympic gold medalist Ann Packer and 400m runner Robbie Brightwell and grew up in Congleton. Brightwell began his career at Manchester City, where he signed schoolboy forms at the age of 14. He was part of the 1986 FA Youth Cup winning team that also included the likes of Paul Lake and David White, who also broke into the first team in the mid-1980s.

Brightwell made his City debut on 23 August 1986 against Wimbledon. He was a versatile player who played at every single outfield position during his career at the club. However, he was most commonly used either as a right-back or as on the right side of midfield. He was capped several times by England Under-21. His younger brother David also played semi-regularly for Manchester City.

In early 1993, Brightwell snapped his patella tendon, and was sidelined for more than a year. He did eventually recover, and returned to the City lineup where he remained through most of the 1990s. Unfortunately, his last year at City coincided with the team's worst season ever – the 1997/98 season that ended with relegation to the third level for the first and only time in the club's history.

At the end of the ill-fated 1997/98 season, after 378 first-team appearances for City, Brightwell had a testemonial match and was given a free transfer, joining Coventry. Two years later, having spent virtually all of his Coventry career on the bench, he joined Walsall for an eventful two year spell which saw relegation and a dramatic Division Two play-off final win in May 2001. He later had spells with Stoke and Port Vale.

Brightwell joined Macclesfield as a reserve team coach in the summer of 2004. However, he remains registered as a player, and has played sporadically for the Silkmen in the 2004/2005 season, 2005/2006 season, 2006/2007 season seasons. He was appointed caretaker manager of Macclesfield on 2 October 2006 after the sacking of manager of Brian Horton.

Preceded by Brian Horton

Macclesfield Town F.C. caretaker manager 2006

Succeeded by Paul Ince

Macclesfield Town F.C. - Current Squad
1 Brain | 2 Regan | 3 Smart | 4 Morley | 5 Swailes | 6 Bullock | 7 Navarro | 8 Heath | 9 McNeil | 10 Miles | 11 Tolley | 12 Tipton | 13 Lee | 14 McIntyre | 15 Brightwell | 16 Reid | 17 Hadfield | 18 Teague | 19 Jennings | 20 McDonald | 21 McNulty | 22 Begović | 23 Weir–Daley | 24 Scott | 25 Ince | 26 Murphy | 27 Wiles | 34 Edwards | Manager: Ince