Mark Venus

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Personal information
Mark Venus
Date of birth	6 April 1967
Place of birth	Hartlepool, England
Height	1.82 m (6 ft)
Position	Left back, centre half
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1985 1985-1988 1988-1997 1997-2003 2003-2004 2004 2004-2005	Hartlepool United Leicester City Wolverhampton Wanderers Ipswich Town Cambridge United Dagenham & Redbridge (loan) Hibernian	5 (0) 69 (1) 238 (10) 184 (19) 23 (0) 5 (0) 1 (0)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Mark Venus (born 6 April 1967 in Hartlepool) is an English football coach and former player. He is currently the assistant manager at West Bromwich Albion

His career started for his hometown team of Hartlepool United where he signed as a youngster in 1985. After a stay at Leicester City, he signed in 1987 for Wolverhampton Wanderers. In nearly a decade at Molineux, Venus was an integral part of the club's resurrection after bankruptcy. Playing left-back and, occasionally (perhaps too occasionally for Venus), in his preferred position of central defence, Venus helped Wolves to the championships, in successive seasons, of Divisions Four and Three, making Wolves the only club to have won all four English divisions. An often unsung player, Venus was noted for his sweet left foot, though his right seemed to exist only for balance.

He joined Ipswich Town in 1997 after being exchanged for the controversial Steve Sedgley who left Ipswich Town for Wolverhampton Wanderers that summer. With Ipswich Town he won the 1999/00 Nationwide First Division Play Offs and finished 5th in the Premiership and qualified for the UEFA Cup in 2000/01. Ipswich were relegated in 2001/02, but Venus picked up the clubs Player of the Year award. He qualified for the UEFA Cup with Ipswich for the second successive season. Venus was released by Ipswich Town manager Joe Royle at the end of 2002/03.

Whilst playing for Cambridge United in 2003/04 he fell out with the club and played the rest of that season on loan to Dagenham and Redbridge and left that summer to become join his former Ipswich Town team mate Tony Mowbray at Hibernian, as Assistant Manager. Apart from a disappointing spell in charge of FC Codsall 440, in the Wolverhampton Sunday League, this was Venus's first managerial experience. In October 2006, he returned to the midlands, extending his partnership with Mowbray by joining West Bromwich Albion as assistant manager. Their first game in charge, ironically, was the Black Country derby against Wolves, where Venus spent the bulk of his playing career.