Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Full name | Michael Bell | ||
Date of birth | 15 November 1971 | ||
Place of birth | Newcastle upon Tyne, England | ||
Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) | ||
Playing position | Defender | ||
Club information | |||
Current club | Clevedon Town (manager) | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
1990–1994 | Northampton Town | 153 | (10) |
1994–1997 | Wycombe Wanderers | 118 | (5) |
1997–2005 | Bristol City | 295 | (35) |
2005–2006 | Port Vale | 15 | (2) |
2006–2007 | Cheltenham Town | 18 | (0) |
2007–2008 | Team Bath | ||
2008–2009 | Weston-super-Mare | 10 | (0) |
2011 | Clevedon Town | 1 | (0) |
Total | 610+ | (52+) | |
Teams managed | |||
2010– | Clevedon Town | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
Michael "Mickey" Bell (born 15 November 1971, Newcastle upon Tyne) is an English former football defender, turned manager. In a seventeen year career as a professional in the Football League he made 599 league appearances with five different clubs.
Starting his career with Northampton Town in 1990, over a four year period he would make over 150 appearances for the club. He then transferred to Wycombe Wanderers, where he would make 118 league appearances in a three year spell. He then made a £150,000 move to Bristol City in 1997, and would make 345 appearances in all competitions, in an eight year association with the club. He then spent a brief spell at Port Vale, before joining Cheltenham Town in 2006. He then dropped into the non-leagues with Team Bath and Weston-super-Mare, before being appointed as manager of Clevedon Town in 2011.
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Bell started his career at Northampton Town before moving on a £55,000 transfer to Wycombe Wanderers. He then moved on a £150,000 transfer to Bristol City where he made most of his career appearances. He spent eight years at Ashton Gate before the club released him in the summer of 2005.
He joined Port Vale on a free transfer, citing the fact that he knew a few players already on the team as a factor in his decision.[1] However, the stay was brief as Bell headed for the exit door later that year to join Cheltenham Town to finish out the season.[2] Bell stated the long commute as well as family reasons for the mutual termination agreement.[3] Although Bell helped Cheltenham to promotion to League One via the League Two playoffs in 2006 (playing a part in the clubs 1-0 triumph in the final over Grimsby Town at the Millennium Stadium), his time at Cheltenham was riddled with injuries which required surgery on his achilles and he did not appear for the Robins past Boxing Day of the following campaign; subsequently, Bell was not offered a contract at the conclusion of the 2006–07 season.[4]
After his release by Cheltenham Town he was appointed as a player coach at Team Bath.[5] It was first reported that Mickey Bell was training with Weston-super-Mare on 15 December 2007 in an interview with manager Tony Ricketts.[6] He had previously been training to be a plumber, but finished the courses and started to train with the team. Weston-super-Mare announced Mickey Bell's signing on 4 February 2008.[7] He eventually made ten appearances for the club before being released at the end of the season.
Despite becoming a qualified plumber, he returned to the game in May 2010 when he was appointed manager of Southern Football League Division One South & West side Clevedon Town.[8]
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