Keith Curle
Keith Curle
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Keith Curle

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Keith Curle

Keith Curle (born 14 November 1963) is an English football manager and former professional player, who was most recently the manager of National League side Hartlepool United.

He played as a centre back from 1981 to 2005, notably in the Premier League for Manchester City, where he was also the club captain. He also played for Bristol Rovers, Torquay United, Bristol City, Reading, Wimbledon, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Barnsley. He was capped three times by England and received four caps at B Team level.

He became player-manager of Mansfield Town in 2002, where he remained until 2005. He later managed Chester City, Torquay United, Notts County, Carlisle United, Northampton Town and Oldham Athletic.

Born in Bristol, Curle began 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 United for £5,000 but remained at Plainmoor only for 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 – during which Reading won the Simod Cup and were relegated 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. This was the joint highest fee paid for a defender by a British club at the time, and one of the highest paid for a player of any position.

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.

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