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Ian Brett Culverhouse (born 22 September 1964 in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire), is an English former professional footballer. He was a defender who played in the position of right-back. He is presently Assistant Manager of Norwich City.

Early career

Culverhouse began his career with Tottenham Hotspur. He found first team opportunities limited there and made just two league appearances for the club, though he did get a winner's medal in the UEFA Cup as he was an unused substitute for Spurs in the 1984 final against Anderlecht.

Norwich City

In October 1985, Norwich City manager Ken Brown paid £50,000 for Culverhouse, who would go on to spend ten years at Carrow Road. At the time Culverhouse joined Norwich, they were in the Second Division and were favourites to win promotion to Division One. They duly did so, and Culverhouse ended his first season at Carrow Road with a division two Championship medal.

For a while during the 1986-87 season, Culverhouse found himself dropped from the first team in favour of the manager's son Kenny Brown. But Culverhouse regained his first team place and attained a level of performance and consistency that made him a fixture in the starting eleven for the best part of a decade. He was part of some of the greatest moments in the club's history - the 1988-89 season that saw Norwich come close to winning the League and FA Cup double, the 1992-93 campaign when the Canaries finished third in the inaugural season of the FA Premier League and the subsequent European campaign of 1993-94. Culverhouse acquitted himself well on the European stage, though he missed the away leg at Inter Milan's Giussepe Miazza stadium - the match that saw City eliminated from the UEFA Cup - due to suspension, having picked up two yellow cards in the competition.

Culverhouse only ever scored two goals for Norwich in his 369 appearances - one in a 1988 Simod Cup match against Swindon Town, the other in a 1994 league match against Everton. But his reliable performances in defence led him to be a very popular figure with the club's supporters. In 1991 he was voted Norwich City player of the year and in 2002 - in a poll amongst supporters to mark the club's centenary - he was voted the best right-back ever to play for the club and made the 'all-time City XI'.

Culverhouse is a member of the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame.

Post-Norwich career

A contract dispute led to Culverhouse falling out of favour and being dropped from the first team during the 1994-95 season. He was sold to Swindon Town for £150,000, to the displeasure of many Norwich supporters. He was released by the Robins in 1998 and played briefly for Kingstonian and Brighton & Hove Albion. He began his coaching career while at Brighton where he coached the youth team. He has subsequently been youth team coach at Barnet, Leyton Orient and Wycombe Wanderers.

Culverhouse was named Colchester United assistant manager under Paul Lambert. Culverhouse, Lambert and 'football operations manager' Gary Karsa all resigned from Colchester to take up positions at Norwich City on 17 August 2009.

Honours

As a player

• UEFA Cup winner 1984
• Second division Championship winner 1986
• Norwich City player of the year 1991

Trivia

Recently Culverhouse has been elevated to cult hero status thanks to Saturday morning football talk show Soccer AM. Culverhouse is repeatedly mentioned during a segment of the show where various crew members compete against each other by naming obscure football players. This game doesn't seem to have any rules but in each case the game is won by mentioning Ian Culverhouse.

External links

• Career info at ex-canaries.co.uk

References

• Canary Citizens by Mark Davage, John Eastwood, Kevin Platt, published by Jarrold Publishing, (2001), ISBN 0-7117-2020-7