Michael Bridges

Michael Bridges (born 5 August 1978) is an English professional football manager and retired former player.

As a player, he was a striker who notably played in the Premier League for Sunderland, Leeds United and Newcastle United, as well as a brief spell in the top flight for Bolton Wanderers that yielded no appearances.

He also played in the Football League for Bristol City, Carlisle United, Hull City and Milton Keynes Dons as well as playing in Australia with Sydney FC, Newcastle Jets and Lambton Jaffas.

He was capped 11 times by England U21, scoring three goals.

He also represented England U21s at international level.

In his first season at Elland Road, Bridges scored 19 Premiership goals including a hat-trick in his second game against Southampton – the first Leeds player to score a hat-trick in a competitive game since Gary McAllister in October 1995.

Bridges also helped his side finish third in the Premiership, qualify for the Champions League and reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

Bridges was seriously injured in the 0–0 draw in a Champions League match with Beşiktaş and was plagued with injuries over the next four seasons of his Leeds United career, only making a further ten appearances due to his injuries and not scoring any goals.

Bridges emerged as one of the Premier League's most promising young strikers during the 1996–97 season at Sunderland, but was unable to save them from relegation.

Two years later he helped them return to the Premiership and joined Leeds United for £5 million soon afterwards.

He made a total of 79 Appearances at Sunderland, and scored 16 Goals.

In the summer of 1999, Sunderland agreed a fee to sell him to his boyhood club Tottenham Hotspur.

Bridges who travelled down to sign a contract with manager George Graham and many years later in a 2021 podcast he recalled the reason he didn't make the move was the treatment he got from owner Alan Sugar as he was about to sign his contract.

Bridges mentioned on the podcast: "Then all of a sudden this blue Rolls-Royce pulled up outside and he said, 'Oh, here's Lord Sugar, he's come to say hi and welcome to the club', and I kid you not, I'll give you the thirty seconds I got off Alan Sugar while I was sat there with my agent, in London, scared stiff by the way. He said: 'Young man, nice to meet you I've never heard of you before, I've heard you're a Sunderland reserve player, I'm putting all my faith in these two lads [Graham and Pleat] here who say I've got to pay this kind of money for you. I think it's ridiculous because you don't get much for your money, because you don't look like you could lift a paperweight. And by the way, you're not getting the money your agent thinks he's getting, you've got to earn that - take care, good luck. I looked at my agent as [if] to say: 'Get me the hell out of here, that's it done'. As Sugar left, George Graham apologised.

Bridges was signed for Leeds United by David O'Leary for £5 million from Sunderland as a replacement for Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink who weeks later left to join Atlético Madrid.

He was released by Leeds in May 2004.

As a result of his injuries he was loaned out to Newcastle United in a loan swap with Steven Caldwell in January 2004 to help alleviate their striker crisis.

After only making a single start for Newcastle, on the right wing as opposed to in his favoured striking role, Bridges was out of contract in the summer of 2004 with his contract not being renewed due to his injury problems.

He made only six appearances for Newcastle, and failed to score in any of those matches.

He was quickly snapped up by Bolton Wanderers but made no first team appearances.

Released by Bolton he spent the rest of the season back at the Stadium of Light with Sunderland, scoring once against Stoke, before joining Bristol City, where he scored once in the League Cup against Barnet.

In November 2005 Bridges joined Carlisle United, becoming perhaps their most influential player in their successful promotion charge into League One.

Bridges' 15 goals made him very popular in Carlisle and thanks to them he reestablished his football career, but the fans were sad when he decided to leave Brunton Park on transfer deadline day, 31 August 2006.

It was reported that Hull City had a £250,000 bid for Bridges turned down, and that because of this, Bridges handed in a transfer request.

Hull returned with an improved bid of £350,000, and this was accepted.

His first season at Hull was largely disappointing.

However, he did earn the Tigers their first league win of the season with a spectacular goal against Leicester City, but through a combination of injuries (back and ankle), suspension (following a sending off in a reserve game) and simply not being selected, he made only eight starts and seven substitute appearances for the Tigers, scoring further goals against Cardiff in the league and Crewe Alexandra in the League Cup.

Due to lack of first team opportunity at Hull, Bridges was allowed to leave on loan for a short term deal at Australian side Sydney FC on 15 October 2007.

In the same season he rejected a loan move to League One side Crewe Alexandra.

On 24 July 2008, Bridges returned to Carlisle, on a season-long loan deal.

The club had first option on signing him permanently, at the end of the loan, as his Hull City contract where to expire.

After the now departed manager John Ward had left him out of every starting line-up since the start of the season, Bridges finally got a starting place in the League One fixture against top of the table Leicester City at Brunton Park.

Although Carlisle lost the game 2–1, Bridges and his strike partner Danny Graham looked to be forming an impressive partnership and this was later proved so in a 3–0 boxing day victory over Huddersfield Town with Michael Bridges on the scoresheet.

He then started the following game, a 0–0 draw away at promotion chasing Oldham Athletic.

On 2 June 2009, he was released from his contract along with seven other players.

He scored his first league goal for the club on 3 November in the 1–0 win over Newcastle Jets.

A viral infection forced him to miss two matches away at Adelaide United and Wellington Phoenix and following this found it hard to regain favour of coach John Kosmina.

He returned to the Sydney first team in January as a substitute against Queensland Roar.

After just nine games and two goals Bridges returned to Hull after the expiration of his six-month loan deal.

In July 2009, Bridges was taken on pre-season tour by Norwich City, as a trialist.