Paul Warhurst

Paul Warhurst (born 26 September 1969) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender, midfielder or striker.

Warhurst notably played in the Premier League for Sheffield Wednesday, Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace and Bolton Wanderers.

Warhurst began his career as a trainee at Manchester City in 1988, he was added to the club's first team squad at the beginning of the 1988–89 season, but by October he found himself frozen out of the squad and he was sold.

He joined Oldham Athletic for a fee of £10,000.

There he became a first team regular, featuring in the team's memorable run to the semi-finals of the 1989-90 FA Cup.

After 86 appearances (scoring twice), he began to capture the eye of bigger clubs and the 1990–91 season was his final season for the club.

Sheffield Wednesday came in for Warhurst in the summer of 1991, for £750,000.

He began his career at the club as a solid defender, but midway through his second season, injuries to David Hirst and Mark Bright saw Warhurst deployed as an emergency striker.

In a phenomenal sequence, he scored 12 goals in as many games, and after four years as a defender, was called up to the England national team as a striker.

Warhurst was injured, however, and missed an opportunity to win his first cap.

His scoring ratio inevitably slowed down, and when Hirst returned to action, Warhurst fell out with manager Trevor Francis, who wanted the player to return to defensive duties.

He was part of the Wednesday team who finished as FA Cup and Football League Cup runners-up in 1993, and was a Rovers player when they won the title in 1995.

Prior to this he had come through the youth ranks at Manchester City and later went on to play in the Football League for Stoke City, Chesterfield, Barnsley, Carlisle United, Grimsby Town, Blackpool, Wrexham and Barnet.

He also played Non-league football for Forest Green Rovers and Northwich Victoria.

In the summer of 1993, Warhurst was transfer-listed and left the club, having scored 18 goals in 88 games in Sheffield.

Whilst at Wednesday, Warhurst played in both the 1993 League Cup Final as a striker, and the 1993 FA Cup Final as a centre back, due to David Hirst returning from injury and defenders Nigel Pearson and Phil King absent.

Following his departure from Sheffield Wednesday, Warhurst signed for Blackburn for £2.7 million.

Ironically, he played in a new position for Rovers and was primarily a midfielder.

He did, however, play occasionally as a forward.

While at Ewood Park, Warhurst was part of the most successful squad in the club's recent history.

He played amongst the likes of Alan Shearer, Chris Sutton, Tim Flowers, Colin Hendry, Henning Berg and Graeme Le Saux and won a Premier League winners' medal in the 1994–95 season, as Rovers beat rivals Manchester United to the title.

The following season, Rovers struggled to maintain their form and Manchester United regained the title, finishing ahead of Newcastle United.

Blackburn could only manage to finish in 7th place.

Palace suffered relegation, though, in their first season back since 1995, but Warhurst remained with the club despite losing their status as a Premier League club.

In the summer of 1997, after 74 games for Blackburn (yielding four goals), Warhurst left Blackburn.

Warhurst made a switch to Crystal Palace for the 1997–98 season, as the club had recently earned promotion back to the top flight.

He made 30 appearances, scoring four times, before being loaned to Bolton Wanderers in November 1998.

Following a successful spell at Bolton, this led to the Lancashire team signing him permanently for £800,000 in January 1999.

Warhurst became an integral part of The Trotters midfield, and In 2000–01 he helped Bolton gain promotion to the Premier League under Sam Allardyce.

After promotion Warhurst initially kept his place in the team, despite having regular injuries.

Other players such as Youri Djorkaeff were signed and in the end, even if Warhurst was fit, he struggled to break into the first team.

Stoke City signed Warhurst on loan from Bolton for two months in the close of the 2002–03 season, where he scored once against Rotherham United.

At the end of the season Warhurst was released by Sam Allardyce after 100 club appearances.

After failing to find another club, Bolton briefly re-signed Warhurst in September 2003.

However, he made no more appearances for the club and was released again in October.

In October 2003, Warhurst signed a short-term deal for Second Division side Chesterfield and made his debut in a 3–0 home victory over Swindon Town.

However, after only playing 6 times and scoring one goal against Lincoln City in the League Trophy he was released from his monthly rolling contract after only playing for the club for 4 weeks.

His next port of call was to link up with fellow Second Division side Barnsley.

In 2007 Warhurst was appointed caretaker manager of Northwich but passed at the job on a full-time basis, he has since worked in the sport as a football consultant and runs his own sports management agency.

The following season saw the club finish in the bottom half of the league down in 13th, as the club initially seemed to struggle following the loss of Shearer to Newcastle United.