Iain Brunskill

Iain Brunskill (born 5 November 1976) is an English former footballer who is assistant head coach of Blackpool FC having formerly held the same role at Queens Park Rangers. He was previously been assistant head coach to Neil Critchley at Blackpool, a role he began in February 2022 before leaving Blackpool in June 2022 following the departure of Critchley to Aston Villa. He has previously coached at Liverpool, Blackburn Rovers and Norwich City in England, and in Malta, Norway, Jordan and China.

Iain Brunskill
Personal information
Date of birth (1966-11-05) 5 November 1966
Place of birth Ormskirk, Lancashire, England
Position(s) Midfielder
Team information
Current team
 Blackpool (assistant head coach)
Youth career
1993–1996 Liverpool
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–1997 Bury 2 (0)
1997–1999 Leek 80 (0)
1999 Hednesford Town 3
1999 Runcorn Halton 35 (2)
Managerial career
2013 Floriana
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

In June 2023, he rejoined Critchley at Blackpool, exactly twelve months after leaving.

As a player, he was a trainee and professional player at Liverpool, and was also at Bury, Leek, Hednesford Town and Runcorn Halton.

Playing career

A midfielder,[1] Brunskill was an England international at schoolboy and youth level, before joining Liverpool as a full-time player. Between 1995 and 1996, Brunskill was a trainee and young professional player at Liverpool, making over 50 appearances for Liverpool's reserve team. In 1996, he joined Bury, where he remained for a season. In 1997, he joined Leek Town in the Vauxhall Conference, making 80 appearances, followed by stints at Hednesford Town and Runcorn Halton, for whom he made one appearance in the FA Cup. Overall, he made over 200 appearances in professional and semi-professional football, before retiring at age 26 to pursue a full-time career in coaching.

Coaching career

In 1998, Brunskill began his coaching career Liverpool as Assistant Academy Technical Director, a role he held for ten years.[2]

After leaving Anfield, Brunskill became reserve-team manager and first-team coach at Blackburn Rovers, working with Paul Ince initially, then Sam Allardyce.[2]

After four seasons at Ewood Park, in 2013 he took on his first head-coach role, at Maltese club Floriana. He was given a ten-game contract, which lasted from January to May.[3]

In 2013, he became a youth coach educator with the Football Association.[3]

Brunskill next joined Bolton Wanderers' player development department,[3] before beginning a two-year role as the Under-23s coach of the Jordan national team.[3]

He undertook a consultancy role at Chinese Super League club Shanghai SIPG, then joined Norwegian club Molde as Head of academy.[3]

In 2018, the Chinese Football Association hired Brunskill as the head of its technical department.[3]

After three years in China, he joined Norwich City as senior development coach in January 2022.[2][3]

On 9 February 2022, Brunskill was appointed assistant head coach to Neil Critchley at Blackpool, replacing Stuart McCall, who left for Sheffield United three months earlier.[2][4] He worked with Blackpool's first-team coach Mike Garrity at Liverpool.[3]

On 11 December 2022, following the appointment of Critchley as head coach of Queens Park Rangers, Brunskill followed him as joint assistant head coach.[5]

He returned to Blackpool, again under Critchley, in June 2023.[6]

References
  1. Iain Brunskill at Soccerbase
  2. "Blackpool boss wants Bloomfield Road colleagues to share their opinions" – Blackpool Gazette, 12 February 2022
  3. "Who is Iain Brunskill? Everything you need to know about Blackpool's new assistant head coach" – Lancs Live, 9 February 2022
  4. "Iain Brunskill: Blackpool name Norwich City development coach as assistant" – BBC Sport, 9 February 2022
  5. "Neil Critchley named QPR head coach". www.qpr.co.uk. 11 December 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2022.
  6. Black, Dan (8 June 2023). "Neil Critchley getting the band back together at Blackpool as duo return to Bloomfield Road". Blackpool Gazette. Retrieved 8 June 2023.
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