Ian Culverhouse

Ian Brett Culverhouse (born 22 September 1964) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender. He is currently manager of Isthmian League Premier Division club St Albans City.

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.

In October 1985, Norwich City manager Ken Brown paid £50,000 for Culverhouse, who would go on to spend almost a decade at Carrow Road. At the time Culverhouse joined Norwich, they were in the Second Division and were favourites to win promotion back to the First Division. They duly did so, and Culverhouse ended his first season at Carrow Road with a Second Division championship medal. For a while it look as though he might add a First Division title medal the following season, as Norwich emerged as surprise title contenders, although they eventually had to settle to a fifth-place finish – the highest final position in the club's history at the time.

After injury during end of the 1986–87 season, Culverhouse found himself contesting a first team spot with the manager's son Kenny Brown at the start of the 1987–88 campaign. After Brown was replaced by Dave Stringer 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, playing as a sweeper in a system introduced by manager Mike Walker for the European campaign, although he missed the away leg at Inter Milan's Giuseppe 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 scored two goals for Norwich in his 369 appearances – one in a 1988 Full Members Cup match against Swindon Town, the other in a 1994 league match against Everton. His reliable performances in defence, however, 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'.

He was sold to Swindon Town for £150,000 in December 1994, having lost his regular place in the Carrow Road first team to new signing Carl Bradshaw at the start of the season.

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