Mark Venus (born 6 April 1967) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player who was the assistant manager of club

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club (), commonly known as West Brom or The Albion, is a professional association football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the Englis ...

. As a player, he spent the majority of his career with

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

. As a coach, he has served as assistant to

Tony Mowbray Anthony Mark Mowbray (born 22 November 1963) is an English football manager and former footballer who was most recently the manager of EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. Mowbray played for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich Town as a d ...

at Hibernian,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

and

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

Playing career

His career started with his hometown team of

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in the National League, the fifth level of the English football league system. They were founded in 190 ...

where he signed as a youngster in 1985. After a stay at

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

, he signed in 1987 for

. Over nearly a decade at Molineux, Venus was an integral part of the club's resurrection after bankruptcy. Playing

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

and, occasionally in his preferred position of central defence, Venus helped Wolves to Divisions Four and

Three 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious and cultural significance in many societies ...

championships. He joined

in 1997 after being exchanged for

Steve Sedgley Stephen Philip Sedgley (born 26 May 1968) is an English former professional footballer, and football manager. As a player, he was a midfielder and a defender. He was capped 11 times for England at under-21 level. who made more than 450 appe ...

. With Ipswich Town he won the 1999–2000 First Division play-offs, and then finished 5th in the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

, qualifying for the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

. Ipswich were relegated in 2001–02, but Venus picked up the club's Player of the Year award. He was given a free transfer by Ipswich Town

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Joe Royle Joseph Royle (born 8 April 1949) is an English football manager and former footballer. In his playing career as a striker, he debuted for Everton at the age of 16 and went on to play for Manchester City, Bristol City, Norwich City, and the E ...

at the end of 2002–03. Whilst playing for

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They currently compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed the U’s, the club h ...

in 2003–04, he fell out with the club and played the rest of that season on loan to

Dagenham & Redbridge Dagenham & Redbridge Football Club (), often known simply as Dagenham and abbreviated when written to Dag & Red, is a professional association football club based in Dagenham, Greater London, England that play in the , the sixth level of the En ...

Coaching career

Venus was hired as Hibernian assistant manager by his former Ipswich Town teammate

in 2004. Venus also registered as a player for Hibs, but played in only one match before ending his playing career. Their contracts were extended in September 2006. Venus returned to the West Midlands in October 2006 by following Mowbray to

. Their first game in charge was a

Black Country derby The Black Country derby is the name given to any local derby between England, English association football, football teams West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Bromwich Albion, Walsall F.C, Walsall and Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Wolverhampton Wan ...

against Wolves, where Venus had spent the bulk of his playing career. They had their contract extended until June 2011 in February 2008. Venus was appointed

assistant manager on 16 June 2009, again following Mowbray. After Mowbray was sacked as

manager in March 2010, Venus and Peter Grant also left the club. Venus was appointed assistant manager of

on 26 October 2010, working again with Mowbray. After Mowbray was sacked by Middlesbrough in October 2013, Venus was made caretaker manager. Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson commented that Venus was on the shortlist of candidates to be the next permanent manager. On 25 October he led Middlesbrough to a 4–0 win over Doncaster Rovers. Mark Venus' tenure as caretaker manager came to an end on 13 November when Aitor Karanka was appointed as the new Middlesbrough head coach. Venus joined Coventry City in June 2015 as technical director. After the resignation of Tony Mowbray on 29 September 2016 he was made caretaker manager. In June 2017, Venus was once again appointed assistant to Mowbray, taking charge of recently relegated League One club

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. The duo guided the club straight back to the Championship, a 1–0 victory over

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

in April 2018 securing their promotion. The duo departed the club at the end of the 2021–22 season. In September 2022, he once again reunited with Mowbray, appointed his assistant head coach at Championship club

. Following Mowbray's sacking in December 2023, Venus also departed the club. In January 2024, just a month after his Sunderland departure, he was back in football following Mowbray to

as assistant manager. After Mowbray temporarily stepped down for medical reasons on 19 February, Venus took over as caretaker, and a month later, when Mowbray took formal medical leave and

Gary Rowett Gary Rowett (born 6 March 1974) is an English professional football manager and former player who is head coach of club Oxford United. As a player, he was a defender, and played in the Premier League for Everton, Derby County, Leicester City ...

came in as interim manager, Venus also took extended leave. Mowbray confirmed in May that he would not be returning to Birmingham, and Venus left the club on 4 June.

Personal life

Two medals awarded to Venus were stolen during a break-in at his house in the Morningside area of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

on 29 December 2010.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Ipswich Town *

Football League First Division play-offs The English Football League (EFL) Championship play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL Championship table and are part of the English Football League play-of ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Individual *

Player of the Year: 1989–90 *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's Football in England, En ...

: 1998–99 First Division * Ipswich Town Player of the Year: 2001–02

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Venus, Mark 1967 births Living people Footballers from Hartlepool English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Premier League players English Football League players Hartlepool United F.C. players Leicester City F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Dagenham & Redbridge F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Middlesbrough F.C. non-playing staff Coventry City F.C. non-playing staff Coventry City F.C. managers Coventry City F.C. directors and chairmen Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Sunderland A.F.C. non-playing staff Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff English football managers Birmingham City F.C. managers