Brian Marwood

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Brian Marwood (born February 2, 1960) is an English former footballer.

Born in Seaham, County Durham, Marwood started his career at Hull City, joining in 1976 as an apprentice and making his way up through the youth and reserve ranks. A pacy and tricky winger, he made his debut aged 19 in a Third Division match against Mansfield Town on January 12, 1980. He spent five seasons with the Tigers, during which time they were relegated to the Fourth Division and then promoted back to the third. After 1983-84, in which Hull got to the Associate Members' Cup final and narrowly missed out on promotion to the Second Division, Marwood was signed by Sheffield Wednesday for £115,000. In all he played 191 times for Hull and scored 53 goals.

At Wednesday, he became known as one of the First Division's most consistent and productive wingers, thanks to his pace and close ball control. The newly-promoted Owls had a strong return to the top-flight, finishing eighth and fifth in Marwood's first two seasons at the club. Despite Wednesday's form tailing off after that, Marwood still shone in the side and he was signed by Arsenal for £800,000 at the tail end of the 1987-88 season. He made his Arsenal debut against Oxford United on March 30, 1988.

Marwood's impact at Arsenal was nearly immediate; his crosses supplied striker Alan Smith with goals throughout the 1988-89 season, in which Arsenal won the First Division title for the first time since 1971; Smith himself credits Marwood as being the most prolific supplier of assists while he was at Arsenal^[1]. Unfortunately for Marwood, injury forced him to miss the last five matches of the season, which included Arsenal's title-winning match against Liverpool at Anfield. Nevertheless, he still took away a league-winners medal with 31 appearances that season, and his performances earned him an England cap, in a friendly match against Saudi Arabia on November 16, 1988.

Unfortunately for Marwood, ongoing injury problems plagued his 1989-90 season, and he only managed nineteen matches that season. After Arsenal signed Swedish international winger Anders Limpar in the summer of 1990, it was clear Marwood would no longer be an automatic first choice. He was sold to Sheffield United for £350,000 in September 1990; in all he played 60 matches for Arsenal, scoring 17 goals.

In three seasons at United, Marwood only managed 22 appearances, and was loaned to Middlesbrough before making a permanent move to Swindon Town midway through 1992-93; Marwood played eleven times as Swindon won promotion to the FA Premier League, but was released by the club that summer. He finished his career at Barnet before retiring in 1994. In the meantime, he was also chairman of the Professional Footballers Association between 1990 and 1993.

Since retirement, Marwood has written his autobiography, The Life of Brian (ISBN 1-85158-367-X), and has become a commentator, both on BBC Radio Five Live and for Sky Sports.