Born in Liverpool in September 1964, Paul joined his heroes at Anfield in 1982. Failing to break into the first team he left Anfield and moved to Wigan Athletic in an attempt to get his career going. He signed for The Latics in December 1984 and played 137 times scoring 35 goals, before moving to Valley Parade in July 1988 for a fee of £80,000.

Few people who saw his first few games in a City shirt would have thought he would turn out to be the manager to lead City to the Premier League. He arrived at Valley Parade as a striker but soon found his place in the midfield. He made 269 league appearances and scored 56 times for City before retiring to concentrate on coaching.

He became assistant manager to Chris Kamara before being given the job on a temporary basis in January 1998. It was something of a surprise when he was handed the job permanently, but he immediately showed his intentions when he managed to convince Stuart McCall to return to Valley Parade, he made other shrewd signings as City kept pace with the league leaders.

It came as a surprise to a lot of outsiders when City beat Wolves 3-2 in May 1999 to pip Ipswich and gain promotion to the Premier League. It is legend how he kept City afloat in the top division, he became the first manager in eons to keep a promoted team in the Premier League.

A disastrous fall out with Geoffrey Richmond saw him leave Valley Parade in the summer of 2000 to take up the job at Sheffield Wednesday vacated by Danny Wilson. This no doubt cost City their place in the Premier League.

His stay at Hillsborough was short-lived, however he bounced back with Wigan Athletic led his team to the Premier League in 2005, taking them to the Carling Cup Final in 2006 where they were runners-up to Arsenal.

The following year however the day after saving the Latics from relegation on the final day of the season, he dramatically quit the JJB Stadium.