Neil Banfield is an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 football

Football (soccer)

Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...

 player and coach. He is currently the coach of Arsenal Reserves

Arsenal F.C. Reserves

Arsenal Reserves are the reserve team of Arsenal Football Club.They have been members of the FA Premier Reserve League Southern Division since its foundation in 1999. They play their home games at Underhill Stadium, which is also the home of Barnet FC. The team mainly consists of Under-21 players...

.

As a player, Banfield had a fairly undistinguished career as a centre half, playing for Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace F.C.

Crystal Palace Football Club are an English Football league club based in South Norwood, London. The team plays its home matches at Selhurst Park, where they have been based since 1924. The club currently competes in the second tier of English Football, The Championship.Crystal Palace was formed in...

 (1979–80) and Leyton Orient

Leyton Orient F.C.

Leyton Orient F.C. are an English professional football club in East London. They currently play in Football League One and are known to their fans as the O's.Leyton Orient have spent one season in the top flight of English football, in 1962–63...

 (1983–84), with a spell at Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n side Adelaide City

Adelaide City

Adelaide City is a football club in Adelaide, South Australia. They are also known as The Zebras. They played in the National Soccer League for 27 Seasons but withdrew just prior to the 2003/2004 season. They now play in the South Australian Super League. City won the inaugural Super League...

 in between. He represented Grays Athletic

Grays Athletic F.C.

Grays Athletic Football Club is an English football club currently based in Corringham, Essex after leaving the New Recreation Ground in Grays at the end of the 2009–10 season...

 before his stint in the Football League.

After retiring from playing he entered coaching, and joined Arsenal in 1997. Until 2004, he coached and managed various youth teams at Arsenal, winning two FA Youth Cup

FA Youth Cup

The Football Association Youth Challenge Cup is an English football competition run by The Football Association for under–18 sides. Only those players between the age of 15 and 18 on 31 August of the current season are eligible to take part...

s, an FA Premier Academy League U17 title in 1999-00 and an Academy League U19 title in 2003-04

2003-04 in English football

The 2003-04 season was the 124th season of competitive football in England.-Overview:Arsenal completed the entire campaign without losing a single league game....

. He succeeded Eddie Niedzwiecki

Eddie Niedzwiecki

Eddie Niedzwiecki is a retired Welsh footballer of Polish origin who played as a goalkeeper for Wrexham and Chelsea.Starting at Wrexham at the age of 14, Niedzwiecki stayed with the club until the summer of 1983, when he was signed for Chelsea by former Wrexham manager, John Neal...

 as Arsenal Reserves coach after the former's departure for Blackburn Rovers

Blackburn Rovers F.C.

Blackburn Rovers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Blackburn, Lancashire. The team currently competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football....

 in September 2004. He was also Republic of Ireland U21

Republic of Ireland national under-21 football team

The Republic of Ireland national under-21 football team, is the national under-21 football team of the Republic of Ireland and is controlled by the Football Association of Ireland and competes in the biennial European Under-21 Football Championship and has competed since 1978.-Competition...

 assistant manager under Don Givens

Don Givens

Daniel Joseph "Don" Givens is a football player and coach, and former Republic of Ireland U21 team manager...

between April 2004 and May 2005.