Early career Steve's playing career was cut short by a knee injury while he was in the youth team at
Sheffield Wednesday. Bleasdale also played in the academy sides at
Liverpool and
Wolverhampton Wanderers. His early coaching roles saw him work at
Preston North End and
Everton where he coached the Under 14s and 16s respectively. While at Everton, he coached
Wayne Rooney. He also ran soccer schools in the Liverpool area and has worked for
The FA on coaching programmes aimed at young coaches. In 2000, Bleasdale worked as youth team coach at
Southport while
Mark Wright was first team manager. They won promotion from the
Football Conference in the
2003-04 season. Bleasdale had a short spell as manager of
Leigh RMI towards the end of the
2004–05 season. Leigh were relegated from the
Conference National and Bleasdale left shortly after to take up the role of assistant manager at
Peterborough United alongside Wright.
Peterborough United and Big Ron Manager documentary Peterborough manager Mark Wright was sacked in January 2006 which led to Bleasdale being appointed caretaker manager until the end of the season. After an excellent start, winning five of his first seven games in charge and taking the club to being close to the automatic promotion places, the club suffered a downturn and ended up finishing outside the
League Two playoffs. Bleasdale's time at Peterborough was notable due to the capacity of
Ron Atkinson who had been brought to the club in a "Football Troubleshooting" capacity by Sky Television who were making a documentary called
Big Ron Manager. Bleasdale infamously quit an hour before Posh's game with
Macclesfield Town due to chairman
Barry Fry selecting the team and inferring that Bleasdale was out of his depth as manager. The next day, Bleasdale claimed that he only wished to resign as manager but wanted to remain at the club as a coach. Off camera, Bleasdale and Fry agreed to a financial settlement for him to leave the club. While Bleasdale was not entitled to any money, Fry agreed as he was sympathetic as Bleasdale resigned with no job lined up and had a "big mortgage". Reflecting on his time at Peterborough, Bleasdale was critical of Atkinson and believed the documentary wasn't edited fairly.
Later career Due to his reputation gained from the documentary, Bleasdale struggled to gain employment in football.
Stevenage,
Forest Green Rovers and
Cambridge United. In October 2007, Bleasdale was appointed manager at
Conference North side
Leigh Genesis. The club was relegated at the end of the 2007–08 season after finishing bottom of the league. Bleasdale resigned as manager in October 2008 due to the financial troubles at the club. On 14 November 2008, Bleasdale again joined Mark Wright as assistant at Chester City who at the time were in
League Two. However, on 21 February 2009, it was announced he had left the club, due to unspecified reasons, described by Wright as "there are a few things we’re not happy about and we’ll just have to get on with it. There are some things behind the scenes which I feel very, very let down about and which I’m not prepared to elaborate on at this time." It later transpired that Bleasdale had been sacked following a row with Wright and the club chairman. ==Coaching badges==