Michael Oakes

Aston Villa

Oakes began his career in Aston Villa's youth system. He played nineteen games for Gloucester City in 1992–93 and then had a loan spell at Scarborough in 1994 playing one league game. He finally got his chance to appear in Villa's first team at the start of the 1996–97 season. He made his debut on 17 August 1996 in a 2–1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday, aged 22, deputising for the injured Mark Bosnich. On 26 December 1998, he incorrectly received a red card from referee Dermot Gallagher after he was adjudged to have handled the ball outside the area, although replays showed he had not. Gallagher later admitted he made a "genuine error of judgment", Due to the incident, manager John Gregory became a proponent of video replays to be used in the sport. Bosnich's injury record, and speculation he would be leaving to join Manchester United, gave Oakes opportunities over the next three seasons and he amassed 60 appearances in total for the club. However, after the club recruited David James following Bosnich's departure in 1999, Oakes requested a move.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Oakes made the short journey to First Division club Wolverhampton Wanderers in October 1999 for £500,000, and soon ousted long-serving Mike Stowell as number one at Molineux. He remained as the first-team goalkeeper until September 2002, when he suffered a shoulder injury and was replaced by rookie Matt Murray. Oakes was honoured with a medal during the 2003 Football League First…

Oakes made seven appearances for the England national under-21 team between 1994 and 1995.

Oakes worked as goalkeeping coach for Wrexham between 2008 and 2015, and between 2017 and 2018. After a year with Walsall, he returned to Wrexham in 2019.

He is the son of former Manchester City footballer Alan Oakes.