He played in the Premier League with Bolton Wanderers, Everton, Sunderland and Derby County as well as a five-year spell in the Scottish Premiership with Celtic.

Following retirement in 2008 through a knee injury, Stubbs then worked as a coach for Everton, and started his management career with Hibernian in 2014.

He remained a regular player in 1991–92 but this campaign brought further frustration as Bolton finished 13th in the Third Division and manager Phil Neal was dismissed to make way for Bruce Rioch.

The first visit to Wembley came in March, where they reached the Football League Cup final for the first time in their history, only to lose 2–1 to Liverpool.

[3] The return to Wembley for the Division One playoff final two months later was a happier occasion for Stubbs and his colleagues, though for 75 minutes it looked as though it would be another disappointment as Bolton trailed 2–0 to Reading in the contest for a place in the Premier League.

[citation needed] Before the start of the season, Bolton manager Bruce Rioch departed to Arsenal and attempted to bring Stubbs with him, but this was unsuccessful.

[5] His first season at Celtic, 1996–97, saw him play regularly but Stubbs did little to justify his expensive transfer fee as Rangers clinched their ninth successive Scottish League championship.

[12] Stubbs continued to impress at Celtic with his strong presence in defence, good range of passing and occasional goal.

However a routine drug test after the Scottish Cup Final defeat to Rangers in May 1999 revealed Stubbs was suffering from testicular cancer.

[citation needed] Stubbs again recovered from his illness, making his comeback in May 2001 in a league match against Hibernian where he came on as a second-half substitute to a rousing reception from both sets of fans and scored Celtic's fourth goal in a 5–2 win.

[16] However, Stubbs wife never truly settled in Scotland[17] and his own battles with cancer saw the family look to make a return home to England.

Stubbs confirmed at the time part of his motive for moving to Everton was that he wanted to return home to his native Merseyside with his wife Mandy.

[19] Stubbs quickly became a regular member of the team and excelled during his first season, as Everton finished 15th and reached the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.

[33] In his first press conference, Stubbs announced his aim of helping Hibs win promotion back to the Scottish Premiership by rebuilding the squad ahead of the new season.

[35] Stubbs' first league match in charge was against Livingston; unusually, the Hibs goalkeeper (Mark Oxley) scored the winning goal.

In the 2015-16 season, Hibs initially challenged Rangers for automatic promotion but eventually finished third and lost in the playoffs to Falkirk.