Following a spell as an amateur with West Bromwich Albion, he signed professional forms for local club Stoke City of the Second Division in 1930.
His contribution in his first few months at Birmingham was not enough to prevent their relegation from the First Division, and the suspension of league football later that year for the duration of the Second World War seriously disrupted his career.
During the war Turner played nearly 200 games for Birmingham, captaining them to the championship of the wartime Football League South and to the semifinal of the first post-war FA Cup.
Brocklebank had assembled an excellent group of players – including Jeff Hall, Len Boyd, Roy Warhurst, Eddy Brown, Peter Murphy, Alex Govan – but they were not performing to their ability; Turner made them do so.
Turner led the team he inherited to their highest league finish, sixth place in the First Division, only four points off runners-up spot.
They reached the semifinal, going out to eventual winners Barcelona in a replay on a neutral ground after the original tie had finished 4–4 on aggregate.
Turner, who found about this arrangement not from the club but from the press, threatened to resign; he was persuaded to stay "for the time being", but finally left in September 1958.
The likes of Graham Atkinson, Cyril Beavon and Maurice Kyle all joined from junior teams of bigger clubs and each went on to play over 300 games for Oxford United.
Turner's key signing, the 20-year-old Ron Atkinson, joined from Aston Villa, was soon appointed captain, and went on to play 560 first team games for the club.