Michael Paul Tait (born 30 September 1956) is an English former footballer and later a manager at the end of his playing career.
Tait started his career as an apprentice at Oxford scoring 23 goals in 64 league appearances before moving on to Carlisle for £65,000 in 1977.
In the 1994 close season he joined Gretna, but within weeks he was re-signed by Hartlepool and remained registered as a player with them until 1998, by which time he had been playing in the Football League for 24 years.
Two years later Tait was back in the Football League but this time at Darlington, taking over as caretaker manager in 2002.
In June 2003 he was offered the job on a permanent basis, but was released by Darlington four months later in October 2003 until the club brought him back as reserve team coach.