Ian Gilzean was a good goal-scorer, with a good all-round appreciation of the game, but failed to make the step up from the youth team at Tottenham and went on to have a career that took him all over the British Isles. Made his full debut in football for Dundee, a club graced by his father, Alan Gilzean, who also played at Tottenham.
Tall and perhaps lacking a little physical presence in his younger years, Gilzean read the game well and managed to make less of his strength by being in the right place at the right time. A regular scorer for the youth side and reserves, Gilzean got no further than the first team subs bench, but it was a surprise that Spurs released him in 1992, when he joined his Dad's old club Dundee and was a relative success there, with five goals in 24 games.
That began a route that took in a loan spell at Doncaster Rovers on loan, Northampton Town, Ayr United, Sligo Rovers (where he made a scoring debut) and then to Drogheda United, where he made only four appearances.
During the summer of 1997, Ian trained with and played a few pre-season friendlies for Cheltenham Town before signing up with St. Patricks, where he netted a hat trick on his debut and had some high profile matches in Champions League qualification, but after a couple of seasons and two league title wins in Dublin, he moved to Glentoran and came on as a substitute in the Irish Cup final to score the winning goal for the Glens.
At the end of the 1999-2000 season, Gilzean moved back to the Irish League with Shelbourne and made his debut in the Champions League, but only appeared once as a sub in league games, leaving shortly after for a return to Sligo Rovers. His stay was just for one year, before he returned to Scotland with Elgin City, who were new to the Scottish League, but he had a regular starting place and scored at just under a goal every two games.
However, it was only another one season spent at Elgin, before he moved to Montrose for what was to be his last playing deal.
Managed at Tayport, before going to Arbroath to coach the side, but is currently managing Scottish side Carnoustie Panmure.