After a year out of football, Phelan was appointed as first-team coach back at Norwich City in November 2014 and took temporary charge of the club when manager Neil Adams resigned in January 2015, only to be relieved of his duties by Adams' permanent replacement, Alex Neil. A month later, he was appointed as assistant manager at Hull City under former Manchester United teammate Steve Bruce. He was promoted to first team management following the departure of Bruce on a temporary basis before the 2016-17 season. This was made permanent on 13 October. He was sacked from his position with Hull on 3 January 2017 with the club 20th in the Premier League.