John Deehan

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John Deehan (born August 6, 1957 in Solihull), is a former football player who in recent years has had several spells in coaching and management, and is now the Director of Football at Lincoln City F.C. As a player Deehan was a striker who is best known for productive spells with Aston Villa and Norwich City. He was a member of the Norwich sides which won the English League Cup in 1985 and the second division championship in 1986. In the summer of 1986, he left Norwich to join Ipswich Town in a player exchange deal that saw Trevor Putney move to Carrow Road.

From 1989 until 1992 he was player-coach at Manchester City before being lured away to Norwich City as Mike Walker's assistant. He helped coach an unfancied Canaries side to a surprise third place finish in the inaugural FA Premier League (season 1992-93), and was promoted to the manager's seat the following January when Walker moved to Everton. Norwich finished 12th in the Premiership in 1993-94 and started the following season reasonably well despite the (then) record English sale of Chris Sutton to Blackburn Rovers for £5 million. By Christmas 1994, the Canaries were seventh in the Premiership and looked a reasonably good bet for a UEFA Cup place. But Deehan's men suddenly went into a free-fall, won only one of their final 20 games and plummeted to 20th place and relegation. Shortly before relegation was confirmed, Deehan announced his resignation and caretaker Gary Megson unsuccessfully tried to keep the Canaries in the Premiership.

John Deehan's absence from football did not last long. He began the 1995-96 season as manager of Wigan Athletic in the Football League Third Division, and after two seasons at the helm he guided them to the Division Three title and promotion to Division Two. After safeguarding Wigan's survival in 1997-98, he accepted the assistant manager's job at Sheffield United and for one season worked under Steve Bruce. But Deehan's time at Bramall Lane was not successful and he resigned after the club failed to get anywhere near the Division One playoff places.

After leaving Sheffield United, John Deehan made a football comeback with Aston Villa as assistant manager to John Gregory. In January 2002, Deehan was named caretaker manager of Villa when Gregory resigned. He left the club when Graham Taylor was named Villa manager for the second time.

Since October 2003, John Deehan has been working as Director of Football at Northampton Town, with Colin Calderwood working under him as team manager. The duo were appointed to get the team promoted from the league's basement division, and achieved this aim in the 2005-06 season. Calderwood has now left the club and Deehan has joined Lincoln City as Director of Football.