Kit Symons

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kit Symons
Personal information
Full name	Christopher Symons
Date of birth	March 8, 1971
Place of birth	Basingstoke, England
Position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Retired
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1988-1995 1995-1998 1998-2001 2001-2005	Portsmouth Manchester City Fulham Crystal Palace	160 (10) 124 (4) 102 (13) 49 (0)
National team**
?-2001	Wales	36 (2)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24/09/2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of 24/09/2006.

Christopher "Kit" Symons (born March 8, 1971, in Basingstoke, England) is a former Welsh football (soccer) player, and currently is a coach.

A defender, Kit began his career at Portsmouth F.C., spending seven years at the south coast club, making 160 appearances. In the summer of 1995 he transferred to Manchester City F.C. for a £1.2million fee. He played for The Citizens until 1998 when he moved to London club Fulham F.C., on a free transfer, having made 124 appearances. He played for Fulham until 2001, when he was signed by Crystal Palace F.C. for £400,000, the club at which he finished his playing career after 49 appearances. During his playing career he also won 36 caps for the Wales national football team, scoring twice.

Kit spent some of his time at Crystal Palace as a player-coach, and after retiring from playing became a full-time member of the coaching staff. He became caretaker player-manager for a short while in 2003, and following the subsequent appointment of Iain Dowie he combined the roles of player and assistant manager.

For the 2005-06 season, Kit was replaced by Neil McDonald as assitant manager, and was instead given the task of managing Crystal Palace's reserve team, who played in the Premiership Reserve Southern League until the end of the 2005-06 season (The side will play in the Pontin's Holiday Combination League for the 2006-07 season, following changes that meant only Premiership teams can have a reserve team in the Premiership Reserve League).

Following the departure of both Iain Dowie and Neil McDonald in the summer of 2006, Kit was named First-Team Coach under new manager Peter Taylor. The title of Assistant Manager was not given to anyone, but it is instead seen that Kit has the role closest to assistant, supported by Director of Football Bob Dowie.