Lawrie McMenemy

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Lawrie McMenemy MBE (born Gateshead 28 July 1936) is a football coach and former player, best known for his spell as manager of Southampton F.C.. Lawrie McMenemy is rated in the Guinness Book of Records as one of the twenty most successful managers in post-war English football.

1 Playing Career
2 Football management
3 Media Work
4 Honours
5 References

[edit] Playing Career

Lawrence McMenemy, an ex-guardsman, started his footballing career with Newcastle United although he never appeared in their first team, before moving to non-league Gateshead in the late 1950s. An injury ended his career in 1961, but he moved into coaching instead, spending three years in coaching at the club.

[edit] Football management

[edit] Bishop Auckland

In 1964 he was appointed manager of non-league Bishop Auckland and transformed them from a struggling side into Northern League champions and also took them to the third round of the FA Cup.

[edit] Sheffield Wednesday & Doncaster Rovers

McMenemy then moved to Sheffield Wednesday F.C. where he spent two years as a coach before he got his big break as manager of Doncaster Rovers F.C. where he remained until May 1971.

[edit] Grimsby Town

He then became manager of Grimsby Town, where he won a fourth division championship. In July 1973 he was approached by Southampton to fill the vacant assistant manager post. By Christmas he was manager.

[edit] Southampton

In 1976, McMenemy guided Southampton, then in the second division, to an FA Cup final victory over Manchester United. It was widely predicted before the game that United would easily win (one pundit said the score would go into double figures). However Southampton, who were in a lower division and had a much older team, put up a stern challenge for United. The only goal of the game was scored by Bobby Stokes with just seven minutes to go. Captain Peter Rodrigues received the Cup from the Queen and the whole of Southampton partied long into the night. They were the second club in just three years to win the Cup from outside the top flight of English football after Sunderland A.F.C. in 1973.

In 1978, the Saints won promotion to the First Division and in 1979 reached the League Cup Final where they lost 3-2 to Nottingham Forest F.C..

McMenemy was linked with the vacant Manchester United manager's job in the summer of 1981, but it went to Ron Atkinson instead.

McMenemy had signed World Cup winner Alan Ball to aid his side, later adding serving England captain Kevin Keegan when he came home from Germany in 1980. In 1984 he guided the club to 2nd place in the First Division - their highest ever finish.

[edit] Sunderland

He left Southampton on 1 June 1985, but made a return to football five days later when he was named manager of Sunderland A.F.C., who had just been relegated to the Second Division. At the time he was the highest-paid manager in English football, but his time on Wearside was not a success and he quit in March 1987 - just weeks before Sunderland fell into the Third Division for the first time in their history.

[edit] With England

In 1990 he ended a three-year break from football when being appointed as assistant manager to England boss Graham Taylor, managing the Under 21 side, and picking out the future talents like Darren Anderton and Steve McManaman. Unfortunately, when England failed to qualify for USA 94, Taylor and McMenemy both resigned.

[edit] Back to Southampton

McMenemy soon bounced back however and was offered the new position of Director of Football by Southampton at the end of 1993. Fans and the local media were delighted when he accepted the role, which made him one of the first men to be employed as a Director of Football in the English game. In McMenemy's first season back at Southampton, the Saints finished 10th in the Premiership, a fantastic achievement for the perennial relegation fighters. But it didn't last long and in 1997, when Rupert Lowe arrived as new chairman, neither McMenemy nor then manager Graeme Souness got on with him and promptly resigned, publicly denouncing the new board in the process.

[edit] Northern Ireland

A year later, in 1998 McMenemy was appointed Northern Ireland manager, but he was not successful and he resigned two years later after they failed to qualify for the 2000 European Championships.

Since 2000, McMenemy has concentrated on his role as FA special ambassador, travelling to Afghanistan in 2002 to help set up a national league and liaising with the English team in the Special Olympics.

In July 2006, he was appointed as a non-executive diector of Southampton Football Club.

[edit] Media Work

McMenemy has made frequent appearances on TV football panels since 1972 as well as BBC TV's 'Superkids' and TVS's 'Children's Challenge' (two series). He also regularly appeared on TV-am prior to 1990 as their 'football analyst'. He presented BBC Radio's 'Down Your Way' in 1989 and was a summariser for Sky TV News & Eurosport satellite TV until 1990. He currently is in demand as an after-dinner speaker. He has written several books on management motivation. He also writes a regular column in the Southern Daily Echo. He is also the author of a testimonial in The Future of the NHS (2006) (ISBN 1-85811-369-5) edited by Dr Michelle Tempest.

[edit] Honours

As manager:

At Bishop Auckland F.C.:

Northern League Champions & County Cup Winners 1965

At Doncaster Rovers F.C.:

Fourth Division Champions 1968-69

At Grimsby Town F.C.:

Fourth Division Champions 1971-72

At Southampton F.C.:

FA Cup Winners 1976

Second Division Runners-up 1977-78

League Cup Runners-up 1979

First Division Runners-up 1983

[edit] References

Jeremy Wilson (2006). Southampton’s Cult Heroes. Know The Score Books. ISBN 1-905449-01-1.

Preceded by Bobby Kennedy	Grimsby Town Manager 1971 - 1973	Succeeded by Ron Ashman
Preceded by Ted Bates	Southampton F.C. Manager 1973 - 1985	Succeeded by Chris Nicholl
Preceded by Len Ashurst	Sunderland A.F.C. Manager 1985 - 1987	Succeeded by Bob Stokoe (Caretaker)
Preceded by Dave Sexton	England national U-21 football team manager 1990 - 1993	Succeeded by Dave Sexton
Preceded by Bryan Hamilton	Northern Ireland Manager 1998 - 1999	Succeeded by Sammy McIlroy

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