Frank O'Farrell

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Francis O'Farrell (born October 9, 1927 in Horgan's Buildings, Magazine Road, Cork, Ireland) is an Irish former football (soccer) player and manager.

Frank O'Farrell started his playing career with Cork United, but followed his former Cork teammate, Tommy Moroney to West Ham United in January 1948. A quietly spoken, but nonetheless determined and talented wing-half, O'Farrell was to become a well-respected student of the game. He took some time to establish himself at Upton Park, possibly because of his naturally shy nature, but eventually he won first team recognition towards the end of 1950, making his league debut in November 1950 in a 4-1 defeat away to Notts County and remaining a regular in the side for six seasons. During that time O'Farrell won the first of nine full international caps for the Republic of Ireland against Austria in Vienna on 7 May 1952, in a 6-0 defeat.

In November 1956, he left the Hammers for Preston North End in a straight swap deal involving Eddie Lewis. He was still with the Lancashire club when they finished runners-up to Wolverhampton Wanderers in Division One at the end of the 1957-58 season. Ironically, that same campaign O'Farrell's former team-mates at West Ham finished as Second Division Champions, at last securing their promotion to Division One, the goal he had strived so hard to help achieve.

He retired as a player in 1961 due to injury and in May 1961 became player-manager at Weymouth. In May 1965 he became manager of Torquay United, replacing Eric Webber. He took the Gulls to promotion in his first season in charge and followed this with 6th and 7th place finished in Division Three in the following two seasons. While Torquay manager he returned to West Ham to sign three players, John Bond, Ken Brown and Bill Kitchener.

In December 1968, he took over Leicester City, narrowly winning a vote between himself and then Luton Town manager Allan Brown for the post. Brown was sacked for showing an interest in the post and subsequently replace O'Farrell at Torquay. Although Leicester were relegated from the First Division at the end of the season, O'Farrell lead them to the FA Cup final, which they lost 1-0 to Manchester City at Wembley.

In June 1971, after leading Leicester to promotion and the Second Division title, he took over at Manchester United, but would only last eighteen months in the post. The soft spoken Irishman was never able to get to grips with the worst of George Best's excesses. He befriended him, encouraged him and then dropped him. After putting Best on the transfer list he discovered that Best and Sir Matt Busby were secretly meeting to iron out the problems. With that O'Farrell's authority was gone. The dressing room rifts took their toll and a 5-0 thrashing at Crystal Palace ultimately sealed his fate. In December of 1972, O'Farrell was sacked with three and a half years left on his contract.

He became manager of Cardiff City in November 1973, but in April 1974 quit to take the manager's post with the Iranian national team and lead them to the 1976 Asian Cup.

In November 1976 he returned to Torquay United as manager, moving to a position as general manager when Mike Green was appointed as manager in March 1977. He became Torquay manager again in June 1981, once again becoming general manager, this time in June 1982 on the appointment of Bruce Rioch. He worked as general manager until 1983, since when he has lived in retirement in Torquay.

In January 2006 O'Farrell was invited to Iran to attend a ceremony in honour of Persepolis F.C. former players.

[edit] External links

• Management statistics on Soccerbase

Preceded by Arthur Coles	Weymouth manager 1961-1965	Succeeded by Stan Charlton
Preceded by Eric Webber	Torquay United manager 1965-1968	Succeeded by Allan Brown
Preceded by Matt Gillies	Leicester City manager 1968-1971	Succeeded by Jimmy Bloomfield
Preceded by Sir Matt Busby	Manchester United manager 1971-1972	Succeeded by Tommy Docherty
Preceded by Jimmy Scoular	Cardiff City manager 1973-1974	Succeeded by Jimmy Andrews
Preceded by Danny McLennan	Iran national team manager 1974-1976	Succeeded by Heshmat Mohajerani
Preceded by Malcolm Musgrove	Torquay United manager 1976-1977	Succeeded by Mike Green
Preceded by Mike Green	Torquay United manager 1981-1982	Succeeded by Bruce Rioch

Manchester United F.C. - Managers
Albut (1892-1900) | West (1900-03) | Mangnall (1903-12) | Bentley (1912-14) | Robson (1914-22) | Chapman (1921-27) | Hilditch (1926-27) | Bamlett (1927-31) | Crickmer (1931-32) | Duncan (1932-37) | Crickmer (1937-45) | Busby (1945-69) | McGuinness (1969-70) | Busby (1970-71) | O'Farrell (1971-72) | Docherty (1972-77) | Sexton (1977-81) | Atkinson (1981-86) | Ferguson (1986-)