Wilf McGuinness

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Wilf McGuinness (born October 25, 1937 in Manchester, England) was an English football player and manager, who played twice for England. He is best known for taking over from Sir Matt Busby as manager of Manchester United. His son, Paul McGuinness, is currently Manchester United's U-18 team manager and assistant director of their youth academy for ages 17 - 21.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 3 Bibliography 4 Managerial stats 5 External links

[edit] Playing career

As a player he captained Manchester, Lancashire and England at schoolboy level, and signed for Manchester United in January 1953. He played his first first-team match against Wolves on 8 October 1953, aged seventeen. Competition for places was fierce but he played in enough matches to qualify for a medal when United won the league in 1956.

He was still a United player at the time of the Munich air disaster in 1958, but an injury had prevented him from playing so he was not on the plane that crashed. A broken leg finished his playing career when he was only 22.

[edit] Managerial career

He continued to be involved at United and was promoted from reserve team coach to first team coach when Sir Matt Busby retired in 1969. Appointed as Sir Matt's successor in April 1969 at the age of 31 he endured a dismal spell. Although he oozed confidence and maturity the reality of following a Manchester United legend proved to be too much. Under Sir Matt, United had won every trophy available but unfortunately for McGuinness, Law, Crerand and Stiles had seen their best days and George Best was at his most problematical.

It has been said^{[attribution needed]} that McGuinness was too close to the players and that when he needed to wield the axe he seemed strangely intimidated. At a time when a great United side was in transition Sir Matt had moved to General Manager and after an indifferent five months from the start of the 1969/70 season the board moved in and Wilf McGuinness returned to his old coaching job. It is often joked that McGuinness managed 4 seasons as manager of Manchester United - Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer!

The stress caused all of his hair to fall out, but he went on to manage Aris Salonika and York City. His spell at York proved even less successful than he had been at Manchester United, as he took over a side which had just recorded its highest-ever league finish, then took them through two successive relegations before leaving midway though a season which ended with York having to apply for re-election to the Football League. Later, he worked as assistant manager at Hull City and was on the coaching staff at Bury F.C..

[edit] Bibliography

• The King - chapter 12 A Gradual Decline. Law, Denis and Harris, Bob. Bantam Press 2003. ISBN 0-593-05140-8
• Biography on Manchester United Official Web Site

[edit] Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Manchester United		August 10, 1970	December 28, 1970	23	5	9	9	21.73
York City		February 13, 1975	October 20, 1977	120	27	63	30	22.50

[edit] External links

• Wilf McGuinness management career stats at Soccerbase

Sporting positions
Preceded by Sir Matt Busby	Manchester United F.C. manager 1969-1970	Succeeded by Sir Matt Busby
Preceded by ?	Aris Salonika manager 1971-1974	Succeeded by ?
Preceded by Tom Johnston	York City F.C. manager 1975-1977	Succeeded by Charlie Wright

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-)

York City F.C. - Managers

Collier (1928-30) | Sherrington (1930-33) | Collier (1933-37) | Mitchell (1937-50) | Duckworth (1950-52) | Spencer (1952-53) | McCormick (1953-54) | Bartram (1956-60) | Lockie (1960-67) | Shaw (1967-68) | Johnston (1968-75) | McGuinness (1975-77) | Wright (1977-80) | Lyons (1980-81) | Randall (1981-82) | Smith (1982-87) | Saxton (1987-88) | Bird (1988-91) | Ward (1991-93) | Little (1993-99) | Thompson (1999-2000) | Dolan (2000-03) | Brass (2003-04) | Busby (2004-05) | McEwan (2005-)