Gary Megson

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gary Megson
Personal information
Full name	Gary John Megson
Date of birth	2 May 1959 (1959-05-02) (age 49)
Place of birth	Manchester, England
Playing position	Midfielder (retired)
Club information
Current club	Bolton Wanderers (manager)
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1977–1979 1979–1981 1981–1984 1984 1984–1985 1985–1989 1989–1992 1992–1995 1995 1995	Plymouth Argyle Everton Sheffield Wednesday Nottingham Forest Newcastle United Sheffield Wednesday Manchester City Norwich City Lincoln City Shrewsbury Town Career	078 (10) 022 0(2) 123 (13) 000 0(0) 024 0(1) 110 (12) 082 0(2) 046 0(1) 002 0(0) 002 0(0) 499 (41)
Teams managed
1995–1996 1996–1997 1997–1999 1999 2000–2004 2005–2006 2007 2007–	Norwich City Blackpool Stockport County Stoke City West Bromwich Albion Nottingham Forest Leicester City Bolton Wanderers
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959 in Manchester) is an English former football player and current manager.

He is currently manager of Bolton Wanderers and is a former manager of Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest and Leicester City. His biggest successes so far came at West Bromwich Albion, where he won promotion to the Premier League in 2002 and again in 2004.

He is the son of former player Don Megson and the brother of Neil Megson.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Managerial career 2.1 Norwich City 2.2 Blackpool 2.3 Stockport County 2.4 Stoke City 2.5 West Bromwich Albion 2.6 Nottingham Forest 2.7 Leicester City 2.8 Bolton Wanderers 3 Managerial stats 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Playing career

As a player, Megson was a tough-tackling defensive midfielder, and something of a journeyman, playing for nine different clubs.

He began his career at Plymouth Argyle, where he impressed enough for Everton to sign him for a £250,000 transfer fee. Megson struggled to establish himself in the Everton lineup, and after two years at Goodison, he moved to his father's old stomping grounds, Sheffield Wednesday, for a fee of £130,000.

Megson immediately gained a place in Wednesday's starting lineup, and was a member of the team that gained promotion to the top flight in 1983–84. In his three years at Hillsborough, he missed only three league games. In the summer of 1984, he was signed by Nottingham Forest, only for Brian Clough to decide he did not need him. Megson spent five months at the City Ground, without making a single first-team appearance before being sold to Newcastle United.

Megson played regularly for the Magpies for the remainder of the 1984–85 season, but lost his place in the lineup the following season, and moved back to Sheffield Wednesday. In his second spell with the Owls, Megson again established himself as an important member of the squad, and was rarely out of the starting eleven. In January 1989, he moved to Manchester City, where he spent three and a half seasons. He then moved to Norwich City on a free transfer in the summer of 1992, and spent three seasons at Carrow Road. He was an important member of the Norwich side that finished third in the inaugural season the Premier League and played in the UEFA Cup for the first time as a result. In his final season at Norwich, he was also assistant manager to John Deehan.

When Deehan resigned in the spring of 1995, Megson briefly took charge as caretaker manager, but failed to save City from the drop, losing four and drawing one of his five games in charge. In the summer, he also left Norwich and finished his playing career with short spells at lower division sides Lincoln City and Shrewsbury Town. Later the same year, he got a surprise return to Norwich when he was re-appointed manager following Martin O'Neill's sudden departure.

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Norwich City

While still playing at Norwich City, Megson became assistant to manager John Deehan. He briefly left the club following Deehan's sacking in 1995, but returned to Carrow Road later the same year when new manager Martin O'Neill left to take charge at Leicester City. Megson managed the Canaries for the remainder of the 1995–96 season, but was sacked at the end of the season and replaced by Mike Walker.

[edit] Blackpool

In 1996, Megson became manager at Blackpool where he recorded only 21 wins in 52 matches. At Bloomfield Road, he was assisted by the former Manchester United midfielder Mike Phelan, but the partnership failed to bring a Division Two playoff place to the Seasiders, and Megson left at the end of the season.

[edit] Stockport County

Megson moved to Stockport County in 1997 and they came just two places short of the Division One playoffs in his first season as manager. After two seasons with Stockport, he was dismissed after the board alleged that he had applied for a manager's post elsewhere without their permission.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Stoke City

However, he was not unemployed for long, taking the manager's job at Stoke City. His tenure at the Britannia Stadium was brought to an end when the club was sold to an Icelandic consortium which appointed its own man, former Iceland national-team coach Gudjon Thordarson, to the manager's position.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] West Bromwich Albion

Megson took over as manager of struggling First Division West Bromwich Albion towards the very end of the 1999–2000 season with barely time for him to organise a few key player transfers before the deadline. Albion narrowly evaded relegation by winning their final game of the season.

The following season, he took the club into the playoffs, winning the Manager of the Month award for November 2000 along the way.^[1] In the 2001–02 season the club won promotion to the FA Premier League, overcoming the eleven-point lead of bitter local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the closing weeks of the campaign. This achievement earned Megson the Nationwide Division One Manager of the Year award,^[2] as well as the medieval title Lord of the Manor of West Bromwich.^[3] However, the club was barely prepared for the financial challenges of life in the top flight and a bitter quarrel soon developed between Megson and the club's chairman Paul Thompson over the latter's perceived interference in footballing matters. An undignified public showdown resulted in Thompson resigning from the board in order to forestall Megson's departure. Jeremy Peace took the opportunity to establish himself as Thompson's successor. In July 2002 Megson signed a new three-year contract with Albion.^[4] However in 2002–03 the club were relegated after just a single season in the Premier League.

Peace's financial prudence enabled Megson to mount a successful promotion campaign, and return to the Premier League the following season – but by the summer of 2004, the relationship between the two men had become strained. With a poor start to the season, by September, Megson's job was under threat. The following month Megson, whose contract was due to end in June 2005, announced that he would not sign a new deal at the club if offered one. On 26 October, Megson was dismissed by West Brom.^[5] A settlement for the remainder of his contract was reached in November 2004.^[6]

[edit] Nottingham Forest

Within a week of being sacked at West Bromwich Albion, Gary Megson was linked with vacant manager's job at Wolverhampton Wanderers after Dave Jones was sacked – but that job went to Glenn Hoddle instead. Megson was then appointed manager of struggling Nottingham Forest on 10 January 2005, succeeding Joe Kinnear,^[7] but was unable to save them from slipping into the third tier of English football for the first time. Promotion back to the Championship was to be his priority for 2005-06, but Forest struggled, especially away from home, for most of the season. In terms of points they were nearer to the relegation zone than the playoff zone when he resigned in February 2006 after being put under a lot of pressure by the Forest fans.^[8] He claimed that his resignation had cost him £500,000.^[9]

Megson moved back into the game as a coach at Stoke City. He was handed the role in June 2007 by manager Tony Pulis, Megson retained the role until his appointment at Leicester.^[10]

[edit] Leicester City

On 13 September 2007, a press conference was called by Leicester City chairman Milan Mandarić where he announced Gary Megson as the new manager of the club, citing Megson's "wealth of experience" as a deciding factor in the appointment. He accomplished his first league win on 6 October 2007 with a 2-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough with goals from Gareth McAuley and an own goal by Akpo Sodje^[11]

A month into Megson's reign as Leicester manager, the club received an approach from Bolton Wanderers for his services, but this was turned down by Mandarić.^[12] On October 23, Bolton announced that Megson was the front-runner to become their new manager, and made a second approach for him. The club said they were also willing to compensate Leicester should Megson leave the club.^[13] This second approach was also rejected by Milan Mandarić,^[14] but he was eventually given permission to speak to Bolton and left Leicester on 24 October 2007, just 41 days and nine league games after being appointed Foxes manager.^[15]

[edit] Bolton Wanderers

Gary Megson's big break came at Bolton, where he piloted them to the last 16 of the UEFA Cup for the first time in the club's history and also secured his first survival as a Premier League manager. They reached this round in February 2008, by winning 1-0 at home, and drawing 0-0 away against Atletico Madrid. Atletico were 4th in La Liga and Bolton had recently sold Nicolas Anelka for 15 million pounds. Megson took over as manager of Bolton Wanderers on 25 October 2007 in a two and a half year deal.^[16] He accepted that he was not the number one choice for the job,^[17] after Bolton had already had approaches for Steve Bruce and Chris Coleman rejected,^[12] and Graeme Souness had also ruled himself out.^[18] Megson's first game in charge of Bolton was against Aston Villa on 28 October and finished 1–1. He recorded his first win on 24 November when Bolton beat champions Manchester United 1–0, their first home victory over United for 30 years.

[edit] Managerial stats

As of 17 May 2008.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Norwich City		December 21, 1995	July 31, 1996	27	5	13	9	18.51
Blackpool		July 5, 1996	July 1, 1997	52	21	16	15	40.38
Stockport County		July 1, 1997	June 25, 1999	102	35	40	27	34.31
Stoke City		July 14, 1999	November 15, 1999	22	9	6	7	40.90
West Bromwich Albion		March 9, 2000	October 26, 2004	221	94	77	50	42.53
Nottingham Forest		January 10, 2005	February 16, 2006	59	17	24	18	28.81
Leicester City		September 13, 2007	October 24, 2007	9	3	2	4	33.33
Bolton Wanderers		October 25, 2007	Present	37	10	15	12	27.02
Career				529	194	193	142	36.67

[edit] See also

• Blackpool F.C. season 1996-97

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gary Megson career stats at Soccerbase
• Gary Megson management career stats at Soccerbase
• Gary Megson profile at the League Managers Association
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk

v • d • e Norwich City F.C. – Managers Bowman (1905–07) • McEwen (1907–08) • Turner (1909–10) • Stansfield (1910–15) • Buckley (1919–20) • O'Hagan (1920–21) • Gosnell (1921–26) • Stansfield (1926) • Potter (1926–29) • Kerr (1929–33) • Parker (1933–37) • Young (1937–38) • Jewell (1939) • Young (1939–45) • Lochhead (1945–46) • Spiers (1946–47) • Lochhead (1947–50) • Low (1950–55) • Parker (1955–57) • Macaulay (1957–61) • Reid (1961–62) • Swindin (1962) • Ashman (1962–1966) • Morgan (1966–69) • Saunders (1969–73) • Bond (1973–80) • Brown (1980–87) • Stringer (1987–92) • Walker (1992–94) • Deehan (1994–95) • O'Neill (1995) • Megson (1995–96) • Walker (1996–98) • Rioch (1998–2000) • Hamilton (2000) • Worthington (2000–06) • Grant (2006–07) • Duffy (2007) • Roeder (2007–)

v • d • e Blackpool F.C. – Managers Barcroft (1903–09) • Cox (1909–11) • Norman (1918–23) • Buckley (1923–27) • Beaumont (1927–28) • Evans (1928–33) • MacFarlane (1933–35) • Smith (1935–58) • Suart (1958–67) • Mortensen (1967–69) • Shannon (1969–70) • Meadows* (1970) • Stokoe (1970–72) • Potts (1972–76) • Brown (1976–78) • Meadows* (1978) • Stokoe (1978–79) • Ternent (1979–80) • Ball (1980–81) • Brown (1981–82) • Ellis (1982–89) • Mullen (1989–90) • White* (1990) • Carr (1990) • Ayre (1990–94) • Allardyce (1994–96) • Megson (1996–97) • Worthington (1997–99) • McMahon (2000–04) • Hendry (2004–05) • Grayson (2005–) * as caretaker-manager

v • d • e Stockport County F.C. – Managers Stewart (1894–1911) • Lewis (1911–14) • Ashworth (1914–19) • Williams (1919–24) • Scotchbrook (1924–26) • Hyde (1926–31) • Wilson (1932–33) • Westgarth (1934–36) • Kelly (1936–38) • Hunt (1939–39) • Marshall (1939–49) • Beattie (1949–52) • Duckworth (1952–56) • Moir (1956–60) • Flewin (1960–63) • Porteous (1963–65) • Quigley (1965–66) • Meadows (1966–69) • Galbraith (1969–70) • Woods (1970–71) • Doyle (1972–74) • Meadows (1974–75) • Hopkinson (1975) • Chapman (1975–76) • Quigley (1976–77) • Thompson (1977–78) • Summerbee (1978–79) • McGuigan (1979–82) • Webster (1982–85) • Murphy (1985) • Chapman (1985–86) • Melia (1986) • Murphy (1986–87) • Hartford (1987–89) • Bergara (1989–95) • Jones (1995–97) • Megson (1997–99) • Kilner (1999–2001) • Madden (2001) • Palmer (2001–03) • Hollins (2003) • McIlroy (2003–04) • Lillis (2004) • Turner (2004–05) • Gannon (2006–)

v • d • e Stoke City F.C. – Managers Slaney (1874–83) • Cox (1883–84) • Lockett (1884–90) • Bradshaw (1890–92) • Reeves (1892–95) • Rowley (1895–97) • Austerberry (1897–1908) • Barker (1908–14) • Hodge (1914–15) • Schofield (1915–19) • Shallcross (1919–23) • Rutherford (1923) • Mather (1923–35) • McGrory (1935–52) • Taylor (1952–60) • Waddington (1960–77) • Eastham (1977–78) • A'Court (1978) • Durban (1978–81) • Barker (1981–83) • Asprey (1984–85) • Mills (1985–89) • Lacey (1989) • Ball (1989–91) • Macari (1991–93) • Jordan (1993–94) • Macari (1994–97) • Bates (1997–98) • Kamara (1998) • Durban (1998) • Little (1998–99) • Megson (1999) • Thordarson (1999–2002) • Cotterill (2002) • Kevan (2002) • Pulis (2002–05) • Boskamp (2005–06) • Pulis (2006–)

v • d • e West Bromwich Albion F.C. – Managers Ford (1890–92) • Jackson (1892–94) • Stephenson (1894–95) • Keys (1895–96) • Heaven (1896–1902) • Everiss (1902–48) • J. Smith (1948–52) • Carver (1952–53) • Buckingham (1953–59) • Clark (1959–61) • Macaulay (1961–63) • Hagan (1963–67) • Ashman (1967–71) • Howe (1971–75) • Giles (1975–77) • Allen (1977) • Atkinson (1978–81) • Allen (1981–82) • Wylie (1982–84) • Giles (1984–85) • Stiles (1985–86) • Saunders (1986–87) • Atkinson (1987–88) • Talbot (1988–91) • Gould (1991–92) • Ardiles (1992–93) • Burkinshaw (1993–94) • Buckley (1994–97) • Harford (1997) • D. Smith (1997–99) • Little (1999–2000) • Megson (2000–04) • Robson (2004–06) • Mowbray (2006–)

v • d • e Nottingham Forest F.C. – Managers Radford (1889–97) • Haslam (1897–1909) • Earp (1909–12) • Masters (1912–25) • Baynes (1925–29) • Hardy (1930–31) • Watson (1931–36) • Wightman (1936–39) • Walker (1939–60) • Beattie (1960–63) • Carey (1963–68) • Gillies (1969–72) • Mackay (1972–73) • Brown (1973–75) • Clough (1975–93) • Clark (1993–96) • Pearce (1996–97) • Bassett (1997–99) • Adams (1999) • Atkinson (1999) • Platt (1999–2001) • Hart (2001–04) • Kinnear (2004) • Harford (2004–05) • Megson (2005–06) • Barlow & McParland (2006) • Calderwood (2006–)

v • d • e Leicester City F.C. – Managers Clark (1896–97) • Johnson (1898–07) • Blessington (1907–09) • Aitken (1909–11) • Bartlett (1912–14) • Hodge (1919–26) • Orr (1926–32) • Hodge (1932–34) • Lochhead (1934–36) • Womack (1936–39) • Bromilow (1939–45) • Mather (1945–46) • Duncan (1946–49) • Bullock (1949–55) • Halliday (1955–58) • Gillies (1959–68) • O'Farrell (1968–71) • Bloomfield (1971–77) • McLintock (1977–78) • Wallace (1978–82) • Milne (1982–86) • Hamilton (1986–87) • Pleat (1987–91) • Little (1991–94) • McGhee (1994–95) • O'Neill (1995–00) • Taylor (2000–01) • Bassett (2001–02) • Adams (2002–04) • Levein (2004–06) • Kelly (2006–07) • Allen (2007) • Megson (2007) • Holloway (2007–08)

v • d • e Bolton Wanderers F.C. – Managers Mather (1915–19) • Foweraker (1919–44) • Rowley (1944–50) • Ridding (1950–68) • Lofthouse (1968–70) • McIlroy (1970) • Meadows (1970) • Lofthouse (1971) • Armfield (1971–74) • Greaves (1974–80) • Anderson (1980–81) • Mulhall (1981–82) • McGovern (1982–85) • Wright (1985) • Neal (1985–92) • Rioch (1992–95) • McFarland (1995–96) • Todd (1996–99) • Allardyce (1999–2007) • Lee (2007) • Megson (2007–)

v • d • e Bolton Wanderers F.C. – current squad 2 Hunt • 3 Samuel • 4 Nolan • 5 Méïté • 9 Helguson • 11 Gardner • 12 Walker • 14 Davies • 15 Steinsson • 19 McCann • 20 Vaz Té • 21 Diouf • 22 Jääskeläinen • 23 Džemaili • 24 J. O'Brien • 25 Cohen • 26 Al Habsi • 27 Braaten • 29 Harsányi • 31 A. O'Brien • 32 Taylor • 33 Cahill • 37 Sinclair • 38 Sissons • 41 Fojut • 43 Woolfe • Manager: Megson

Persondata
NAME	Megson, Gary
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Footballer; Football manager
DATE OF BIRTH	May 2, 1959
PLACE OF BIRTH	Manchester, England
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH