Gustavo Poyet

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Gustavo Poyet
Gus Poyet (left) at a charity event.
Personal information
Full name Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez
Date of birth November 15, 1967 (1967-11-15) (age 40)
Place of birth    Montevideo, Uruguay
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position Midfielder (Retired)
Club information
Current club Tottenham Hotspur (Assistant First Team Coach)
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1988-1989
1989-1990
1990-1997
1997-2001
2001-2004
2006		 Grenoble
River Plate de Montevideo
Real Zaragoza
Chelsea
Tottenham Hotspur
Swindon Town		 037 0(8)
00? 0(?)
239 (63)[1]
105 (36)
082 (18)
000 0(0)   
National team
1993-2000 Uruguay 026 0(3)

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez, known as Gus (born November 15, 1967 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a former Uruguay international footballer. His teams included Real Zaragoza, Chelsea F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur. After his playing career he has moved into coaching and is currently the Assistant First Team Coach at Tottenham.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

A powerful and prolific goalscoring midfielder, Poyet moved to Zaragoza in 1990. His team won the Copa del Rey in 1994 and the Cup Winners' Cup a year later, beating Arsenal in the final. He captained the team in that final and became Zaragoza's longest-serving foreign player. He scored an impressive 60 goals in 240 games for the club. Poyet joined Chelsea on a free transfer in June 1997.

Not long into his first season at Chelsea, he suffered cruciate ligament damage but recovered to play in the team's successful Cup Winners' Cup final against VfB Stuttgart. The following year he contributed 14 goals - making him the club's 2nd highest scorer - to help Chelsea finish 3rd in the Premiership, including a crucial headed goal in 1-0 win against Leeds United. In 1999-00, he scored 18 goals (which again made him Chelsea's 2nd highest scorer), with a scissors-kick volley against Sunderland, a long range strike against SS Lazio and both of Chelsea's goals in the FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United among the most memorable, as the team won the FA Cup and reached the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.

With the arrival of new manager Claudio Ranieri in September 2000, Chelsea was a team in transition. With Ranieri seeking to reduce the average age of the squad, Poyet became surplus to requirements and requested a transfer. He joined Tottenham Hotspur in May 2001 for around £2.2m. In 145 appearances for Chelsea, Poyet scored 49 goals.

Poyet scored 14 goals in his debut season for Spurs and helped his team reach the League Cup final, but they lost 2-1 to Blackburn Rovers. His time at the club was blighted by injuries and he again sustained cruciate ligament damage in August 2002 but still managed 23 goals in 98 games.

He was also a Uruguay international and helped his country win the Copa América in 1995 (and in doing so was voted player of the tournament). He won 23 caps.

[edit] Coaching career

In July 2006, he became a player and assistant manager at Swindon Town alongside ex-Chelsea team mate, Dennis Wise. [2] Both Poyet and Wise were given permission to talk about forming the new Leeds United management team on 23rd October 2006 and looked set to take the place of caretaker manager, John Carver, until Swindon Town withdrew permission due to disagreements over compensation [3]. On the 24th October 2006, Poyet was confirmed as assistant manager of Leeds Utd with Dennis Wise as the manager. He fast became something of a cult hero with his wit and charm with the fans behind the teams bench. Poyet was reportedly considering coming out of retirement and playing professionally again for Leeds, following his appearance in two of the club's friendly matches whilst on a mid-winter training camp in Cyprus (January 2007) during one of these games he scored a volley described by United's manager Dennis Wise as "stunning".[citation needed]

On 29 October 2007 Poyet rejoined his former club Tottenham Hotspur to work alongside new head coach Juande Ramos as a first team coach with Marcos Alvarez as a fitness coach.[4]

[edit] Honours

[edit] References and footnotes

  1. ^ According to profile by www.sporting-heroes.net and table by www.soccerbase.com. 57 goals in 239 games according to Yahoo Sport UK's table.
  2. ^ Swindon confirm Wise as manager
  3. ^ Leeds talks with Wise put on hold
  4. ^ Spurs pick Poyet to assist Ramos (html) (English). BBC Sport (2007-10-29). Retrieved on 2007-10-29.