Bobby Campbell (English footballer)

Bobby Campbell
Personal information
Full name Robert Campbell
Date of birth 23 April 1937 (1937-04-23) (age 74)
Place of birth Liverpool, England
Playing position Wing-half
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1958-1961 Liverpool 24 (2)
1961-1966 Portsmouth 64 (2)
1966-1967 Aldershot 5 (0)
Teams managed
1976-1980 Fulham
1982-1984 Portsmouth
1985-1986 Al Qadsia Kuwait
1988-1991 Chelsea
1993-1994 Al-Arabi Kuwait
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Robert J Campbell (born 23 April 1937 in Liverpool) was a football player and later manager. He began his career with Liverpool, where he also won England Youth international caps. He then moved on to Portsmouth and later Aldershot.

After injury ended his career in 1966, he turned his hand to coaching, at Portsmouth and then, with greater success, at Queens Park Rangers. He went on to work under Bertie Mee at Arsenal as first-team coach, after Steve Burtenshaw's resignation and subsequent departure to Sheffield Wednesday in 1973.

His first managerial job came at Fulham in 1976, after his former boss Alec Stock was sacked. After four mediocre years where his major achievement was a 1million GBP gross transfer profit, he was sacked when the team made a poor start to the 1980-81 season. He moved on to Portsmouth, whom he led to the Third Division title in 1982-83.

Towards the end of the 1987-88 season, Campbell was appointed assistant to manager John Hollins at Chelsea, a team in the midst of a relegation battle; one month later Hollins was sacked and Campbell appointed caretaker manager until the end of the season. Campbell was unable to turn around the club's fortunes in the eight games which remained that season, and they were relegated via the short-lived play-off system.

He made amends the following season, however, as his side romped to promotion as Second Division champions with a haul of 99 points. A year later, he led to Chelsea to a 5th place finish in the First Division, their highest league placing since 1970. He was relieved of his managerial duties after an 11th place finish and appointed personal assistant to Chelsea chairman Ken Bates in 1991.

Campbell went on to coach in Saudi Arabia.

Campbell now collects old AHU filters from various Maintenance companies across London.

References

Preceded by
Alec Stock
Fulham F.C. Manager
1976-1980
Succeeded by
Malcolm Macdonald
Preceded by
Frank Burrows
Portsmouth F.C. Manager
1982-1984
Succeeded by
Alan Ball
Preceded by
John Hollins
Chelsea F.C. Manager
1988-1991
Succeeded by
Ian Porterfield