Jefferies as Hearts manager. |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | James Jefferies | ||
| Date of birth | 22 November 1950 | ||
| Place of birth | Musselburgh, Scotland | ||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | ||
| Playing position | Right back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1965–1967 | Gorgie Hearts | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1967–1981 | Heart of Midlothian | 227 | (5) |
| 1967–1968 | → Haddington Athletic (loan) | ||
| 1968–1969 | → Gala Fairydean (loan) | ||
| 1981–1983 | Berwick Rangers | 71 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1983–1988 | Gala Fairydean | ||
| 1988–1990 | Berwick Rangers | ||
| 1990–1995 | Falkirk | ||
| 1995–2000 | Heart of Midlothian | ||
| 2000–2001 | Bradford City | ||
| 2002–2010 | Kilmarnock | ||
| 2010–2011 | Heart of Midlothian | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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James "Jim" Jefferies (born 22 November 1950 in Musselburgh) is a Scottish football former player and manager. Jefferies played for Heart of Midlothian for almost his whole playing career and enjoyed a successful first managerial spell with the club, winning the 1998 Scottish Cup. Jefferies has also managed Gala Fairydean, Berwick Rangers, Falkirk, Bradford City and Kilmarnock.
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Jefferies made more than 300 competitive appearances for Heart of Midlothian.[1] The main highlight of his playing career was playing in the 1976 Scottish Cup Final, which Hearts lost 3–1 to Rangers.[2] Jefferies eventually left Hearts in 1981, and spent the last two seasons of his career with Berwick Rangers making 71 appearances, 60 in the league, 5 in the Scottish Cup and 6 in the League Cup. His first game was on 14 Nov 1981 L2 Montrose 0-2 Berwick Rangers and His last 14 May 1983 L2 Albion Rovers 2-1 Berwick Rangers.[2]
Jefferies left Berwick in 1983 to become a manager at East of Scotland Football League club Gala Fairydean, but returned to the club to begin his senior managerial career in September 1988.[2] Despite a great deal of financial turmoil during that time, he turned the struggling team around to the extent that they set a club record of 21 games unbeaten in the league during season 1988–89.[2] In the 1990 close season Jefferies took over at Falkirk [3], guiding them to the Scottish First Division title (and promotion to the Scottish Premier Division) in 1991 and 1994.[2] Falkirk also won the Scottish Challenge Cup in 1993.[2]
In August 1995, Jefferies returned to Hearts. He was manager of the Hearts team that won the Scottish Cup in 1998, his greatest success in the game to date.[2]
Jefferies moved south of the border on 20 November 2000 to replace Chris Hutchings as manager of then Premier League side Bradford City.[4] He was given the task of selling players by chairman Geoffrey Richmond and was unable to prevent them from going down.[5] He resigned in December 2001 after a poor start to the season left them with no hope of a promotion challenge.[2]
On 28 February 2002, he returned to management back in his native Scotland with Kilmarnock.[6] He kept Kilmarnock in a respectable position despite the necessity of drastically reducing the club's wage bill, reaching the 2007 Scottish League Cup Final.[2] Following Alex McLeish's departure from Rangers at the end of the 2005–06 season, Jefferies was the longest-serving manager in the Scottish Premier League.[7] He left Kilmarnock by "mutual consent" on 11 January 2010.[8]
Jefferies was appointed manager of Hearts for a second time on 29 January 2010, just hours after Csaba László was sacked from the position.[9] Hearts finished third in the SPL in the 2010–11 season, having threatened the dominance of the Old Firm until falling away after February. Jefferies and right hand man Billy Brown were sacked by Hearts on 1 August 2011, after just two games of the 2011–12 SPL season.[10][11]
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