Jackett prowling the touchline at The Den. |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Kenneth Francis Jackett | ||
| Date of birth | 5 January 1962 | ||
| Place of birth | Watford, England | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Millwall (manager) | ||
| Number | 40 | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1980–1990 | Watford[1] | 337 | (25) |
| National team | |||
| 1982–1988 | Wales | 31 | (0) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1996–1997 | Watford | ||
| 2004–2007 | Swansea City | ||
| 2007– | Millwall | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Kenny Jackett (born 5 January 1962 in Watford) is a former Wales international football player, who has since moved into management. He is the current manager of Millwall, the longest serving manager in the Football League Championship and eleventh longest serving manager in England.
A skilful player, equally at home in defence or midfield, Jackett was capped 31 times for Wales, for whom he was eligible through his Welsh-born father. He spent his entire playing career at Watford, before his career was ended by injury. He moved onto the coaching staff, and had a spell as manager in the 1996-97 season. Between 2004 and 2007 he was manager of Swansea City. He took over as manager of Millwall in November 2007, leading them to two successive League One play-off finals, and eventual promotion to The Championship.
His father Frank was also a professional footballer.
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Jackett broke into the Watford first team at the end of the 1979-80 season. During the 1980s he helped the team to a runners-up spot in Division One, as well as appearing in the 1984 FA Cup Final. Jackett's playing career was ended prematurely when a serious knee injury forced his retirement in 1990, at the age of 28. Had he not incurred the injury he would have most likely topped Watford's all-time appearance record - currently held by striker Luther Blissett.
On retirement, Jackett stayed at Vicarage Road where he had several coaching roles before beginning his management career in June 1996 as head coach with Watford. He succeeded Graham Taylor, who became Director of Football.
Watford had just been relegated to Division Two and Jackett was unable to mount a serious promotion challenge. In the 1996-97 season Watford finished 13th - their lowest finish since the 1970s. During the close season he was demoted to assistant manager, with Taylor once again becoming manager. Jackett assisted Taylor in getting Watford promoted two seasons in a row, and helped the club during their 1999-2000 Premier League season, although they were relegated in bottom place.
When Taylor left Watford at the end of the 2000-01 Division One season, Jackett was released on the instruction of incoming manager Gianluca Vialli, an unpopular move with many fans of the club. He then joined Ian Holloway at Queens Park Rangers as assistant manager and contributed towards their Division Two promotion campaign.
After 3 years as an assistant Jackett left QPR to replace Brian Flynn as manager of Swansea in April 2004 and in his first full season in charge, they were promoted from League Two, finishing in third place. The club also won the FAW Premier Cup.
A fine start to the 2005-06 League One season followed, putting them well on course for a second successive promotion, but Swansea slipped away from the top of the league, ending the season in sixth place and qualifying for the promotion play-offs, which they lost on penalties in the final against Barnsley. However, he did win the Football League Trophy, as well as winning the FAW Premier Cup for the second season in a row.
In the 2006-07 season Swansea hovered in and around the top 6 and defeated Premiership team Sheffield United at Bramall Lane 3-0 in the FA Cup. However, on 15 February 2007 Swansea parted company with Jackett by mutual consent after almost three years in charge. Although the board had asked him to continue following a slump in form, Jackett felt he "no longer has the 100 per cent support of everybody connected with the club" and therefore decided to leave.[2]
On 7 March 2007 Jackett was appointed reserve team manager of Manchester City.[3] He was interviewed for the vacant managerial post at League One club Millwall, after the sacking of Willie Donachie, but ruled himself out after an interview.[4] However, on 6 November 2007 he left Manchester City to take up the position.[5]
On 2 October 2008 he was named Football League One Manager of the Month after guiding Millwall to 5 consecutive wins, against Huddersfield, Hartlepool, Leicester, Cheltenham and Swindon, conceding only two goals. He won the award again in March 2009, the third time he'd won it as Millwall manager.
In the 2008–09 season, Jackett guided Millwall to the 2009 Football League One play-off Final after successfully beating Leeds United in the Semi-Finals. It was the first time in Millwall's history that they had reached the Final. However, despite leading Scunthorpe United 2-1 at Wembley after a first-half comeback, the Lions ended up losing 3-2 in the last 20 minutes of the game.
In 2009–10 Millwall enjoyed a tremendous second half of the season, challenging promotion favourites Leeds for second spot and automatic promotion. They fell a point short, finishing third, ensuring that Jackett and Millwall returned to the play-off final, against Swindon Town where a goal from their captain Paul Robinson secure a 1-0 win and promotion to The Championship; it was the first time in Millwall's history that they had won promotion via the play-offs.
In their first season back in the Championship, Jackett led Millwall to a finish of 9th. Competing up until the penultimate game of the season for a place in the play-offs.
Jackett currently lives in St Albans with his wife Samantha and their two sons, David and Ryan.
| Wales national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1982 | 2 | 0 |
| 1983 | 6 | 0 |
| 1984 | 7 | 0 |
| 1985 | 6 | 0 |
| 1986 | 5 | 0 |
| 1987 | 3 | 0 |
| 1988 | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 31 | 0 |
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | ||||
| Watford | 10 June 1996 | 2 June 1997 | 59 | 24 | 19 | 16 | 40.68 | |
| Swansea City | 5 April 2004 | 15 February 2007 | 156 | 69 | 40 | 47 | 44.23 | |
| Millwall | 6 November 2007 | Present | 228 | 100 | 55 | 73 | 43.86 | |
| Total | 443 | 193 | 114 | 136 | 43.57 | |||
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