Dario Gradi

Dario Gradi

Personal information
Full name	Dario Gradi MBE
Date of birth	(1941-07-08) 8 July 1941
Place of birth	Milan, Italy
Height	1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)
Playing position	Defender
Club information
Current club	Crewe Alexandra F.C. Academy (manager)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1969–1970	Sutton United
1971	Tooting & Mitcham United
Teams managed
1978–1981	Wimbledon
1981	Crystal Palace
1983–2007	Crewe Alexandra
2008	Crewe Alexandra (caretaker)
2009–2011	Crewe Alexandra
2011–	Crewe Alexandra F.C. Academy
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Dario Gradi MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-born English football manager and former player. He has been associated for more than 30 years with Crewe Alexandra, with whom he is currently the Director of Football and also Director of the academy.

Gradi had a 24-year first spell as manager of Crewe between 1983 and 2007. He stepped down from his managerial role in 2007, handing first-team responsibilities to Steve Holland, and became technical director. At that time, Gradi was the longest serving manager of an English football league club.^[1] After returning as manager in 2009, he stepped down on 10 November 2011 to focus on youth development at Crewe.^[2]

Early life and playing career

Born to an Italian father (who died when Dario was a small child) and an English mother, Gradi moved to London when his mother returned after the Second World War.

He trained as a teacher of physical education at what is now Loughborough University and his first (and only) teaching position was at Glyn Grammar School, Epsom, the school which he himself had attended. He joined Sutton United, playing in the FA Cup tie against Leeds United in 1970, and then represented Tooting & Mitcham United. During that time Gradi also owned and operated a sportswear and equipment shop in Ewell village.^{[citation needed]} Gradi Sports was popular, particularly amongst sport-oriented pupils at Glyn Grammar. Gradi also played for Wycombe Wanderers FC, long before that club became fully professional. Dario Gradi became a Regional Coach for the FA. This caused him to lose his amateur status and become ineligible to continue his playing career.

Coaching career

After a period of teaching, Gradi turned to football coaching, becoming Assistant Coach at Chelsea in 1971 at the age of just 29. This was followed by coaching and management posts at Sutton United, Derby County, Wimbledon, and a two-year spell as youth-coach at Leyton Orient.

Management career

Wimbledon

He took over as manager of Wimbledon in January 1978, helping the Plough Lane side win their first promotion from the Football League Fourth Division in 1978/79, although they were relegated at the first attempt. They were well on course for an immediate return to the Football League Third Division when in February 1981 an offer came for Gradi to manage struggling Football League First Division side Crystal Palace.

Crystal Palace

However, his time at Selhurst Park was not a success, as he failed to save Palace from relegation and he resigned the following November as a disappointing start to the 1981/82 season saw their promotion hopes effectively written off (promotion was ultimately not achieved for another seven seasons).

Crewe Alexandra

Gradi returned to management in June 1983, when he accepted an offer to manage Crewe Alexandra, a team who regularly finished near the bottom of the Fourth Division and had been forced to apply for re-election on several occasions in order to avoid slipping into the Northern Premier League and, since its creation in 1979, the Football Conference. His first signing was Mike Woodward from Watford and gradually the club moved forward.

In 1988/89, after six seasons of steady progress, they won promotion to end 25 years in the league's basement division. Gradi signed a then unheard of ten-year contract with Crewe. They went back down again two years later, but in 1994 won promotion to the Division Two and three years after that they reached Division One for the first time in their history.

Shortly after the 1994 promotion, Gradi became the League's longest-serving manager. By 2002, he was one of just two managers, the other being Alex Ferguson, to have held their position since before 1990. He has since joined the club's Board of Directors.

Gradi's contract with Crewe was one of the most controversial in the football league, he personally takes a percentage of profit on any player sold on to another club.^[3]

During the 1980s and 1990s, Gradi helped launch the careers of many players who went on to play top division and even international football. These include David Platt, Rob Jones, Geoff Thomas, Danny Murphy, Ashley Ward, Wayne Collins, Seth Johnson, Robbie Savage and Neil Lennon. Platt was the most successful of these players, captaining England on many occasions and also helping Arsenal win the double at the end of his playing career.

His keen eye for spotting and rearing young talent is what has gained him some recognition in football. He was linked with the post of FA Technical Director in 1996,^[5] and also entered into discussions with Portugal's Benfica over the vacant managerial spot in the 1980s.

His success continued into the 2000s, when he helped launch the career of a new generation of young stars including Rob Hulse, Dean Ashton, David Vaughan, Michael O'Connor, Billy Jones, Nicky Maynard, Ashley Westwood and Nick Powell.

In 2004 Dario won the PFA Merit Award for his services to football, an award previously won by many football luminaries such as Bobby Charlton, Bill Shankly, Matt Busby, Bob Paisley, Brian Clough, Stanley Matthews, Pele, Bobby Robson and Alex Ferguson.

Crewe Alexandra won the PFA Bobby Moore Fair Play trophy 12 times in 15 years during Gradi's reign.^[6]

On 20 April 2007 Gradi announced that with effect from 1 July he would relinquish first team responsibilities, becoming Technical Director while gradually handing over to new first-team coach Steve Holland, with Neil Baker remaining as assistant manager. Gradi told the club website:

"I didn't want to be a 75-year-old manager working seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. That is not healthy for the future of the club. I will probably drop dead doing the job at some point but I wanted to put that day off a bit. This is a better way to do things, to introduce this gradual transition because it will take some of the workload off me."^[7]

On 18 November 2008, Gradi resumed control of Crewe's first team on a caretaker basis after a poor start to the 2008/09 season under Steve Holland had left the club bottom of League One.^[8] He was in charge for just over a month before Gudjon Thordarson was announced as his successor on Christmas Eve 2008.^[9] Gradi remained in charge of the team for two games during the Christmas period, with Þórðarson taking over on 29 December. Following the sacking of Þórðarson on 2 October 2009,^[10] Gradi was again reinstated as caretaker manager which the board of directors then stated would be until further notice.

In 2011 at the Football League Awards Gradi was again honoured by his peers as he won the 'Outstanding Contribution to League Football' for his work at Crewe.

After returning as manager in 2009, on 10 November 2011 it was announced that Gradi had chosen to step down as manager, returning to his position as Director of Football. Gradi's then assistant manager Steve Davis – who had played for Crewe under Gradi from 1983 to 1987 – was appointed as manager with immediate effect.^[11] Davis led Crewe to playoff success to reach League 1 with a 2–0 win over Cheltenham in May 2012.

Tributes

Gradi was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2004 in recognition of his impact as a manager in the English game. A street in Crewe, Dario Gradi Drive, is named in his honour 53°5′9.91″N 2°26′16.23″W / 53.0860861°N 2.4378417°W / 53.0860861; -2.4378417. In 2003 he was made an Honorary Freeman of the Borough of Crewe and Nantwich and in the same year was awarded an honorary doctorate by Loughborough University.

The winning school in the Surrey Schools Football Association's boys under-13s competition receive the Dario Gradi Trophy.^[12]

Managerial statistics

As of 8 November 2011

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Wimbledon		5 January 1978	1 January 1981	7002171000000000000171	700163000000000000063	700161000000000000061	700147000000000000047	700136840000000000036.84
Crystal Palace		1 February 1981	10 November 1981	700127000000000000027	70006000000000000006	700118000000000000018	70003000000000000003	700122220000000000022.22
Crewe Alexandra1		1 June 1983	1 July 2007	70031244000000000001,244	7002462000000000000462	7002477000000000000477	7002305000000000000305	700137140000000000037.14
Crewe Alexandra (caretaker)		18 November 2008	28 December 20082	70009000000000000009	70003000000000000003	70005000000000000005	70001000000000000001	700133330000000000033.33
Crewe Alexandra		2 October 2009	10 November 2011	7002109000000000000109	700138000000000000038	700148000000000000048	700123000000000000023	700134860000000000034.86

¹ Between 22 September and 17 October 2003 Neil Baker took temporary charge of the team while Gradi underwent heart surgery. The team did not win any matches during this period.

² Gradi's successor, Gudjon Thordarson, was announced on 24 December, but Gradi remained in charge of the team for games on 26 and 28 December.

References

External links

• Dario Gradi management career stats at Soccerbase
• English Football Hall of Fame Profile