Howard Kendall

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Howard Kendall
Personal information
Full nameHoward Kendall
Date of birth (1946-05-22) 22 May 1946
Place of birthRyton-on-Tyne, County Durham,[1] England
Playing positionMidfield
Youth career
1961–1963Preston North End
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1963–1967Preston North End104(13)
1967–1974Everton229(21)
1974–1977Birmingham City115(16)
1977–1979Stoke City82(9)
1979–1981Blackburn Rovers79(6)
1981Everton4(0)
Total613(65)
Teams managed
1979–1981Blackburn Rovers
1981–1987Everton
1987–1989Athletic Bilbao
1989–1990Manchester City
1990–1993Everton
1994Xanthi
1995Notts County
1995–1997Sheffield United
1997–1998Everton
1998–1999Ethnikos Piraeus
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Howard Kendall (born 22 May 1946) is a former English footballer and manager. He is most famous for his connection to Everton, a club that he both played for and managed. He also played for Preston North End, Stoke City, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers and managed Athletic Bilbao, Manchester City, Xanthi, Notts County, Sheffield United and Ethnikos Piraeus. His uncle Harry Taylor played for Newcastle United and Fulham in the 1950s.

Playing career

Kendall joined Preston North End as an apprentice in 1961. He turned professional in May 1963 and played in the 1964 FA Cup Final against West Ham United. At the time the youngest player to appear in a Wembley the final,[2] his place in the side coming due to the regular left-half Ian Davidson being suspended by the club for an unauthorised trip to Scotland. He was aged 17 years 345 days and was the youngest finalist since James Prinsep played for Clapham Rovers in the 1879 final aged 17 years 245 days.

Originally a defender, Kendall joined Everton for £85,000 in March 1967[2] where he was moved into midfield with Alan Ball and Colin Harvey, the trio gaining the nickname "The Holy Trinity".[3] They were a major component of the Everton team that won the First Division title in the 1969–70 season. In the next three seasons, Kendall captained Everton as the side struggled to build on winning the league with a 17th place finish in 1972–73.[3] He was sold to Birmingham City in February 1973 and he spent four seasons at St Andrew's helping Birmingham survive in the First Division.

Kendall joined Stoke City in August 1977 for a fee of £40,000.[4] Stoke under the management of George Eastham had the task of regaining their place in the top flight following relegation.[4] However poor results in early part of the 1977–78 season saw Eastham sacked and replaced by Alan Durban in January 1978. One of the first things Durban did was appoint Kendall as player-coach and he thrived in the role and his performances eared him the club's inaugural player of the year award.[4] Durban built the team around Kendall for the 1978–79 season as Stoke finished in third-place gaining promotion back to the First Division.[4] However despite Durban wanting Kendall to play for him in the First Division Kendall decided to join Third Division Blackburn Rovers as player-manager.[4]

He was assigned as player-manager at Blackburn Rovers for almost two years (1979–81), then returned to Everton to play a handful of games, again as player-manager, prior to retiring in September 1981.

Kendall never played for England at senior level, but won caps at Schoolboy, Youth and Under-23 level, captaining the England Youth side to victory in the 1964 Little World Cup Final.

Managerial career

In June 1979 Kendall was appointed player-manager of Blackburn Rovers and took the team into the Second Division in the 1979–80 season. Success continued the following season when Rovers narrowly missed out on promotion to the First Division on goal difference. In May 1981 Kendall returned to Everton as player-manager, in the hope of restoring the club to its former glory, although he only played four games before finally retiring as a player.[3] Initially he struggled and was on the verge of being sacked in January 1984[1] when results began to pick up with Everton reaching the League Cup final (losing to Liverpool) and winning the FA Cup (beating Watford) at the end of the season. In the 1984–85 season, Everton won the League Championship, finishing 13 points clear of runners-up Liverpool, and the European Cup-Winners' Cup, defeating Austrian side Rapid Vienna, and reached the final of the FA Cup. Everton narrowly failed to win both the League and the FA Cup in 1985–86 – second in both to Liverpool – but in 1986–87 won the League again, nine points clear of Liverpool, as the Merseyside clubs continued their stranglehold on the English game.

During his first spell at Goodison Park, he built an almost entirely new team which proved itself as one of the finest of the whole decade. He brought in younger players such as Peter Reid and Trevor Steven from smaller clubs to give them the opportunity to prove that they could compete at the highest level, and was largely successful. He also brought in "name" players such as Andy Gray, who was instrumental in a season and a half after joining them in late 1983, his goals transforming a struggling side into FA Cup winners and then league champions and European Cup Winners' Cup winners. He then sold Gray to Aston Villa and brought in Gary Lineker who scored more than 30 goals in the 1985–86 season season.

Kendall left Everton in 1987, frustrated by the ban from Europe of English clubs,[5] to manage Athletic Bilbao in Spain.[1] He was not a great success at Bilbao, hindered by limitations on the players he could sign for the Basque club.[3] He turned down an offer to manage Newcastle United to remain in Spain, but was sacked on 15 November 1989 after a poor run of results,[1] and speculation began immediately about where his next job would be. There were frequent reports that he would be the next England manager when Bobby Robson eventually departed.[6] On 7 December 1989,[7] he returned to England as manager of Manchester City and secured their survival with a comfortable 14th place finish.[8]

With the announcement in late May that Bobby Robson would step down as England manager after the 1990 World Cup, Kendall's name was inevitably mentioned by the press as a likely successor.[9] However, he quickly dismissed the speculation and declined an offer by the Football Association to be interviewed for the role,[10] which ultimately went to Graham Taylor.[11]

He returned to Everton for a second spell as manager on 7 November 1990 following the sacking of Colin Harvey, who was re-appointed to the club as his assistant.[12] This was despite the fact he had built a strong Manchester City side that was near the top of the First Division table, and had only just held their cross city rivals Manchester United to a thrilling 3–3 draw at Maine Road.[13] He famously justified the move by saying that Manchester City was just an affair, but Everton was his marriage.[3] By this stage Everton were battling against relegation to the Second Division, but he turned their season around and they managed to finish ninth and also reach the FA Cup quarter-finals, defeating Liverpool in the fifth round. Despite the subsequent acquisition of players like Mo Johnston and Peter Beardsley, Everton remained little more than a mid table side during Kendall's second spell and he resigned on 4 December 1993.

After leaving Everton for the second time, Kendall took charge of Greek club Xanthi for a short and largely unsuccessful period. In January 1995 Kendall returned to English football, taking over at First Division Notts County. The Magpies were struggling badly after a nightmare start to the season, but under Kendall's leadership there was an improvement, with County winning their first two games under his tenure. However, a series of rows with chairman Derek Pavis led to Kendall being sacked in April 1995 – exactly why has never been fully clarified. The Magpies poor form continued after his departure and the team were relegated to Division Two at the end of the season. Subsequently, Kendall joined Sheffield United in December 1995, saving the club from relegation and then taking them to the 1997 play-off final, which was lost to Crystal Palace. Kendall then returned to Everton for third time as manager in August 1997, but left the club by mutual consent at the end of the season having only managed to avoid relegation on the final day of the season. His third spell was beset by turmoil within the club, working for then Chairman, Peter Johnson.

Kendall moved to Greek side Ethnikos Piraeus, but was sacked in March 1999 after only four months in charge and with the club eight points adrift at the bottom of the Greek First Division. It remains Kendall's last role in football management, although in 2001 he revealed that he had "had offers" from a number of English clubs which he rejected, and he expressed interest in the Republic of Ireland managers' job, which was eventually given to Giovanni Trapattoni. He remains the last English manager to win a European competition with an English club. Kendall was inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame in 2005 in recognition of his contribution as a manager to the English game.[2]

Career statistics

As a player

Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[A] Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Preston North End 1962–63 Second Division 2000000020
1963–64 Second Division 91510000142
1964–65 Second Division 297211000328
1965–66 Second Division 394603000484
1966–67 Second Division 251102000281
Total 10413142600012415
Everton 1966–67 First Division 4000000040
1967–68 First Division 386612200469
1968–69 First Division 291304000361
1969–70 First Division 364104100415
1970–71 First Division 402620073537
1971–72 First Division 354400000394
1972–73 First Division 404201000434
1973–74 First Division 7010000080
Total 229212331137327030
Birmingham City 1973–74 First Division 151000000151
1974–75 First Division 394611060525
1975–76 First Division 368102000398
1976–77 First Division 253211000284
Total 1151692406013418
Stoke City 1977–78 Second Division 427201000457
1978–79 Second Division 402105100463
Total 8293061009110
Blackburn Rovers 1979–80 Third Division 412604120533
1980–81 Second Division 384003020434
Total 796607140967
Everton 1981–82 First Division 4010100060
Total 4010100060
Career Total 6136556735517372180
A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the Anglo-Scottish Cup, European Cup, FA Charity Shield and Texaco Cup.

As a manager

Team From To Record
G W D L Win %
Blackburn Rovers 1 June 1979 31 May 1981 88 41 27 20 46.59
Everton 31 May 1981 18 June 1987 307 165 70 72 53.75
Manchester City 6 December 1989 5 November 1990 39 13 18 8 33.33
Everton 5 November 1990 4 December 1993 154 58 39 57 37.66
Notts County 12 January 1995 1 April 1995 15 4 4 7 26.67
Sheffield United 12 December 1995 27 June 1997 82 34 27 21 41.46
Everton 27 June 1997 1 July 1998 42 11 13 18 26.19
Total 727 326 198 203 44.84

Honours

Player

Preston North End
Everton
Stoke City

Manager

Blackburn Rovers
Everton
Notts County
Sheffield United
  • Football League First Division play-offs runner-up: 1996–97

Individual

  • Stoke City player of the season: 1978
  • English Manager Of The Year: 1985
  • English Manager Of The Year: 1987

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Shearyadi, Eddy. "The Difference Between King Kevin Keegan and Howard Kendall". The Bleacher Report. Retrieved 27 January 2010. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Galvin, Robert. "Howard Kendall". National Football Museum. Retrieved 27 January 2010. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "Howard Kendall: One third of the Holy Trinity". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 27 January 2010. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Stoke City Heroes - Howard Kendall". The Oatcake Archive. Retrieved 26 February 2013. 
  5. ↑ Gradwell, Phil (17 March 2009). "Should Joe Royle have gone back to Oldham? It isn't always a good idea..". Daily Mail (London: Associated Newspapers). 
  6. ↑
  7. ↑
  8. ↑
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ 'New+Rossi'+benched+and+Italy's+on+edge&pqatl=google "'New Rossi' benched and Italy's on edge". 2 June 1990. 
  11. ↑ "England names Taylor coach". 16 July 1990. 
  12. ↑
  13. ↑ "Manchester City v Manchester United: The greatest meetings". The Independent (London). 14 April 2011. 

External links

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