Stuart Gray (footballer, born 1960)

Stuart Gray
Personal information
Full nameStuart Gray[1]
Date of birth19 April 1960
Place of birthWithernsea, England
Playing positionMidfielder
Club information
Current team
Sheffield Wednesday
Youth career
Withernsea YC
1978–1980Nottingham Forest
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1980–1983Nottingham Forest49(3)
1983→ Bolton Wanderers (loan)10(0)
1983–1987Barnsley120(23)
1987–1991Aston Villa106(9)
1991–1993Southampton12(0)
1994Bognor Regis Town1(0)
Teams managed
2001Southampton
2002Aston Villa (caretaker)
2004Wolverhampton Wanderers (caretaker)
2007–2009Northampton Town
2010–2011Burnley (caretaker)
2011Portsmouth (caretaker)
2013–Sheffield Wednesday
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Stuart Gray (born 19 April 1960) is an English former football player and current football manager of Sheffield Wednesday. He has previously managed Southampton and Northampton Town as well as working as caretaker manager for a number of teams.

Playing career

Born in Withernsea, East Riding of Yorkshire, Gray began his professional career with Nottingham Forest, emerging from the youth system with players such as Steve Hodge and Colin Walsh. He joined Barnsley in 1984 and continued to build a reputation as a steady and versatile player, scoring 11 league goals in the 1986–87 season. He moved to Aston Villa in 1987 and won promotion the following year and runners-up in the First Division in 1990.

Gray joined Southampton in September 1991 for a fee of £200,000 as one of Ian Branfoot's first signings. Initially, this appeared to be a useful signing for the club as he could play either at left-back as cover for Micky Adams or in midfield, but a serious Achilles tendon injury sustained in an FA cup match against former club Bolton Wanderers ended his playing career.[2]

Earlier in that FA Cup run, Gray scored his only goal for Southampton, in a replay against Manchester United at Old Trafford. Micky Adams hit a probing left-foot pass which dropped between Peter Schmeichel and Paul Parker. Gray nipped between the goalkeeper and defender to stroke the ball home from just outside the area. Southampton eventually went on to win the game in a penalty shoot-out after scores were level 2–2 after extra time. This was the first ever such shoot-out involving First Division sides.

Coaching and management career

Southampton

After his playing career was finished, Gray joined the coaching staff at The Dell before moving to Wolverhampton Wanderers in June 1994 as reserve team coach. His family were unable to settle in the West Midlands at this time, so he returned to Southampton, initially working in the community office, before becoming reserve team coach under Dave Jones in July 1997, moving up to first team coach in November 1998, a role he retained after the appointment of Glenn Hoddle as manager in January 2000.

When Hoddle was lured away to Tottenham Hotspur in March 2001, Gray initially took over as caretaker manager, before taking on the role permanently in June, as Southampton moved to their new St Mary's Stadium. Early results were poor and chairman Rupert Lowe panicked about the effect on the club's investment in the new stadium and Gray was sacked after little more than 3 months in charge, to be replaced by Gordon Strachan. During his brief tenure as manager, he broke Southampton's transfer record, signing Rory Delap for a fee of £4 million.

Coaching

He has since coached successfully at a number of football clubs. These include Aston Villa, where he and John Deehan acted as joint caretaker managers after the departure of John Gregory. Stuart Gray moved briefly to Crystal Palace to assist caretaker manager, Kit Symons. He then joined Dave Jones at Wolverhampton Wanderers in the capacity of assistant manager. The two had previously worked together at Southampton. After the dismissal of Jones from Wolverhampton, Gray remained as assistant manager to Glenn Hoddle, once more acting as caretaker manager after Hoddle's departure; he had served as a caretaker for a month between the departure of Jones and arrival of Hoddle.[3]

Northampton Town

On 2 January 2007, Gray was appointed as the manager of Northampton Town after accepting a 2 1⁄2-year contract; he replaced John Gorman who had resigned on 20 December 2006.[4]

Gray was sacked as Northampton Town Manager on 8 September 2009, following relegation from League 1 in the 2008–09 season and being 16th in League 2 after six games in the 2009–10 season.

Burnley

On 19 January 2010 Gray became the first team coach for Burnley.[5] On 30 December he was appointed caretaker manager following the departure of Brian Laws.[6] Gray left Burnley on 13 May 2011 as part of a restructuring after the club failed to achieve even a play-off place in the season just ended.[7] Gray became first-team coach at Portsmouth but was made redundant in April 2012 as part of cost cutting due to their financial difficulties.[8]

Sheffield Wednesday

In December 2012, Gray was hired by his former Southampton colleague, Dave Jones, as a member of the coaching staff at Championship club Sheffield Wednesday.[9]

Following the departure of Dave Jones from Sheffield Wednesday at the end of November 2013 Gray took over as caretaker manager with a view to taking on the managerial role permanently, and as of 8 February has led Wednesday to a run of 11 unbeaten games in all competitions.[10] Stuart Gray was appointed as head coach of Sheffield Wednesday following the 2-1 win over Rochdale in the FA Cup on 25 January 2014.

Managerial statistics

As of 25 April 2015
TeamFromToMatchesWonDrawnLostWin %
Southampton 30 March 2001 21 October 2001 19 6 2 11 31.58
Aston Villa (caretaker) 24 January 2002 5 February 2002 2 0 2 0 0.00
Wolverhampton Wanderers (caretaker) 1 November 2004 2 December 2004 6 3 1 2 50.00
Northampton Town 2 January 2007 8 September 2009 135 44 39 52 32.59
Burnley (caretaker) 30 December 2010 15 January 2011 4 2 1 1 50.00
Portsmouth (caretaker) 14 October 2011 10 November 2011 6 3 1 2 50.00
Sheffield Wednesday 1 December 2013 Present 83 30 24 29 36.14
Total 255 88 70 97 34.51

References

  1. ↑ Hugman, Barry J. (2005). The PFA Premier & Football League Players' Records 1946-2005. Queen Anne Press. p. 247. ISBN 1-85291-665-6.
  2. ↑ Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk (2003). In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. p. 520. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
  3. ↑ "Wolves 0-1 Coventry". BBC News. 20 November 2004.
  4. ↑ "Northampton name Gray as manager". BBC Sport. 2 January 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  5. ↑ "Stuart Gray Appointed First Team Coach". vitalfootball. 19 January 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  6. ↑ "Gray Placed In Temporary Charge". Burnley FC. 30 December 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
  7. ↑ "Gray and Hoskin Leave In Re-Shuffle". Burnley F C official website. 13 May 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2011.
  8. ↑ "Coach Stuart Gray loses Portsmouth job". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
  9. ↑ "Sheffield Wednesday: Stuart Gray experience important - Jones". BBC Sport. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
  10. ↑ "Coach Stuart Gray appointed caretaker manager of Sheffield-Wednesday". Daily Express. Retrieved 3 December 2013.

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Allan Evans		 Aston Villa captain
1989–1992 		Succeeded by
Kevin Richardson