Iconic Football Coaches (British)
Written by; Tao MacLeod
The coach is a leading member of any team’s support staff. They help the players to develop, organise the starting eleven and steer the squad together towards a shared aim. The coach can develop a style of play and create an overriding ethos. The true greats can even leave a legacy behind them for future generations to follow as an example, or inspire others to get involved in sport.
This article is a celebration of those people. Here I have used the term coach interchangeably for somebody who trains the team, but also the team manager that was rather more common in the bygone British generations. The list below focuses on those personalities that hail from the British Isles and have all retired from the game. I have opted for eleven coaches from different eras, placed in alphabetical order, the number representing the amount of players on the pitch. The team name, or names that I have placed in brackets next to each person listed are the sides that they are best known for having coached. Here is the Half Court Press selection for the most iconic British football coaches of all time.
Vic Buckingham (West Bromwich Albion, Ajax & Barcelona)
Born in Greenwich in 1915, Buckingham spent most of his playing career with London club Tottenham Hotspur, that were then becoming known for their push and run playing style, that he would later help to evolve towards what we now know as Total Football. Upon retirement, he moved into coaching and started with amateur Oxfordshire side Pegasus. It was his time in the West Midlands that Buckingham started to make his name, spending six years at West Brom, winning the English FA Cup in 1954. From here he went on to Ajax of Amsterdam, where he won the Eredivisie in 1960 and gave a debut to a young Johan Cruyff in 1964. It was in Netherlands that he laid the foundations for the success found by Cruyff and Rinus Michels, based upon the pass and move ideals that he was trained in as a Spurs player. A move to the Catalonian giants Barcelona was to follow, where he joined a tradition of English football trainers. Here Buckingham added another trophy to his list of honours with a Copa Del Rey win in 1971. Further stints with Sevilla and Olympiacos gave a truly continental feel to his career.
Sir Matt Busby (Manchester United)
A legend of British football, World Soccer magazine named him as the 36th greatest manager of all time, whilst he was also honoured as an inductee to the English Football Hall of Fame in 2002 and the European equivalent in 2008. Hailing from a coal mining family in the Scottish town of Bellshill, he moved to England as a young footballer. He took up his position as coach of Manchester United in 1945, tragically having to rebuild his side of the 1950s (nicknamed the Busby Babes), after the 1958 Munich Air Disaster. A talented squad of youthful players that was set to sweep all before them, many players died in an air crash on the way home from a continental fixture. Rebuild he did and his Manchester United squad went on to win the 1968 European Cup. In total, Sir Matt’s managerial career saw his United side win five First Division titles, two FA Cups, five Charity Shields and the aforementioned European Cup. He was awarded a CBE in 1958, became a Knight Bachelor in 1968 and a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1972. Sir Matt Busby was selected to be the coach of the Half Court Press Magazine’s Gaelic/Celtic Football Dream Team.
Herbert Chapman (Huddersfield Town & Arsenal)
An inside forward in his heyday, Chapman’s playing career started in the late 19th century and saw the ending of the Victorian era. In 1907 the Yorkshireman took up a player-coaching role with Northampton Town, winning the Southern League in 1909, before going to manage the now dissolved Leeds City FC in 1912. However, he started to gain national recognition with Huddersfield Town. Here the Terriers won the FA Cup and Charity Shield in 1922, before two Championship titles in 1924 and 1925, whilst playing a strong defensive and counter attacking style of football, with an emphasis on wing play.
In 1925 the offside law had been modified to encourage the scoring of more goals. The number of defenders needed to be between the goal and opposing attacker when the ball was played was decreased. About the same time, Chapman had moved south to manage the Arsenal Football Club. In order to sure up the defence of his new side, he made a tweak to the traditional and popular formation of the time. Most teams played a variation of 2-3-5; that’s two full-backs, three centre-halves and five forwards. The new coach was one of the earliest adopters of a more defensive centre-half, moving the central midfielder into a full-back position. This change became known as the W-M formation, shaped as a 3-2-2-3, with three defenders, two midfielders and the inside forwards playing slightly deeper than the wingers and centre-forward. To this day, centre-backs in England are still often referred to as a centre-half for this very reason. It was also almost an act of rebellion to change from the norm in a rather conservative sporting culture, even if the decision was to be more defensive. The changing of formation in North London showed steps towards greater tactical understanding within British football. Whilst here, the Gunners won the FA Cup in 1930, the First Division in 1931 and 1932, as well as three Charity Shields over the same time period.
Herbert Chapman was also the one of the first managers to help foster a greater understanding towards fan culture in England. He was an advocate for shirt numbers and scoreboards in order for the spectators to follow what was happening in a match, he also made re-designs to Highbury Stadium, including the turnstiles and the now famous clock for fans to keep track of the game time. One of the few British football professionals, of the time, who looked to continental Europe for inspiration, he also pushed for floodlights at Arsenal after seeing them whilst attending a might game in Belgium. Chapman’s progressive values within the game, has had a long term positive effect on football in Britain. In 2013 World Soccer Magazine listed him as the ninth greatest manager of all time.
Brian Clough & Peter Taylor (Derby County & Nottingham Forrest)
The greatest manager that England never had, Clough never got the top job due to his outspoken views and ability to rile up the establishment. However, he did have a knack of taking on unfashionable clubs and finding success whilst playing attacking and attractive football. Cloughie’s playing career was cut short due to an unfortunate knee injury, upon which he moved into coaching with Hartlepools United. It was here that he started his coaching partnership with former team mate Peter Taylor. They would go on to work as a manager and assistant double act for the next couple of decades, in an era when it was unusual to have such a situation. A move to Derby County prompted a period of success. Winning the Second Division in 1969, the English Championship followed in 1972. Think about that happening today, it would seem impossible to win the Premiership three years after gaining promotion. In one of his autobiographies Brian mentioned that if the fallout with the directors hadn’t have happened he thought that, given time, this club could have competed with Liverpool for dominance. But after Taylor’s position was queried by a board member the friends did walk, prompting protests from the local fans.
After a year spent in the lower leagues with Brighton & Hove Albion and an ill-fated stint at former rivals Leeds United that saw Clough sacked after just a few weeks, he got an opportunity to reboot his reputation with Second Division club Nottingham Forrest. It was in the East Midlands that the two men re-established their working relationship. Winning promotion in 1977 they won the Championship immediately afterwards in 1978, an even greater feat than what he achieved at Derby. Now, here’s where it gets interesting. Nottingham Forrest, having been in the second tier of English football three years previously, won the European Cup in 1979. Qualifying as champions for the following season the club won the competition again in 1980.
Unfortunately by this point cracks had begun to develop within the relationship between manager and assistant coach. In 1982 Peter Taylor went back to Brighton & Hove Albion in order to take up the main job, prompting some further bitterness that had already begun whilst working together. The two friends never reconciled before Taylor’s death in 1990, which became a regret in later life for Clough. Taylor was a former goalkeeper, who had an analytical eye for out of favour players. He would scout them and Clough would then polish the diamond found in the rough. The two were a perfect match, contributing to each others mindset, and filling in for each the other’s weakness. Neither coach had the same success after their separation.
Stan Cullis (Wolverhampton Wanderers)
A centre-half for Wolves, as a player, Cullis also got 12 caps for England in the late 1930s. Apparently, if he had been selected to play in the 1938 Germany-England match in Berlin, Stanley would have refused to perform the now infamous NAZI salute made by the touring Anglo-Saxons. The year after retiring as a player, he took on the manager’s job at his West Midlands club in 1948. Here Cullis oversaw the most successful period of the team’s history. In 1949 he became the youngest manager ever to win the FA Cup (he was born in October 1916), the first of his two triumphs in the tournament, with the other happening in 1960. English league championships were to follow in 1954, 1958 and 1959, as well as the Charity Shield as outright winners in 1959. Wolves were also English entrants in the early days of the European Cup, getting to the quarter-finals in 1960 and the semi-finals in 1961, playing with a speed and spirit that summed up English football of the era. One of the early advocates of greater fitness training for players in England, Cullis spent more time focusing on the pre-season development of his sides than many of his contemporaries.
Sir Alex Ferguson (Aberdeen & Manchester United)
The longest serving manager in the history of Manchester United, he is often regarded as the best football coach from the British Isles, if not the world. Having grown up in the working class district of Govan, Ferguson found work as an apprentice toolmaker before becoming a professional footballer. As a player he found marginal success, he twice won the Scottish Second Division whilst on the books at St. Johnstone and Falkirk. In 1966 he was the First Division top goalscorer whilst at Dunfermline Athletic, which followed a three year period with his hometown team Glasgow Rangers. However, he never got an official cap for Scotland.
Fergie had a brief, initial stint in management with East Stirlingshire, before moving on to St. Mirren in the mid-70’s. The Saints won the Scottish First Division in 1977. Soon afterwards, he went to Scotland’s third city of Aberdeen, where he continued to grow his reputation, through breaking up the domestic dominance of the Glaswegian Old Firm. Between 1978 and 1986 the Dons won the Scottish League Cup, three Scottish League titles, four Scottish Cups, as well as the European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup in 1983. The Scottish national team came calling, with Jock Stein (another member of this list) acting as head coach, Fergie became his assistant. Unfortunately, Stein suffered a heart attack during a World Cup play-off match with Wales. Ferguson was put in charge of the national team for the World Cup finals in 1986.
In November of that same year Ron Atkinson was sacked as manager of Manchester United. Ferguson had already been approached by several English club teams, however it was the old northern powerhouse, who had been experiencing a barren spell who finally attracted the Scot across the border. A strict disciplinarian, he went about increasing the fitness levels of the first team squad, perhaps looking to combat some of the overt drinking culture at the club. Success came slowly to begin with and Fergie was close to being sacked early into his tenure. An FA Cup victory eventually came in 1990, followed by the League Cup, European Cup Winners’ Cup and European Super Cup in 1991. In 1993 United won the Premier League. It was the club’s first league title in 26 years and prompted an era of dominance that lasted for over a couple of decades. In a 27 year period Ferguson’s Manchester United won a total of 13 Premiership titles, five FA Cups, four League Cups, two Champions Leagues, the aforementioned European Cup Winners’ Cup and Super Cup, as well as the 2008 FIFA World Club Cup and it’s predecessor the Intercontinental Cup. In 1999, United became the fist English side to win the treble of domestic league, cup and European Cup titles in the same season.
A manager who exercised a firm hand over club affairs and first team behaviour, there was the infamous story of Sir Alex interrupting a flat party organised by some of his senior players, sending some young ladies home and grilling the first teamers who were there, whilst a young reserve team lad hid upstairs, afraid of getting caught out. He hair dryer treatment was a famous part of his repertoire, but apparently he knew when and to whom to dish it out. His man-management skills were world class treating players how they needed to be treated in order to get the best out each individual. ‘Fergie time’ was also a well known factor in his teams unnerving ability to score in the last minutes of a game, famously in the 1999 Champions League Final Manchester United scored both the equaliser and the winning goal in the three minutes of additional time towards the end of the match. The images of the rather intimidating Scotsman prowling the touchline barking at the match officials, whilst pointing at his watch are iconic in themselves. However this successful trait, that was maintained over several years, was more to do with his ability to create a culture of composure and calmness in his players when under pressure.
An attacking style of play was also built around certain key players, over several generations. Ryan Giggs, Andrei Kanchelskis, Lee Sharpe, Eric Cantona, Paul Scholes, Christiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney all looked to get forward to play exciting football in different title winning sides, whilst overlapping full-back like Denis Irwin and Gary Neville also contributed to this mindset. A preference for using young players in the first team was also a consistent method of developing ever evolving sides over the years that helped to sustain an era of dominance at Manchester United. The Class of ’92, produced several legends of the British game, including some of the aforementioned players, as well as internationals Nicky Butt, Phil Neville and former England captain David Beckham. The quote of ‘you’ll win nothing with kids’ preceded the League and Cup double in the mid-1990’s. A winner of several individual coaching awards, including the IFFHS World’s Best Coach of the 21st Century, Sir Alex Ferguson is a true legend of the game.
Jimmy Hogan (MTK Budapest & various teams around Europe)
Born in England in 1881, Hogan is another member on this list who spent his playing career in the early days of the 20th century, whilst the game was still finding its feet. Broadly unsuccessful as a player, he won the Southern League with Fulham twice, in 1906 and 1907, as well as the Second Division with Bolton Wanderers in 1909. However, some of the greatest thinkers within sport sometimes weren’t the most successful players. In 1910 he migrated to Europe to take up a coaching position with Dutch club side FC Dordrecht (unusually before he retired from playing with Bolton Wanderers). He also took up a role with the Netherlands around the same time, after the Royal Dutch Football Association was impressed by his methodology. It was his implementation of a variation of pass and move football that he was developing here that Hogan made his name.
The Combination Game was an effective alternative to the more physical running style preferred in England. This was the where the player in possession of the ball would attempt to dribble past as many opponents as possible in order to gain ground, before being tackled and a team mate would then try and carrying this on, similar to the ethos of rugby. It was meant to be an example of the individual’s masculinity as he would ride an avalanche of rough tackles. Hogan thought that this wasn’t effective and helped to begin movement towards the more aesthetic style that we celebrate today. He thought that a playing style based around passing and movement, possession and teamwork was a better way of winning a game. He helped to increase the fitness of players in order for them to become more versatile in their off the ball movement, contributing to the early days of the school of thought that coaches like Pep Guardiola adhere to in the modern game.
After his work in the Netherlands, he took up a brief role with Vienna based Wiener Amateur-SV. At the outbreak of the First World War, Hogan was about to take up a position with the Austrian national team, but as a foreigner he was taken as a prisoner of war. After being smuggled across the Hungarian border, Jimmy took up his coaching role with MTK Budapest. It was here that he had his greatest period of success in terms of silverware. Five Hungarian First Division titles were won in a row, between 1917 and 1921. Other titles as a coach include the Swiss A League with Young Boys Bern and the English Second Division with Aston Villa. He was an extremely well travelled professional, having had stints with Lausanne Sports, the Swiss national team, German side Dresdner SC, as well as Racing Club de Paris in France, before returning to England with Fulham in 1934. He finished his career with Aston Villa between 1936 and 1939. Whilst Hogan was in France he was appointed to help Hugo Meisl coach the national side of Austria, with what became the Wunderteam period that saw them amongst the top international sides in Europe. The duo were still working together when the Austrians got to the final of the 1936 Olympic Games football tournament, only losing to Italy in extra-time.
Unappreciated in England, during his era, Jimmy Hogan was often mocked and discredited when he brought his progressive fitness and tactical methodologies back home. A man of professional curiosity, he followed his passion overseas in order to become better at what he loved doing, contributing to the evolution of the game that we see today. In 2013 World Soccer Magazine rated Hogan the 24th greatest manager of all time.
Sir Alf Ramsey (Ipswich Town & England)
Born in Dagenham in 1920, he started his playing career at Southampton, before spending the prime of his playing career at Tottenham Hotspur, during their push and run era – an ethos that Ramsey took to heart. An England international he was a part of the unsuccessful 1950 World Cup campaign, where he became humiliated at the early exit and frustrated with how the team was organised. Taking over Ipswich Town in 1955, he spent eight years managing the club. He oversaw a run up the league pyramid starting with the winning of the Third Division South in 1957. This was followed up be the Second Division in 1961 and then the English Championship title a year later. His success was duly noted by the Football Association and was hired as the England national team manager in 1963, where he would spend the next eleven years. He took over during a period when England’s confidence in its footballing abilities had been knocked after their elimination from the 1962 World Cup in the Quarter Finals to the eventual champions Brazil.
Having replaced Walter Winterbottom, Ramsey insisted on having absolute control of the selection of players, where it had previously been at the discretion of a committee. It could be argued that his predecessor had been hamstrung by such a process and Sir Alf didn’t want to have anything to get in the way of his lofty ambitions. He set his stall out early, stating that England would win the World Cup that they would host in 1966, much to the bemusement of a critical press. Not having to qualify, due to hosting the tournament, he took the next three years to try different lineups and tactical arrangements, with moderate success, particularly in the Home Championships. He settled on a 4-3-3 system in the early round of the competition, however changed this to the now famous ‘wingless wonders’ set-up for the knock-out stages, playing a 4-3-1-2 (midfield diamond) formation. World class players such as Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore (who Ramsey made the youngest captain of the national team), Bobby Charlton and Jimmy Greaves made up the spin of the side, with Geoff Hurst (the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup Final) replacing the injured Greavesie after the group match against France where the forward received a deep gash to the shin.
The Final itself has become something of a classic. England came from behind to take a 2-1 lead. In the 89th minute the West Germans equalised, with what might have involved a handball, after hitting the body of Karl-Heinz Schnellinger in the build up to Wolfgang Weber’s goal. This arguably makes up for the ‘dubious’ second goal scored by Hurst. It was during the break before extra-time that Ramsey’s man-management skills came to the fore. He got his tired players to stand up off of the ground, in order to help gee them up. He pointed across the their opponents and said, “Look at them. They’re finished, they’re flat on their backs.” He went on to say, “You’ve won it once. Now you’ll have to go out there and win it again.” Reticent about joining in the celebrations of his victorious footballers, he allowed the players parade the trophy around the Wembley pitch without him, he enjoyed the success in his own way out of the public eye. Ramsey remains the only person to have coached England to a World Cup victory.
Bill Shankly (Liverpool)
Hailing from a small coal mining village of Glenbuck, Ayrshire the Scot went on to play for Carlisle United and Preston North End, as well as winning five caps for the Scottish national team. He returned to Cumbria to coach his old side in 1949, with further stints at Grimsby Town, Workinton and Huddersfield Town, Shankly worked his way around the northern half of England. However it was his time spent with Liverpool for which he is best remembered.
Taking over the Reds in 1959 the club was nowhere near the level that they are now and a long way away from being one of the country’s dominant football teams. Having been stuck in the second tier for several years, the stadium and training ground were not in good shape and the squad was of average ability. In order to develop the fitness and close control of his charges he introduced the now famous ‘sweat-box’, where a player would bounce a ball off any one of four boards, whilst inside of a square. The Boot Room was just a storage space for footwear and other bits of kit, near Liverpool’s changing rooms. However, it became an informal space where coaches would get together to chat about tactics, team selection and the opposition. It helped to breed a culture of insight and understanding within the club with assistant coaches and players such as Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Kenny Dalgleish and Roy Evans who would go on to manage the first team joining in these conversations. It was Bill Shankly who started and encouraged this ethos that would become an institution.
In the early 1960s Liverpool began to find success. Promotion from the second tier to the top division came about in 1962. The first of Shankly’s three league Championships came in 1963, with the last happening in 1973, with a further two FA Cup victories were enjoyed by fans during this time, as was the club’s first European trophy winning the UEFA Cup in 1973, retiring a year later. Other managers would go on to win more domestic and continental titles, but it was Bill Shankly that started this journey towards dominance. It was his relationship with the fans in the city that helped him become an icon of the football club and set an example for future managers such as Kenny Dalgleish and Jurgen Klopp. He made an effort for the players to understand who it was that they were playing for. He saw Liverpool FC as being an institution and an extension of the population of the city. Regarded as a great orator, he made several speeches to the supporters who came out to cheer the presentation of trophies. Shankly knew that it was the community around a club and the passion of the supporters that set football apart from other sports in terms of games becoming a spectacle.
Jock Stein (Celtic & Scotland)
A legend of Scottish football, Stein was the first person to manage a British side to victory in the European Cup, with a side made up of players from the area around Glasgow Celtic’s stadium. All but two of the 15 players of the Lisbon Lions were born within 10 miles of Celtic Park. Together they played an attacking and exciting brand of football that took on the best teams in Europe and won.
Hailing from Lanarkshire, Stein played for local side Albion Rovers, before moving on to turn out for The Bhoys in the 1950s. He took up management positions with Dunfermline Athletic (winning the Scottish Cup in 1961) and Hibernian before coaching the national team for a stint in 1965. After this he got the top job with Celtic, where he would stay for a further 13 years. Between 1965 and 1978 Jock Stein’s Glasgow side won six Scottish League Cups, eight Scottish Cups and 10 Scottish League Championships, as well as the aforementioned European Cup. Appointed as the manager of Scotland in 1978 on his 58th birthday, Stein led the national team until his death in 1985. He tragically suffered a heart attack during a play-off match against Wales, whilst trying to qualify for the 1986 World Cup. A mentor to future Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, it was his assistant coach who took over from him for that tournament.
Jock Stein’s legacy includes having mentored the great Alex Ferguson and a preference for a more attacking style of play that was compared to the Rinus Michels ‘Total Football’ school of thought, instead of the Helenio Herrera catenaccio tactical and defensive style of play. He was a tracksuit coach, who got involved with his players during the week, becoming known for the positive man-management of his charges. In 2013 he was named as World Soccer Magazine’s 29th Greatest Manager of All Time, Stein was also inducted in to the Scottish Football Hall of Fame in 2004.
Terry Venables (Barcelona/Tottenham Hotspur/England)
One of the best coaches of his generation, he worked and found success all around the world. His England team at Euro ’96 made me fall in love with football and sport in general. It was a magical summer, where England took on some of the best teams in the world and very nearly came out on top, whilst playing fun, exciting and entertaining football. That squad wasn’t full of talent that later teams were, but they were the most fun that I’ve seen up until recent years. It was arguably a better functioning team than that of the golden generation of 2002 till 2016, playing with tactical fluidity. Terry Venables started out coaching Crystal Palace, before moving onto Queens Park Rangers, finding moderate success in the second tier of the English League. This caught the attention of Barcelona, where he won the 1985 La Liga title, as well as the 1986 Copa del Rey. The same year, his Barca side got to the European Cup final, losing out to a Steaua Bucharest side on penalties. After this, he coached Gazza and Lineker to FA Cup victory with his exciting Spurs side in 1991, prompting his hiring as England manager in 1994. It was at the Euros that another one of his teams lost out of penalties, this time to the Germans in the semi-finals. It’s an interesting thought that if things had gone slightly differently his reputation would be even stronger than it is currently. Latterly, he helped to develop football in Australia, helping them to become runners up in the 1997 Confederations Cup.
Known as a fantastic coach, his training sessions would help to improve players throughout a season, or campaign. Tactically astute, Venables was introducing ideas to English players before most other people were in the English leagues. His England national team in the mid-1990s played with a fluidity that hadn’t been seen before and was unlucky not to have found more success. This nuanced attacking style was epitomised by a 4-1 demolition of the Netherlands during the European Championships. Current England manager Gareth Southgate claims to have had his eyes opened by his coach during this period. It was only a falling out with the Football Association that prompted the end of his tenure, instead of anything to do with footballing matters. In 1985 Terry Venables received the Don Balón Award in 1985 as the best foreign coach in La Liga. In 1997 he was also inducted into the English Football Hall of Fame. Terry Venables was selected to be the coach of the Half Court Press Magazine’s England Football Dream Team.
