Stuart Gray (footballer born 1960)

Infobox Football biography
playername = Stuart Gray


fullname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1960|4|19
cityofbirth = Withernsea
countryofbirth = England
dateofdeath =
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
height =
nickname =
position = Midfielder/Left back
currentclub = Northampton Town
youthyears =
1978–1980
youthclubs = Withernsea YC
Nottingham Forest
years = 1980–1983
1983
1983–1987
1987–1991
1991–1993
clubs = Nottingham Forest
→ Bolton Wanderers (loan)
Barnsley
Aston Villa
Southampton
caps(goals) = 049 0(3)
010 0(0)
120 (23)
106 0(9)
012 0(0)
manageryears = 2001
2002
2004
2007–
managerclubs = Southampton
Aston Villa (caretaker)
Wolverhampton Wanderers (caretaker)
Northampton Town

Stuart Gray (born 19 April 1960 in Withernsea, England) is an English former footballer and manager, who is currently manager of Football League One side Northampton Town.

Playing career

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 would win 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 knee injury sustained in an FA cup match against former club Bolton Wanderers ended his playing career [cite book | author=Duncan Holley & Gary Chalk | title=In That Number - A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC | publisher=Hagiology | year=2003|pages=p.520| id=ISBN 0-9534474-3-X] .

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.

Management career

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 Southamptom 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.

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.

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

Managerial stats

As of 25th March 2008

References

External links

*soccerbase (manager)|id=1647|name=Stuart Gray