George Burley

Football player infobox
playername = George Burley


fullname = George Elder Burley
nickname =
height = height|ft=5|in=9
weight =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1956|6|3|df=y
cityofbirth = Cumnock, East Ayrshire
countryofbirth = Scotland
currentclub = Scotland (Manager)
position = Right-back
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1973–1985
1985–1988
1988–1989
1989–1991
1991–1993
1993
1993–1994
1994
clubs = Ipswich Town Sunderland Gillingham Motherwell Ayr United Falkirk
Motherwell
Colchester United
Total
caps(goals) = 394 0(6)
054 0(0)
046 0(2)
054 0(0)
067 0(0)
001 0(0)
005 0(0)
007 0(0)
0628 0(8)
manageryears = 1991–1993 1994 1994–2002 2003–2005 2005 2005–2008 2008–
managerclubs = Ayr United Colchester United Ipswich Town Derby County Heart of Midlothian Southampton Scotland
nationalyears =
1979–1982
nationalteam = Scotland U21
Scotland U23
Scotland
nationalcaps(goals) = 005 0(0)
002 0(0)
011 0(0)

George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956 in Cumnock, Kyle, East Ayrshire) is a Scottish football manager and former player. On 24 January 2008 he was appointed manager of the Scotland national team. His nephew, Craig, is also a former footballer.

Playing career

Burley started his playing career as an apprentice at Ipswich Town, and after 13 years and exactly 500 appearances for the Suffolk club he moved to Sunderland. He subsequently played for Gillingham and Motherwell, before becoming player-manager of Ayr United. In 1993 he moved to Falkirk as a player, before returning to Motherwell.

He had won an FA Cup winner's medal with Ipswich in 1978 and had the further distinction of receiving eleven Scotland caps.

In 1972 he joined Ipswich as an apprentice and made his senior debut against Manchester United at Old Trafford in 1973, being given the job of marking George Best. In 1978 he was a member of the Ipswich side which upset the odds to defeat Arsenal 1-0 in the FA Cup final. However, in 1981 and injury forced him out of Ipswich's UEFA Cup final triumph over AZ Alkmaar. With Town missed out on First Division title on last day, finishing runners-up to Aston Villa

In 1985 he joined Sunderland after making 500 appearances for Ipswich, and was part of the Sunderland team that slipped into the Third Division in 1987, only to win promotion a year later.

He played for Gillingham in the 1988-89 season, but was unable to prevent them from being relegated to the Fourth Division. He moved back to Scotland in 1989 to play for Motherwell.

Management

Ayr United

He joined Ayr United as a player-manager in 1991, succeeding Ally MacLeod. In his first season he took United to the B&Q Centenary Cup Final and again reached the final of the competition (by then renamed the B&Q Challenge Cup) the following season. However, he did not succeed in taking Ayr back to the Premier League and was dismissed in 1993 for adverse results with the side's place in the First Division in serious jeopardy.

Colchester United

He moved briefly to Falkirk in 1993 as a player before returning to Motherwell as player-coach.

In June 1994 he returned to East Anglia as player-manager of Colchester United. He played seven first team games and managed the club for 20 matches, 8 of which they won, before returning to Ipswich Town the following November.

Ipswich Town

He was appointed manager at his former club, with Dale Roberts as his assistant, having had illegal talks with Town without Colchester knowing and so compensation was duly paid. During an eight-year reign he took Ipswich to three play-offs and finally won promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs at Wembley beating Barnsley 4–2. The following season he guided the club to fifth place and qualification for the UEFA Cup. This earned him the 2000–01 Manager of the Year award. Relegation the following season saw Burley's side struggling at the foot of Football League First Division and his contract was terminated by mutual agreement in 2002.

Derby County

In 2003, he became interim manager of Derby County while permanent manager John Gregory was suspended. Burley managed to halt Derby's alarming slide towards the relegation zone of the First Division (just one season after relegation from the Premier League) and kept the club up comfortably. Burley was then appointed manager permanently when Gregory was sacked. The following season (2003–04) was often a struggle, with Derby actually finishing a place lower than the season before, but there were signs of improvement. This showed through in the 2004–05 season when, despite spending no money on new players, Burley transformed Derby from relegation contenders to a fourth place finish and play-off semi-finalists. However, things were not as happy as they seemed on the surface with Burley's relationship with director of football Murdo Mackay and the club's board (who sold star player Tom Huddlestone without informing Burley) being very strained. After days of speculation and mudslinging, Burley announced his resignation from Derby in June 2005.

Heart of Midlothian

He was then appointed manager of Heart of Midlothian on 30 June 2005. A stunning start to his tenure as Hearts manager saw them top the Scottish Premier League after the first ten games, winning eight of these, including a 4–0 trouncing of rivals Hibernian – proving themselves to be genuine title challengers. However, he left the club the day after major shareholder Vladimir Romanov, with whom Burley had a notoriously uneasy relationship, announced a bid to take private control of Hearts. [cite web |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/h/heart_of_midlothian/4367202.stm |title=Burley in shock exit from Hearts |accessdate=2007-01-21 |date=22 October 2005 |work=BBC Sport |publisher=BBC] A club statement declared his departure was by mutual consent.

outhampton

Burley was appointed as Head Coach of Southampton on 23 December, 2005 following the departure of Harry Redknapp.cite news| title = Saints name Burley as head coach| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_4550000/newsid_4556200/4556200.stm| publisher = CBBC Newsround| date = 2005-12-23| accessdate = 2007-08-12] The club's technical director, Clive Woodward, was moved sideways to a newly created post of director of football as part of restructuring following Burley's appointment, before eventually leaving the club in August 2006. Following the change in control of the club in July 2006, Burley's title was changed to that of "manager". He guided Southampton to the 2006–07 play-offs but lost on penalties in the second-leg of the semi-final after drawing 4–4 on aggregate against his former club Derby County, who went on to win the final.

cotland

It was announced on 24 January 2008 that Burley had taken over the position of Scotland manager. [citeweb|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7203463.stm| publisher = BBC |title=Burley appointed Scotland manager|accessdate=January 24|accessyear=2008] It was announced during a press conference with Burley and the Scotland board that he had signed a contract until 2012. He became the third former Ipswich manager to manage his country, as Alf Ramsey and Bobby Robson had before him. Since being appointed, Burley has attended many matches in the SPL monitoring players for the upcoming Scotland friendlies. In his first match in charge, Scotland drew 1-1 with Croatia. In the following two friendlies, Scotland failed to register a victory, with a 3-1 loss against the Czech Republic, and a goalless draw with Northern Ireland. Burley faced heavy criticism following a 1-0 defeat to Macedonia in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign, however Scotland bounced back into contention following a 2-1 victory over Iceland. He is since been termed as a "Scotland Flop", in a similar vein to Berti Vogts.

Managerial stats

All competitive league games (league and domestic cup) and international matches (including friendlies) are included

:"As of 10 September 2008"

Honours

As a player

;Ipswich Town
* FA Cup winner 1978
* UEFA Cup winner 1981

As a manager

;Ipswich Town

* FA Premier League Manager of the Year: 2000-01
* FA Premier League Manager of the Month: November 2000
* LMA Manager of the Year: 2000-01

References

External links

*soccerbase (manager)|id=491|name=George Burley
* [http://www.goal.com/en-us/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=559444 Goal.com profile]
* [http://www.londonhearts.com/scotland/players/georgeelderburley.html Scotland profile at www.londonhearts.com]
* [http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/player_details.cfm?playerid=11675&CFID=529426&CFTOKEN=15835931 Scotland profile at www.scottishfa.co.uk]

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