Adrian Heath

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Adrian Heath
Adrian-heath.jpg
Personnel
Surname Adrian Paul Heath
birthday January 11, 1961
place of birth Stoke-on-Trent ,  England
size 168 cm
position Midfield , storm
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1979-1982 Stoke City 95 (16)
1982-1988 Everton FC 226 (71)
1988-1989 Espanyol Barcelona 24 0(1)
1989-1990 Aston Villa 9 0(0)
1990-1992 Manchester City 75 0(4)
1992 Stoke City 6 0(0)
1992-1995 Burnley FC 115 (29)
1995-1996 Sheffield United 4 0(0)
1996-1997 Burnley FC 5 0(0)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1981-1982 England U-21 8 0(3)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1996-1997 Burnley FC
1999 Sheffield United
2005 Coventry City
2007 Coventry City
2008-2010 Austin Aztex
2011-2016 Orlando City
2017– Minnesota United
1 Only league games are given.

Adrian Paul Heath (born January 11, 1961 in Stoke-on-Trent ) is a former English football player and current coach. The short attacking midfielder , who could also be used as a striker , was considered to be technically adept and equipped with a good overview. With the Everton FC he recorded the mid-1980s, his greatest success when he in 1985 and 1987 two English championships and in 1984 the FA Cup won.

In 1996, Heath switched to coaching by initially serving as a player- coach at his then-club Burnley FC . He has been involved in US football since 2008. He was initially a trainer at Austin Aztex ; since 2011 he has coached the Orlando City franchise , which played in the United Soccer League until 2014 and started in Major League Soccer in 2015 .

Athletic career

Player career

Stoke City (1979-1982)

Heath played his first professional football games for Stoke City . Before signing a professional contract in January 1979, he made his debut in October 1978 against Fulham (0-2) in the first team, which was then playing in the second division. When promoted after the end of the 1978/79 season was only a marginal figure with a total of two second division appearances, but when he arrived in the top English league he developed there in the following two years to become a regular player. At the age of five and in the second year with six league goals, he contributed to the fact that the "Potters" initially narrowly managed to stay in the league and then a comfortable eleventh place with a balanced score. Heath scored another five goals at the start of the 1981/82 season before ultimately leaving Stoke City. In addition, he had become a fixture in the English U-21 team , and later made a contribution to winning the title with his involvement in the final second leg of the 1982 European Championship against Germany (2: 3 after a 3: 1 first leg win).

Everton FC (1982–1988)

For 700,000 pounds "Inchy", as Heath was called because of his small body size, moved to Everton in January 1982 . In the team of the barely 35-year-old trainer Howard Kendall , who had begun to direct the fortunes of the "Toffees" since the beginning of the 1981/82 season, he was reluctant to find his role at the beginning. Since he was neither a classic striker nor an ordinary midfielder, he struggled with initial difficulties, but by the mid-1980s was one of the key players on a team that had won numerous major titles. His name is particularly associated with two moments. At his first sporting climax, he ensured a late equalizer against Oxford United in January 1984 , which many Everton supporters at the time regarded as the starting point on the way to the following titles - a possible dismissal of Kendall had been speculated in the event of a defeat . A few months later he made the semi-finals of the FA Cup with a header against FC Southampton for the 1: 0-winning goal in extra time to give Everton the first time after 16 years again reached the Cup final, in turn, with Heath against Watford FC was won and gave the club its first major title after 1970.

At the beginning of the subsequent 1984/85 season , Heath was in good shape and scored eleven goals in 17 league games before a serious knee injury from a tackle with Brian Marwood from Sheffield Wednesday put him out of action for the remainder of the season. As a result, he missed both the decisive phase in winning the English championship in 1985 and all games from and including the quarter-finals on the way to victory in the European Cup winners' competition . In addition, the injury prevented a possible nomination in the A-squad of the English national team .

After a narrowly missed title defense in the 1985/86 season as runner-up , in which Heath had been in the starting line-up in 24 of 36 league games, he found his role as a regular player in the 1986/87 season . He contributed eleven goals to win his second English championship, making it Everton's third best scorer behind Trevor Steven and Kevin Sheedy . He then played for a little more than a year in Liverpool before moving to Spanish first division club Espanyol Barcelona in November 1988 .

Final career stations (1988–1996)

The time in Barcelona was not a good star for Heath. He was relegated from the Primera División with the club, which had appeared to be collectively insecure since the UEFA Cup final defeat in 1988, and returned to England in August 1989 - the statistics recorded only one league goal in 24 appearances during his trip to Spain.

At his next station, Aston Villa , he found his luck as well and was largely no longer used by coach Graham Turner after eight starting XI appearances in the first nine league games. Shortly after the turn of 1990/91, Heath moved to Manchester City , where he met again with coach Kendall, who also signed a number of other former companions of the successful Everton period. Especially in the following season 1991/92 he formed a contrasting storm partnership with Niall Quinn ; in contrast to the tall and strong headed Quinn, Heath relied more on his speed and agility. The fans criticized his low goal rate, which was particularly evident in the "lull" of 46 games without hits and which triggered constant demands for the more popular Clive Allen . In the course of the 1991/92 season Heath lost his regular place to Mike Sheron , whereupon he went back to Stoke City for a short time in March 1992, which now only played in the third division. In the remaining encounters Heath reached the play-off games with Stoke, in which he failed in the semifinals at Stockport County .

Heath then went to third division rivals Burnley FC in August 1992 free of charge . There he showed himself in good form in the first two years, recorded the highest yield in his active career in the 1992/93 season with 19 league goals and rose to the second division the following year. In the 1994/95 season he was moved more into a role directly behind the two storm peaks, which resulted in a reduction in his goal rate. In addition, he seriously injured his Achilles tendon, which is why he had to pause from March 1995 and thus missed the decisive games until relegation. When coach Jimmy Mullen used him again only hesitantly in the following season 1995/96, Heath took a third time in December 1995 the opportunity to work with Howard Kendall and hired at the second division Sheffield United . The experiment there lasted just over two months, and after only five substitutions, he returned to Burnley, where he had been offered the position of player-coach. With a few tactical changes, which only slightly improved the results, he managed to stay close to the league. After two substitutions at the beginning of the 1996/97 season, he ended his playing career. At the end of the season he finished ninth with the "Clarets", whereupon Chris Waddle inherited him in his office.

Coaching career

Two years after the first "steps" as a player-coach, he was signed as the head coach of Sheffield United before the start of the 1999/2000 season. He left the club just five months later. He later worked with his close friend and former Everton teammate Peter Reid as part of his involvement with AFC Sunderland , Leeds United and Coventry City and took over the latter's role on an interim basis after Reid's dismissal in January 2005. He then remained active under Reid's successor Micky Adams for Coventry City and served the club in January and February 2007 one more time as temporary athletic director. When Iain Dowie was signed, Heath's time in Coventry ended.

Heath then found his professional future in American football when he coached the newly formed club Austin Aztex in February 2008 . The club, which played in USL-1 and had ties to the English club Stoke City, was relocated to Florida three years later. There he appeared from then on as Orlando City and won the championship in 2011 with coach Heath in the newly founded USL Professional Division - the third highest soccer league behind the MLS and NASL .

At the end of 2014, the USL Pro franchise Orlando City ceased operations and moved to the new Major League Soccer franchise Orlando City . Heath took over the post of coach here too.

title

as a player

as a trainer

literature

  • Johnson, Steve: Everton - The Official Complete Record . deCoubertin Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-9564313-2-5 , pp. 357 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ "England - U-21 International Results 1976–1985 - Details" (RSSSF)
  2. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: "Adrian Paul Heath" (Playerhistory.com)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / soccerdatabase.eu
  3. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1995-96 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1995, ISBN 0-09-180854-5 , pp. 95 .
  4. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1996-97 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1996, ISBN 1-85291-571-4 , pp. 110 .
  5. ↑ Barry J. Hugman (Ed.): The 1997-98 Official PFA Footballers Factfile . Lennard Queen Anne Press, 1997, ISBN 1-85291-581-1 , pp. 123 .
personal data
SURNAME Heath, Adrian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heath, Adrian Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Stoke-on-Trent , England