Howard Wilkinson

Howard Wilkinson
Personnel
birthday	November 13, 1943
place of birth	Sheffield ,  England
position	Winger
Juniors
Years	station
	Sheffield United
	Hallam FC
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1962-1966	Sheffield Wednesday	22 0(3)
1966-1971	Brighton & Hove Albion	129 (19)
1971-1976	Boston United	143 (26)
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1972-1975	Boston United
1976-1977	AFC Mossley
1979-1982	England C
1982-1983	Notts County
1983-1988	Sheffield Wednesday
1988-1996	Leeds United
1999	England (interim)
1999-2001	England U-21
2000	England (interim)
2002-2003	Sunderland AFC
2004	Shanghai Shenhua
1 Only league games are given.

Howard Wilkinson (born November 13, 1943 in Sheffield ) is an English football official and former player and coach. He was best known as the longtime coach of Sheffield Wednesday and Leeds United ; he led the latter club in 1992 to the English championship . In addition, he served the English Football Association in various functions and was both before and after the tenure of Kevin Keegan (1999-2000) interim coach of the England national team . Wilkinson is chairman of the League Managers Association .

Active playing career

Wilkinson was born in the Sheffield district of Netherthorpe and showed an affinity for football with his Abbeydale Boys Grammar team at an early age. Not infrequently he faced Scottish opponents with English school selections. In addition to five international youth games, he completed a number of regional selection matches for Sheffield and Hallamshire County . In organized club football, he was initially on the road as an amateur for Sheffield United , before he was drawn to local rivals Sheffield Wednesday via Hallam FC .

On June 25, 1962 Wilkinson signed his first professional contract with the "Owls". The young winger, whose heart beat for Wednesday at an early age, first completed a two-year training course in the reserve team before playing for the first time in the first division against Chelsea (1-1) in the First Division in September 1964 . Another 13 league games in the 1964/65 season gave hope for a sporting breakthrough in the top English division, but Wilkinson was denied the hoped-for jump. After only eight more encounters, he left the club for Brighton & Hove Albion , which paid the transfer fee of 6,000 pounds in July 1966.

In the southern English coastal town of Brighton, Wilkinson spent a moderate football career in the third division until the beginning of the 1970s and strengthened the “Seagulls” team in 129 league games. In May 1971, Boston United then signed him . There, Wilkinson took over his first coaching duties alongside Jim Smith parallel to his playing life . His active career lasted until 1976, before he finally took his place in the dugout after 143 league games for Boston.

Coaching career

First experiences (1972–1983)

When Wikinson had his first coaching experience in Boston, he graduated from the University of Sheffield with a degree in physical education and practiced teaching at his old school before taking over the sporting direction of Boston United after Smith's departure in 1972. Under Wilkinson's direction, the club won two Northern Premier League championships in 1973 and 1974 , and in 1975 the matching Northern Premier League Cup . After a brief stint at the Manchester- based AFC Mossley , for which he won the Manchester Senior Cup , he followed the call of the English football association FA . Wilkinson was the FA's sporting director for North East England; in addition, he looked after the English C national team consisting of semi-professionals and won the Four Nations Cup with them in 1979 . In December 1979, he finally made the leap into professional football when Notts County hired him as part of the coaching staff. It wasn't long before Wilkinson became a Kotrainer, and in July 1982 his employer promoted him to the head coaching role, replacing Jimmy Sirrel . Only a year later, his ex-club and second division Sheffield Wednesday hired him.

Sheffield Wednesday (1983–1988)

With the support of assistant and ex-Wednesday player Peter Eustace and the highly esteemed physiotherapist Alan Smith , Wilkinson made extensive changes to the club. The success was not long in coming and his running and fighting convincing men remained undefeated until the 16th game in the 1983/84 season. Sheffield Wednesday remained during the entire season in the top ranks and the penalty to 1: 0 against Crystal Palace by Mel Sterland provided for the promotion to the top English league.

Although Wilkinson was often the subject of public criticism for his team's not very technically oriented approach, he demonstrated his coaching skills at the highest national level with 8th place and fifth place the following year - including reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1986 . This “calling card” almost earned him an engagement with the Saudi Arabian club al-Ittihad , which, according to press reports, enticed people with an annual salary of one million pounds and offered Sheffield Wednesday a transfer fee of 500,000 pounds. Wilkinson stayed, but after the suspension of English clubs as a result of the Heysel disaster , there was now more frequent disagreement with the club management over the future course. Despite the lack of additional income from the European Cup games, the successful coach insisted on additional investments to keep the team in the top half of the table. However, President Bert McGhee had declared an austerity policy and a lack of athletic quality in the team soon became noticeable. The 1: 5 home defeat against the new champions FC Liverpool on the last matchday of the 1987/88 season , which overshadowed the entire summer of 1988, produced a particular dissonance .

He resisted advances from the Greek top club PAOK Saloniki shortly afterwards, but when the ambitious second division Leeds United officially asked Wednesday for transfer talks, an agreement was quickly reached. On October 10, 1988, Wilkinson announced his resignation in Sheffield and shortly thereafter took up his new position in West Yorkshire.

Leeds United (1988-1996)

At Leeds United, "Sergeant Wilko", as he was called in allusion to the television program Sergeant Bilko because of his penchant for high discipline, formed a powerful squad that included the newly signed Gordon Strachan , "Rauhbein" Vinnie Jones , and Mel Sterland, Chris Fairclough and Lee Chapman achieved promotion to the top English division in the 1989/90 season . With further transfers such as Gary McAllister and John Lukic , but also new talents from his own youth such as Gary Speed and David Batty , Wilkinson managed to establish the club in the First Division and move it to fourth place with surprising ease .

Only a year later, the greatest success in Wilkinson's coaching career followed when he won the English title in the 1991/92 season - the last season before the start of the new Premier League . He had further strengthened the team with actors such as Rod Wallace , Tony Dorigo and Steve Hodge and in February 1992 gained a decisive offensive force with the Frenchman Éric Cantona . This soaring did not have a lasting effect afterwards, which the crash to final table rank 17 proved in the following year . An example of the "wrong direction" in which the club is now developing under Wilkinson was the controversial decision in September 1992 to sell Cantona for £ 1.2 million to Manchester United , who in turn became one of the best premieres there. League player developed in the 1990s. In the two years that followed, Wilkinson's luck turned temporarily for the better, whereupon Arsenal FC also showed interest in looking for a successor to George Graham in the summer of 1995 - but the Leeds United management rejected a possible move.

In the 1995/96 season, Wilkinson's men moved into the final of the League Cup , which was lost 3-0 to Aston Villa and brought the coach a lot of criticism. After that, his time in Leeds quickly came to an end when the club got off to a bad start in the new 1996/97 season. A 4-0 defeat by Manchester United finally made Wilkinson's dismissal on September 9, 1996.

English national teams (1997-2002)

Four months after his resignation in Leeds, Wilkinson accepted an offer from the English Football Association as technical director. His work profile stipulated that he would monitor the training work and concepts at all junior levels of the selection teams. In this context he initiated the construction of a national football center near Burton ; a project that should be completed in 2012.

He briefly gained notoriety beyond national borders in 1999 when, after the dismissal of Glenn Hoddle, he briefly coached the English national team and looked after the "Three Lions" in a friendly against France . He then took over the head coach role of the U-21 team , replacing Peter Taylor, who was still appointed by Hoddle . This decision was controversial in the English media. In addition, there were failures in Wilkinson's tenure and the team, which had not been defeated or conceded shortly before, lost three out of six games under his direction. In June 2001, Wilkinson resigned from his post - he was finally succeeded by David Platt . Previously, in October 2000, he had once again headed the senior team in a 0-0 World Cup qualifier against Finland after Hoddle's successor Kevin Keegan announced his resignation. Until 2002 he stayed with the English Association as technical director, before he received another call from the Premier League.

Last coaching jobs (2002-2004)

The request came from the relegation candidate AFC Sunderland and in October 2002 Wilkinson agreed with the "Black Cats" about an engagement - his assistant was Steve Cotterill . The year was, however, catastrophic with only two wins from 20 league games, which ultimately led to relegation from the bottom of the table . Wilkinson had already been released in March 2003.

A year later, the Chinese first division club Shanghai Shenhua lured him , but after only two months Wilkinson stopped working for personal reasons. Back in his English homeland, he worked on an interim basis in the coaching staff of Leicester City in October 2004 before he was finally drawn “behind the scenes”.

Functional activities

At his old club, Notts County, Wilkinson took on a director post. To this end, he became intensively involved in the League Managers Association as its chairman. In January 2009 he returned a second time to Sheffield Wednesday as a consultant and took over the club chairmanship for the 2010/11 season after the resignation of Lee Strafford. He was one of the key figures who saved the club from bankruptcy and arranged the sale to the new owner, Milan Mandarić . He remained on the three-person Board of Directors until his resignation in January 2011 .

Title / Awards

• English Championship (1): 1992
• Charity Shield (1): 1992

literature

• Brodie, John & Dickinson, Jason: Sheffield Wednesday - The Complete Record . DB Publishing, 2011, ISBN 978-1-85983-973-7 , pp. 264-266 .

Web links

• Profile page at Leaguemanagers.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "Boston United Roll Call" (www.bufc.drfox.org.uk)
2. ↑ "" I wasn't allowed to join Arsenal "" ( Memento of the original from November 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (When Saturday Comes) 
3. ↑ Wilkinson quits as Under-21 coach (BBC Sport)
4. ↑ Fans' shock at Wilkinson departure (BBC News)