Ian Atkins

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Ian Atkins
Personnel
Surname Ian Leslie Atkins
birthday January 16, 1957
place of birth Birmingham ,  England
size 183 cm
position Defense , midfield
Juniors
Years station
1973-1975 Shrewsbury Town
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1975-1982 Shrewsbury Town 278 (58)
1982-1984 Sunderland AFC 77 0(6)
1984-1985 Everton FC 7 0(1)
1985-1988 Ipswich Town 77 0(4)
1988-1990 Birmingham City 93 0(6)
1990-1991 Colchester United 41 0(7)
1991-1992 Birmingham City 8 0(0)
1992-1993 Cambridge United 2 0(0)
1993 Sunderland AFC 0 0(0)
1993-1994 Doncaster Rovers 7 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1990-1991 Colchester United
1991-1992 Birmingham City (Kotrainer)
1992-1993 Cambridge United
1993-1994 Doncaster Rovers
1994-1999 Northampton Town
2000 Chester City
2000-2001 Carlisle United
2001 Cardiff City (Kotrainer)
2001-2004 Oxford United
2004-2005 Bristol Rovers
2006 Torquay United
1 Only league games are given.

Ian Leslie Atkins (born January 16, 1957 in Birmingham ) is a former English football player and coach . Versatile, but mostly as a central defender or in midfield, he was active in the mid-1980s at AFC Sunderland and for a short time at Everton and Ipswich Town in the top English league. From 1990 he gradually switched to coaching, mostly looking after lower-class professional teams and had his most sustained, almost five-year commitment at Northampton Town .

Athletic career

Player career

Atkins' active career began in 1973 in the youth department of Shrewsbury Town and when the fourth division rose in the 1974/75 season to the next higher third division , he was equipped in January 1975 with the first professional contract. As a mostly central defender and midfielder, he was under coaches such as Alan Durban and Richie Barker then from the 1975/76 season a fixed part of a team that prepared the club for the first time in 1979 in the second division in the club's history. In the following three years Atkins recommended himself with a total of 118 league appearances in three second division seasons - and in the last season 1981/82 with 17 goals and the quarter-finals of the FA Cup - for higher tasks and switched to before the start of the 1982/83 season the First Division to Sunderland AFC .

In Sunderland Atkins met his ex-trainer Durban and although he made way for his successor Len Ashurst after a year, his performances were so consistently satisfactory that he did so in the fall of 1984 - despite a four-month break after the operational removal a cyst in the knee had become necessary - for the reigning cup winners FC Everton, which was peppered with many national players . In Howard Kendall's team , however, he remained only a supplementary player during his stay of less than a year. In addition to six appearances in the 1984/85 championship season , which were not enough to officially receive a medal, he made two substitutions in cup games and made little contribution to reaching the FA Cup final and winning the European Cup Winners' Cup - he was in the last-mentioned competition he in the quarter-final second leg against Fortuna Sittard (2-0) for a short time on the field. After just one more competitive game at the beginning of the subsequent 1985/86 season, Atkins moved in September 1985 to the first division competitor Ipswich Town, who were fighting for relegation .

In Ipswich Atkins was back as a central defender of a team that said goodbye in the spring of 1986 by relegation to the second division. This was followed by a missed promotion following a play-off semi-final defeat against Charlton Athletic - Atkins had previously played 40 league games - and another second division season in 1987/88, in which Atkins, with the exception of a series of nine league appearances, more into the second line from the turn of the year fell back. Before the end of the round, he was hired in March 1988 in his home town of Birmingham City . In his hometown he helped the “Blues” to stay in the second division in the remaining matches. In the two following years, however, with 85 league appearances, he could not prevent the club from relegating and then barely reaching the playoff games for the targeted promotion. Gradually moved Atkins then the trainer compartment, he did until 1994 even further themselves for Colchester United , Cambridge United to Doncaster Rovers and again Birmingham City and Sunderland was on the court.

Coaching career

Atkins' career as head coach began in the 1990–91 season at Colchester United . As a player- coach, he reached second place with the team that had previously been relegated from the fourth division to the Football Conference . In doing so, however, he missed the envisaged goal of resurgence - this was only achieved the following year under his successor Roy McDonough - and then assisted Terry Cooper at Birmingham City . After the rise with the "Blues" in the second division in 1992, further engagements followed with the second division Cambridge United (from December 1992) and later a short time with the fourth class Doncaster Rovers , where he was relegated to the third division in Cambridge as penultimate in the table and his in Doncaster ended active career.

His first countable successes come to him then as coach of Northampton Town . After he had started his head coach in January 1995, he led the team in the 1996/97 season in fourth and play-off victories against the Welsh clubs Cardiff City and in the final Swansea City in the third division and missed the following year the direct march into the second division only narrowly due to a playoff final defeat against Grimsby Town . The sporting upward trend was surprising, as Northampton Town was going through bankruptcy proceedings at that time and thus the financial scope for Atkins was very tight. And so this trend was not sustainable, which the relegation in the 1998/99 season proved. After a disappointing start to the following 1999/2000 season and disagreements with the club's management regarding the future direction, they finally parted “by mutual agreement”.

In January 2000 Atkins moved to the fourth division and relegation candidate Chester City and although Atkins managed to narrow the gap to the non-relegation places, the three-way battle with Shrewsbury Town and Carlisle United fell out on the final day of the game to the disadvantage of Chester. As early as July 2000, he was hired by his former competitor from Carlisle and again under difficult economic conditions and with a minimal budget, despite a weak start, thanks to a significant increase, especially from January 2001, he met the relegation goal. Nevertheless, he left the club prematurely, which was due in particular to problems "outside the field" and uncertainties regarding the ownership structure. In July 2001 Atkins became Alan Cork's assistant at Cardiff City, but had to vacate his chair in October 2001 - to the surprise of Aktins himself and with the simple reason for the club management that the collaboration "did not work" for Cork.

Shortly thereafter, Atkins took a position as sports director at fourth division Oxford United and in November 2001 he followed Mark Wright as head coach. In a little more than two years Wright formed a team that only finished 21st in the 2001/02 season, a serious candidate for promotion, but ran out of breath in the 2002/03 season after a long stay on the direct promotion places at the end and with the eighth final table rank even landed far away from the play-off places. Regardless of this, Atkins took the team in the 2003/04 season a new, promising attempt and sat at the top of the table before he announced in March 2004, to the annoyance of his employer, the impending move to the Bristol Rovers in the summer and therefore shortly thereafter the termination received.

Atkins spent a little more than a year with the Rovers and although his team recorded only twelve defeats in 46 league games in the 2004/05 season, 21 draws made for a somewhat disappointing place in the midfield of the fourth division. When the following 2005/06 season began sluggishly and Atkins got caught between the fronts of a split club management, his engagement ended in September 2005. In April 2006, he returned as coach of Torquay United , after having only been a sports advisor the month before his predecessor John Cornforth had been hired. Again, relegation was the goal and when he achieved this despite the negative signs and thereby left the relegation zone on the last match day, his contract was extended at the beginning of the following 2006/07 season. Atkins left Torquay again sooner than expected at the end of November 2006. This was due to the signing of former Czech international Luboš Kubík , who was considered a close friend of President Chris Roberts. Kubík was to become the new head coach and Atkins would instead take on the role of sports director, which the latter refused.

Atkins then left the "coaching carousel" and reoriented himself with his subsequent activity as a scout for Sunderland AFC.

literature

  • Harrison, Paul: Carlisle United - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, 2008, ISBN 978-1-85983-640-8 , pp. 171-172 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Ian Atkins" (Everton FC)
  2. ↑ "Cardiff sack Atkins" (BBC Sport)
  3. ↑ "Oxford suspend Atkins" (BBC Sport)
  4. ↑ "Torquay's Czech mate" (BBC Sport)
personal data
SURNAME Atkins, Ian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Atkins, Ian Leslie (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH January 16, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , England