Ron Saunders

Ron Saunders
Personnel
Surname	Ronald Saunders
birthday	November 6, 1932
place of birth	Birkenhead ,  England
date of death	7th December 2019
position	striker
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1951-1955	Everton FC	3 00(0)
1955-1957	Tonbridge Angels
1957-1958	Gillingham FC	49 0(20)
1958-1964	Portsmouth FC	236 (145)
1964-1965	Watford FC	39 0(18)
1965-1967	Charlton Athletic	65 0(24)
1967-1968	Yeovil Town
Stations as a trainer
Years	station
1967-1969	Yeovil Town
1969	Oxford United
1969-1973	Norwich City
1973-1974	Manchester City
1974-1982	Aston Villa
1982-1986	Birmingham City
1986-1987	West Bromwich Albion
1 Only league games are given.

Ronald "Ron" Saunders (born November 6, 1932 in Birkenhead , † December 7, 2019 ) was an English football player and coach . In 1981 he won the English championship with Aston Villa as coach.

Player career

He spent his most successful time as a player between 1958 and 1964 at Portsmouth FC . For the club this time was less successful, as early as 1958/59 in the Football League First Division , Portsmouth rose from the first division and two years later even in the third division. Also thanks to numerous hits from Ron Saunders, the team won the championship in the Third Division in 1961/62 and thus managed direct promotion to the second division. After two years in the Second Division, Saunders left the club after six years in which he had been the top scorer of his team.

Coaching career

Norwich City (1969–1973)

Ron Saunders started his coaching career in 1967 at the lower class club Yeovil Town . After a stopover at Oxford United , he took over the English second division club Norwich City on July 1, 1969 . In the 1971/72 season Saunders managed with Norwich thanks to the second division championship the first promotion to the first division. The promoted team reached relegation in the First Division in 1972/73 and also moved into the final of the League Cup . However, the team lost this 1-0 to Tottenham Hotspur . After these successes, his term of office ended on November 16, 1973.

Manchester City (1973–1974)

Just a few days later he took over the coaching position at first division rivals Manchester City and led the club to fourteenth place in the table in the 1973/74 season . For the second time in a row Saunders reached the final of the League Cup with a team he had trained and lost it again (1: 2 against Wolverhampton Wanderers ).

Aston Villa (1974-1982)

At the beginning of the 1974/75 season he moved to the second division Aston Villa and led his team as runner-up behind Manchester United in the first division. For the third time in a row and also with the third club, he reached the final of the League Cup and achieved the first title win with a 1-0 over his former club Norwich City. After relegation in the year of promotion, he led his team to fourth place in the table in 1976/77 and also won the league cup title for the second time since 1975. In the 1977/78 UEFA Cup , Aston Villa only failed in the quarter-finals 2-2 and 1-2 at FC Barcelona . After the team had narrowly missed qualifying for the European Cup three years in a row, Aston Villa secured the English championship title around top scorer Peter Withe (20 hits) in the Football League First Division 1980/81 . In the 1981/82 season , the team could not build on this success and only found themselves in the middle of the table. On February 9, 1982 Saunders resigned surprisingly from his coaching post after disagreements with the board. Villa was at this point in the quarter-finals of the European Cup 1981/82 and later won the title with a 1-0 win over FC Bayern Munich .

Birmingham City (1982-1986)

As early as February 18, 1982, he took the coaching post at city rivals Birmingham City and reached a place with City in the lower third of the table. After another year in this table zone, Birmingham rose in the 1983/84 season as third from bottom in the second division. Saunders, however, kept his post and made the direct resurgence as runner-up the following year. After the club in the Football League First Division 1985/86 was again in acute danger of relegation, Ron Saunders was dismissed on January 16, 1986.

West Bromwich Albion (1986-1987)

Less than a month later he became the coach of first division rivals West Bromwich Albion and relegated to the second division together with Birmingham City at the end of the season. After a clearly missed recovery in 1986/87 with fifteenth place in the table and another bad start to the 1987/88 season, he was dismissed on September 2, 1987.

titles and achievements

• League Cup winners: 1975, 1977
• English champion : 1981

Web links

• Player data from Ron Saunders
• Trainer data at Soccerbase.com
• Ron Saunders as coach at Birmingham City

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norwich City under Ron Saunders ( Memento of the original from July 22, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (canaries.co.uk) 
2. ↑ Master with Aston Villa ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (avfc.co.uk)