Steve Round

Steve Round (born November 9, 1970 in Burton upon Trent ) is a retired English football player . After retiring from his career, he embarked on a career as a coach, in particular as the first assistant coach to Steve McClaren - among others for the English national team - and David Moyes . He has been a coaching assistant at Arsenal FC since the end of 2019 .

Athletic career

Round moved up in 1991 at Derby County after relegation to the second-rate Second Division in the professional squad. Under coach Arthur Cox , he did not get beyond the status of a supplementary player and only played a handful of league games before he had to end his career early due to injury. He then moved to the club's coaching staff, where he worked alongside the then assistant coach Steve McClaren under head coach Jim Smith . When McClaren took up his first head coach at Middlesbrough FC in 2001 , he steered Round as assistant coach to the club in the north east of England. Winning the League Cup in 2004 was the first title to be won in the club's history, combined with qualifying for a European club competition for the first time. Then the club succeeded in the top half of the table and the team even reached the final in the 2005/06 UEFA Cup , in which they were clearly defeated by Sevilla FC in May 2006 with a 4-0 defeat.

McClaren then took over the coaching position for the English national team, where he had worked as assistant to selection coach Sven-Göran Eriksson parallel to his club coaching activities since 2000 . He brought Round as his assistant to the association, who continued to work for McClaren's successor Gareth Southgate as an assistant at Middlesbrough FC. In December 2006, however, the club separated from him. From summer 2007 he was assistant to Sam Allardyce at Newcastle United . After failing to qualify for the European Football Championship in 2008 , he and McClaren were relieved of his duties with the national team in November 2007.

In July 2008 Round joined the coaching team of David Moyes at Everton FC after the previous first assistant coach Alan Irvine had moved to Preston North End as head coach during the season . The team, in which well-known players such as Tim Howard , Tim Cahill , Phil Neville , Steven Pienaar , Tony Hibbert , Mikel Arteta , Marouane Fellaini and Phil Jagielka played , regularly placed in the top half of the table in the following years, with more frequent participation in European Cup was just missed. In 2013 Round Moyes followed to Manchester United , where he was succeeded by Alex Ferguson . They were fired together in spring 2014 after the team was only in the middle of the table (and ultimately even missed qualifying for the European Cup under interim coach Ryan Giggs ), failed in the Champions League in the quarter-finals at Bayern Munich and in the FA Cup 2013 / 14 was eliminated in the opening match against Swansea City .

After nearly a year without coaching, Round returned to Derby County in January 2015, where McClaren was head coach. As eighth of the table, the team missed participation in the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League by one point at the end of the season , then the coaching team was dismissed.

In September 2016, Aston appointed Villa Round as Technical Director. Shortly before, the Chinese Tony Xia had taken over the club, which he wanted to realign and bring back to the Premier League. To this end, Roberto Di Matteo was initially hired as a coach, but replaced by Steve Bruce after a mixed season start in October . In 2018, the team under Bruce reached the play-off final for promotion to the top class, but failed at the end of May after a 1-0 defeat at Fulham FC . In early July, Round then left the club.

Shortly before Christmas 2019, Round returned to the dugout when he became assistant coach at Arteta, newly signed by Arsenal .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ bbc.co.uk: "Coach Round leaves Middlesbrough"
2. ↑ dailymail.co.uk: "Steve Round added to Derby County's coaching staff by manager Steve McClaren"
3. ↑ avfc.co.uk: "Round appointed as Technical Director"
4. ↑ bbc.com: "Steve Round: Aston Villa director of football leaves Championship club"
5. ↑ skysports.com: "Steve Round to join Mikel Arteta's backroom staff at Arsenal"