Andrew Watson (born 3 September 1959) is a Scottish former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

and coach. During his playing career,

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

-born Watson had spells at

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, Heart of Midlothian and Hibernian. As a coach, he has worked with clubs in Scotland and England, and has been part of the Scottish national team management setup in two separate spells.

Career

Player

Beginning his professional career with his hometown club Aberdeen under manager

Alex Ferguson Sir Alexander Chapman Ferguson (born 31 December 1941) is a Scottish former football manager and player, best known for managing Manchester United from 1986 to 2013. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football managers of all time ...

, Watson was a winner of the

1979–80 Scottish Premier Division The 1979–80 Scottish Premier Division season was won by Aberdeen, one point ahead of Celtic. Dundee and Hibernian were relegated. St Mirren's 3rd place was their highest finishing position in the league since the 1892-93 season. Table Resul ...

title and the

1982–83 Scottish Cup The 1982–83 Scottish Cup was the 98th staging of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. The Cup was won by Aberdeen who defeated Rangers in the final. First round Matches were played on 11 December 1982 with the postpone ...

, and was also an unused substitute in the

1983 European Cup Winners' Cup Final The 1983 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match contested between Aberdeen of Scotland and Real Madrid of Spain. It was the final match of the 1982–83 European Cup Winners' Cup tournament and the 23rd European Cup Winners' Cup fi ...

victory. However he was never a regular starter in that strong ''Dons'' team and left the club at the end of that season. Watson joined Leeds United for a fee of £60,000, brought to the club by Scottish manager Eddie Gray, and was a starting player at

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

in his one full season in England's second tier. As the following campaign unfolded he again found himself on the bench and decided to move on. After his spell in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, he returned to Scotland and signed for Hearts in a £70,000 transfer; at the Tynecastle club he was part of the squad which came within minutes of winning the

1985–86 Scottish Premier Division Celtic won the 1985–86 Scottish Premier Division and became champions in one of the closest finishes in League history. On the final day of the season Hearts were leading Celtic by two points - a draw against Dundee would have been sufficient to ...

. He took no part in that season's Scottish Cup Final defeat. He switched across

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

to city rivals Hibernian for £30,000, where he featured regularly for one season at

Easter Road Easter Road is a football stadium located in the Leith area of Edinburgh, Scotland, which is the home ground of Scottish Premiership club Hibernian (Hibs). The stadium currently has an all-seated capacity of , which makes it the fifth-larges ...

before he was forced to retire through injury aged just 29.

Coach

He joined the coaching staff at Hibs under

Alex Miller Alex Miller (born 4 July 1949) is a Scottish football manager and former player. As a player, he had a 15-year career with Rangers, winning several trophies. As a manager, he won the 1991–92 Scottish League Cup with Hibernian. He subsequen ...

and was persuaded by

Alex McLeish Alexander McLeish (born 21 January 1959) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He played as a defender for Aberdeen during their 1980s glory years, making nearly 500 League appearances for the club, and won 77 caps for ...

, his former teammate at Aberdeen, to be his assistant at

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

in 1994. He later re-joined McLeish in moving to Hibernian and Rangers, where he was assistant manager until the end of the 2005–06 season. From January 2007 he was one of McLeish's assistants with the

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

national side, and in November 2007 followed McLeish when the latter was appointed manager of

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

. On 21 May 2013 Watson was appointed first team coach at

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League (division), National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 2 ...

, but he was sacked on 27 October 2013, along with manager

Chris Kiwomya Christopher Mark Kiwomya (born 2 December 1969) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who is the manager of British Virgin Islands national football team. He played as a forward from 1987 until 2002 notably in the ...

. Watson joined Northern Premier Division side Ilkeston FC during the 2015 close season as an assistant head coach and technical director, working with head coach

Gavin Strachan Gavin David Strachan (born 23 December 1978) is a Scottish professional association football coach, and former player and sports journalist. He is currently a first team coach at Scottish Premiership club Celtic, and he was assistant manager at ...

. After Strachan left the club in October 2015, Watson was appointed head coach. In October 2016, he was appointed as assistant coach to

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Cove ...

(father of Gavin and another former Aberdeen teammate in the 1980s) at the Scottish national team alongside fellow coaches Mark McGhee and

Gary McAllister Gary McAllister MBE (born 25 December 1964) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. McAllister played primarily as a midfielder in a career spanning over nineteen years. He started his career at local side Motherwell b ...

, after the departure of

Stuart McCall Andrew Stuart Murray McCall (born 10 June 1964) is a professional football coach and former player. He is assistant manager at Sheffield United. McCall played in a total of 763 league games and in 40 full international matches for Scotla ...

Career statistics

Club

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

References

External links

*
Scotland U21 stats
at Fitbastats {{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Andy 1959 births Aberdeen F.C. players Association football midfielders Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff Heart of Midlothian F.C. players Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Hibernian F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Living people Motherwell F.C. non-playing staff Notts County F.C. non-playing staff Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Scotland under-21 international footballers Scottish Football League players Scottish football managers Scottish footballers Footballers from Aberdeen English Football League players Ilkeston F.C. managers