Dennis Rofe (born 1 June 1950, in
Epping, Essex
Epping is a market town and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the County of Essex, England. The town is northeast from the centre of London, is surrounded by the northern end of Epping Forest, and on a ridge of land between the Riv ...
, United Kingdom) is a former professional
football player, who spent most of his playing career with
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
before spending many years in various coaching capacities at
Southampton.
Early days
Rofe attended
Whitechapel
Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed ...
Secondary School, together with
Terry Brisley
Terence William Brisley (born 4 July 1950) is an English former association football, footballer who played as a midfielder in the Football League.
References
*
1950 births
Living people
English men's footballers
Footballers from Ste ...
, who later played alongside him at
Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...
. He also represented East London Schools.
Playing career
Leyton Orient
He started his career at
Leyton Orient
Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...
, originally as an associate schoolboy in March 1964, turning professional in February 1968.
He was a fast, tough-tackling left-back who starred in Orient's 1969–70 Third Division title triumph. He was ever-present in 1970–71 and a key figure in Orient's 1971–72
FA Cup
The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...
run. He netted six goals in 172 League appearances for Orient before following
Jimmy Bloomfield to
Leicester City
Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...
for £112,000 in August 1972, which made him the most expensive full-back in British football at that time.
Leicester City
Rofe was signed by Bloomfield to fill the left back position after
David Nish
David John Nish (born 26 September 1947) is an English former footballer who played as a defender. Nish's £225,000 transfer from Leicester City to Derby County in 1972 broke the British transfer record.BBC NewsWere you there...when the Rams ...
had been sold to
Derby County
Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group.
Founded in 188 ...
for a record fee of £250,000. Rofe was an attacking full back with great pace and he made an instant impact in the Leicester City team. He remained faithful to Leicester after Bloomfield left the club in 1977, but was surprisingly sold to Second Division
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
, in February 1980, shortly before Leicester won promotion back to the First Division.
Rofe made his England U.23 debut as a City player in 1973. In his eight seasons at Leicester he played 290 league games for the club and scored six goals.
Chelsea and Southampton
Rofe then spent three seasons at Chelsea as they drifted in Division 2, including a period as team captain.
In July 1982,
Lawrie McMenemy
Lawrence McMenemy MBE (born 26 July 1936) is an English retired football coach, best known for his spell as manager of Southampton. He is rated in the ''Guinness Book of Records'' as one of the twenty most successful managers in post-war Englis ...
signed him on a free transfer for First Division
Southampton
Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...
, where he played out the last two years of his playing career.
Coaching and management
Southampton
In 1984, he joined Southampton's coaching staff under the manager
Chris Nicholl
Christopher John Nicholl (born 12 October 1946) is an English-born former Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland international Association football, footballer who later worked as a coach and manager.
Playing career
Nicholl ...
, initially as the reserve team coach, moving up to first team coach in 1987.
Bristol Rovers
He joined
Bristol Rovers
Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system.
They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...
as a coach in July 1991. Shortly after joining Rovers, he replaced
Martin Dobson, firstly as caretaker manager, taking the position permanently in October 1991. Rovers finished the 1991–92 season in 13th position in Division 2. In November 1992, Rofe resigned.
He then moved briefly to
Stoke City as the reserve team manager before returning to Southampton as the youth team coach. This position lasted until July 1997 when he moved on to
Fulham as a coach, before a brief spell coaching for
Kingstonian.
Southampton (again)
In April 1998, he returned to Southampton as coach of their
Academy
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
, but soon moved up to reserve team coach and, in March 2001, to first team coach, under
Stuart Gray.
He served as first team coach and assistant manager as Southampton had a rapid turnover of managers. His greatest moment as a Southampton coach was when Southampton reached the
2003 F.A. Cup final under
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 Co ...
, losing 1–0 to
Arsenal.
As assistant manager at Southampton, he had a fiery reputation. On 10 January 2002, he had to be separated from the acting
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
manager
Phil Thompson
Philip Bernard Thompson (born 21 January 1954) is an English retired footballer, who played as a defender for Liverpool team of the 1970s and 1980s. During this time, he also represented the England national football team on 42 occasions, and ...
by the fourth official in a touchline argument over a bad tackle on
Brett Ormerod
Brett Ryan Ormerod (born 18 October 1976) is an English retired professional footballer. A forward, he made 340 appearances in the Football League, including 215 for Blackpool, for whom he is the only player to have scored in all of the top four ...
.
On 8 May 2004, Rofe was ordered from the technical area after protesting about the award of a penalty to
Aston Villa.
Most infamous was probably the row with the
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...
boss,
Graeme Souness
Graeme James Souness (; born 6 May 1953) is a Scottish former professional football player and manager, and current TV pundit.
A midfielder, Souness was the captain of the successful Liverpool team of the early 1980s, player-manager of Ranger ...
, on 25 October 2003, following an unseemly brawl in which
Andy Cole was sent off. Souness accused Rofe of trying to influence the officials, although he later had to accept that the sending off was justified.
In December 2005, following the appointment of
George Burley
George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player, making 628 league appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps. His most successful spell came whi ...
as manager, Rofe was dismissed along with most of the coaching staff at
St. Mary's.
Since 2005
Since leaving Southampton, Rofe has been engaged as a match summariser on
BBC Radio 5, and spent the summer of 2006 working in the
Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...
with
Luther Blissett
Luther Loide Blissett (born 1 February 1958) is a former professional footballer and manager who played for the England national team during the 1980s. Born in Jamaica, Blissett played as a striker, and is best known for his time at Watford, ...
at the annual Premier League Soccer Camp.
He was working as the
Football League's regional youth development officer until June 2012 before joining League One side
AFC Bournemouth in 2012 as first-team coach working under management team Paul Groves and Shaun Brooks. On 3 October 2012, Groves was sacked as manager of the club, and Rofe took over as caretaker.
He was sacked on 15 October, whilst Groves and Brooks were allowed to return to their former jobs with the youth team at Bournemouth.
Footnotes
References
*
*
External links
Dennis Rofe managerial statistics at SoccerbasePhoto and statistics from Leicester era
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rofe, Dennis
1950 births
Living people
People from Epping
English footballers
England under-23 international footballers
Leyton Orient F.C. players
Leicester City F.C. players
Chelsea F.C. players
Southampton F.C. players
Bristol Rovers F.C. managers
Southampton F.C. non-playing staff
Stoke City F.C. non-playing staff
Fulham F.C. non-playing staff
Bristol City F.C. non-playing staff
Association football defenders
English football managers