Gary David Bowyer (born 22 June 1971) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former player who is the manager of Scottish club

Dundee Dundee (; sco, Dundee; gd, Dùn Dè or ) is Scotland's fourth-largest city and the 51st-most-populous built-up area in the United Kingdom. The mid-year population estimate for 2016 was , giving Dundee a population density of 2,478/km2 or ...

. As a player, he made 52 league appearances for

Hereford United Hereford United Football Club was an association football club based in Hereford, England. They played at Edgar Street for their entire history. They were nicknamed 'The Whites' or 'The Lilywhites', after their predominantly white kit, or 'The ...

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The club's colours were initially yellow and black, but changed to red and white around 1 ...

in a professional career that lasted eight years, before retiring due to injury in 1997, aged 25. He won the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

with Rotherham United in 1995–96, his only honour as a player. After working as a coach at a number of clubs, he has managed

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. T ...

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. Th ...

and Salford City (twice). He guided Blackpool to promotion, via the play-offs, from League Two to

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

in 2016–17.

Early and personal life

Bowyer was born on 22 June 1971 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England. His father,

Ian Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponding to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. It is a popular name in Sc ...

, was also a professional footballer; the two played together at Hereford United.

Playing career

After playing in

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for Westfields, Bowyer, a full-back, signed for

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

team

on non-contract terms, making 14 appearances in the 1989–90 season. After the season ended, Bowyer moved to

, but he did not make a senior Football League appearance for club. Bowyer later signed for

, making 38 appearances in the League over the next two seasons, before retiring due to injury at the age of 25. Whilst at Rotherham he was a part of the team that won the

1996 Football League Trophy Final The 1996 Football League Trophy Final (known as the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th final of the domestic football cup competition for teams from the Second and Third Division of the Football League. The ma ...

Coaching career

Youth coach and move into management

After retiring as a player, Bowyer began his coaching career working part-time at

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

, before being appointed as under-17s coach at

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 1884 ...

, where he spent six years as an academy coach. He then became under-18s coach for

in 2004. He became their reserve-team manager in 2008, and in December 2012 he was appointed as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

following the dismissal of

Henning Berg Henning Stille Berg (; born 1 September 1969) is a Norwegian football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Cypriot First Division club Pafos FC. His career lasted from 1988 to 2004, most notably in the Premier League where h ...

, steering them to a 3–1 victory over

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

in his first game in charge. It was later announced that Bowyer would remain in charge until the end of January. Bowyer was re-appointed caretaker manager on 19 March 2013, following the sacking of

Michael Appleton Michael Antony Appleton (born 4 December 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of Blackpool. As a player, he operated as a midfielder, in a nine-year career that began in 1994 and e ...

, until the end of the season; however, on 26 March Bowyer said he was unsure how long he would remain in the position, in case the club hired a new permanent manager, and on 8 April Bowyer was summoned to India for a meeting with the club's owners. Bowyer was appointed the permanent manager of Blackburn on 24 May, on a 12-month rolling contract. In September 2015, he called for

goal-line technology In many outdoor ball sports, a goal line is a line in front of goal post and which a team attempts to advance the ball or puck towards to score a goal or points. In particular, see: * Football pitch for usage of the term in soccer * Goal line (gri ...

to be implemented. On 10 November, Bowyer was sacked as manager of Blackburn Rovers.

Blackpool and Bradford City spells

On 1 June 2016, Bowyer was appointed as manager of

on a one-year rolling contract, following the club's relegation to

EFL League Two The English Football League Two (often referred to as League Two for short or Sky Bet League Two for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League Two from 2004 until 2016) is the third and lowest division of the English Football Lea ...

. On 28 May 2017, Bowyer guided Blackpool to an immediate return to

EFL League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

in his first season in charge after his side beat Exeter City 2–1 in the League Two play-off final. He resigned as Blackpool manager on 6 August 2018."Club Statement: Gary Bowyer"
– Blackpool F.C.'s official website, 6 August 2018 In February 2019 he was linked with the vacant managerial position at

. On 4 March, Bowyer replaced

David Hopkin David Isaac Hopkin (born 21 August 1970) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who was most recently the manager of Ayr United. As a player he was a midfielder from 1989 until 2003, notably in the English Premier League i ...

as ''Bantams'' manager, signing a contract until the end of the season, with Andy Todd as his assistant. Bowyer retained the club's other coaching staff—including Martin Drury, who had been caretaker manager prior to his appointment— and said that all of City's squad players would have a chance to fight for a first-team place. In April, he signed a new contract with Bradford City until 2021. He was nominated for the League Two Manager of the Month award for October, but later said he was not a "fan" of such awards. Bowyer was sacked by Bradford City on 3 February 2020.

Derby County youth and Salford City

He joined

, as coach of their under-23s side, in September 2020. On 23 March 2021, it was announced that Bowyer was to become manager of League Two side Salford City on a deal lasting until the end of the season, replacing

Richie Wellens Richard Paul Wellens (born 26 March 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently head coach of EFL League Two club Leyton Orient. Wellens began his career at Manchester United ...

. The deal came after an arrangement was reached between Salford co-owner

Gary Neville Gary Alexander Neville (born 18 February 1975) is an English football pundit and former player. He is also a co-owner of English Football League club Salford City. After retiring from football in 2011, Neville went into punditry and was a comm ...

and Derby manager

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while als ...

, whereby Salford would pay no fee to Derby but would pay his wages for the duration of his spell in charge. He described the move to Salford as the first ever managerial loan. His first game in charge was on 27 March, a 1–0 away defeat to

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

, and picked up his first win on 5 April, two Ian Henderson goals giving Salford a 2–0 win against

Forest Green Rovers Forest Green Rovers Football Club are a professional football club based in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire, England. The team compete in , the third tier of the English football league system, and have played their home games at The New Lawn since ...

. After achieving 17 points from eight matches to help boost his side's play-off aspirations, Bowyer was awarded the League Two Manager of the Month award for April. On 10 May he returned to his role as an academy coach at Derby County; however, two days later on 12 May, it was announced that he had returned to manage Salford City after signing a two-year contract. On 2 August, Billy Barr joined as his assistant manager. On 21 August 2021, he was booked for shoving Jonny Williams of

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at ...

in a 1–0 defeat, Salford's fourth game without a win at the beginning of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

, the club's worst start to a season since the 2014 takeover. On 17 May 2022, Bowyer was sacked by Salford having narrowly missed out on the play-offs.

Dundee

On 8 June 2022, Bowyer was appointed manager of

Scottish Championship The Scottish Championship, known as the cinch Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the second tier of the Scottish Professional Football League, the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland Scotland (, ...

club

. The Dundee board said they liked his youth strategy and success at Blackpool. Bowyer was named the Scottish Championship's Manager of the Month for November 2022, with his team having won every game that month.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Rotherham United *

: 1995–96

Manager

Club

Blackpool *

EFL League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Individual

Blackpool *

EFL League Two Manager of the Month The EFL League Two Manager of the Month is a monthly association football award to recognise the outstanding team manager in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football. The recipient is chosen by a panel assembled by the League's sponsor ...

: April 2021 Dundee * Scottish Championship Manager of the Month: November 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bowyer, Gary 1971 births Living people Footballers from Manchester English footballers Association football fullbacks Westfields F.C. players Hereford United F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Blackburn Rovers F.C. managers Blackpool F.C. managers Bradford City A.F.C. managers Derby County F.C. non-playing staff Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Salford City F.C. managers Dundee F.C. managers English Football League managers Scottish Professional Football League managers