Guy Whittingham (born 10 November 1964) is an English football manager and 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 ...

. As a player, he was a striker from 1988 until 2005, notably in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

for

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot of ...

. Having started his career with non-league

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

he went on to play in the

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 ...

for

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club is a professional football club in the city of Oxford, England. The team plays in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The chairman is Grant Ferguson, the manager is Karl Robinson and th ...

and

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their home ...

. He amassed over 450 appearances throughout his career. Following retirement, he became manager of

non-League 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 ...

side Newport (IOW) before managing AFC Newbury. He was caretaker manager of Portsmouth from November 2012 until April 2013 when he took the role on a permanent basis before being sacked in November 2013. He later had a spell as assistant manager of

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team co ...

Playing career

Born in

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesha ...

, after leaving the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, he joined

Waterlooville Waterlooville is a market town in the Borough of Havant in Hampshire, England, approximately north northeast of Portsmouth. It is the largest town in the borough. The town has a population of about 64,350 and is surrounded by Purbrook, Blendwort ...

for the start of the 1987–88 season where, after two games for the reserves, he was quickly promoted to the first team and became the club's top goalscorer in the 1987–88 season. One of his goals came in the first round proper of the F.A.Cup against Aylesbury United. He then spent a season at

before, in the summer of 1989, he was signed by

, where he then spent the majority of his career, scoring 99 times in 173 league appearances, including Pompey's former record of 42 league goals in the 1992–93 season (48 in all competitions) as the club missed out on automatic promotion to the

goals scored Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. He was known while at Fratton Park as "Corporal Punishment". In 1993 he signed for

in the

. He had a good run in the team and scored important goals against Everton,

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

, before leaving on loan in February 1994 to join

; this meant he missed out on Villa's victory in the

1994 Football League Cup Final The 1994 Football League Cup Final took place on 27 March 1994 at the old Wembley Stadium. It was contested between Manchester United and Aston Villa. Aston Villa won 3–1, with one goal from Dalian Atkinson and two from Dean Saunders, to clai ...

. In December 1994 he joined

, proving to be very popular at the Owls. Whilst at Wednesday he had a second loan spell at Wolves, as well as being loaned to

and Portsmouth who he would later rejoin permanently in 1999. At Portsmouth during his loan spell his seven goals in nine matches helped the club avoid relegation to the third tier. In the 2000–01 season, his last as a professional, he scored for three clubs, notching for

(against

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic ...

), Oxford United (against Swindon Town) and Wycombe Wanderers (against Bristol City). He also featured in Wycombe's

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 ...

semi-final against

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 popul ...

. This was the second time that Whittingham had been denied in an FA Cup semi-final by the Merseyside team, having lost in a penalty shootout to Liverpool whilst at Portsmouth in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

Managerial and coaching career

Whittingham later went on to become player-manager of Newport (IOW), but left them in May 2005 when the club ran into financial difficulties. He returned to management at AFC Newbury but when that club suffered financial difficulties and the loss of their ground, Whittingham left in June 2006. In August 2006 he took up a coaching role at

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, o ...

. In January 2009, he joined the Portsmouth first-team coaching staff as development coach. He was named joint caretaker manager of

together with Stuart Gray on 14 October 2011, when

Steve Cotterill Stephen John Cotterill (born 20 July 1964) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the manager of side Shrewsbury Town. Cotterill had a nine-year career as a footballer playing for Burton Albion, Wimbledon, ...

left to become manager of

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 ...

. The next day the pair won their first game in charge against

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 ...

2–0 at

Fratton Park Fratton Park is a football ground in Portsmouth, England, which is the home of Portsmouth F.C. Fratton Park remains as the only home football ground in Portsmouth FC's entire history. The early Fratton Park was designed by local architect A ...

. Whittingham once again became caretaker manager of the south coast club following

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 ...

leaving to take the vacant position at

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 ...

, and stayed as caretaker until the club exited administration in April 2013, with his full-time appointing imminent. On 25 November 2013, Whittingham was relieved from his duties following a meeting with the Portsmouth board. The 2–1 loss to Southend proved to be his last game in charge on the south coast. Whittingham was appointed first team coach at

Crawley Crawley () is a large town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is south of London, north of Brighton and Hove, and north-east of the county town of Chichester. Crawley covers an area of and had a population of 106,597 at the time of th ...

on Friday 13 December 2013. Whittingham left the club in April 2014 when it was "mutually agreed" that his contract would not be renewed. Whittingham joined the FA as a coach educator on 1 August 2014.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Individual *

PFA Team of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Team of the Year (often called the PFA Team of the Year, or simply the Team of the Year) is an annual award given to a set of 55 footballers across the top four tiers of men's English football; the Premie ...

: 1992–93 First Division

References

External links

Profile
a
UpThePosh! The Peterborough United Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whittingham, Guy 1964 births Sportspeople from Worcestershire Living people English footballers Waterlooville F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Watford F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Portsmouth F.C. non-playing staff Portsmouth F.C. managers Newport (IOW) F.C. players Newport (IOW) F.C. managers A.F.C. Newbury managers English football managers English Football League managers People from Evesham Association football forwards Crawley Town F.C. non-playing staff