Lawrence McMenemy
MBE (born 26 July 1936) is an English retired
football coach, best known for his spell as manager of
Southampton
Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, 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, S ...
. He is rated in the ''
Guinness Book of Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'' as one of the twenty most successful managers in post-war English football.
Playing career
McMenemy was born in
Gateshead. After serving in the
Coldstream Guards
The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremoni ...
he began his footballing career with
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...
although he never appeared in their first team. He moved to
Gateshead in the late 1950s, joining the club after they had left the Football League. An injury ended his career in 1961, but he moved into coaching instead, spending three years in that role at Gateshead.
Football management
Bishop Auckland
In 1964 he was appointed manager of non-league
Bishop Auckland and transformed them from a struggling side into
Northern League Northern League may refer to:
Sport
Baseball
* Northern League (baseball, 1902–71), a name used by several minor leagues that operated in the upper midwestern U.S. and Manitoba from 1902 to 1971
* Northern League (baseball, 1993–2010), an indep ...
champions and also took them to the third round of the
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 competit ...
.
Sheffield Wednesday and Doncaster Rovers
McMenemy then moved to
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 ...
where he spent two years as a coach before he got his big break as manager of
Doncaster Rovers
Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at T ...
where he remained until May 1971, winning the Fourth Division Championship in 1968–69.
Grimsby Town
He then became manager of
Grimsby Town
Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...
, where he won a Fourth Division championship.
In July 1973 he left
Blundell Park
Blundell Park is a football ground in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England and home to Grimsby Town Football Club. The stadium was built in 1899, but only one of the original stands remains. The current capacity of the ground is 9,05 ...
to become assistant manager at
Southampton
Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, 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, S ...
.
Southampton
In November 1973, four months after joining the Saints as assistant manager, he was promoted to the role of manager. He was unable to keep them in the First Division that season, but the board kept faith in him to lift the club back out of the Second Division.
In 1976, McMenemy guided Southampton, then in the Second Division, to an
FA Cup Final
The FA Cup Final, commonly referred to in England as just the Cup Final, is the last match in the Football Association Challenge Cup. It has regularly been one of the most attended domestic football events in the world, with an official atten ...
victory over
Manchester United
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 City of Salford, Salford to ...
. It was widely predicted before the game that United would easily win (one pundit said the score would go into double figures). However Southampton, who were in the Second Division at the time (the current
Championship
In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion.
Championship systems
Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship.
Title match system
In this system ...
) and had a much older team, put up a stern challenge against United. The only goal of the game was scored by
Bobby Stokes
Robert William Thomas Stokes (30 January 1951 – 30 May 1995) was an English footballer, best known for scoring the winning goal in the 83rd minute of the FA Cup Final for Southampton against Manchester United in 1976.
Early career
Stokes w ...
with just seven minutes to go, and captain
Peter Rodrigues received the FA Cup from the
Queen
Queen or QUEEN may refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom
** List of queens regnant
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...
. They were the second club in four seasons to win the FA Cup from outside the First Division of English football after
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
in 1973 and only one more side from outside the top flight (West Ham United in 1980) has won the trophy. These are the only instances in the post-
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
era when the trophy has been won by a team outside the top division.
In 1978, the Saints won promotion to the
First Division and in 1979 reached the
League Cup
In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...
Final where they lost 3–2 to
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 ...
.
McMenemy was linked with the vacant Manchester United manager's job at the end of the
1980–81 season, but he ruled himself out of the running and the job went to
Ron Atkinson
Ronald Frederick Atkinson (born 18 March 1939), commonly known as "Big Ron" or "Mr. Bojangles", is an English former football player and manager. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was regarded as one of Britain's best-known football pundits.
Ni ...
instead.
McMenemy had signed veteran
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
winner
Alan Ball to aid his side, later adding serving England captain
Kevin Keegan
Joseph Kevin Keegan (born 14 February 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. A forward, he played for several professional clubs from 1968 to 1984. Having begun his career at Scunthorpe United, he moved to Liverpool in 1971 and ...
when he returned from Germany in 1980. Southampton emerged as title challengers in the
1981–82 season, regularly topping the table, before they finished seventh and the title went to Liverpool. Keegan was sold to
Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...
that summer, but McMenemy made another big name signing when he captured England goalkeeper
Peter Shilton. In 1984, he guided the club to second place in the First Division – their highest ever finish.
Sunderland
He left Southampton on 1 June 1985, but returned to football five days later when he was named manager of
Sunderland
Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...
, who had just been relegated to the Second Division. At the time he was the highest-paid manager in English football, but his time on Wearside was not a success and he quit in March 1987 – just weeks before Sunderland fell into the Third Division for the first time in their history. A year earlier, they had narrowly avoided a second successive relegation when they had been among the pre-season favourites for promotion, and the best supported side in the Second Division with an average attendance of more than 16,000 – higher than most of the First Division clubs that season.
England
In July 1990, he ended a three-year break from football when he was appointed assistant to England manager
Graham Taylor
Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln ...
, managing the Under-21 side, and picking out future talents like
Darren Anderton and
Steve McManaman. In November 1993, after England failed to qualify for
USA 94
The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...
, Taylor and McMenemy both resigned. They had reached the
1992 European Championships in
Sweden, but failed to progress beyond the group stages.
Return to Southampton
McMenemy soon bounced back and was offered the new position of Director of Football by Southampton within weeks of leaving his role with the England team. Fans and the local media were delighted when he accepted the role, which made him the first man to be employed as a Director of Football in the English game. In McMenemy's first season back at Southampton, the Saints finished 10th in the
Premiership. But it did not last long and in 1997, when
Rupert Lowe arrived as the new
chairman, neither McMenemy nor then-manager
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 ...
got on with him and promptly resigned, publicly denouncing the new board in the process.
Northern Ireland
A year later, in 1998 McMenemy was appointed
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label=Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. North ...
manager, but he was not successful and he resigned two years later after they failed to qualify for the
2000 European Championships.
[
Since 2000, McMenemy has concentrated on his role as FA special ambassador, travelling to ]Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bord ...
in 2002 to help set up a national league and liaising with the English team in the Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 1 ...
.[
In July 2006, he was appointed a non-executive director of Southampton F.C.][
]
Managerial statistics
Media work
McMenemy has made frequent appearances on TV football panels since 1972 as well as BBC TV's "Superkids" and TVS's "Children's Challenge". He also regularly appeared on TV-am
TV-am was a TV company that broadcast the ITV franchise for breakfast television in the United Kingdom from 1 February 1983 until 31 December 1992. The station was the UK's first national operator of a commercial breakfast television franchise ...
prior to 1990 as their football analyst. He presented BBC Radio's "Down Your Way
''Down Your Way'' was a BBC radio series which ran from 29 December 1946 to 1992, originally on the Home Service, later on BBC Radio 4, usually being broadcast on Sunday afternoons. It visited towns and villages around the United Kingdom, spok ...
" in 1989 and was a summariser for Sky TV News & Eurosport satellite TV until 1990. He currently is in demand as an after-dinner speaker
Public speaking, also called oratory or oration, has traditionally meant the act of speaking face to face to a live audience. Today it includes any form of speaking (formally and informally) to an audience, including pre-recorded speech deliver ...
. He has written several books on management motivation. He also writes a regular column in the Southern Daily Echo
The ''Southern Daily Echo'', more commonly known as the ''Daily Echo'' or simply ''The Echo'', is a regional tabloid newspaper based in Southampton, covering the county of Hampshire in the United Kingdom. The newspaper is owned by Newsquest, on ...
. He has appeared on the documentary Dream Fans the Spirit of Southampton in 2005. He is also the author of a testimonial in ''The Future of the NHS''.
His media work also saw him as a panel member of 5 World Cups as well as TV appearances on ''This Is Your Life This Is Your Life may refer to:
Television
* ''This Is Your Life'' (American franchise), an American radio and television documentary biography series hosted by Ralph Edwards
* ''This Is Your Life'' (Australian TV series), the Australian versio ...
'' and '' Parkinson''.
McMenemy is also the Chairman of the Special Olympics UK. He hosts the Special Olympics Gateshead Tyne & Wear annual awards night.
Personal life
He is married to Anne and they have three children: eldest son Chris McMenemy (former Newcastle United
Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional Association football, football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football league system, English football. The club was ...
coach), son Sean McMenemy and daughter Alison.
He is related to Harry McMenemy.Harry McMenemy Toon1892 profile
/ref>
Honours
Personal
* Awarded the MBE in 2006
* Received an honorary MBA from Southampton Solent University[
* Freedom of the City of Southampton][
]
As a manager
Bishop Auckland
*Northern League Champions & County Cup Winners: 1965[
Doncaster Rovers
*]Football League Fourth Division
The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name i ...
champions: 1968–69[
Grimsby Town
*]Football League Fourth Division
The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name i ...
champions: 1971–72[
Southampton
*]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 competit ...
winners: 1976
Events January
* January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force.
* January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea.
* January 11 – The 1976 Phil ...
[
*]Football League Second Division
The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...
runners-up: 1977–78[
*]Football League Cup
The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by th ...
finalists: 1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the ''International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the ''Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the song ...
[
*]Football League First Division
The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First D ...
runners-up: 1983–84[
]
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
External links
Profile as Northern Ireland manager
Interview in Dream Fans, the Spirit of Southampton DVD
{{DEFAULTSORT:McMenemy, Lawrie
1936 births
Living people
Footballers from Gateshead
English footballers
Gateshead A.F.C. players
Newcastle United F.C. players
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. non-playing staff
English football managers
Doncaster Rovers F.C. managers
Grimsby Town F.C. managers
Southampton F.C. managers
Sunderland A.F.C. managers
Expatriate football managers in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland national football team managers
Members of the Order of the British Empire
English Football League managers
England national under-21 football team managers
Association footballers not categorized by position