Neil Critchley (born 18 October 1978) is an English former

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 ...

who played in the Football League First Division for

Crewe Alexandra Crewe Alexandra Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of Crewe, Cheshire, that competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Railwaymen' because of ...

. He was most recently the head coach of EFL Championship side

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

. He has previously managed Liverpool under-18s (standing in for

Jürgen Klopp Jürgen Norbert Klopp (; born 16 June 1967) is a German professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Liverpool. He is widely regarded as one of the best managers in the world. Klopp spent most of his playing ...

for two of Liverpool's cup fixtures in the 2019–2020 season), and guided Blackpool to promotion, via the playoffs, from

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 ...

to the

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 ...

in 2020–21, his first full season in charge of the club. He is one of sixteen coaches worldwide to have obtained

UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...

's elite badge.

Playing career

Crewe Alexandra

Critchley, aged 10, joined Crewe in 1989. The club was then managed by

Dario Gradi Dario Gradi, MBE (born 8 July 1941) is an Italian-English former amateur football player, coach and manager. He was associated for more than 36 years with Crewe Alexandra, where he was variously manager, director of football and director of t ...

who had recently started a player development scheme that became the Crewe Alexandra F.C. Academy. Gradi noticed Critchley's ability, even at the age of 17, to coach younger players and encouraged him to become more fully involved. Critchley's only playing appearance for Crewe came in a 3–0 defeat away at Fulham during the 1999–2000 season.

Leigh RMI

He signed for

Leigh RMI Leigh Genesis Football Club, formerly known as Horwich Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Horwich RMI) and Leigh Railway Mechanics Institute F.C. (Leigh RMI), is an English amateur association football club that currently plays in the South Lancas ...

in 2000, and made three league appearances as substitute for the club.

Coaching and managerial career

Critchley retired as a player aged 24 and became a coach at Crewe, working under Gradi and Steve Holland, and being appointed joint Academy director in 2007, before joining

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 ...

as under-18s coach in 2013.

Liverpool

Due to fixture congestion of

's first team during the 2019–20 season, Critchley served as their stand-in manager for their EFL Cup away match against Aston Villa on 17 December 2019. The congestion was caused by Liverpool's participation in the

2019 FIFA Club World Cup The 2019 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019 presented by Alibaba Cloud for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th edition of the FIFA Club World Cup, a FIFA-organised international club football tournament bet ...

in Qatar, which overlapped with the EFL Cup quarter-finals. Liverpool, fielding a team made up exclusively of under-23s, were beaten 5–0. Critchley again served as Liverpool's stand-in manager for the FA Cup fourth round replay against

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

on 4 February 2020, as the first team were on a mid-season break. The youthful Liverpool team won 1–0 via an own goal.

Blackpool

On 2 March 2020, Critchley was appointed as head coach of Blackpool on a three-and-a-half-year contract. After a curtailed regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom, Blackpool finished in 13th position after standings were amended to reflect a points-per-game ratio. In Critchley's first full season in charge, 2020–21, Blackpool finished third at the conclusion of the regular season, going on to win promotion via the

EFL League One play-offs The EFL League One play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from third to sixth in the EFL League One table and are part of the English Football League play-offs. , the play-offs comprise t ...

. On 19 November 2021, Critchley signed a four-year extension to his contract, keeping him at Bloomfield Road until 2026. The following week, Critchley was named Manager of the Season at the annual North West Football Awards, beating Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, Blackpool's former captain and now Bolton Wanderers manager

Ian Evatt Ian Ross Evatt (born 19 November 1981) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of Bolton Wanderers. Evatt began his career as a central midfielder, but was later converted to a central defende ...

, and former Morecambe manager

Derek Adams Derek Watt Adams (born 25 June 1975) is a Scottish football manager and former player who is currently manager of Morecambe. Adams played professionally for six clubs, including Aberdeen and Motherwell, where he made over 300 league appearances ...

Aston Villa (assistant)

On 2 June 2022, Critchley departed Blackpool after accepting the role of assistant head coach to Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa. He had told Blackpool's owner Simon Sadler that he was keen to work again with Gerrard and "pit himself against some of the best coaches in the world". On 21 October 2022, Critchley departed Aston Villa, following the sacking of Gerrard the day prior.

Queens Park Rangers

On 11 December 2022, Critchley was appointed head coach of Championship club

on a three-and-a-half year deal. His first match in charge was a single-goal victory over Preston North End. On 19 February 2023, Critchley was relieved of his duties as head coach of Queen's Park Rangers, with the victory over Preston North End being the team's sole victory during his time in charge.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Blackpool *

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

Personal life

Critchley is married to Janine."Neil Critchley: The Blackpool manager giving fans their club back"
– ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', 16 April 2021

References

External links

* (playing stats)
Neil Critchley
at Soccerbase (managerial stats) {{DEFAULTSORT:Critchley, Neil 1978 births Living people English footballers Association football midfielders Crewe Alexandra F.C. players English Football League players Leigh Genesis F.C. players National League (English football) players Liverpool F.C. non-playing staff Liverpool F.C. managers Blackpool F.C. managers Queens Park Rangers F.C. managers Aston Villa F.C. non-playing staff English football managers Crewe Alexandra F.C. non-playing staff Association football coaches