Raymond Lewington (born 7 September 1956) is an English retired

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 ...

. He was most recently assistant manager of

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 ...

. Born in London, he started his playing career in the city at

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 ...

. He went on to play for

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

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 ...

, and had two spells at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

, for whom he made 234 Football League appearances. In his second spell at Fulham Lewington was

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

. Following the end of his time as a player he has spent most of the rest of his career as a coach or assistant manager, with spells at Crystal Palace and Fulham, as well as the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international Association football, football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in Engl ...

. Outside of positions acting as caretaker, he has also been first team manager at

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

and

Playing career

Lewington started his career at

in the 1970s, and played a season at

in 1979 where he was part of the Whitecaps' championship squad that won the NASL Soccer Bowl '79, before a loan spell at

. In 1980, he transferred to

, and he was to go on and make over 170 League appearances for them before a season at

in 1985–86. After that season he returned to Fulham and went on to play another 60 league matches for them.Football Lge Career Stats at Neil Brown
/ref>

Managerial career

Lewington became player-manager of Fulham after they were relegated to the

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following the f ...

in July 1986. Lewington, still only 29, was the youngest manager in the Football League at the time. Fulham's budget was tight and they could only manage an 18th-place finish in Lewington's first season as manager. Off the field, the club was unstable after two takeovers in quick succession and the suggestion of a merger with their West London rivals

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 ...

. The next two seasons showed no sign of an up-turn in fortune, but in 1989, Lewington guided the club to the play-offs, although they were unsuccessful in achieving promotion. The following season saw the club struggle against relegation once more. At the end of that season,

Alan Dicks Alan Dicks (born 29 August 1934) is an English retired footballer and football manager. He managed Bristol City for thirteen years and managed clubs in four countries on three continents. Born in London, he signed for Chelsea at the age of 17 ...

was brought in, with Lewington becoming his assistant. Lewington had spells as caretaker manager at Fulham in 1991 and 1994, before joining

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

as a coach, becoming assistant to Alan Smith as Palace were relegated from the Premiership.

were taken over by former Palace owner

Ron Noades Ronald Geoffrey Noades (22 June 1937 – 24 December 2013) was an English businessman, best known for his investments in football clubs. He was the chairman of Southall, Wimbledon, Crystal Palace and finally Brentford. He was also the manager o ...

in 1998, Brentford's "chairman-manager" brought in Lewington as a coach. After Noades relinquished his team-selection duties in 2000, Lewington was appointed as manager of Brentford, taking them to a losing appearance in 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 ...

final in 2001 and guiding them to 14th in Division Two. He left at the end of the 2000–01 season to become Gianluca Vialli's reserve team manager at

: a difficult role, as Vialli never let any first-team players play for the reserve side. When Vialli was sacked in the summer 2002, Lewington was appointed manager. Like with Fulham 16 years earlier, Lewington assumed control of a club that had an extremely limited budget, with the club crippled from the collapse of

ITV Digital ITV Digital was a British digital terrestrial television broadcaster which launched a pay-TV service on the world's first digital terrestrial television network. Its main shareholders were Carlton Communications plc and Granada plc, owners o ...

and the high-spending of the Vialli era, which had failed to result in promotion to the Premier League. Despite this, Lewington guided the club to two middle table finishes and two cup semi-finals—a 2–1 loss to

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 ...

in the FA Cup in 2003 and a 2–0 loss (over two legs) to

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 ...

in 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 ...

two seasons later. Just two months after the Liverpool game, Lewington was sacked, after a poor run of league form. In July 2005, Lewington returned to Fulham after ten years away, as reserve team manager, under manager Chris Coleman. By this time, Fulham were an established Premier League club with healthy finances. In December 2007, Lewington served a brief stint as caretaker manager after the departure of

Lawrie Sanchez Lawrence Philip Sanchez (born 22 October 1959) is a Northern Irish football manager and former international footballer. The defining moment of his playing career came in the 1988 FA Cup Final, when he scored the winning goal for Wimbledon a ...

, managing the team for three games until

Roy Hodgson Roy Hodgson (born 9 August 1947) is a former English football manager and player. He managed 22 different teams in eight countries, beginning in Sweden with Halmstads BK in the 1976 season. He later guided the Switzerland national team to th ...

was appointed full-time. He remained at Craven Cottage as part of the management team as assistant manager. He was replaced as assistant manager by Mark Bowen when

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, an ...

became manager and became the first team coach. On 17 October 2010, it was announced on the Fulham website that Lewington had been given the job of leading the club's Youth Development Program and that taking his position as first team coach would be

Glyn Hodges Glyn Peter Hodges (born 30 April 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former professional player who is assistant manager at Bradford City. During his playing career he played for Wimbledon, Newcastle United, Watford, Crystal Palace, Sheffield Un ...

. Mark Hughes resigned after the end of the 2010–11 season and his successor

Martin Jol Maarten Cornelis "Martin" Jol (born 16 January 1956) is a Dutch football manager and former midfielder. He played over 400 games during his career which included spells in the Netherlands, Germany, and England, as well as earning three caps wit ...

reinstated Lewington as first team coach in June 2011, alongside Jol's assistants Michael Lindeman and Cornelius Jol. Jol said: "We started off with him because he's probably a main figure here, at this club, he knows everything." On 4 May 2012, it was confirmed that Lewington would become England assistant manager alongside Roy Hodgson, who had just accepted the FA's offer to manage the England team, having previously managed

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

. On 27 June 2016 he resigned as part of the England coaching staff after the defeat to Iceland in Euro 2016. On 12 September 2017, following the appointment of

as manager of

, it was announced that Lewington would once again return to the club as assistant manager. When Hodgson stepped down at the end of the 2020–21 season, Lewington also left his position.

Personal life

One of Lewington's sons,

Dean Dean may refer to: People * Dean (given name) * Dean (surname), a surname of Anglo-Saxon English origin * Dean (South Korean singer), a stage name for singer Kwon Hyuk * Dean Delannoit, a Belgian singer most known by the mononym Dean Titles * ...

, is a professional footballer currently playing for

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club (), usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the third tier of the English football league system. The ...

. His other son, Craig, has played for a number of non-league sides. Lewington's nephew

Luke Ayling Luke David Ayling (born 25 August 1991) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender and often captains club Leeds United. Although normally playing as a right-back, he can also function as a centre-back. Ayling began his ca ...

currently plays for

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 ...

team

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

. "Luke Ayling meets Arsenal unrecognisable from the player they released at 18". The Athletic. 18 November 2020. Retrieved 31 January 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewington, Ray 1956 births Living people Brentford F.C. managers Chelsea F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. managers Crystal Palace F.C. non-playing staff English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Canada English football managers English footballers Expatriate soccer players in Canada Association football midfielders Fulham F.C. managers Fulham F.C. players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Footballers from Lambeth Footballers from Portsmouth Premier League managers English Football League managers English Football League players Vancouver Whitecaps (1974–1984) players Watford F.C. managers Watford F.C. non-playing staff Wimbledon F.C. players Fulham F.C. non-playing staff Sheffield United F.C. players