Thomas Brooks Craig (born 21 November 1950) is a Scottish former

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 ...

player and

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

. Craig had an 18-year playing career as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, playing over 100 league games for English clubs

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 ...

and

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

. Towards the end of his playing career he became a coach, and he has worked for clubs including Hibernian,

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...

, Newcastle and St Mirren.

Playing career

Craig was born in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. A

, he started his playing career at

. In 1969

paid £100,000 for his services, a club record transfer fee at the time, as well as a British record for a teenager. Craig scored 37 league goals for Wednesday, including many from the penalty spot. During his time at the club, Wednesday were relegated from the top flight following Craig's first full season, and they continued to struggle in Division Two, finally being relegated again shortly after he left for

in 1974. While at the club, Craig was the fan favourite and was described as "an adopted Geordie". After leaving Newcastle he went on to join

Ron Saunders Ronald Saunders (6 November 1932 – 7 December 2019) was an English football player and manager. He played for Everton, Tonbridge Angels, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Watford and Charlton Athletic during a 16-year playing career, before moving i ...

' Aston Villa, however, his stay was short lived as Saunders was clearing the decks in order to turn Villa into the Championship and European Cup winning force of the early 1980s. He subsequently moved on to

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club (; cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Cymdeithas Dinas Abertawe) is a professional football club based in Swansea, Wales that plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Swansea have played their ho ...

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

and Hibernian before becoming a coach. Craig was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

once by

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, against

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in 1976.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Craig was made assistant manager to

John Blackley John Henderson Blackley (born 12 May 1948) is a Scottish football coach and former player. Blackley made 279 appearances at centre-half for Hibernian and also represented Newcastle United, Preston North End and Hamilton Academical. He won ...

at Hibernian, before briefly taking over as caretaker manager upon Blackley's departure. He was then

Billy McNeill William McNeill (2 March 1940 – 22 April 2019) was a Scottish football player and manager. He had a long association with Celtic, spanning more than sixty years as a player, manager and club ambassador. McNeill captained Celtic's 'Lisbon Lio ...

's assistant manager at

, where they won 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 their centenary year. A spell at

as assistant to

Roy Aitken Robert Sime "Roy" Aitken (born 24 November 1958) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He made over 480 league appearances for Celtic, and later played for Newcastle United, St Mirren and Aberdeen. Aitken also made 57 international ...

followed, before he took up the coaching role of Scotland's Under-21 team. Craig spent time as a first team

, until he was released in September 2006. While at Newcastle United, Craig stated he learned coaching development under the first team managers during his seven years as a coach. He was then chosen by John Collins to be his assistant at Hibernian. Following Collins' resignation, Craig acted as the caretaker manager of Hibernian for the second time. He left the club after four games, following the appointment of

Mixu Paatelainen Mika-Matti Petteri Paatelainen (born 3 February 1967) is a Finnish former professional football player and the head coach of Veikkausliiga club HIFK. He scored 18 goals in 70 appearances for the Finnish national team, which makes him Finland's ...

as manager. Craig joined

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

as assistant coach to Collins in December 2008. On 20 November 2009, he was appointed as head coach on a one-and-a-half-year contract.Le Sporting a son nouveau coach.

R. Charleroi S.C. Royal Charleroi Sporting Club, often simply known as Charleroi or Sporting Charleroi, is a Belgian football club based in the city of Charleroi, in the province of Hainaut. Charleroi plays in the Belgian Pro League and their current spell at ...

, 20 November 2009. Despite this contract, Craig was sacked on 14 April 2010. St Mirren manager

Danny Lennon Danny Lennon (born 6 April 1969) is a Scottish football manager and former player, who was most recently the manager of Scottish League One club Clyde. In his playing career he is best known for his spells at Raith Rovers and Partick Thistle. H ...

appointed Craig as first team coach on 22 July 2011. Craig was part of the coaching team that won the 2012–13 Scottish League Cup with St Mirren. On 13 May 2014 Craig was appointed as St Mirren manager, following the departure of Lennon. Immediately after taking the job, Craig included two players on his coaching team,

Jim Goodwin James Michael Goodwin (born 20 November 1981) is an Irish football manager and former player who manages Scottish Premiership club Aberdeen. Goodwin had a playing career from 2000 to 2019 in Scotland and England, playing in a defensive role wi ...

and

Gary Teale Gary Stewart Teale (born 21 July 1978) is a Scottish professional football player and coach. Teale started his career in Scotland in 1995 with Clydebank and Ayr United. He moved to England in 2001 when he signed for Wigan Athletic and played a ...

. Craig was sacked in December 2014, after 19 matches in charge.BBC Sport
/ref> St Mirren were joint bottom of the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottish ...

and lost 4–0 to Inverness in the Scottish Cup.BBC Sport
/ref>

Managerial statistics

* No statistics currently available for Scotland U21 team.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Craig, Tommy 1950 births Living people Footballers from Glasgow Association football midfielders Scottish footballers Scotland international footballers Aberdeen F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Newcastle United F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Swansea City A.F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Hibernian F.C. players Scottish Football League players English Football League players Scottish football managers Scottish expatriate football managers Newcastle United F.C. non-playing staff Hibernian F.C. non-playing staff Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Aberdeen F.C. non-playing staff St Mirren F.C. non-playing staff R. Charleroi S.C. managers Scotland under-21 international footballers Scotland under-23 international footballers Scotland national under-21 football team managers