Philip Desmond "Chic" Bates (born 28 November 1949) 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 ...

and manager. Bates played non-league football with

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The ...

before becoming a professional with

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 ...

in 1974. He had a fine debut season scoring 17 goals as the "Shrews" gained promotion to the Third Division. He continued to perform well and in 1977 he joined

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

where he spent two years before joining

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

. After a year at Rovers he re-joined

and in 1984 he became player manager. He left in 1987 to become assistant manager to

Lou Macari Luigi Macari (born 7 June 1949) is a Scottish former footballer and manager. He began his playing career at Celtic where he was one of the Quality Street Gang, the outstanding reserve team that emerged in the late 1960s that also included Ken ...

and followed Macari to Stoke City and Celtic and back to Stoke. After Macari left Stoke in May 1997 Bates was appointed as manager and despite a decent start Stoke's form fell away and with the side destined for relegation he was sacked in January 1998. He returned to Shrewsbury and had two spells as caretaker manager.

Playing career

Bates was born in

West Bromwich West Bromwich ( ) is a market town in the borough of Sandwell, West Midlands, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is north-west of Birmingham. West Bromwich is part of the area known as the Black Country, in terms of geography, c ...

began his career with non-league

before joining

in 1974. He became a useful forward for the "Shrews" and in his first season as a professional he scored 17 goals helping the team gain promotion. He continued to impress for Shrewsbury and caught the eye of a number of larger clubs and eventually left for

in 1978. He spent two years at Swindon and had a short spell at

before returning to

where became player manager.

Managerial career

Bates was appointed player manager of

in 1984 and retired from playing in 1985 taking up full-time management a position he would keep until November 1987. He again left Shrewsbury for

becoming assistant manager to

and

Osvaldo Ardiles Osvaldo César Ardiles (born 3 August 1952), often referred to in Britain as Ossie Ardiles, is an Argentine football manager, pundit and former midfielder who won the 1978 FIFA World Cup as part of the Argentina national team. He now runs his ...

. When Macari was appointed manager of Stoke City in 1991 he appointed Bates as his assistant and the pair worked together at Stoke until October 1993 when they joined Celtic. A year later they returned to Stoke and after Macari left again in May 1997 Bates was surprisingly given the vacancy in the club's first season at the

Britannia Stadium The Bet365 Stadium (stylised as ''bet365 Stadium'') is an all-seater football stadium in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England and the home of EFL Championship club Stoke City. The stadium was previously called the Britannia Stadium but was ...

. Whilst Bates was a useful and popular coach he was not thought to be a successful manager. Regardless to Bates' credit Stoke made a steady start to the 1997–98 season and by the end of October Stoke were in a play-off position. But results started to go wrong which hit rock bottom in January 1998 with a 7–0 defeat at home to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

. The result prompted ugly scenes at the final whistle as around 2,000 fans invaded the pitch and entered the directors box. Bates was sacked a week later. He moved back to Shrewsbury and became assistant manager filling in as caretaker on two occasions firstly in November 1999 and 22 October 2004 to 15 November 2004.

Dementia

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Bates was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and

Alzheimers Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As t ...

Career statistics

As a player

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

Football League Group Cup The Football League Group Cup was a short-lived football competition which first took place during the 1981–82 season. For English clubs it was a replacement for the Anglo-Scottish Cup, which had been discontinued due to the withdrawal of Scot ...

As a manager

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bates, Chic Living people Stoke City F.C. managers Shrewsbury Town F.C. managers English Football League managers 1949 births Stourbridge F.C. players Shrewsbury Town F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players English Football League players English footballers Swindon Town F.C. non-playing staff Celtic F.C. non-playing staff Association football forwards English football managers