John Gorman (born 16 August 1949) is a Scottish former football 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 ...

Playing career

Gorman began his career at Celtic, but only played one game, a

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup (also known as the Viaplay Cup for sponsorship reasons) is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League Cup in existen ...

match in 1968. He was released and signed for Carlisle United and was almost ever present in their one season in the old First Division. He signed for

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

in 1976 before injury as a result of a tackle by

Jimmy Case James Robert Case (born 18 May 1954) is an English retired professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He gained national prominence with Liverpool in the 1970s and early 1980s. Early life Case was brought up in Allerton and was a dis ...

lost him his place. The injury caused him to miss the final part of Spurs' unsuccessful relegation fight in 1977, and all of their promotion season of 1977–78. In 1979, he moved to the United States where he signed with the

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Championship in the second tie ...

of the NASL. He remained with Tampa Bay for four seasons and was a 1979 Second Team, 1980 Honorable Mention and 1981 First Team All Star. In the fall of 1982, he moved to the Phoenix Inferno of the Major Indoor Soccer League. He played two seasons with Phoenix, the second after the team became known as the Phoenix Pride.

Coaching and management career

Swindon Town

Gorman's coaching career has often been intertwined with his longtime friend

Glenn Hoddle Glenn Hoddle (born 27 October 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He currently works as a television pundit and commentator for ITV Sport and BT Sport. He played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco, Chelsea and ...

, starting when Gorman became Hoddle's assistant at

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 ...

in 1991. With Hoddle as player-manager and featuring in most of the club's games, Gorman received plenty of the credit for this turnaround. So much so, that when Glenn Hoddle left to take over at Chelsea in 1993 he offered Gorman the chance to join him. His mind was made up when Town chairman Ray Hardman offered him the vacant manager's position; he accepted (a popular decision at the time) and looked forward to the forthcoming season in the

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 Fo ...

, to which Swindon had just won promotion. However, it was not a successful first season in the top flight for the

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

club, who did not win a league game until their 16th match and ended the season relegated in bottom place with just five wins and having conceded 100 goals from 42 matches. A promising start to the following season suggested that a quick return to the Premier League was possible, but a downturn in form dragged Swindon into the bottom half of the table and Gorman was sacked in November 1994.

England

Despite being Scottish, he later rejoined Hoddle as assistant manager of the

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

team in 1996. After Hoddle's dismissal in 1999, Gorman became assistant manager at

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

Tottenham Hotspur

When Glenn Hoddle became manager of Tottenham Hotspur in March 2001, he became Hoddle's assistant at the

North London North London is the northern part of London, England, north of the River Thames. It extends from Clerkenwell and Finsbury, on the edge of the City of London financial district, to Greater London's boundary with Hertfordshire. The term ''nor ...

club.

Wycombe and Gillingham

After leaving Tottenham in 2003 he was appointed caretaker manager at Wycombe but was passed over in favour of

Tony Adams Tony Alexander Adams (born 10 October 1966) is an English former football manager and player. Adams played for Arsenal and England, captaining both teams. He spent his entire playing career of 19 years as a centre back at Arsenal, making 672 t ...

. He was taken on as an assistant to

Andy Hessenthaler Andrew Hessenthaler (born 17 August 1965) is an English football manager and former player who is head of recruitment at club Gillingham. He began his career in non-league football and did not turn professional until he joined Watford at ...

at Gillingham, and acted as caretaker manager after Hessenthaler stepped down before returning to Wycombe as manager after Adams' resignation in late 2004.

Wycombe Wanderers

After turning around Wycombe's poor form, the club finished the 2004–05 season strongly and only just missed out on a play-off place. At the start of the 2005–06 season, a new club record was set by going 21 consecutive league games unbeaten. Towards the end of the season it was announced that Gorman would be taking a temporary leave of absence for personal reasons, his wife Myra having died from cancer a few weeks earlier. However it was announced on 26 May that the club and manager had parted company permanently.

Northampton Town

On 5 June 2006 Gorman was announced as the new manager of

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

replacing

Colin Calderwood Colin Calderwood (born 20 January 1965) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player. He is the assistant manager at Northampton Town. As a player, he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Tottenham Hots ...

. Calderwood was given the

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 ...

position after Northampton finished 2nd in League Two and were promoted. On 20 December, Gorman resigned citing personal reasons. He later attributed his departure to stress. He had been in charge for 22 league games, which saw five wins, with just one at home all season.

Southampton

In May 2007 he became the chief scout at

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 ...

. Following

George Burley George Elder Burley (born 3 June 1956) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He had a professional career spanning 21 years as a player, making 628 league appearances and earning 11 Scotland caps. His most successful spell came whi ...

's departure to become

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

manager in January 2008, he was appointed joint caretaker manager, along with

Jason Dodd Jason Robert Dodd (born 2 November 1970) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a full-back who notably spent sixteen-years playing for Southampton where the majority of those came in the Premier L ...

. After a stint as caretaker manager, John Gorman was relieved of his duties after

Nigel Pearson Nigel Graham Pearson (born 21 August 1963) is an English football manager and former professional player, currently the manager of Championship club Bristol City. During his playing career, he was a defender and played for Shrewsbury Town, Shef ...

was placed in charge of the club on 19 February 2008. Gorman and Dodd both left the club in June 2008, following the appointment of new manager

Jan Poortvliet Jan Poortvliet (; born 21 September 1955) is a Dutch professional football coach and a former player who played as a left-back. He works as the coach of the Under-18 squad of FC Eindhoven He represented the Netherlands national team at the 1 ...

Ipswich Town

On 30 December 2008, Gorman was appointed Assistant Manager of

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

, having previously been with the club 10 years prior in the same role. Gorman was released in April 2009 when

Jim Magilton James Magilton (born 6 May 1969) is a Northern Irish football manager and former professional player. As a player, he was a midfielder who notably played in the Premier League for Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town. He started hi ...

was sacked as manager.

Queens Park Rangers

On 8 June 2009, Gorman was appointed assistant manager of

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 ...

, and thus reunited with his old friend, manager

but left by mutual consent in December 2009 along with Magilton.

MK Dons

On 10 May 2010, Gorman was appointed assistant manager of

MK 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. ...

, under new manager

Karl Robinson Karl Robinson (born 13 September 1980) is an English professional football manager and former player who is the manager of club Oxford United. Playing career Robinson was born in Rainhill, Merseyside. He played for Caernarfon Town, Bamber Bri ...

. On 2 May 2012, Gorman announced that he was to retire from football at the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

after the Dons conclude their

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 ...

play-off campaign.

Personal life

Gorman published his autobiography, ''Gory Tales: The Autobiography of John Gorman'' in 2008, as "Gory" was the nickname given him during his playing days. The book chronicled not only his long playing and managerial careers, but also how he dealt with the February 2006 death of his wife, Myra at age 56, after her year-long battle with cancer. The couple had been together since they were teenagers. Together they raised two children, a daughter Amanda and a son Nick. During his time recovering from injury at Tottenham Hotspur he practised his hobby as a cartoonist, frequently having his work shown in the club's match-day programmes.

Honours

Individual * League Two Manager of the Month: September 2005

Notes and references

;Footnotes a. Gorman was employed as youth team coach at Gillingham in 1986, but played in two League Cup matches. ;References

External links

*
Article on BBC website
* * ttp://www.nasljerseys.com/Players/G/Gorman.John.htm NASL/MISL stats {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorman, John 1949 births Living people People from Winchburgh Footballers from West Lothian Scottish footballers Carlisle United F.C. players Celtic F.C. players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Gillingham F.C. players Major Indoor Soccer League (1978–1992) players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Phoenix Inferno players Phoenix Pride players Tampa Bay Rowdies (1975–1993) players Scottish football managers Premier League managers Gillingham F.C. managers Swindon Town F.C. managers Wycombe Wanderers F.C. managers Northampton Town F.C. managers West Bromwich Albion F.C. managers Southampton F.C. managers Bristol City F.C. non-playing staff English Football League players Association football defenders Scottish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Scottish expatriate footballers Association football coaches Association football scouts