Michael Wadsworth (born 3 November 1950) is an English football coach and former player. Born in Barnsley his playing career spanned only one season in

The Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

with Scunthorpe United, along with spells playing for

Gainsborough Trinity Gainsborough Trinity Football Club is a football club based in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, England. Established in 1873, the club became members of the Football League in 1893 and remained members of the Second Division until 1912, making Gainsbo ...

Mossley Mossley (/ˈmɒzli/) is a town and civil parish in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England, in the upper Tame Valley and the foothills of the Pennines, southeast of Oldham and east of Manchester. The historic counties of Lancashire, Cheshir ...

and

Frickley Athletic Frickley Athletic Football Club is a football club based in South Elmsall, West Yorkshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Westfield Lane. History Although the club itself claims it was formed in 1910, the team was activ ...

. Following the end of his playing career he took up coaching and has had a number of roles at a range of clubs including spells as manager of

, Carlisle United,

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

Huddersfield Town Huddersfield Town Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . The team have played home games at the Kirklees Stadium since moving from Leeds Road in 1994. Th ...

, Portuguese side Beira-Mar, Chester City and Celtic Nation. He has also managed the national sides of both St. Kitts & Nevis and

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Wadsworth has also held a number of coaching roles, including eight years working in a number of roles for

The FA The Football Association (also known as The FA) is the governing body of association football in England and the Crown Dependencies of Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. Formed in 1863, it is the oldest football association in the world an ...

Playing career

Wadsworth was, for a very short time, a player. But with his Football League playing experience limited to 28 appearances for Scunthorpe United in the 1976–77 season, it is for coaching that he is best known. A

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

playing career with clubs including

and

ended at

, where Wadsworth 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 s ...

. Wadsworth was then employed by the FA until commencing his club management career in 1993.

Coaching career

The FA

In 1985, Wadsworth was appointed as an FA regional coach in the north-west region of England, a position he would hold until 1991, when he became a Technical Co-ordinator on the FA's Excellence Programme, working on the futures of promising youngsters. Between 1988 and 1992, he was also an official match observer for the England national team under Bobby Robson and then

Graham Taylor Graham Taylor (15 September 1944 – 12 January 2017) was an English football player, manager, pundit and chairman of Watford Football Club. He was the manager of the England national football team from 1990 to 1993, and also managed Lincoln C ...

. Wadsworth also coached some of the FA's representative teams during his time in their employ, including a coaching role with the national team at the 1990 FIFA World Cup. He spent two years as manager of the England non-league team, five years as manager of the England youth team and had a coaching role with the England U-21 team.

Carlisle United Manager

In 1993, Wadsworth was offered a coaching role at

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

, but couldn't accept due to a lack of Dutch coaching credentials. In August, however he was appointed Carlisle United manager. Carlisle finished 7th in

Division Three 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 fo ...

and made the playoffs, but lost in the semi-final. The following season Carlisle reached the Auto Windscreens Trophy final but lost to Barry Fry's

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 ...

. In the league the club finished 1st in Division Three, winning promotion. After a poor start to 1995–96 in Division Two, Wadsworth resigned from his post as Director of Coaching.

Scarborough

In January 1996 Wadsworth became the assistant to the inexperienced

Gary Megson Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) is an English former football player and manager. He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers ...

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

. Norwich were to finish the season 16th of 24 in Division One. At the end of the disastrous season he moved to

as manager and took the club to the play-off semi-finals in his second season.

Colchester United Manager and St Kitts & Nevis Coach

In January 1999 Wadsworth left Scarborough to manage

. He brought in a host of new players and the club escaped from relegation by finishing 18th in Division Two that May. In the close-season, he released a number of the fans favourite players including Joe Dunne and

Tony Adcock Anthony Charles Adcock (born 27 March 1963) is an English former footballer who played as a forward in the Football League for Colchester United, where he holds the goalscoring record with 149 goals in all competitions for the club in two spell ...

. Wadsworth held a short-term coaching role with St. Kitts & Nevis. Not long afterwards, however, Wadsworth resigned from Colchester on 25 August 1999 citing difficulties with commuting from his home at Pontefract.

Newcastle United Assistant Manager

It was therefore somewhat ironic that after leaving Colchester, Wadsworth spent two weeks working with Steve Coppell even further south at

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 ...

before becoming assistant manager to Sir

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

at Newcastle United. In May 2000, Newcastle finished 11th 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 ...

, a position they would repeat in 2001.

Southampton Assistant Manager, Oldham Athletic Manager

Wadsworth was to leave Newcastle in June 2001, without telling Sir Bobby, to become assistant manager to Stuart Gray 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 ...

. In November the duo were sacked after a very poor start to the season. The following month he was appointed manager of

but was fired at the end of the season after finishing ninth in Division Two.

Huddersfield Town Manager

After

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

Joe Jordan Joseph Jordan (born 15 December 1951) is a Scottish football player, coach and manager. He is currently a first-team coach at AFC Bournemouth. A former striker, he played for Leeds United, Manchester United, and Milan, among others at club ...

's dismissal Wadsworth was appointed manager of

in July 2002, after being recommended to chairman David Taylor for the job. Firstly he brought in Dave Wilkes as his First Team Coach and former Barnsley keeper Dave Watson but by January 2003 he was sacked but as Wadsworth and the club could not agree a severance package, he was reinstated until March.

Congo national team

In November 2003 he was appointed manager of

ahead of

African Nations Cup The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

, for which they had qualified. He was sacked from "The Simbas" on 2 February 2004, the day after the team had lost their third of three matches in the tournament.

Beira-Mar and Shrewsbury Town

In June 2004, he was appointed manager of Portuguese club Beira-Mar, but left in September amid claims of boardroom interference. Wadsworth re-surfaced at

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 January 2005 as assistant manager to

Gary Peters Gary Charles Peters Sr. (born December 1, 1958) is an American lawyer, politician, and former military officer serving as the junior United States senator from Michigan since 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the U.S. representa ...

and remained with the club until March 2006.

Gretna and Chester City

Wadsworth was appointed Director of Club Development at Scottish side Gretna in July 2006, and he later took on a dual role as

Director of Football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The sport ...

and assistant manager when

David Irons David Irons Jr. (born October 9, 1982) is a former American football cornerback. He was drafted by the Atlanta Falcons in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played college football at Auburn. Irons also played for the Florida Tuskers ...

was appointed as Gretna's new manager in July 2007. On 19 May 2008, forty members of staff at Gretna, including Wadsworth, were laid off due to financial difficulties and after relegation. Wadsworth was then appointed Chester City manager on 29 June 2009. After just two wins in 13 Football Conference games, Wadsworth was sacked.

Hartlepool United

Wadsworth was appointed First Team Coach at Football League One club

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded i ...

in June 2010 and Caretaker Manager on 19 August following the resignation of Director of Sport Chris Turner. After a successful season in League One where Pools finished 16th and on 23 June Wadsworth was rewarded with an extension to his contract; becoming the club's first permanent manager in 920 days. On 6 December 2011, following a run of bad home form the club announced he had been relieved of his duties.

Sheffield United

In October 2013 Wadsworth was appointed as temporary first team coach at

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 ...

to support caretaker manager Chris Morgan. Mick had a six-month spell as manager of non-league

Sheffield F.C. Sheffield Football Club is an English football club from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, although now based in nearby Dronfield, across the county boundary in Derbyshire. They currently compete in the . Founded in October 1857,

, in 2014, and returned to

as the club's Senior Youth Development in July 2015. He left the club in August 2019.

Personal life

Wadsworth grew up in the village of Dodworth which is in the metropolitan borough of Barnsley. His father was a collier and Wadsworth himself began his career working down the pit. Prior to working as a football coach, Wadsworth worked as a PE teacher and taught future footballer David Hirst. Wadsworth is a boyhood fan of

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 ...

. Wadsworth is a keen artist and has auctioned off some of his drawing of football grounds for charity. Wadsworth can also play the piano, guitar and harmonica. Wadsworth's son, Greg, is a football agent.

Honours

Carlisle United

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 th ...

winner:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

* Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy runner-up:

Personal

* Football League One Manager of the Month Award: December 2010

References

External links

Mick Wadsworth profile
a
Vital Hartlepool
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wadsworth, Mick 1950 births Living people Footballers from Barnsley English footballers Association football forwards Gainsborough Trinity F.C. players Frickley Athletic F.C. players Scunthorpe United F.C. players English Football League players English football managers Frickley Athletic F.C. managers Matlock Town F.C. managers Carlisle United F.C. managers Scarborough F.C. managers Colchester United F.C. managers Oldham Athletic A.F.C. managers Huddersfield Town A.F.C. managers S.C. Beira-Mar managers Gretna F.C. managers Chester City F.C. managers Hartlepool United F.C. managers English Football League managers Scottish Premier League managers English expatriate sportspeople in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Expatriate football managers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo English expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate football managers in Portugal Newcastle United F.C. non-playing staff Democratic Republic of the Congo national football team managers Sheffield United F.C. non-playing staff 2004 African Cup of Nations managers Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Hartlepool United F.C. non-playing staff Mossley A.F.C. players Association football coaches