Stephen Mark Agnew (born 9 November 1965) is an English football coach and former professional

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, rugb ...

, he is interim assistant manager of

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 Scottis ...

side

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), a ...

. As a player, he was 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 ...

from 1983 to 2002, notably 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 ...

for

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

and

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

, and 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 ...

for

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough ha ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most d ...

and

York City York City Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of York, North Yorkshire, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team compete in the National League, at the fifth tier of the English football league sys ...

before finishing his career in non-League with

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Millennium Bridge, The Sage, and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary ...

. He has since worked as a coach in a variety roles at Gateshead,

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the ...

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 ...

, Hartlepool Utd,

Hull City Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club based in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, that compete in the . They have played home games at the MKM Stadium since moving from Boothferry Park in 2002. The club's t ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

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 ...

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 En ...

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 pl ...

and

Playing career

Agnew was born in Shipley,

West Riding of Yorkshire The West Riding of Yorkshire is one of three historic subdivisions of Yorkshire, England. From 1889 to 1974 the administrative county County of York, West Riding (the area under the control of West Riding County Council), abbreviated County ...

. He started his career at

, staying there for eight years after turning professional and playing more than 200 times. He was sold to

for a £700,000 fee in June 1991 – making him the

Ewood Park Ewood Park () is a football stadium in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, and the home of Blackburn Rovers F.C., founding members of the Football League and Premier League, who have played there since 1890. It is an all seater multi-sports facili ...

club's most costly signing at the time, just after wealthy owner

Jack Walker Jack Walker (19 May 1929 – 17 August 2000) was a British industrialist and businessman. Walker built his fortune in the steel industry, amassing a personal fortune of £600 million. He then went on to become the owner and benefactor of Black ...

bought the club. His spell at Blackburn was unsuccessful, only making four appearances before he joined

on loan and then

permanently in the

1992–93 Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since t ...

season, when Rovers were in the new

and Leicester were challenging for promotion from Division One. During his time at Blackburn, the club earned promotion to the Premier League, but Agnew's part in the success was a minimal one as the attention was focused on big-money new signings such as Mike Newell and

Roy Wegerle Roy Wegerle (born March 19, 1964) is a former United States international soccer player who appeared for the national team 41 times between 1992 and 1998. Born and raised in South Africa, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1991. Since retiri ...

and later

Alan Shearer Alan Shearer CBE DL (born 13 August 1970) is an English football pundit and retired football player and manager who played as a striker. Widely regarded as one of the best strikers of his generation and one of the greatest players in Premi ...

and

Stuart Ripley Stuart Edward Ripley (born 20 November 1967) is an English former professional footballer who played as a winger from 1985 until 2002, notably in the Premier League for Blackburn Rovers and Southampton. He was part of the Rovers squad that won ...

. One of Agnew's most memorable nights in a Leicester City shirt was 15 April 1993, when Leicester beat Millwall 3–0. Agnew scored and was sent off. Agnew "reacted angrily to a heavy challenge by Andy Roberts. At least a dozen players jostled each other as police, stewards and the respective managers tried to restore order. Agnew, who had already been cautioned, appeared to lash out at a Millwall player, leaving Mr Parker no option other than to reach for red. Millwall tried hard to exploit their numerical advantage, only for the home team to score again through David Oldfield." He was part of the Leicester team that won promotion to the Premier League as Division One play-off winners in 1994. Agnew then moved north to

, helping them win promotion to the Premier League as Division One champions in 1996, although they went down after just one season. In 1998 he signed for

and despite his efforts the

Bootham Crescent Bootham Crescent in York, England, was the home of York City football club and York City Knights rugby league club. With a capacity of 8,256, it is near the city centre, just over a mile from York railway station. York City leased land at B ...

team were unable to avoid relegation from Division Two in the 1998–99 season. Agnew spent the 2001–02 season playing for

, where he finished his playing career.

Coaching career

In February 2002, Agnew moved into coaching, becoming assistant manager of Gateshead to Gary Gill. Both he and Gill resigned from Gateshead after the playing budget was cut in early October 2002. Agnew continued his coaching at the

Academy and then joined

as reserve-team manager on 23 July 2003. Agnew left the club to become assistant manager at

Hartlepool United Hartlepool United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Hartlepool, County Durham, England. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They were founded in 1908 as Hartle ...

on 23 June 2005. On 9 February 2006, Agnew quit his position as reserve-team coach at Hartlepool before rejoining Leeds as under-18s manager. He rejoined Middlesbrough as reserve-team coach on 23 January 2007. He was promoted to the position of assistant manager on 7 July 2008, following the departure of Steve Harrison. On 18 October 2010, he took over as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a care ...

at Middlesbrough following the resignation of

Gordon Strachan Gordon David Strachan ( born 9 February 1957) is a Scottish former football coach and player. He played for Dundee, Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds United and Coventry City, as well as the Scotland national team. He has since managed Co ...

. On 29 June 2012, Agnew took up the post of assistant manager at

. On 23 December 2014, Agnew joined Middlesbrough as assistant head coach, working under head coach

Aitor Karanka Aitor Karanka de la Hoz (Basque and ; born 18 September 1973) is a Spanish football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of Segunda División club Granada. Save for a brief spell in the United States at age 32, Karanka ...

. On 16 March 2017, Agnew took over as caretaker manager at Middlesbrough, after Aitor Karanka was dismissed. His first match in charge came three days later, as Middlesbrough were beaten 3–1 at home by

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. He was unable to save Middlesbrough from relegation after they finished 19th in the Premier League, remaining in charge until the appointment of

Garry Monk Garry Alan Monk (born 6 March 1979) is an English football manager and former professional player who played as a centre back, and was most recently the manager of Championship club Sheffield Wednesday. His managerial career includes spells at ...

on 9 June 2017. On 22 December 2017 Agnew was appointed the first team coach of

. But on 3 October 2018, head coach

Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion. Born in Corbridge, Northumberland, he was a promising scho ...

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 ...

Stephen Clemence Stephen Neal Clemence (born 31 March 1978) is an English football coach and former player, who made nearly 250 appearances in the Premier League and Football League playing as a midfielder. Clemence began his career with Tottenham Hotspur, wher ...

Gary Walsh Gary Walsh (born 21 March 1968) is an English football coach and professional former footballer who was most recently head goalkeeping coach at EFL Championship club West Bromwich Albion. As a player, he was a goalkeeper from 1985 to 2006, not ...

and Agnew himself, were all fired. On 2 January 2019

announced that the club had appointed

as the club's new head coach from 1 February 2019. Clemence and Agnew would be in charge of the team in his absence until that date. With the arriving of Bruce, Agnew would function as a first team coach. In November 2021, Agnew followed Bruce out the door at

, following the appointment of

Eddie Howe Edward John Frank Howe (born 29 November 1977) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the head coach of Premier League club Newcastle United. A defender during his playing career, Howe spent most of his playing ...

and his backroom staff. Bruce was appointed manager of Championship club

in February 2022, and was again accompanied by Agnew and Clemence. They left with him when he was sacked eight months later. on 30 of January 2023 he join

as interim assistant manager to interim manager

Barry Robson Barry Gordon George Robson (born 7 November 1978) is a Scottish football coach and former player who currently works for Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership. Robson played as a midfielder for several clubs in Scotland, England and Canada and r ...

following sacking of

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

Personal life

Agnew's nephew

Jordan Rhodes Jordan Luke Rhodes (born 5 February 1990) is a Scottish professional footballer who plays as a striker for Championship club Huddersfield Town and the Scottish national team. He started his career at Ipswich Town and after loan spells at O ...

is also a footballer.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Sunderland *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

: 1995–96

References

External links