Stuart Gray (born 19 April 1960) is an English former professional footballer and manager. He has previously managed

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 ...

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 ...

and

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 ...

as well as working as caretaker manager for a number of teams. He has been Fulham FC's defensive coach since 2016, in which time they have earned three promotions to the Premier League.

Playing career

Born in

Withernsea Withernsea is a seaside resort and civil parish in Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Its white inland lighthouse, rising around above Hull Road, now houses a museum to 1950s actress Kay Kendall, who was born in the town. The Pr ...

East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire to t ...

, Gray began his professional career with

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 ...

, emerging from the youth system with players such as

Steve Hodge Stephen Brian Hodge (born 25 October 1962) is an English retired footballer who played as a midfielder. He enjoyed a high-profile club and international career in the 1980s and 1990s, the high point being reaching the 1986 World Cup quarter fin ...

and Colin Walsh. He joined

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 has ...

in 1984 and continued to build a reputation as a steady and versatile player, scoring 11 league goals in the 1986–87 season. He moved to

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 ...

in 1987 and won promotion the following year and runners-up in the First Division in 1990. Gray joined

in September 1991 for a fee of £200,000 as one of

Ian Branfoot Ian Grant Branfoot (born Gateshead, 26 January 1947) is an English former footballer and manager. He played as a defender, and after starting at Gateshead joined Sheffield Wednesday, making his Football League debut in 1965. After 42 senior ap ...

's first signings. Initially, this appeared to be a useful signing for the club as he could play either at left-back as cover for

Micky Adams Michael Richard Adams (born 8 November 1961) is an English former professional association football, footballer and football manager. As a player, he was a Full-back (football), full back, and made a total of 438 league appearances in a ninete ...

or in midfield, but a serious

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

injury sustained in an FA Cup match against former club Bolton Wanderers ended his playing career. Earlier in that FA Cup run, Gray scored his only goal for Southampton, in a replay against

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 City of Salford, Salford to ...

Old Trafford Old Trafford () is a football stadium in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, and the home of Manchester United. With a capacity of 74,310 it is the largest club football stadium (and second-largest football stadium overall after Wemb ...

. Micky Adams hit a probing left-foot pass which dropped between

Peter Schmeichel Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

and Paul Parker. Gray nipped between the goalkeeper and defender to stroke the ball home from just outside the area. Southampton eventually went on to win the game in a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

after scores were level 2–2 after

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

. This was the first ever such shoot-out involving First Division sides.

Coaching and management career

Southampton

After his playing career was finished, Gray joined the coaching staff at The Dell before moving to

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

in June 1994 as reserve team coach. His family were unable to settle in the West Midlands at this time, so he returned to Southampton, initially working in the community office, before becoming reserve team coach under Dave Jones in July 1997, moving up to first team coach in November 1998, a role he retained after the appointment of

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 ...

as manager in January 2000. When Hoddle was lured away to

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

in March 2001, Gray initially 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 (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

, before taking on the role permanently in June, as Southampton moved to their new

St Mary's Stadium St Mary's Stadium is an all-seater football stadium in Southampton, England, which has been the home stadium of Premier League club Southampton F.C. since 2001. The stadium has a capacity of 32,384 and is currently the largest football stadium ...

. Early results were poor and chairman

Rupert Lowe Rupert James Graham Lowe (born 31 October 1957) is a British politician, farmer and businessman, who served as a the Brexit Party Member of the European Parliament (MEP) in the West Midlands constituency from 2019 to 2020. Lowe was chairman ...

panicked about the effect on the club's investment in the new stadium and Gray was sacked after little more than 3 months in charge, to be replaced by

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 Cove ...

. During his brief tenure as manager, he broke Southampton's transfer record, signing

Rory Delap Rory John Delap (born 6 July 1976) is a former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Born in England, he made 11 appearances for the Republic of Ireland national team. Delap started his career at Carlisle United and impressed en ...

for a fee of £4 million.

Coaching

He has since coached successfully at a number of football clubs. These include

, where he and

John Deehan John Matthew Deehan (born 6 August 1957) is an English former football manager and player. During his playing career he was a footballer from 1975 until 1990 and is most well known for his spells as a striker for Aston Villa and Norwich City. ...

acted as joint caretaker managers after the departure of John Gregory. Stuart Gray moved briefly to

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 ...

to assist caretaker manager,

Kit Symons Christopher Jerry "Kit" Symons (born 8 March 1971) is a professional association football manager and former Welsh international footballer. As a professional player, he had lengthy spells at Portsmouth, Manchester City and Fulham as well as earn ...

. He then joined Dave Jones at

in the capacity of assistant manager. The two had previously worked together at Southampton. After the dismissal of Jones from Wolverhampton, Gray remained as assistant manager to

, once more acting as caretaker manager after Hoddle's departure; he had served as a caretaker for a month between the departure of Jones and arrival of Hoddle.

Northampton Town

On 2 January 2007, Gray was appointed as the manager of

after accepting a -year contract; he replaced

John Gorman John Gorman may refer to: * John Gorman (director) (1884–1936), American movie director *John Gorman (entertainer) (born 1936), English vocalist and musician *John Gorman (politician) (1923–2014), Northern Ireland politician *John Gorman (footb ...

who had resigned on 20 December 2006. Gray was sacked as Northampton Town Manager on 8 September 2009, following relegation from League 1 in the 2008–09 season and being 16th in League 2 after six games in the 2009–10 season.

Burnley

On 19 January 2010 Gray became the first-team coach for

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2001 population of 73,021. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River Bru ...

. On 30 December he was appointed caretaker manager following the departure of

Brian Laws Brian Laws (born 14 October 1961) is an English former professional footballer and manager. Playing as a defender, Laws made over 100 appearances for each of Burnley, Middlesbrough, and Nottingham Forest. In 1994, Laws became player-manager of ...

. Gray left Burnley on 13 May 2011 as part of a restructuring after the club failed to achieve even a play-off place in the season just ended. Gray became first-team coach at

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 dens ...

but was made redundant in April 2012 as part of cost cutting due to their financial difficulties.

Sheffield Wednesday

In December 2012, Gray was hired by his former

colleague, Dave Jones, as a member of the coaching staff at

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 ...

club

. Following the departure of Dave Jones from Sheffield Wednesday at the end of November 2013 Gray took over as caretaker manager with a view to taking on the managerial role permanently, and as of 8 February had led Wednesday to a run of 11 unbeaten games in all competitions. Stuart Gray was appointed as head coach of Sheffield Wednesday following the 2–1 win over Rochdale in the FA Cup on 25 January 2014. In his one full season in charge of the club, he secured their highest finish for 6 years, finishing 13th in a Championship campaign that also saw Wednesday equal their clean sheet record for a season. Following a takeover at Sheffield Wednesday by Thai businessman Dejphon Chansiri, Gray was sacked in the summer of 2015 and replaced by head coach

Carlos Carvalhal Carlos Augusto Soares da Costa Faria Carvalhal (; born 4 December 1965) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a centre-back, currently manager of La Liga club RC Celta de Vigo. As a player, he totalled 197 Primeira Liga appearances in ...

Career statistics

Club

Managerial

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gray, Stuart 1960 births Living people People from Withernsea Footballers from the East Riding of Yorkshire English footballers Association football midfielders Nottingham Forest F.C. players Bolton Wanderers F.C. players Barnsley F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Southampton F.C. players Bognor Regis Town F.C. players English football managers Southampton F.C. managers Aston Villa F.C. managers Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. non-playing staff Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. managers Northampton Town F.C. managers Burnley F.C. managers Burnley F.C. non-playing staff Premier League managers English Football League managers Sheffield Wednesday F.C. managers Portsmouth F.C. managers Fulham F.C. managers Fulham F.C. non-playing staff