Luke Williams (born 1 May 1981) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He was most recently

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

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 sys ...

club

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

until February 2025. now joining his previous club back at meadow lane for the 25/26 season of notts county’s league 2 campaign. Born in London, Williams played youth football but suffered an injury at age 19, which stopped him from playing professionally. He began his coaching career at

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club, commonly referred to as Orient, is a professional association football club based in Leyton, Waltham Forest, London, England. The team compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. ...

and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. He spent several years coaching

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

's under-21s and made his first-team managerial debut with

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

in 2015. After coaching

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England. The team compete in the , the second level of the English football league system. Founded in 1894, the club competed in the Southern League and Western L ...

's under-23s, Williams became the assistant coach to Russell Martin at

Milton Keynes 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 EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football leag ...

in 2019 and Swansea City in 2021. Williams was appointed head coach of

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

in 2022, leading them to

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, it is the oldest football league in Association football around the world, the w ...

promotion in his first season and breaking several club records, including the most wins and points in a season. In 2024, he returned to Swansea City as head coach.

Early life

Williams was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England, in 1981. He went to school at

Chingford Chingford is a suburban town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Waltham Forest. The centre of Chingford is north-east of Charing Cross, with Waltham Abbey to the north, Woodford Green and Buckhurst Hill to the east, Walt ...

. Williams played football at youth level for

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

, but was released at age 16. He then joined

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

as an apprentice after a successful trial. Williams also played for his school football team and left school aged 16 without

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools ...

s. At age 19, he suffered a knee injury and failed to win a contract with

, so he decided to focus on

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

. Between ages 19 and 23, Williams had five operations in four years to correct his knee injury. He also suffered a broken hip and fractured skull from a car crash in his early 20s, and was stabbed with a champagne flute on a night out in London, which he believed may have caused him to suffer

post-traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a Psychological trauma, traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster ...

Career

Early career

Williams began coaching youth teams at

and

, and became an FA Skills Coach. He undertook warehouse work and drove minibuses to earn extra money. Williams spent 18 months coaching children at

London Fields London Fields is a park in Hackney, London, although the name also refers to the immediate area in Hackney surrounding it and London Fields station. It is common land adjoining the Hackney Central area of the London Borough of Hackney. The p ...

on Saturday mornings and also coached young offenders for West Ham's community programme. He coached Leyton Orient's under-14s in the evenings and also worked as a teaching assistant at

Braintree College Braintree Campus, formerly known as Braintree College, is a further education college based in Braintree, Essex. It is a constituent college of Colchester Institute. The college was originally an independently controlled institution, but merged ...

. He later became a development coach at

, where he managed the club's under-21 and reserve sides for several years under first-team manager

Gus Poyet Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (; born 15 November 1967) is a Uruguayan professional football manager and former footballer who is the manager of K League 1 club Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors. Poyet played as a midfielder and began his career with s ...

. Williams's side were the first Brighton team to play at the club's Amex Stadium, which opened in 2011, as they beat Eastbourne Borough in the

Sussex Senior Challenge Cup The Sussex Senior Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the Sussex Senior Cup, is an annual association football single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition for men's football clubs in the English county of Sussex. The cup is the c ...

final.

Swindon Town and subsequent coaching

In 2013, Williams was appointed assistant manager to Mark Cooper at League One club

, and helped the team reach the 2015 play-offs before losing to

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. Following Cooper's departure, Williams worked as assistant to

Lee Power Lee Michael Power (born 30 June 1972) is a former professional footballer and former chairman of Swindon Town. Born in England, his Irish ancestry allowed him to be capped by Republic of Ireland at youth, U21 and B levels. Power played in three ...

and

Martin Ling Martin Ling (born 15 July 1966) is an English Association football, football manager and former player currently director of football for Leyton Orient F.C., Leyton Orient. He played in over 100 The Football League, Football League matches for ...

, before becoming

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 caret ...

in December 2015 after Ling's resignation. The following month, Williams was named manager until 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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. He then signed a five-year contract as head coach after winning six of his 10 games in charge. In November 2016,

Tim Sherwood Timothy Alan Sherwood (born 6 February 1969) is an English former football player and manager. As a player, he was a midfielder from 1987 until 2005, notably as captain of Blackburn Rovers' Premier League title-winning side in 1995. He also pl ...

was named the club's

director of football A sporting director, or director of sport, is an senior management, 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 typ ...

and began coaching the team alongside Williams. Williams left Swindon in May 2017 by mutual agreement following the club's relegation to League Two at the end of the 2016–17 season. Following his departure, Williams became head coach of

's under-23s in 2017, before becoming assistant to Russell Martin at

in 2019 and

in 2021. He left the latter in 2022. At both clubs, Williams assisted Martin in coaching a

possession Possession may refer to: Law *Dependent territory, an area of land over which another country exercises sovereignty, but which does not have the full right of participation in that country's governance *Drug possession, a crime *Ownership *Pe ...

-based style of play. Their MK Dons side set a new British record at the time, scoring after a 56-pass move.

Notts County

On 14 June 2022, Williams returned to management with

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

club

. He was awarded the National League Manager of the Month award for October 2022, winning all six matches across the month, with the club sat top of the league. Williams won the same award in March 2023 as County remained unbeaten throughout the month. In his first season with the club, Notts County earned a club record-breaking 107 points, but finished second in the league behind

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

. County scored 117 goals throughout the campaign and set a new club record unbeaten run in the league of 25 games. They also achieved the most wins in a season, with 32 wins. In the play-offs, Williams led County to promotion, defeating Chesterfield on penalties in the play-off final at

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. Williams's side regularly dominated possession against opposition teams, losing just three of their 46 league games in his first season, while using short corners to maintain possession and increase the likelihood of scoring goals. Defensively, despite County conceding just 52 goals in all competitions in his first season, they conceded 49 goals in the first four months of his second season. Williams left County in January 2024, with the club fifth in the league and having scored 55 goals, the highest across England's top four divisions.

Swansea City

On 5 January 2024, Williams returned to

club Swansea City as head coach on a three-and-a-half-year contract, replacing Michael Duff mid-season. He was chosen by Swansea for his attacking, possession-based style of play. Williams took charge of his first match the following day, a 2–0 victory against

Morecambe Morecambe ( ) is a seaside town and civil parish in the City of Lancaster district of Lancashire, England, on Morecambe Bay, part of the Irish Sea. In 2011 the parish had a population of 34,768. Name The first use of the name was by John Whit ...

in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

, with goals from

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

loanee Charlie Patino and striker Jerry Yates. Despite a difficult start against four of the top six teams in the league, Williams improved Swansea's form over the last quarter of the season; they avoided relegation and finished 14th in the league. In February 2025, Williams has left Swansea City after a run of seven defeats in nine Championship matches.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Manager

Brighton & Hove Albion U23 *

: 2011 Notts County * National League play-offs:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Individual

Manager of the Month: October 2022, March 2023

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Luke Living people 1981 births Men's association football players not categorized by position English men's footballers English football managers Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. non-playing staff Swindon Town F.C. non-playing staff Swindon Town F.C. managers Milton Keynes Dons F.C. non-playing staff Bristol City F.C. non-playing staff Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff Notts County F.C. managers Swansea City A.F.C. managers English Football League managers National League (English football) managers Leyton Orient F.C. non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Footballers from London 21st-century English sportsmen