Michael "Mick" Wadsworth
(born 3 November 1950 in Barnsley
, South Yorkshire
) is an English
football coach and former player, who most recently had
the role of manager of Chester City Football Club from
June to September 2009.
Playing career
Wadsworth was, for a very short time, a player. But with his
league playing experience
limited to around thirty appearances for
Scunthorpe United in the
1976–77 season, it is for
coaching that he is best known.
A
non-league playing career with clubs
including
Gainsborough
Trinity and
Mossley ended at
Frickley Athletic, where
Wadsworth was
player-manager.
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.
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.
Post-FA Positions
Management and Coaching
Carlisle United Manager
In 1993, Wadsworth was offered a coaching role at
PSV Eindhoven, 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 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. 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 at
Norwich City. Norwich were to finish the
season 16th of 24 in
Division One. At the end of
the disastrous season he moved to
Scarborough 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
Colchester United, who finished 18th
in Division Two that May. In the close-season, Wadsworth held a
short-term coaching role with
St. Kitts &
Nevis. Not long afterwards, however, Wadsworth resigned from
Colchester, on 25 August 1999.
Newcastle United Assistant Manager
After leaving Colchester, Wadsworth spent two weeks working with
Steve Coppell at
Crystal Palace before becoming assistant
manager to Sir
Bobby Robson at
Newcastle United.
In May 2000, Newcastle finished 11th in the
Premier League, a position they would repeat
in 2001.
Southampton Assistant Manager, Oldham Manager
Wadsworth was to leave Newcastle in June 2001, without telling Sir
Bobby, to become assistant manager to
Stuart Gray at
Southampton. In November the duo were
sacked after a very poor start to the season. The following month
he was appointed manager of
Oldham Athletic but was fired at the
end of the season after finishing ninth in Division Two.
Huddersfield Town Manager
After
Lou Macari and
Joe Jordan's dismissal Wadsworth was
appointed manager of
Huddersfield
Town 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
Democratic Republic of Congo
ahead of
African Nations Cup,
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.
Portugal/Shrewsbury
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 in January 2005 as assistant manager to
Gary Peters and remained with the
club until March 2006.
Gretna and Chester
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 and assistant manager when David Irons 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.
He was appointed
Chester City
manager on 29 June 2009. After just two wins in 13 Football
Conference games, Wadworth was sacked.
References
-
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/g/gretna/7408191.stm
BBC Sport - Retrieved on 19 May 2008
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