Walter Smith, OBE (born 24 February 1948) is a
Scottish
football manager. He is currently the manager of
Scottish Premier League club
Rangers. This is his second spell as
manager of the club - he previously won seven consecutive
Scottish league
championships in the 1990s during his first spell as manager.
Smith is the second most successful manager in the history of
Rangers behind
Bill Struth.
He left Rangers in 1998 and managed
Premier League club
Everton for four seasons, but was sacked in
2002. Smith was later appointed
Scotland manager in 2004 and
presided over a revival in the national team's fortunes, before
returning to Rangers in 2007. He had a relatively undistinguished
playing career, consisting of two spells with
Dundee United which was split by a short
time at
Dumbarton.
Early life
Smith was
born in Lanark
, and was a
boyhood fan of Rangers. He was employed by the South of
Scotland Electricity Board before launching his football career in
the 1960s with
Junior League team
Ashfield.
Playing career
Smith signed as a defender with
Dundee United in 1966, joining as a
part-timer while working as an
electrician. In September 1975 he moved to
Dumbarton, but returned to United in
1977. At the age of 29, a pelvic injury threatened his career and
he was invited to join the Dundee United coaching staff by
Jim McLean. His first team appearances were
limited thereafter, but he remained a signed player and his final
club match was in September 1980. In total, he made over 250 senior
appearances, scoring three goals, two of which were in his own
net.
Managerial career
Early coaching career
He
developed his coaching skills, not only at Tannadice Park
as assistant manager to Jim McLean, at a time when
Dundee United were Scottish champions and European Cup
semi-finalists, but also with the SFA. In 1978 he was
appointed coach of the Scotland Under 18 team, and helped Scotland
to win the European Youth Championship in 1982. He became coach of
the Under 21 team, and was
Alex
Ferguson's assistant manager during the
1986 Mexico World Cup.
Rangers
By 1986,
Graeme Souness had invited
him to become assistant manager at Rangers and he was instrumental
in their success over the following years. When Souness left, Smith
was appointed manager of the club in April 1991.
Seven successive league titles followed under Smith's tenure,
including a domestic treble in
1992–93. He also won
both the
Scottish Cup and the
League Cup three times each. He
signalled his intention to leave Rangers in October 1997 after a
period of total domination of Scottish league football. Rangers
equalled
Celtic's record of nine
successive championships in 1997 but were denied a record-breaking
tenth success in 1998 as Rangers lost the title to Celtic and lost
the Scottish Cup final to
Hearts. This marred a splendid
managerial career but Smith left Ibrox in May with his reputation
as one of the most successful Scottish managers still intact.
Everton
Already successful in his native Scotland, Smith accepted the
manager's job at
Premier League club
Everton in 1998. Smith replaced
Howard Kendall after his third spell
as Everton manager, having only avoided relegation in 1997 due to
their superior
goal difference over
Bolton Wanderers.
Under Smith, Everton finished in the bottom half of the table for
three consecutive seasons. The Everton board finally ran out of
patience with Smith and he was sacked in March 2002 after a 3–0 FA
Cup Sixth Round defeat to
Middlesbrough, with Everton in real
danger of relegation from the Premier League. He was replaced by
David Moyes, who delivered Everton to a
safe finish in fifteenth place.
Manchester United
In March 2004, Smith returned to football when he had a short spell
as assistant manager to
Alex Ferguson
at
Manchester United at the
end of the
2003–04
season.
Scotland national team
Smith was appointed manager of the
Scottish national team on 2
December 2004, succeeding
Berti Vogts.
Despite a revival of fortunes under Smith, hopes of reaching the
2006 World Cup were dashed after
an unexpected defeat against
Belarus.
Scotland's world
ranking shot up by seventy places by the end of Smith's tenure at
Hampden
.
Smith recorded his best result to date when Scotland recorded a
historic and vital victory over World Cup runners up
France on 7 October 2006 when
they won their
UEFA Euro
2008 qualification match 1–0 at Hampden Park and temporarily
led their group by three points. A 2–0 defeat against
Ukraine on 11 October 2006
was Smith's team's first of the campaign.
Return to Rangers
On 5 January 2007, many press outlets reported that
Rangers had spoken to Smith with a view to
hiring him to manage Rangers again, with
Ally McCoist as assistant manager. On 8
January, the SFA rebuffed Rangers' approach for Smith by refusing
to release him from his SFA contract, or to accept his resignation,
citing his contractual obligation to the national team until late
2008, during a critical period for the team. Smith's return as
Rangers manager was announced on 10 January 2007.
He made a
better start to his second spell at Ibrox
, beating
Dundee United 5–0 on 13 January,
with two goals from Kris Boyd and one each
from Barry Ferguson, Chris Burke and Charlie Adam.
Smith's first final since his return was secured with a 2–0 win
over
Hearts in the
2007–08 Scottish League Cup,
they played
Dundee United in the
final – the game was drawn 1–1 after normal time, and 2–2 after
extra time. The winners were decided by penalty kicks. Rangers won
3–2, with
Kris Boyd scoring the winning
penalty (as well as the goals for
Rangers in normal time and extra time).
In the
UEFA Cup, Walter Smith booked
Rangers' first European final for 36 years. In the quarter-final,
after a 0–0 home draw with
Sporting, Rangers went on to win
the away leg 2–0. In the semi-final they drew 0–0 in both legs
against
Fiorentina and after extra
time, they won 4–2 on penalties, taking Rangers to the
UEFA Cup Final in Manchester, which they
lost 0–2 to
Zenit St.
Petersburg.
Smith suffered an embarrassing start to his second full campaign as
Rangers manager, drawing 0-0 with Lithuanian side
FBK Kaunas at Ibrox on 30 July 2008 and then
losing the return leg 2-1. The loss against Kaunas meant Rangers
made an early exit from European competition. Smith however more
than made up for this setback when on 24 May 2009 Smith won his
first
SPL title in his
second spell in charge and the 52nd Championship in the history of
Rangers. He followed this up with the
Scottish Cup a week later to end the season
with a League and Cup double.
Managerial stats
- Correct as of 21 November 2009
| Team |
From |
To |
Record |
| G |
W |
D |
L |
Win % |
| Rangers |
10 January 2007 |
|
153 |
95 |
35 |
23 |
62.09 |
| Scotland |
2 December 2004 |
10 January 2007 |
16 |
7 |
5 |
4 |
43.75 |
| Everton |
1 July 1998 |
13 March 2002 |
168 |
53 |
50 |
65 |
31.54 |
| Rangers |
16 April 1991 |
31 May 1998 |
380 |
249 |
68 |
63 |
65.52 |
Honours
Managerial
- Rangers
- Scottish Premier League:
1990–91,
1991–92,
1992–93,
1993–94,
1994–95,
1995–96,
1996–97,
2008–09
- Scottish Cup: 1991–92, 1992–93, 1995–96, 2007–08, 2008–09
- Scottish League Cup:
1992–93,
1993–94,
1996–97,
2007–08
- Scotland
Individual
References
- "Walter Smith joins Man Utd" BBC Sport website
(3 March 2004)
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