Chris Coleman
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Chris Coleman (b. 6 October 1970, Swansea, Wales) is a football manager, who also used to play in defence professionally. His most significant achievements include winning the Premiership with Blackburn Rovers in 1995 and attaining a very respectable ninth place finish in the Premier League as the manager of Fulham, who had been tipped for relegation, in 2004. It was the club's highest ever league finish.
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Career overview
Playing
- 1997 - 2002: Fulham
- 1995 - 1997: Blackburn Rovers
- 1991 - 1995: Crystal Palace
- 1987 - 1991: Swansea City
and
- Wales: 32 Caps and 4 Goals
Managing
What a legendary manager he is.
In depth life and times
Early life
Coleman was born in Swansea, but actually grew up in and around Gloucester. The first professional team he was contracted to was Man City, aged 16, although he later left them to join Swansea.
At Swansea
Having been born in the City, Coleman made his first professional appearance for the club aged 17, in 1987. After making nearly 200 appearances for the South-Wales club, he was recognised as a good talent and moved on after four years.
At Palace
After spending four years with his hometown club, Crystal Palace deemed him good enough to be worthy of a transfer of around a quarter of a million pounds - a reasonable figure for a 21-year old in the pre-Premiership days. After making 143 appearances, scoring 16 goals in that period - a 1 in 9 record being very good for a defender, he had attracted enough attention to move into the big time with Blackburn Rovers. The major lowlight of this period was relegation from the Premiership, but he did obtain his first cap for Wales while contracted at Palace.
At Blackburn
Having played so well in his five year period at Blackburn, a hefty 2.8 million pounds were paid for him by a revolutionary Blackburn team: the first to buy players en masse. Despite a generally successful period, in which Coleman made 28 Premiership appearances, and the 1995 Premiership title being won, when Coleman found himself out of the starting line-up too often (not helped by a persistent Achilles injury), Coleman took the brave gamble to further his career by dropping to the lower divisions at Fulham.
At Fulham
In 1997, as the manager charged with leading Fulham's charge to the Premiership, Kevin Keegan managed to persuade Coleman, then of Blackburn Rovers, a Premiership side themselves, to drop two divisions to Division Two, for a divisional record fee of over two million pounds.
Having played his first game at Brentford in January 1998, he was quickly given the post of club captain, and "Captain Cookie" (a nickname no-one can really explain) was soon a fan's favourite, leading Fulham to promotion to Division One, in a record-breaking season. He was consistent throughout the club's mediocre first season there, and his position as club captain was re-affirmed by Jean Tigana, who was appointed manager of the club in summer 2000. As the club rolled towards an impressive promotion to the Premiership, Coleman was left behind after a car crash in Surrey in January 2001 broke his leg just days before a much hyped FA Cup tie against Man Utd.
All the well-wishing fans were unable to ensure a speedy recovery though, and it was only after a reserve fixture in March 2002 that he finally realised he would never play again - although this was hardly suprising seeing as at one point never walking again looked possible. He was persuaded to join Fulham's coaching staff by Tigana in October 2002, and he could never have guessed where this would lead.
In March 2003 Tigana left Fulham, two months before the pre-arranged date. With no obvious candidates to succeed him, many big names were mentioned in the press such as Radomir Antic, before the chairman appointed Coleman on a part time basis. The support of the Fulham faithful oversaw him saving the club from relegation, and almost inevitably being appointed full-time manager, the youngest in the Premiership at the time, in the close season.
In his first season, Coleman did well, re-igniting the Fulham team to a 9th place finish in the league (their best ever), and in the process helping Louis Saha re-construct his career to the extent that a big move away came in January 2004. In the current (2004-2005) season, he is not quite doing as well, but with the support of the fans he should remain in his current job for a while yet, despite speculation linking him to the Welsh National Team.
For Wales
<<more later>>
Trivia
- A picture of Coleman was inexplicably given the caption Stuart Franklin in the programme for a Fulham versus Port Vale game, which spawned 'The Stuart Franklin Column' , in a fanzine called Where Were We When We Were Sh*t. It later went out of business - partly due to the competition of rival mag TOOFIF.
| Preceded by: Jean Tigana | Fulham F.C. Manager May 2003-Present | Succeeded by: Current Incumbent External links
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