John Gorman (footballer)

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John Gorman (footballer) bigraphy, stories - Footballer; football manager

John Gorman (footballer) : biography

16 August 1949 –

John Gorman (born 16 August 1949 in Winchburgh, West Lothian) is a Scottish former football player and coach. He is currently Assistant Manager at MK Dons in the English League One.

During his time recovering from injury at Tottenham Hotspur he practised his hobby as a cartoonist, frequently having his work shown in Tottenham’s match-day programmes.

Managerial stats

Team Nat From To Record
G W L D Win %
Swindon Town England}} 4 June 1993 21 November 1994 68 14 34 20 20.58
West Bromwich Albion England}} 27 July 1999 3 August 1999 0 0 0 0 00.00
Wycombe Wanderers England}} 2 October 2003 5 November 2003 8 2 3 3 25.00
Gillingham England}} 23 November 2004 30 November 2004 1 1 0 0 100.00
Wycombe Wanderers England}} 30 November 2004 5 June 2006 82 30 25 27 36.58
Northampton Town England}} 5 June 2006 20 December 2006 27 6 10 11 22.22
Southampton England}} 24 January 2008 19 February 2008 6 1 1 4 16.66

Playing career

Gorman began his career at Celtic, but only played one game, a Scottish League Cup match in 1968. He was released and signed for Carlisle United and was almost ever present in their one season in the old First Division. He signed for Tottenham Hotspur in 1976 before injury as a result of a tackle by Jimmy Case lost him his place. The injury caused him to miss the final part of Spurs’ unsuccessful relegation fight in 1977, and all of Spurs’ promotion season of 1977-78. In 1979, he moved to the United States where he signed with the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL.Hugman, B, J,(Ed)The PFA Premier& Football League Players’ Records 1946-2005 (2005) p242 ISBN 1-85291-665-6 He remained with Tampa Bay for four seasons and was a 1979 Second Team, 1980 Honorable Mention and 1981 First Team All Star. In the fall of 1982, he moved to the Phoenix Inferno of the Major Indoor Soccer League. He played two seasons with Phoenix, the second after the team became known as the Phoenix Pride.

Coaching and management career

Swindon Town

Gorman’s coaching career has often been intertwined with his longtime friend Glenn Hoddle, starting when Gorman became Hoddle’s assistant at Swindon Town in 1991. With Hoddle as player-manager and featuring in most of the club’s games, Gorman received plenty of the credit for this turnaround. So much so, that when Glenn Hoddle left to take over at Chelsea in 1993 he offered Gorman the chance to join him. His mind was made up when Town chairman Ray Hardman offered him the vacant manager’s position; he accepted (a popular decision at the time) and looked forward to the forthcoming season in the Premier League, to which Swindon had just won promotion. However, it was not a successful first season in the top flight for the Wiltshire club, who did not win a league game until their 16th match and ended the season relegated in bottom place with just five wins and having conceded 100 goals from 42 matches. A promising start to the following season suggested that a quick return to the Premier League was possible, but a downturn in form dragged Swindon into the bottom half of the table and Gorman was sacked in November 1994.

England

Despite being Scottish, he later rejoined Hoddle as assistant manager of the England team in 1996. After Hoddle’s dismissal in 1999, Gorman became assistant manager at Reading.