Football manager-owner: who has assumed the dual role at a club?

“We’ve heard of player-managers (Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit, Nicolas Anelka). We’ve also heard of an owner-player (Rivaldo for Mogi Mirim). Are there any instances of owner-managers? Do the laws of the game prevent the owners from being first-team managers or assistant managers?” asks Kuch Bhi.

Yes there are, and no they don’t. And where else can we start but Carlisle and Michael Knighton, as a number of you suggested. Jacob Steinberg recalls the story in this Joy of Six:

In 1997 they were promoted to Division Two and won the Football League Trophy. Yet after a poor start to the season, Knighton sacked Mervyn Day and found himself in need of a new manager. Names came and went until, finally, gloriously, deliciously, he was engulfed by a moment of inspiration – he, Michael Knighton, entrepreneur, artist, poet, political commentator, English football’s greatest visionary, would be manager. Eureka! Alas, Carlisle were relegated. At least Knighton sacked himself after winning 19 of his 68 games in charge and appointed Nigel Pearson in December 1998, but Carlisle still needed Jimmy Glass to save them from dropping out of the Football League with the last kick of the season.

Next up? Ron Noades. “In 1998, the then Crystal Palace chairman and effective owner, Ron Noades, took over as manager for two matches (with Ray Lewington as his assistant) although by then relegation was already inevitable,” writes David Smith. “His record read: one draw and one defeat.” He headed to Brentford, later admitting: “I wanted to manage. I wanted to decide myself who I wanted to buy, and the big advantage of doing both roles is that you speed up the process so much. I could buy a player within 24 hours when other clubs were talking about sending out their chief scout to see them, after that the manager and then after that trying to persuade the chairman to buy him. While they were still poncing about, I’d bought him.”

Jordan Becker points to one-time American football player Terry Smith, “the former owner of Chester City who named himself first-team manager during the club’s calamitous 1999-2000 season. Smith was the leader of Chester’s five-man ‘coaching council’, one of the many unorthodox (to say the least) policies he implemented before selling the club about two years later.” Other non-league examples include Graham Westley at Farnborough (do read this 2003 piece by Ian Ridley on his exit) Dave Pace at Droylsden and the more recent example of Glenn Tamplin at Billericay Town. While, further afield, there’s Gheorghe Hagi at FC Viitorul Constanta in Romania.

Mike Watson wraps us up in Scotland. “Severe financial difficulties drove Dundee United close to extinction on three occasions during the 1930s, the final one in October 1936,” he begins. “That was when former director George Greig, a businessman and councillor in the city, offered to underwrite the debts, on condition that the board of directors resigned, allowing him to run the club as a one-man operation.

“Despite his lack of any experience, Greig dismissed legendary manager Jimmy Brownlie, taking over in a role that he described as manager/director, although he was the sole owner. He left tactics to trainer Johnny Hart, but insisted on selecting the team. That arrangement continued for 18 months until after the 1937-38 season, in which United replicated their finish in the previous one of 14th out of 18 in Division Two. Greig did preside over a major Scottish Cup giant-killing, when United defeated Hearts (that season’s Division One runners-up) 3-1 at Tannadice in January 1938. Despite their stunning win, the owner-manager paid the players only the normal £2 win bonus.”

The name game

“Regarding the question posed, in the 1999-2000 Serie A season Flavio Roma was playing for Piacenza and Guillermo Amor for Fiorentina,” Alejandro Perna informs us. “On both games played between these teams Roma started for Piacenza but Amor didn’t come off the bench. More recently, on 7 August 2017, Wesley Said of Dijon faced Luiz Gustavo (surname Dias) of Marseille.”

James Clarke was close but not quite there. “Most harrowingly of all in my search: Wesley Said, of Dijon, started and even scored against Monaco in August 2017, but he was substituted in the 72nd minute,” he notes. “As if waiting for this to happen, Monaco brought Gil Dias off the bench 11 minutes later. And two days later Dias moved to Fiorentina, taking away the future opportunity of an encounter between the two later in the season.”

Consecutive results

“Hemel Hempstead Town beat St Albans City 2-0 on New Year’s Day,” begins Andrew Levey. “This ended a run of five consecutive 2-2 draws between the two sides in the National League South. Has there been a longer run of identical scores between two teams?”

William Kearney knows a sequence when he sees one. “Brentford and Notts County drew 1-1 in five consecutive games between October 2008 and October 2011,” he points out. “This was in the middle of a run of eight consecutive draws between the teams (two 0-0 and one more 1-1) between 2007 and 2012.”

Knowledge archive

“Is Owen Hargreaves the only player to have played for England without having first played in the English league?” asked Simon Devon in 2004.

Apparently not, Simon. “Pedantry cap firmly in place,” began Alan Reidy, “the answer is clearly no, as the English league came into being 16 years after England’s first international fixture.”

Pedantry aside, there is one other shining example that most of you cited. “The late, great Joe Baker was capped by England as a 19-year-old playing for Hibernian in 1960,” noted Ronnie Pont. “Although brought up in Lanarkshire, he had been born in Liverpool to an English father and so couldn’t play for Scotland.” Baker also played for Torino before making his English-league debut with Arsenal, after a £70,000 move in 1962.

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“Brothers Reece and Ross Glendinning are well-known figures in Northern Ireland’s domestic game. Both played for Linfield, while their father Mark is widely considered to be one of the best full-backs to grace the Irish League. Right-back Reece is on loan from Linfield at Ards, while goalkeeper Ross is at Ballymena United. Last Saturday, Reece scored the only goal in Ards’ 1-0 win over Ballymena, firing past his elder brother. Is this the first time a goalkeeper has been beaten by his own brother in a competitive match (discounting own goals)?” – Keith Bailie.

“In the Reading v Stevenage FA Cup game, Reading had to change kit halfway through as it clashed,” mails Paul Savage. “Reading changed into their away kit, despite being the home side. Has this happened before?”

“My team Cheltenham Town last week signed the spectacularly named Ilias Chatzitheodoridis on loan from Brentford,” begins Joe De Saulles. “Has there been anyone else to have played in the Football League with as long a single-word surname (17 letters)? Or longer?”

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