Alan Irvine (footballer born 1958)

Alan Irvine

Personal information
Full name	Alan James Irvine
Date of birth	12 July 1958 (1958-07-12)
Place of birth	Glasgow, Scotland
Playing position	Winger
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1977–1981	Queen's Park	88	(9)
1981–1984	Everton	60	(4)
1984–1987	Crystal Palace	109	(12)
1987–1989	Dundee United	24	(3)
1989–1992	Blackburn Rovers	58	(3)
Teams managed
2007–2009	Preston North End
2010–2011	Sheffield Wednesday
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

James Alan Irvine (born 12 July 1958), more commonly known as Alan Irvine, is a Scottish former football player and manager, currently in charge of the Everton academy. Irvine played for five different clubs in Scotland and England during a 15 year playing career. He then became a coach, assisting Davie Moyes at Preston North End and then Everton. Irvine subsequently became a manager in his own right, working for Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday.

Career

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Irvine studied for qualifications as an insurance broker whilst playing for Queen's Park. He went on to play for Everton, Crystal Palace, Dundee United and Blackburn Rovers. In 1992, he was part of the Blackburn team that won promotion to the new FA Premier League, only to announce his retirement from playing just before the 1992–93 season begin.

Coaching career

Irvine returned to Goodison Park 18 years after leaving as a player to join the coaching staff. He was also formerly academy director at Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, where he was credited with bringing through players such as Steven Taylor and Peter Ramage.

Irvine took over as manager of Preston North End on 20 November 2007 with Preston in a relegation battle. He guided Preston to a respectable 15th place in the 2007–08 season. In his first full season in charge, Irvine led Preston to the play-offs when on a dramatic final day of the season, after Preston clinched the final play-off spot thanks to goals from Jon Parkin and Sean St. Ledger. After that he was named the Championship Manager of the Month for April. Preston lost their play-off semi-final to Sheffield United 2–1 on aggregate. He was sacked on 29 December 2009 after Preston suffered a poor run of results where the team only won once in 10 games. His departure from Preston caused outrage from fans.^{[citation needed]}

Irvine was appointed manager of Sheffield Wednesday on 8 January 2010. Wednesday got off to a good start under Irvine, winning games against Barnsley, Blackpool and Peterborough United. Irvine was named Championship Manager of the month for January 2010. This form was not sustained, however, as on the last day of the season Wednesday needed a home win against Crystal Palace to avoid relegation. The match ended in a 2–2 draw, relegating Wednesday to Football League One.

Wednesday then had severe financial issues, with the club appearing in court twice over winding up orders. Following the successful takeover by Milan Mandaric at the end of 2010, Irvine was allowed transfer funds to revamp his squad. Despite making several new signings, the team continued to have consistently poor results. On 3 February 2011, Wednesday sacked Irvine with the side lying 12th in League One.

It was announced on June 12, 2011 that Irvine had returned to Everton to replace Ray Hall as the manager of the club's academy.

Managerial statistics

As of 3 February 2011.

Team	Nation	From	To	Matches	Won	Drawn	Lost	Win %
Preston North End	England	20 November 2007	29 December 2009	111	45	26	40	40.54
Sheffield Wednesday	England	8 January 2010	3 February 2011	59	24	13	22	40.68
Total				&10000000000000170000000170	&1000000000000006900000069	&1000000000000003900000039	&1000000000000006200000062	&1000000000000004059000040.59

External links

• Alan Irvine management career stats at Soccerbase