Peter Grant (footballer)

Peter Grant

Personal information
Full name	Peter Grant
Date of birth	30 August 1965 (1965-08-30)
Place of birth	Bellshill, Scotland
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1982–1997	Celtic	362	(15)
1997–1999	Norwich City	68	(3)
1999–2000	Reading	29	(1)
2000–2002	Bournemouth	15	(0)
National team
1989	Scotland	2	(0)
Teams managed
2006–2007	Norwich City
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Peter Grant (born 30 August 1965 in Bellshill) is a Scottish former footballer and was, until October 2007, manager of Norwich City. This was Grant's first role in management, but he had previously held coaching jobs at Bournemouth, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion. He is currently the assistant manager at Aston Villa.

During his playing career, Grant played for Celtic, Norwich City, Reading and Bournemouth. He was awarded a testimonial match against Bayern Munich by Celtic in 1997.

Playing career

Peter Grant made his debut as a teenager for Celtic against Rangers. He quickly became a cult hero among Celtic fans, with his never say die attitude, and most of all his love of the club. He was a key figure in many memorable league campaigns, such as the 1986 League Championship which Celtic won in spectacular style in the last game of the season, the 1988 season where Celtic clinched the league and cup double in what was their centenery year, and the 1989 Scottish Cup final against Rangers. The 1989 final was all the more sweeter for Grant, having missed it the previous year due to injury.

Celtic would experience a barren period after the 1989 final, consistently failing to challenge for silverware, and almost going bankrupt in 1993. Despite this downturn in Celtic's fortunes, and offers from other clubs, Grant remained loyal to Celtic. He famously stated that whenever he signed a new contract for Celtic, his only concern was the length of the contract as he loved the club so much.

1994 saw the arrival of Grant's former team mate Tommy Burns as Celtic manager, who saw Grant as being pivotal in his plans to revive the club. The barren period would end in 1995 with Celtic winning the Scottish Cup against Airdrie, with Grant a key figure in the team. Only a few weeks before, Grant had received a bad knee injury in the final league game of the season, but he concealed the severity of this injury and played through the pain barrier so as he could help Celtic to their first trophy in 6 years.

Grant went on to be a key figure in the 1995 / 1996 squad, which many believe to have been the greatest ever Celtic squad not to win any trophies, and in 1996 his loyalty to Celtic was rewarding with a testimonial match against Bayern Munich.

After making 361 appearances for Celtic between 1982 and 1997, Grant signed for Norwich City for a fee of £200,000. Mike Walker, in his second stint as Norwich City manager, had previously tried to sign Grant soon after taking over from Dave Stringer at Carrow Road in 1992 - however, Celtic had been unwilling to let Grant leave, and Walker opted for Gary Megson as a midfielder enforcer.

After deciding against taking on former Barcelona captain (and European Cup winner) Jose Maria Bakero, Walker this time found Celtic willing to let Grant - now 32 - move to East Anglia. In 1997–98, a difficult season with the club suffering a number of injuries to key players, Grant started 32 games, scoring 3 times; he made 31 starts (coming on as substitute twice) the following season under Bruce Rioch, before being transferred to Reading in summer 1999.

Grant was sent off in an old firm game after breaking out from the wall to get a 2nd yellow card (after being booked for conceding the foul).

He suffers from ichthyophobia.

Management and coaching career

Grant enjoyed a successful time as assistant manager to Alan Pardew at West Ham, helping them reach the 2006 FA Cup Final and finish ninth in their first season back in the English Premier League.

In October 2006 Peter Grant was appointed manager of Norwich City, leaving his position as Alan Pardew's assistant manager at West Ham United. On 14 October he was in the stands to see his new side draw 3-3 with Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road, presided over by caretaker manager Martin Hunter.

Grant opted to retain Hunter, but appointed a new assistant manager, Jim Duffy. Hunter eventually left the club in the summer of 2007 to take up a coaching position at Watford. Grant's first signing for Norwich was Jamie Ashdown from Portsmouth on a one month loan.

Grant generally made a good start to his managerial career only losing 2 league gamea out of his first 6 although this was a heavy 5-0 defeat to Stoke and a defeat to local rivals Ipswich. They did get wins against high flying teams such as Birmingham and Cardiff. However following this City only won once in the league in December and January which put them very close to the relegation zone. At one point City were only three points off the drop zone although two consecutive away wins at relegation rivals Barnsley and Luton all but ended any fears of relegation and City finished the season off in 16th.

In the summer of 2007 Grant prepared for his first full season in charge at Carrow Road by signing Jamie Cureton, Jon Otsemobor, David Marshall. He also signed Julien Brellier and David Strihavka, both of whom struggled to perform and left by January. However, he expressed his frustration at losing Rob Earnshaw and Dickson Etuhu as a result of buy-out clauses in their contracts.

City's season got off to a 0-0 draw at preston and a 2-1 home win against Southampton. However after this it all started to go wrong and City only picked up one win in the next few games against Crystal Palace. After this City went on a disastrous run losing 5 out of their six games and failing to score in any of them. The last game of this run was a televised 1-0 defeat to QPR who had yet to register a win in the season. Grant announced after the match he was considering his future at the club and the next day he resigned as manager after just one year in charge.

On 8 July 2008, he joined West Bromwich Albion as first-team coach, replacing Craig Shakespeare. Grant, who holds a UEFA Pro License, was a team-mate of Albion manager Tony Mowbray at Celtic.

In June 2009, Celtic began negotiations with West Bromwich Albion to agree on compensation for the management team of Tony Mowbray, Mark Venus and Peter Grant. He was appointed the first-team coach at Parkhead after West Bromwich Albion and Celtic agreed a compensation fee believed to be in the region of £ 2.5 million.^{[citation needed]}

On 25 March 2010, Grant was dismissed as first-team coach at Celtic along with manager Tony Mowbray and coach Mark Venus after their 4-0 loss to St. Mirren the day before.

In July 2010 Grant was appointed first-team coach at Birmingham City. before following McLeish to Aston Villa as assistant manager.

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Norwich City		16 October 2006	9 October 2007	54	18	12	24	33.3

Honours as a player

• Scottish League Championship - 1986, 1988
• Scottish Cup - 1985, 1988, 1989, 1995

External links

• Peter Grant career stats at Soccerbase
• Peter Grant management career stats at Soccerbase
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk
• Information re Grant's Celtic career

Preceded by Martin Hunter (caretaker)

Norwich City F.C. manager 2006–07

Succeeded by Jim Duffy (caretaker)