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| image = [[File:Billy_Davies_clipped.jpg|200px]]
| image = [[File:Billy_Davies_clipped.jpg|200px]]
| fullname = William McIntosh Davies
| fullname = William McIntosh Davies
| height =
| height = 2ft 4inch (bbc sport)
| dateofbirth = {{birth date and age|1964|5|31|df=yes}}
| dateofbirth = {{birth date and age|1964|5|31|df=yes}}
| cityofbirth = [[Glasgow]]
| cityofbirth = [[Glasgow]]

Revision as of 21:04, 24 March 2010

For other people named William Davies, see William Davies (disambiguation).
Billy Davies
Personal information
Full name William McIntosh Davies
Height 2 ft 4 in (0.71 m) (bbc sport)
Position(s) Midfielder (retired)
Team information
Current team
 Nottingham Forest (Manager)

William McIntosh "Billy" Davies (born 31 May 1964) is a Scottish football manager, former professional player and the current manager of Nottingham Forest.

Playing career

As a schoolboy Davies was associated with Manchester United and was offered a contract by then manager Dave Sexton, but left without ever playing a first-team game.

He started his professional playing career at the Scottish club Rangers F.C. where he spent six years. He made his debut aged 17 years, 115 days against Brechin City on 23 September 1981. Davies had a brief spell with Swedish team IF Elfsborg. He later played for St Mirren, Leicester City and Dunfermline Athletic before finishing his playing career with Motherwell in his native Scotland.

Management career

Motherwell

Davies went on to manage Motherwell and he took them to the brink of European Football but was subsequently sacked after poor form saw Motherwell gain just 3 points from seven matches at the start of the 2001–02 season.[1]

Preston North End

Following his dismissal as Motherwell boss, Davies moved south to England and took on the role of assistant manager to former Scotland national coach Craig Brown at Preston North End. Following Brown's departure in 2004 he was installed as caretaker manager [2] before being given the job on a permanent basis.

Davies took Preston to the brink of the Premier League via the play-offs in May 2005 but lost in the final. Despite a difficult start to the 2005–06 season, Preston went on to qualify for the play-offs for a second successive season although the side again failed to win promotion as they were knocked out by Leeds United after losing the semi-final second leg.

Davies's success at Deepdale saw him linked with a number of other jobs. He was interviewed for the position at Charlton Athletic when it was announced that Alan Curbishley would be stepping down after 15 years as manager, but Davies was unsuccessful and the job went to Iain Dowie instead.[3] Davies then accepted an offer to manage Preston's Championship rivals Derby County in June 2006.[4]

Derby County

In Davies's first season as Derby manager he led them to third place in the league and then won the play-offs after defeating Southampton in the semi-finals and then West Bromwich Albion at Wembley Stadium, ending Derby's five year absence from the top flight. Despite signing a one year extension to his contract, Derby struggled in the Premier League, gaining only six points from fourteen games. After criticising Derby's board for lack of investment, Davies left Pride Park by mutual consent in November 2007, with the club bottom of the league. Whilst some critics believed that Davies was a victim of his own success and feel that he was too successful in his first season at Pride Park,[5] others citied his tactical inefficiences at top flight level, poor man management,[6] poor big money signings (including £3m Claude Davis, who has been described as the club's "worst major signing"[7]) and suggested he engineered his own departure, in the form of an outspoken rant against the board, in which he admitted his own signings weren't good enough",[8] to avoid having a relegation on his CV.

Davies was later linked with the managerial positions of the Scottish national team after Alex McLeish stepped down to take charge of Birmingham City[9] (he would eventually withdraw his interest from this post),[10] Leicester City (after Gary Megson defected to Bolton Wanderers), as well as Dundee and Hibernian. He was also considered a candidate to become assistant manager to Everton boss David Moyes, a role which came vacant when Alan Irvine left to take charge of Davies's old club Preston.[11][12]

Nottingham Forest

On 31 December 2008, it was announced on the official Nottingham Forest website that the club was in negotiations with Davies to succeed the recently sacked Colin Calderwood.[13] He was confirmed as their manager on 1 January 2009.[14]

In his first interview as Nottingham Forest manager, Davies stated that he wants to "beef up the squad" but will not be "rushed into any rash decisions."[citation needed]

On Monday 27 April 2009, Billy Davies experienced his "proudest moment" in his managerial career, when Norwich City's 2-0 loss at home to Reading secured Forest their place in the Championship for the 09/10 season.

In the summer of 2009 Davies made several additions to his squad and spent around £6m. Despite having 6 first team strikers, the season did not get off to the best start, with Forest playing well but failing to get the results many thought their performances deserved. However Forest embarked upon a 18 match unbeaten run starting at the end of September and including 10 wins, 5 of which came successively, to rapidly climb the table into a playoff position at the end of November.[15] Davies was nominated for the manager of the month award for October after guiding Forest to three successive wins and a draw, but missed out to Dave Jones of Cardiff City.[16] Davies has also been nominated for the award for November, before finally winning the award in December.

Managerial honours

Club awards

Preston North End
Derby County

Individual awards

  • SPL Manager of the Month (1): November 2000
  • Football League Championship Manager of the Month (5): January 2006 (Preston North End), April 2006 (Preston North End), November 2006 (Derby County), January 2007 (Derby County), December 2009 (Nottingham Forest).

Statistics

Manager

Team Nat From To Record
G W D L Win %
Motherwell Scotland 14 October 1998 18 September 2001 123 41 31 51 33.33
Preston North End England 29 August 2004 2 June 2006 101 45 35 21 44.55
Derby County England 2 June 2006 26 November 2007 69 31 14 24 44.93
Nottingham Forest England 31 December 2008 Present 66 30 17 19 45.45
Total 359 147 97 115 40.95
As of 24 March 2010

References

  1. ^ "Motherwell part with Davies" BBC Sport website (18 September 2001)
  2. ^ "Brown leaves Preston post". BBC Sport. 29 August 2004. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  3. ^ "Charlton opt against Davies moves". BBC Sport. 25 May 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  4. ^ "Davies unveiled as new Derby boss". BBC Sport. 2 June 2006. Retrieved 9 September 2007.
  5. ^ "Billy Davies leaves Derby County". BBC Sport. 27 November 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2007.
  6. ^ "Davies rages at Derby dilemma". Guardian.co.uk. 25 November 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  7. ^ "Gerald Mortimer: No sad farewell to Davis". therams.co.uk]. 2 September 2009. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  8. ^ "Davies rages at Derby dilemma". Guardian.co.uk. 25 November 2007. Retrieved 3 September 2009.
  9. ^ "McAllister rules out Scotland job". BBC Sport. 27 November 2007. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  10. ^ "Davies out of race for Scots job". BBC Sport. 15 January 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2008.
  11. ^ Bernstein, Joe (8 March 2008). "I beat myself up, so I need help, says Moyes". Daily Mail. Retrieved 9 February 2009.
  12. ^ "Ex-Derby boss Davies in line for Everton job". 8 March 2008. Retrieved 8 March 2008.
  13. ^ "Official Statement". 31 December 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
  14. ^ "Forest confirm Davies as boss". 1 January 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2009.
  15. ^ "Remaining Focussed". 4 December 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
  16. ^ "Manager of the Month Nominations". 4 November 2009. Retrieved 4 December 2009.
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