Walter Smith

Walter Smith

Personal information
Full name	Walter Smith

Walter Smith OBE (born February 24 1948 in Lanark) is a Scottish former football player, but is better known as a football manager. He is currently the manager of Scottish Premier League club Rangers, his second spell in that capacity with the club.

Early life and career

Walter Smith was born in Lanark in 1948 and he grew up in Carmyle in the east end of Glasgow as a boyhood fan of Rangers. He trained as an electrician and gained employment at the South of Scotland Electricity Board before launching his football career in the 1960s with Junior League team Ashfield.

Smith signed as a defender with Dundee United in 1966, joining as a part-timer while working as an electrician. He was a decent player rather than a gifted one. In September 1975 he moved to Dumbarton, but returned to United in 1977. At the age of 29, a pelvic injury threatened his career and he was invited to join the Dundee United coaching staff by Jim McLean. His first team appearances were limited thereafter, but he remained a signed player and his final club match was in September 1980. In total, he made over 250 senior appearances, scoring three goals.

Managerial career

Early managerial career

He developed his coaching skills, not only at Tannadice Park as assistant manager to Jim McLean, at a time when Dundee United were Scottish champions and European Cup semi-finalists, but also with the SFA.

Rangers

In 1978 he was appointed coach of the Scotland Under 18 team, and helped Scotland to win the European Youth Championship in 1982. He became coach of the Under 21 team, and was Alex Ferguson's assistant manager during the 1986 Mexico World Cup. By then, Graeme Souness had invited him to become assistant manager at Rangers and he was instrumental in their success over the following years. When Souness left, Smith was appointed manager of the club in April 1991.

Seven successive league titles followed under Smith's tenure, including a domestic treble in 1992/93. He also won both the Scottish Cup and the League Cup three times each. He signalled his intention to leave Rangers in October 1997 after a period of total domination of Scottish league football. Rangers equalled Celtic's record of nine successive championships in 1997 but were denied a record-breaking tenth success in 1998 as Rangers lost the title to Celtic and lost the Scottish Cup final to Hearts. This marred a splendid managerial career but Smith left Ibrox in May with his reputation as one of the most successful Scottish managers still intact. In his time as Rangers manager, Smith spent £45 million on an array of domestic and foreign stars.

Everton

Already hugely successful in his native Scotland, Smith accepted the challenge to test his skills and become manager of English Premier League club Everton in 1998. Smith replaced Howard Kendall after his third spell as Everton manager, having only avoided relegation in 1997 due to their superior goal difference over Bolton Wanderers.

Undermined continually by a lack of funds to rejuvinate an aging squad, Smith's time at the club was disappointing and he only managed three successive finishes in the bottom half of the table. The Everton board finally ran out of patience with Smith and he was sacked in March 2002 with Everton in real danger of relegation. The current manager, David Moyes, was his replacement and delivered Everton to a safe finish in fifteenth place.

In March 2004, Smith returned to football when he had a short spell as assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United at the tail end of the 2003/2004 season.

Scotland

Smith was appointed manager of the Scottish national team on 2 December 2004, succeeding Berti Vogts . Despite a revival of fortunes under Smith, hopes of reaching the 2006 World Cup were dashed after suffering an unexpected defeat against Belarus. Scotland's world ranking has shot up almost forty places during Smith's tenure at Hampden. Smith recorded his best result to date when Scotland recorded a historic and vital victory over World Cup runners up France on October 7 2006 when they won their Euro 2008 qualification match 1-0 at Hampden Park and temporarily lead their group by three points .However a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Ukraine on October 11 2006, handed Smith's team its first defeat of the campaign .

Return to Rangers

On January 5 2007, many press outlets reported that Rangers had spoken to Smith (without permission from the SFA) with a view to hiring him to manage Rangers again, with Ally McCoist as assistant manager. However, on January 8, the SFA rebuffed Rangers' approach for Smith by refusing to release him from his SFA contract, or to accept his resignation, citing his contractual obligation to the national team until late 2008, during a critical period for the team.

Smith's return as Rangers manager was announced on January 10, 2007.

He made the best possible start to his second spell at Ibrox beating Dundee United 5-0 on January 13, with goals from Kris Boyd (2), Barry Ferguson, Chris Burke and Charlie Adam.

Smith's January signings for Rangers were David Weir from Everton, Ugo Ehiogu from Middlesbrough and Kevin Thomson from Hibs.

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Rangers		April 16 1991	May 31 1998	266	169	48	49	63.53
Everton		July 1 1998	March 13 2002	168	53	65	50	31.54
Scotland		December 2 2004	January 10 2007	16	7	5	4	43.75
Rangers		January 10 2007	Present	3	2	0	1	66.66

External links

• Walter Smith management career statistics at Soccerbase