George Burley

George Burley

Personal information
Full name	George Elder Burley
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Position(s)	Right-back
Team information
Current team	Southampton
Number	Manager

George Elder Burley (born June 3, 1956 in Cumnock, Kyle, East Ayrshire) is an ex-footballer. He is currently the manager of Southampton in the Football League Championship. George is uncle to ex-Celtic midfielder Craig Burley.

Playing career

Burley started his playing career as an apprentice at Ipswich Town, before moving to Sunderland after 13 years and exactly 500 appearances for the Suffolk club. Subsequently, he played for Gillingham and Motherwell, before becoming player/manager of Ayr United. In 1993 he moved to Falkirk as a player, before returning to Motherwell.

Management

Colchester

In 1994 he returned to East Anglia as player/manager of Colchester United.

Ipswich

Just six months later he was appointed manager at his former club, Ipswich Town with Dale Roberts as his assistant, having had illegal talks with Town without Colchester United knowing (compensation was duly paid). During an eight-year reign he took Ipswich to three play-offs and finally won promotion to the FA Premier League via the play-offs at Wembley beating Barnsley 4-2. The following season he guided the club to fifth place and qualification for the UEFA Cup. This earned him the 2000/2001 Manager of the Year award. Relegation the following season saw Burley's side struggling at the foot of Football League First Division and his contract was terminated by mutual agreement in 2002.

Derby

In 2003, he became interim manager of Derby County while permanent manager John Gregory was suspended. Despite his well-documented drink problem, Burley managed to halt Derby's alarming slide towards the relegation zone of the Football League Championship (just one season after relegation from the FA Premier League) and kept the club up comfortably. Burley was then appointed manager permanently when Gregory was sacked. The following season (2003-2004) was often a struggle, with Derby actually finishing a place lower than the season before, but there were signs of improvement. This showed through in the 2004-2005 season when, despite spending no money on new players, Burley transformed Derby from relegation contenders to a fourth place finish and play-off semi-finalists. However, things were not as happy as they seemed on the surface with Burley's relationship with director of football Murdo Mackay and the club's board (who sold star player Tom Huddlestone without informing Burley) being very strained. After days of speculation and mudslinging, Burley announced his resignation from Derby in June 2005.

Hearts

He was then appointed manager of Heart of Midlothian on 30 June 2005. A stunning start to his tenure as Hearts manager saw them top the Scottish Premier League after the first ten games, winning eight of these, including a 4-0 trouncing of rivals Hibernian - proving themselves to be genuine title challengers. However, he left the club the day after major shareholder Vladimir Romanov, with whom Burley had a notoriously uneasy relationship, announced a bid to take private control of Hearts. A club statement declared his departure was by mutual consent. He was succeeded by Graham Rix.

Southampton

George Burley was appointed as Southampton F.C.'s Head Coach on December 22, 2005 following the departure of Harry Redknapp. The club's technical director, Clive Woodward, was moved sideways to a newly created post of director of football as part of restructuring following Burley's appointment, before eventually leaving the club on 31 August 2006. Following the change in control of the club in July 2006, Burley's title was changed to that of "manager". George guided them to the play-offs 2006-2007 but lost on penalties in the Second-leg of the Semi-Final after drawing 4-4 on aggregate.

Managerial stats

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Colchester United		June 1 1994	November 24 1994	20	8	7	5	40.00
Ipswich Town		December 28 1994	October 11 2002	409	185	127	97	45.23
Derby County		March 31 2003	June 7 2005	107	39	43	25	36.44
Heart of Midlothian		June 30 2005	October 21 2005	12	9	1	2	75.00
Southampton		December 23 2005	Present	79	34	27	18	43.04

Honours

As a player

Ipswich Town

• FA Cup winner 1978

External links

• George Burley management career statistics at Soccerbase