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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Roy Quentin Echlin Evans | ||
| Date of birth | (1948-10-04)4 October 1948 (age 77) | ||
| Place of birth | Bootle, England | ||
| Position | Centre-back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Liverpool | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1965–1974 | Liverpool | 9 | (0) |
| 1973 | →Philadelphia Atoms (loan) | 19 | (2) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1994–1998 | Liverpool | ||
| 1998 | Liverpool (withGérard Houllier) | ||
| 2000 | Fulham (withKarl-Heinz Riedle) | ||
| 2001 | Swindon Town | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Roy Quentin Echlin Evans (born 4 October 1948) is an English formerfootballer who played as a defender forLiverpool, where he also had a spell as manager. Aside from his time at Liverpool, he had a short spell in the United States; and also managedFulham andSwindon Town.
AnEngland schoolboy international, Evans was a defender who was a long way down the pecking order at Liverpool in the 1960s and 1970s—he also spent the summer of 1973 in theNorth American Soccer League with thePhiladelphia Atoms. In 1974 he gave up his playing career to become Liverpool's reserve team coach and was subsequently part of the Liverpool coaching team under a succession of managers.[1]
On 28 January 1994,Graeme Souness quit as Liverpool manager in the wake of a shockFA Cup exit at the hands ofBristol City. Evans took over as manager of a Liverpool side who were mid-table in thePremier League and out of contention for any major honours, although they were 8th by the end of the season. Evans had inherited a side from Souness that had lost confidence in the three years following Kenny Dalglish's departure, as well as a side that was mismatched largely due to the signings that Souness made.[2]
For the1994–95 season, Evans strengthened his side with the addition of defendersJohn Scales andPhil Babb as well as young wingerMark Kennedy. He also gave further first-team opportunities to youngstersSteve McManaman,Jamie Redknapp andRobbie Fowler, who at the time were among the hottest prospects inEnglish football. Established players such asJohn Barnes,Mark Wright andIan Rush blended well with these young stars as Liverpool finished fourth in the Premier League with 74 points and triumphed in theFootball League Cup, beatingBolton Wanderers 2–1 with two McManaman goals, and winning the competition for a record fifth time.
Over the summer of 1995, Evans made the headlines by paying a British record fee forNottingham Forest strikerStan Collymore. Many observers tipped Liverpool to win thePremier League title for that season, particularly as defending championsBlackburn had promotedKenny Dalglish to Director of Football and appointed the less successfulRay Harford as manager, and runners-upManchester United had sold three key players and surprisingly relied on young players to fill their place. Although Liverpool looked like contenders during the first stages of the season, the title race had effectively become aNewcastle United-Manchester United contest by Christmas, with Manchester United finally clinching the title. Liverpool, meanwhile, had to settle for third place in the league; any lingering hopes of title glory were finished off towards the end of April with a shock defeat byCoventry City. They did reach theFA Cup final, but lost 1–0 to a lateEric Cantona goal for Manchester United. As United had done the double, Evans and his exciting young team would be competing in the1996–97European Cup Winners' Cup. Nonetheless, their League position had improved from fourth to third on the previous attempt. This had happened despite collecting only 71 points; however, the league notably had been reduced by four games that season.
The1996–97 season in English football proved to be the closest Evans would come to winning the Premier League title. Evans strengthened his side that was built around McManaman and Fowler, with the acquisition ofCzech midfielderPatrik Berger over the summer of 1996, but by the end of the 1996–97 season all the talk aroundAnfield was about a promising 17-year-old striker,Michael Owen, who had shown tremendous potential in a handful of games for the club. Liverpool had led the Premier League on several occasions before the end of January, even having a five-point lead at the top of the table in January, but eventually finished poorly in fourth place, while Manchester United clinched the title by a seven-point margin. Their European Cup Winners' Cup adventure ended in the semi-finals when they lost toParis St Germain. They had also collected three points fewer overall, finishing with 68, with much of the press berating the club for a lack of discipline off the field, dubbing Evans' squad theSpice Boys for their lifestyles off the pitch, which affected their performances on it.[citation needed] In the last game of that season, againstSheffield Wednesday, Liverpool failed to win, with Owen hitting the post late on. Had he scored Liverpool would have finished second and had the opportunity to play in the following season'sEuropean Cup.
With Stan Collymore moving to Aston Villa in the close season, Evans did not want to throw Owen into the first team, so he brought in midfield hardmanPaul Ince, and legendary German strikerKarlheinz Riedle to partner the prolific Fowler. Liverpool appeared ready to mount a strong title challenge in1997–98 season, but an injury to Fowler, which lasted for the majority of the season, prevented the team from making the most of its potential. Owen burst onto the scene with 18 goals in 36 Premier League games. Nevertheless, they again collected three points fewer than the previous season for the third straight season and had to settle for third place in the league and anotherUEFA Cup campaign.
In 1998 Liverpool's longstandingBoot Room coach Ronnie Moran retired and was set to be replaced byGérard Houllier for the1998–99 season onwards. It was decided that Houllier would become joint manager of Liverpool to work alongside Evans, but the arrangement was not a success and Evans resigned in November to leave Houllier in sole charge. Houllier remained at the club until 2004, collecting oneFA Cup, one UEFA Cup and twoLeague Cups.[3]
When Roy Evans took over from Graeme Souness in 1994 the team was in rapid free-fall. In his first full season (1994–95) Liverpool finished 4th with 74 points. At this point it seemed that he had reversed the decline that had set in under the Souness regime, and the 'glory days' would soon be returning. However, the team was to finish the next three seasons with three points fewer than the previous season (1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98), suggesting that after an initial 'honeymoon' things quickly stagnated. The period of joint management with Gerard Houllier was a radical effort by the board to reverse that stagnation. By 1998 Evans had assembled a talented nucleus of players, who were particularly impressive going forward and in their attacking football, where Evans had been credited with creating arguably the nation's most exciting and aesthetically pleasing team of the 1990s.[4]
Evans was out of work for over a year. His name was linked withNottingham Forest following their relegation from thePremier League at the end of the 1998–99 season, but the job went toDavid Platt instead.[5] He also lost out in the race to becomeBolton Wanderers manager in 1999, with the club appointing former playerSam Allardyce. His comeback finally came in March 2000 when he became joint caretaker manager ofFulham alongsideKarlheinz Riedle untilJean Tigana was given the job a month later.
In June 2001, Evans was named Director of Football atSwindon Town in Division Two, with 33-year-old former Liverpool defenderNeil Ruddock as player-coach. But the pair failed to inspire a promotion challenge at theCounty Ground, and on 20 December 2001 they were succeeded by new managerAndy King.
In November 2004, when former Liverpool strikerJohn Toshack was appointed as the new manager ofWales, Evans accepted an offer to be his assistant.
In February 2007, he accepted an offer to become part-time assistant manager toBrian Carey atLeague Two strugglersWrexham, and helped Wrexham avoid relegation to theConference National.[6] After Wrexham escaped relegation from League Two at the end of the2006–07 season, this agreement was extended.[7]
As well as his coaching commitments, he also currently acts as a co-commentator for live audio broadcasts of Liverpool matches on the official web site, www.liverpoolfc.tv. Evans also co-operated on his authorised biography, calledGhost on the Wall, which was released at the end of 2004.
Liverpool
Individual
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P | W | D | L | Win % | |||
| Liverpool | 28 January 1994 | 12 November 1998 | 244 | 123 | 63 | 58 | 050.4 |
| Swindon Town | 3 August 2001 | 20 December 2001 | 26 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 038.5 |
| Total | 270 | 133 | 69 | 68 | 049.3 | ||
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