William Alan Durban (born 7 July 1941) is aWelsh former internationalfootballer and manager, whose career was at its peak between the 1970s and 1990s. He played inthe Football League forCardiff City,Derby County and was player-manager ofShrewsbury Town. He managedStoke City (two spells),Sunderland and Cardiff City.^[1]

Durban was brought up in Bracken Road,Margam,Port Talbot. He began his career atCardiff City, making his debut in a 2–1 win overDerby County in 1959. After initially making an impact on the team he fell out of favour and was transferred to Derby County for £10,000 in July 1963 at the age of 22 having played over 50 times for Cardiff City. He made his Derby debut on 24 August 1963 in a 3–1 defeat toNewcastle United and helped the side to thirteenth place in his first season and his partnership with the newly arrivedEddie Thomas saw the side begin to move up the table, finishing in 9th and 8th position in the following two years.

After finishing in seventeenth place during the1966–67 seasonTim Ward was replaced as the Derby manager byBrian Clough since the1967–68 season. Under Clough, Durban was moved frominside-forward to an attacking midfield role and was handed the captaincy for the first time in a 5–1 win over his former club Cardiff City.^[2] He won aSecond Division title in1968–69 and then a famousFirst Division championship medal with in1971–72. He left Derby in1973 after agreeing to become player-assistant manager ofShrewsbury Town after making 404 appearances for the "Rams" scoring 110 goals. He was appointed manager on 4 December 1973 following the dismissal ofMaurice Evans, the man who had signed him three months earlier. With the "Shrews" he appointed former Derby teammateRichie Barker as his assistant and he helped Shrewsbury gain promotion in1974–75 and consolidate their position in theThird Division. He retired from playing once he was made manager ofStoke City in February 1978.^[1]

Durban was handed his debut forWales on 18 May 1966 in a 1–0 defeat toBrazil at the age of 24. He went on to make 27 appearances for Wales, his final appearance coming on 27 May 1972 in a 0–0 draw withNorthern Ireland.^[3]

He began his managerial career atShrewsbury Town in February 1974; managing them until 1978 when he joinedStoke City, having won promotion from theFourth Division and theWelsh Cup in 1977.^[1] He helped Stoke gain promotion back to theFirst Division in dramatic fashion beatingNotts County 1–0 on the final day of the1978–79.^[1] Stoke staved off a relegation battle in1979–80 finishing in 18th position. During the1980–81 season Stoke played out an awful 2–0 defeat away atArsenal and a journalist told Durban that there was no entertainment watching his team's performance, to which Durban replied "This is soccer. If you want entertainment go and watch a bunch of clowns."^[1] Stoke finished mid-table in 1980–81 and in the summer of 1981 he shocked Stoke by quitting in favour of becoming manager ofSunderland.^[1] One of main reasons he left was that Sunderland had offered to buy his house in Shrewsbury for the same price he bought it.^[4]

AtRoker Park, Durban inherited a struggling squad and relegation was avoided in the final match of the season1981–82. He attempted to build a youthful team that would mature, introducing Ally McCoist, Nick Pickering, Barry Venison, and Colin West into the first team. However, he was hampered by a severe restriction of transfer funds. The following two seasons glimpsed promise of better things, but an FA Cup loss hastened boardroom discontent, and he was dismissed in March 1984.^[5] After leaving Sunderland he managedWillington in the Northern League for a short spell. Six months after leaving Sunderland, he joinedCardiff City, but his two-year spell in charge atNinian Park turned into a disaster as they suffered consecutive relegations, falling from theSecond Division to Fourth Division, and Durban was replaced byFrank Burrows.

Several years later, Durban returned to Sunderland to become chief scout underPeter Reid. He then briefly returned to Stoke as caretaker for five games at the end of the1997–98 season but was unable to prevent Stoke's falling into the third tier. In summer 2010, he commenced part-time work as a regional scout for Championship sideNorwich City.

In July 2011 Durban re-joined Stoke City on a part-time basis as a mentor for young academy players needing guidance off the pitch.^[6][7] He retired at the age of 75.^[4]

A book written by David Snowdon about Durban's career was published in 2018 titledGive Us Tomorrow Now: Alan Durban's Mission Impossible, mainly detailing his time at Sunderland.^[8]

Source:^[9]

Source:^[10]

Cardiff City

• Football League Second Division runner-up:1959–60^{[citation needed]}

Derby County

• Football League First Division champions:1971–72^{[citation needed]}
• Football League Second Division champions:1968–69^{[citation needed]}

Individual

• PFA Team of the Year:1973–74,^{[citation needed]}1974–75^{[citation needed]}

Shrewsbury Town

• Football League Fourth Division runner-up:1974–75^{[citation needed]}
• Welsh Cup:1976–77

Stoke City

• Football League Second Division third-place promotion:1978–79^{[citation needed]}

• Hayes, Dean (2006).The Who's Who of Cardiff City. Breedon Books.ISBN 1-85983-462-0.
• Snowdon, David (2018).Give Us Tomorrow Now: Alan Durban's Mission Impossible. Durrington: Pitch Publishing. p. 384.ISBN 9781785314483.

• Alan Durban management career statistics atSoccerbase

• 1941 births
• Living people
• Footballers from Bridgend
• Wales men's international footballers
• Wales men's under-23 international footballers
• Welsh men's footballers
• Welsh football managers
• Cardiff City F.C. players
• Derby County F.C. players
• Shrewsbury Town F.C. players
• English Football League players
• Sunderland A.F.C. managers
• Shrewsbury Town F.C. managers
• Stoke City F.C. managers
• Cardiff City F.C. managers
• Derby County F.C. non-playing staff
• English Football League managers
• Men's association football inside forwards
• Men's association football midfielders

• Pages containing links to subscription-only content
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use British English from October 2013
• Use dmy dates from February 2021
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from March 2017