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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | David Watson | ||
| Date of birth | (1961-11-20)20 November 1961 (age 63) | ||
| Place of birth | Liverpool, England | ||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[1] | ||
| Position | Centre back | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1978–1980 | Liverpool | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1980–1986 | Norwich City | 212 | (11) |
| 1986–2001 | Everton | 425 | (23) |
| Total | 631 | (34) | |
| International career | |||
| 1983–1984 | England U21 | 7 | (1) |
| 1984–1988 | England | 12 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1997 | Everton (caretaker player-manager) | ||
| 2001–2002 | Tranmere Rovers | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
David Watson (born 20 November 1961) is an Englishfootball manager and former professional player.
As a player, he was acentre-back from 1980 to 2001. He played his entire career forNorwich City andEverton. With the Toffees he played in thePremier League and was part of their victoriousFA Cup winning team of 1995. He was capped 12 appearances for theEngland national team.
In 1997, Watson had a spell in caretaker charge of Everton although he would not retire for another four years, in which he moved into coaching and was appointed first team manager atTranmere Rovers for the 2001–2002 season. He later spent time coaching inWigan Athletic's youth academy before taking up a similar role withNewcastle United.
Watson played for theLiverpool reserves before joiningNorwich City for £50,000 on 29 November 1980. He made his league debut in the local derby againstIpswich Town onBoxing Day that year. He played 18 league games in the1980–81 First Division campaign and scored three goals, but was unable to prevent the Canaries from sliding into the Second Division.
Over the next five years, Watson was rarely absent from the Norwich side and helped them win promotion from the Second Division in the1981–82 season. He eventually made 256 appearances for Norwich, and as club captain lifted theLeague Cup in 1985. They were demoted to the Second Division that year, but won promotion the following year as champions.
Watson moved on to play forEverton for £900,000 on 22 August 1986 after six years at Norwich.[2] He remained atGoodison Park for 15 years, his first game for them coming on 23 August 1986 when they won 2–0 at home toNottingham Forest on the opening day of the league season. He helped them win the league title in their first season, and also helped them reach theFA Cup final in 1989, where they lost 3–2 to local rivalsLiverpool in extra time.[2]
Watson was an integral part of the Everton side throughout the 1990s, and following the departure of goalkeeperNeville Southall in 1998 he became the club's oldest and longest serving player. However, the 1990s were a generally unsuccessful decade for Everton after the glories of the 1980s. They did finish sixth in 1990 after topping the table earlier in1990–91, but then endured four seasons of mid table finishes, and avoided relegation in 1994 on the last day of the season. Watson got his hands on some silverware for one final time in 1995 when he captained Everton to a surprise 1–0 win overManchester United in the FA Cup final – by now he was one of the last players remaining from Everton's last major trophy win (the league title) eight years earlier. He was man of the match for that game.[3]
Watson captained Everton to sixth place in 1996, but the following season they were struggling again and manager Joe Royle resigned in March 1997, with Watson taking over as manager for the final few weeks of the season and overseeing Everton's Premier League survival as they finished 15th.Howard Kendall then took over as manager for the third time, though his return toGoodison Park lasted just one season before he was replaced byWalter Smith.
Even at the age of 37, Watson was a regular in the Everton side as captain, playing 22 times in the1998–99 season though by1999–2000 it was obvious that he was nearing the end of his playing career as he played just seven times all season, before calling time on 15 years at Everton and becoming manager ofTranmere Rovers on 4 May 2001.[4] His final game for Everton was a 2–2 draw withTottenham Hotspur on 15 January 2000.[5]
Watson was capped 12 times at senior level for England. His first cap came on 10 June 1984 in a 2–0 friendly win overBrazil. By the time of his transfer from Norwich to Everton two years later, he had been capped six times for England. He won a further six England caps, bringing his tally to 12 by the time he made his final England appearance on 18 June 1988 in England's 3–1European Championship defeat by theSoviet Union in 1988.[6]
Watson was appointed Everton manager in March 1997 for the remainder of the 1996–97 season following the resignation ofJoe Royle, but reverted to his playing duties in June 1997 whenHoward Kendall was appointed manager for the third and final time. Watson's first-team opportunities gradually faded, but he made one appearance for Everton during the 2000–01 season, before finally announcing his retirement as a player at the age of 39, and moving into management withTranmere Rovers. His key objective at Tranmere was to regain their Division One status which had just been lost, but he failed to achieve that goal and was sacked after just one season at the helm. He later became a scout forBirmingham City before joining Wigan Athletic as their youth-team coach on 23 April 2008.
In 2002, Watson was voted into theNorwich City F.C. Hall of Fame. Watson was appointed as Under 18 Coach atNewcastle United on 7 November 2011.[7]
On 28 January 2015, Watson was brought into John Carver's backroom team atNewcastle United for the remaining 16 games of the 2014–15 season.
Norwich City
Everton
Individual
| Team | From | To | Record | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | Win % | |||
| Everton | 1 April 1997 | 31 May 1997 | 7 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 014.29 |
| Tranmere Rovers | 4 May 2001 | 1 August 2002 | 55 | 22 | 15 | 18 | 040.00 |
| Career Total | 62 | 23 | 18 | 21 | 037.10 | ||
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Everton captain 1992–1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Gary Speed | Everton captain 1998–2001 | Succeeded by |
