After retirement, Ardiles began his management career in England, coachingSwindon Town,Newcastle United andWest Bromwich Albion, before returning to Tottenham to become the firstPremier League manager from Argentina.[3] As manager ofSpurs in the mid-1990s, he played several matches utilizing a formation that had five forwards,[citation needed] a formation that had not been used in English football since the 1900s.
During his career, Ardiles has also coached in Mexico, Croatia, Japan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Israel, Paraguay and his native Argentina. InIreland, he is a pundit forRTÉ Sport.[4]
Ardiles was born inCórdoba,[1] and played forInstituto de Córdoba from a young age.[5] As a youngster, Ardiles played football in the streets and was given the nicknamePitón (python) by his brother because of his snake-likedribbling skills.[6] He was named asEl Gráfico's best player of the interior in 1974, and abandoned his law degree studies in order to play professional football.[7]
He helped Tottenham win theFA Cup in his third season there (1980–81), and collaborated with pop duoChas & Dave as well as the rest of the Tottenham players for a song, "Ossie's Dream". He played a big part in another FA Cup triumph the following year, but did not play in the final because it had already been arranged with Spurs’ management that he would leave early to join up withArgentina's1982 World Cup squad.
In the wake of theFalklands War between Britain and Argentina it became difficult for him to return to White Hart Lane and he went on loan toParis Saint-Germain in France. After one season in Paris, he returned to Tottenham, helping the club to win theUEFA Cup in 1984 (coming on as a substitute in the second leg of thefinal). In the autumn of 1987, he was caretaker coach under caretaker managerDoug Livermore of Tottenham between the resignation ofDavid Pleat and the appointment ofTerry Venables.[8] Ardiles left Spurs in 1988.He then played forBlackburn Rovers,Queens Park Rangers andSwindon Town, before being appointed as manager of Swindon Town in July 1989. He played part of the1989 American Soccer League season with theFort Lauderdale Strikers.
On 7 February 2008, Ardiles, along with his fellow countrymanRicardo Villa, was inducted into the Tottenham Hotspur Hall of Fame.[9]
Ardiles was called up to theArgentina senior team by managerCésar Luis Menotti in 1975. He was a member of the World Cup winning squad in 1978.[10] At the 1982 World Cup he wore thenumber 1 shirt, as Argentina's policy at the time was to number their players alphabetically by surname, with an exception made soDiego Maradona could wear his preferred number 10.[11]
In July 1989, Ardiles moved into football management with second divisionSwindon Town whenLou Macari resigned to joinWest Ham in July 1989. He wowed fans by replacing the long ball style which had been so successful with a new "Samba style", which saw the Town playing attacking football. Part of this change was the new "diamond formation" which Ardiles implemented: a4–4–2 style with left-sided, right-sided, attacking and defensive midfielders.
Ten months after he had joined, Ardiles led Swindon to their highest ever league position, finishing fourth in the second division. After beating Blackburn in the first leg of the play-off semi-final, the fans paid tribute with a tickertape reception in the second leg. Swindon went on to win promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history—beatingSunderland in the Play-off final—only to have the promotion taken from them ten days later, when the Football League demoted them for irregular payments to players.
The following season, Ardiles was told to sell players to keep the club alive andWembley heroAlan McLoughlin was the first big-money departure. With Swindon rocked by their pre-season troubles, their form deserted them. By the end of February, relegation threatened, and whenNewcastle offered Ardiles the chance to become their new boss, he accepted, becoming the club's first foreign manager. But his time on Tyneside was not a success and he lasted 12 months in the job before being sacked, with the Magpies bottom of the second division, though they achieved safety under his successorKevin Keegan.
In June 1992, Ardiles replacedBobby Gould as manager ofWest Bromwich Albion, who had just missed out on the third division playoffs in 1991–92. At the end of the 1992–93 season, Ardiles guided Albion to victory overPort Vale in the Division Two playoff final. Shortly afterwards he walked out of the Hawthorns to return his former club Tottenham as manager, but his management spell was nowhere near as successful as his spell as a player. Tottenham finished 15th in the Premiership and despite the expensive acquisition ofJürgen Klinsmann andIlie Dumitrescu in the 1994 close season, Ardiles was sacked in October 1994 with Tottenham languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League. They had just been punished for financial irregularities committed during the late 1980s: with a 1-yearFA Cup ban, £600,000 fine and 12 league points deducted. The punishment was later amended to a £1.5million fine and six points deducted but the FA Cup ban and points deduction were later quashed.
Ardiles became coach ofJ. League Division 1 sideYokohama F. Marinos in January 2000, but was sacked in June 2001, following a poor start to the season.[12] From 2003 to 2005 he coachedTokyo Verdy, with whom he won the2004 Emperor's Cup, In July 2005 Ardiles was fired after a nine-game winless streak.[13] In mid-2006, he moved to Israel to coachBeitar Jerusalem, though he quit after only a few months in charge on 18 October 2006, due to severe differences of opinion with the club's board of directors. After a short break he was appointedClub Atlético Huracán manager, in his native Argentina, in September 2007; he steered the club to 7th in the table before resigning at the end of theApertura 2007.
He joined Paraguayan clubCerro Porteño in May 2008[14] but was sacked in August of the same year after a string of poor results and was replaced byPedro Troglio.[15]
He married fellow Argentine Silvia Navarro in December 1973.[20] Ardiles' cousin, José, was shot down and killed while piloting anIAI Dagger, theIsraeli version of theMirage 5, bySea Harrier XZ455 on 1 May 1982 during one of the first air engagements of theFalklands War.[21]
In January 2014, Ardiles and Ricardo Villa were involved in a car crash in theFalkland Islands during the filming of Camilo Antolini's30 for 30 documentaryWhite, Blue and White.[24] Ardiles sustained minor injuries in the accident, and required more than 20 stitches in his head.[25]
^Note: Ardiles asserts in his autobiography that he was caretaker manager between Pleat and Venables. This is incorrect. SeeList of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. managers and references there.
^"Hall of Fame". Tottenhamhotspur.com. Retrieved29 June 2010.
^"Friedel, Ardiles & Lennon join RTÉ for World Cup".RTÉ Sport. RTÉ. 5 June 2014. Archived fromthe original on 6 June 2014. Retrieved5 June 2014.Joining them will be former German international Didi Hamann, Argentine World Cup winner Ossie Ardiles, former Celtic manager Neil Lennon, ex-USA international Brad Friedel and Real Madrid coach Paul Clement.
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