 Bould as Arsenal's assistant manager in 2014 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Stephen Andrew Bould[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1962-11-16)16 November 1962 (age 63)[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Stoke-on-Trent, England[1] | ||
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)[2] | ||
| Position | Centre back | ||
| Team information | |||
Current team | Queens Park Rangers (first team coach) | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1978–1980 | Stoke City | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1980–1988 | Stoke City | 183 | (6) |
| 1982 | →Torquay United (loan) | 9 | (0) |
| 1988–1999 | Arsenal | 287 | (5) |
| 1999–2000 | Sunderland | 21 | (0) |
| Total | 500 | (11) | |
| International career | |||
| 1994 | England B | 1 | (1) |
| 1994 | England | 2 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 2022–2025 | Lommel | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Stephen Andrew Bould (born 16 November 1962) is an English football coach and former professionalfootballer who is currently first team coach ofEFL Championship clubQueens Park Rangers.
As a player, he was adefender from 1980 until 2000. Bould began his football career with his hometown clubStoke City where he gained a reputation as an impressive young defender. After spending seven seasons with the Potters, and becoming one of English football's most covetedcentre backs, he moved toArsenal in 1988. AtHighbury, he formed a formidable back line withTony Adams,Nigel Winterburn and his former Stoke teammateLee Dixon. He left the Gunners in 1999 and ended his playing career withSunderland.[1]
Since his playing career ended, Bould has worked at the successfulArsenal Academy as Head Youth Team Coach atArsenal. He was promoted to assistant manager at the start of the 2012–13 season, replacing the long servingPat Rice.[3] He later had a spells as head coach of U23s side.
Born inStoke-on-Trent, Bould signed for his hometown clubStoke City as a schoolboy in 1978, turning professional in November 1980.[1] He made his debut atright back in a 3–2 defeat away toMiddlesbrough in September 1981.[1] However, he was unable to command a regular place in the team, and was loaned out toTorquay United in October 1982 to gain first team experience, playing nine league games forBruce Rioch's side.[1]
Bould slowly became a regular in the Stoke side afterMick Mills switched him tocentre back to replacePaul Dyson.[1] It proved to be a shrewd move as he excelled in his new position and became a first team regular for the "Potters". A back injury that required surgery cost him appearances in1986–87 and arguably Stoke a play-off place.[1] By the end of the1987–88 season it was generally acknowledged that Bould was now the best defender in Division Two. BothArsenal andEverton made approaches for the defender.[1] After discussions Bould chose Arsenal and a tribunal set the price at £390,000, a small fee compared to what Stoke were demanding.[1]
He moved toArsenal for a fee of £390,000 on 13 June 1988, and became part of their "famous back four" defensive line-up, withTony Adams,Nigel Winterburn and his former Stoke teammateLee Dixon. Bould won theFirst Division title twice in1988–89 and1990–91, playing in the club's famous2–0 victory against Liverpool at Anfield where they won the title in the last minute of the last game of the season.[4] He was voted player of the year by the club's fans for the1991–92 season, though it was a less successful season for the club as defending champions, managing only a fourth-place finish in the league and suffering an early exit from theEuropean Cup, as well as a shock first hurdle exit from the FA Cup at the hands of minnowsWrexham.
On 15 August 1992, he had the distinction of being the scorer of Arsenal's firstPremier League goal on the opening day of the season atHighbury, breaking the deadlock in the 28th minute although Arsenal went on lose the match 4–2 toNorwich City.[5]
However, injury ruled him out of theFA Cup andLeague Cup finals that Arsenal won in1992–93, and his place in the team was taken byAndy Linighan who scored Arsenal's winning goal in the FA Cup final replay againstSheffield Wednesday.[6]
After winning theCup Winners' Cup final in1993–94, further success eluded Arsenal and Bould for several years, and the arrival of French managerArsène Wenger in October 1996 led some to speculate the ageing Bould would leave the club (especially as he was now often second-choice behindMartin Keown); instead, it spurred a brief revival, and Bould became an important member of the squad that wonthe double in1997–98. He famously set up Tony Adams with a chipped throughball for the final goal in Arsenal's 4–0 win overEverton, the match that won them thePremier League title. Two weeks later, they won theFA Cup to complete the double.
His final season at Highbury was a disappointing one. Arsenal reached the FA Cup semi-finals, where they drew withManchester United to force a replay. With the score at 1–1 in the final minute of the game, Arsenal were awarded a penalty.Peter Schmeichel saved fromDennis Bergkamp and a winner fromRyan Giggs in extra time ended Arsenal's defence of the trophy. A month later, they were beaten to the Premier League by Manchester United.
By now, age was against Bould and he moved to newly promotedSunderland in July 1999 for a fee of£500,000. Following the departure of skipperKevin Ball in December 1999, managerPeter Reid made him club captain and he helped them finish seventh – just missing out on aUEFA Cup place. He stayed at theStadium of Light untilarthritis contributed to his retirement in September 2000, having played only 21Premier League games for Sunderland.
Despite forming part of one of the most secure top-flight defences of the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s, Bould won only twocaps forEngland, far fewer than fellow centre half Tony Adams, and didn't make his first full international appearance until the age of 31. Both caps came underTerry Venables inWembley friendlies againstGreece (5–0) andNorway (0–0) at the end of the 1993–94 season.[7]
After retiring, he began working towards hisUEFA coaching badges and in June 2001 moved back to Arsenal and became a coach for theyouth teams. He was the head coach ofArsenal's U18 Academy side, whom he led to thePremier Academy League title in 2008–2009,[8] 2009–2010[9] andFA Youth Cup in 2008–2009.[10]On 10 May 2012, it was announced that Steve Bould would become Arsenal's new assistant manager following the retirement ofPat Rice at the end of the season.On 5 June 2019, Steve Bould swapped jobs with Freddie Ljungberg to become the U23s coach in a major restructuring of Arsenal's coaching staff.[11] In May 2021, he was sacked from his role as a coach of the U23 team.[12] In June 2022, he was appointed as the head coach ofLommel.[13] He resigned from Lommel on 14 January 2025, after the club gained only one point in previous five games.[14]On 25 June 2025, Bould joinedChampionship sideQueens Park Rangers as head of defensive coaching and first team coach.[15]
Source:[16]
| Club | Season | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Other | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Division | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | ||
| Stoke City | 1981–82 | First Division | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 2 | 0 | |
| 1982–83 | First Division | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 14 | 0 | ||
| 1983–84 | First Division | 38 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | — | 43 | 3 | ||
| 1984–85 | First Division | 38 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | — | 42 | 3 | ||
| 1985–86 | Second Division | 33 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2[a] | 0 | 38 | 0 | |
| 1986–87 | Second Division | 28 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1[a] | 0 | 36 | 1 | |
| 1987–88 | Second Division | 30 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2[a] | 0 | 36 | 0 | |
| Total | 183 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 211 | 7 | ||
| Torquay United (loan) | 1981–82 | Fourth Division | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 11 | 0 | |
| Arsenal[17] | 1988–89 | First Division | 30 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1[b] | 0 | 37 | 2 |
| 1989–90 | First Division | 19 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 22 | 0 | ||
| 1990–91 | First Division | 38 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 0 | — | 50 | 0 | ||
| 1991–92 | First Division | 25 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1[c] | 0 | 26 | 1 | |
| 1992–93 | Premier League | 24 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | — | 30 | 1 | ||
| 1993–94 | Premier League | 25 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6[d] | 0 | 37 | 1 | |
| 1994–95 | Premier League | 31 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 8[e] | 2 | 45 | 2 | |
| 1995–96 | Premier League | 19 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | — | 24 | 1 | ||
| 1996–97 | Premier League | 33 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2[f] | 0 | 41 | 0 | |
| 1997–98 | Premier League | 24 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2[f] | 0 | 34 | 0 | |
| 1998–99 | Premier League | 19 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4[g] | 0 | 27 | 0 | |
| Total | 287 | 5 | 29 | 0 | 33 | 1 | 24 | 2 | 373 | 8 | ||
| Sunderland | 1999–2000 | Premier League | 20 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 22 | 0 | |
| 2000–01 | Premier League | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 1 | 0 | ||
| Total | 21 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 23 | 0 | ||
| Career total | 500 | 11 | 43 | 0 | 46 | 2 | 29 | 2 | 618 | 15 | ||
Source:[18]
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 1994 | 2 | 0 |
| Total | 2 | 0 | |
| Team | Nat | From | To | Record | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % | ||||
| Lommel |  | 1 July 2022 | 14 January 2025 | 59 | 29 | 9 | 21 | 95 | 72 | +23 | 049.15 |
| Total | 59 | 29 | 9 | 21 | 95 | 72 | +23 | 049.15 | |||
Arsenal[20]
Individual
