From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Stephen Cotterill, born July 20, 1964 is an English football manager, currently manager of Burnley.

Steve Cotterill
Personal information
Full name	Stephen Cotterill
Date of birth	July 20, 1964 (age 42)
Place of birth	Cheltenham, England
Playing position	Manager (former Striker)
Club information
Current club	Burnley
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988-1989 1989-1993 1992 1993-1996 1999-2000	Burton Albion Wimbledon Brighton Bournemouth Hereford United	- (-) 17 (6) 15 (0) 54 (15) 3 (0)
Teams managed
1995-1996 1997-2002 2002 2004-	Sligo Rovers Cheltenham Town Stoke City Burnley
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 12/09/06. * Appearances (Goals)

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Management 2.1 Sligo Rovers 2.2 Cheltenham Town 2.3 Stoke City 2.4 Burnley 3 Manager honours 4 Trivia 5 Managerial stats 6 References 7 External links

He started his playing career in the non-leagues as a forward who could play centrally or in wide positions, playing non-professionally at clubs like Cheltenham Town, Alvechurch and Burton Albion. He then signed his first professional deal at Wimbledon after a £30,000 deal was done with Burton. It was a giant step up for Steve, going from the Non-Leagues to the Premiership in one go can be hard for any player but Steve still made an impression on the league, at first anyway. He only made 25 appearances in 4 years at Wimbledon and was sent out on loan to Brighton where he recaptured his form, this led to further games at the Dons before finally moving on again to Bournemouth.

Steve signed for Bournemouth in the summer of 1993 for the fee of £80,000, in 3 years at Bournemouth he got his career back in good shape scoring 15 goals in 46 league starts for the club. While at the club he picked up 3 player of the season awards and became a great hit with the fans but had to finish his career in 1995 after a bad knee injury from which he never fully recovered. he did try to revive his playing career at Hereford where he made just 3 substitute appearances.

Overall Steve had a very short playing career by most standards, largely due to his re-occurring knee injuries which forced him to take his coaching badges and embark on a whole new career.

Before Lawrie Sanchez left Sligo Rovers in 1995, he recommended that Sligo Rovers appoint Cotterill and that proved to be a wise decision as he led the club to third place in the Premier Division of the Football League of Ireland and his side also reached the League Cup final (Rovers were beaten on penalties by Shelbourne).

He joined the Robins when they were still a non-league club and he built up a successful side which won promotion from the Dr. Martens League to the Conference in only his first full year at the club. He won the FA Trophy in 1998, beating Southport 1-0 in the final, and Cheltenham finished 2nd in the Conference the same year, their first season in that league. Cheltenham won the Conference and with it promotion to the football league the following year. After two successful seasons in which they finished in the top half of the Third Division, Steve took Cheltenham into the Second Division, following a play-off victory over Rushden and Diamonds at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff in 2002. The same season included a run to the 5th round of the FA cup for the first time in Cheltenham's history, ended only by a 1-0 away defeat to West Bromwich Albion and including the defeat of his future club Burnley. It was now that people began to realise the quality of the coach and led him to be dubbed one of the most promising British managers in the game. After 5 very successful seasons at Cheltenham Steve decided to move on bringing his amazing legacy with the club to an end. In only 5 years Steve had achieved 3 promotions and a cup win, which led him to become Cheltenham's greatest ever manager and no doubt a club hero.

He left the club to join Stoke City in the summer of 2002 but he only managed 13 games for the club as another club knocked on his door. After just four months in charge, 27-05-2002 to 10-10-2002, he was asked to join Sunderland as their assistant manager. His task was to keep the Black Cats in the Premiership, but that was to prove tough and by the end of the season, he left the club after only five months initially as Howard Wilkinson's number 2, subsequently taking full charge up to the end of the season on Wilkinson's sacking.

Cotterill received widespread criticism for his decision to leave Stoke so soon after taking the job.

In the summer of 2004 a decision by Burnley F.C. to not renew the contract of their manager, Stan Ternent, led to Steve being named as the new head coach of the club. He was an unknown quantity to most of the fans but he soon showed his talents by reaching the 3rd round of the Carling Cup, beating Aston Villa 3-1 on the way and also reaching the 5th round of the FA Cup again beating Premiership opposition, this time Liverpool 1-0. This led to Burnley reinforcing their position as giant-killers and also losing a few excellent players on the way. The team, after losing star striker and captain Robbie Blake and their young midfield maestro Richard Chaplow finished a modest 13th in the Championship. but were showing signs of real improvement under their new boss.

He is now one of the best qualified coaches in the game, having passed his UEFA Pro Licence in 2002 and will be hoping to put his experience and qualities into practice whilst at Burnley, where he recently signed a three year contract. Things are looking good for Cotterill with some great results such as beating Norwich 4-1 away, local rivals Preston North End 3-2 at home, both televised, and other local rivals Leeds United 2-1 at home recently. Steve Cotterill also won the Championship Manager of the Month for October. However Burnley were dealt a blow when leading goalscorer Andy Gray was sidelined until February in December. He re-signed striker Ade Akinbiyi in the January transfer window, however the striker has been in poor form since his return as Burnley slip towards the relegation zone.

• FA Trophy 1998
• Football Conference 1999; runner up 1998
• Nationwide League Division 3 play-off 2002

• Steve is 6.01 feet tall
• Attended Arle School, Cheltenham (now Kingsmead High) from 1975 to 1980
• Total transfer fees of £110,000

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Cheltenham Town		February 1, 1997	May 27, 2002	255	118	67	70	46.27
Stoke City		May 27, 2002	October 10, 2002	13	3	5	5	23.07
Burnley		June 3, 2004	Present	144	45	56	43	31.35

Player and manager info from;

• http://www.burnleyfc.com
• http://www.soccerbase.com/managers2.sd?managerid=1577
• http://www.soccerbase.com/players_details.sd?playerid=1682

• Steve Cotterill career stats at Soccerbase
• Steve Cotterill management career stats at Soccerbase
• Burnley Official Site

Preceded by Lawrie Sanchez	Sligo Rovers F.C. Manager 1995–1996	Succeeded by Jimmy Mullen
Preceded by Chris Robinson	Cheltenham Town F.C. Manager 1997–2002	Succeeded by Graham Allner
Preceded by Guðjón Þórðarson	Stoke City F.C. Manager 2002	Succeeded by Dave Kevan (caretaker)
Preceded by Stan Ternent	Burnley F.C. Manager 2004–present	Succeeded by Incumbent

Burnley F.C. - Current Squad
1 Coyne | 2 Thomas | 3 Harley | 4 McGreal | 5 Coughlan | 6 Duff | 7 J. O'Connor | 8 Mahon | 9 Jones | 10 Gray | 11 Elliott | 12 Jensen | 14 G. O'Connor | 15 Branch | 16 McCann | 17 Lafferty | 18 Djemba-Djemba | 19 Spicer | 20 Akinbiyi | 21 McVeigh | 22 Foster | 24 Caldwell | 25 Guðjónsson | Manager: Cotterill