Ron Saunders

Ron Saunders

Personal information
Full name	Ronald Saunders
Date of birth	(1932-11-06) 6 November 1932
Place of birth	Birkenhead, England
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1951–1955	Everton	3	(0)
1955–1957	Tonbridge Angels
1957–1958	Gillingham	49	(20)
1958–1964	Portsmouth	236	(145)
1964–1965	Watford	39	(18)
1965–1967	Charlton Athletic	65	(24)
Total		392	(207)
Managerial career
1967–1969	Yeovil Town
1969	Oxford United
1969–1973	Norwich City
1973–1974	Manchester City
1974–1982	Aston Villa
1982–1986	Birmingham City
1986–1987	West Bromwich Albion
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Ronald "Ron" Saunders (born 6 November 1932 in Birkenhead, Cheshire) is a retired English football player and former successful manager. He remains the only manager to have taken charge of Aston Villa, Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion, the three second city clubs normally being bitter rivals.

Playing career

As a player, he was a hard-shooting centre forward. He scored over 200 goals in 13 years as a centre-forward for Everton, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Watford and Charlton Athletic. Saunders was leading goalscorer for six consecutive seasons at Portsmouth and his goals were a key factor in helping Pompey win the Third Division title in 1962. He remains their third highest goalscorer. He retired from full-time playing in 1967, when with Charlton, and became player-manager at non-league Yeovil Town.

Norwich City

As a manager Saunders first tasted success at Norwich City, guiding them to the Second Division title in 1972, which saw them promoted to the First Division for the first time in their history. Saunders steered Norwich City to survival in their first season in the top flight. They also reached the Football League Cup final, losing 1–0 to Tottenham Hotspur. He resigned as Norwich manager on 17 November 1973 following a boardroom row after a 3–1 home defeat to Everton.

Manchester City

Five days later, Saunders accepted an offer to take over at Manchester City. For the second season running Saunders managed a team to the Football League Cup final, but once again they lost – this time to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Despite their cup success, City's league form was shaky, and Saunders was dismissed three weeks before the end of the season, with the club outside the relegation places on goal average alone. He did not stay out of work for long however, and the following month joined Second Division side Aston Villa as manager.

Aston Villa

He guided Villa to promotion to the First Division (as runners-up in the Second Division) in his first season as manager, also winning the League Cup.He became the first manager to guide three different clubs to the League Cup Final in three successive years. He established them as a strong First Division club, winning the League Cup again in 1977. In 1980–81, he guided Villa to their first First Division title for 71 years.

He resigned from Villa on 9 February 1982, due to a disagreement with the board over his contract. At the time, Villa were mid table in the First Division but in the quarter-final of the European Cup. His assistant Tony Barton took over, guiding them to European Cup glory four months later.

Birmingham City

Surprisingly, he moved straight to Villa's arch-rivals, Birmingham City. They went down in 1984 but he got them back into the top flight at the first attempt. In January 1986, Saunders walked out on struggling Birmingham to take charge of local rivals and fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion.

West Bromwich Albion

He was unable to stop Albion from sliding into the Second Division and was dismissed in September 1987, after failing to get them back into the First Division. This was his last managerial role.

Retirement

In a friendly fixture staged as a testimonial for the recently deceased Tony Barton, Saunders appeared at Villa Park in 1994 as manager of a Villa side drawn mostly from players who had played in the European Cup final in 1982, against a West Midlands all-stars side. This was the first time he had returned to the club since his resignation some 13 years earlier. In December 2006, the 74-year-old Saunders was the guest of honour at Villa Park for the match between Aston Villa and Manchester United, invited by new chairman Randy Lerner. He returned to Villa Park shortly after, on 5 May 2007, for the 25th anniversary celebrations of the 1982 European Cup win.

Honours

Norwich City

• Second Division: 1971–72

Aston Villa

• First Division: 1980–81
• Football League Cup: 1974–75, 1976–77

Personal life

Saunders is the great-uncle of National Football League American football coach Al Saunders, who was born in the north London suburb of Hendon and emigrated to North America at the age of 5.

See also

• List of English football championship winning managers