79: Steve Coppell, Crystal Palace, Panini Football 1991

Back in September Rich and I put together a collaborative post espousing the joys of supporting a team managed by Ian Holloway. While I can still appreciate the batshit brilliance of Crystal Palace’s march to play-off glory it’s fair to say that Rich’s experiences of having Ollie at the wheel didn’t have such a happy ending. Undeterred by the danger of submitting anything positive to print Emlyn Jones and I have teamed up to discuss the virtues of another former Crystal Palace manager who went on to have enormous success with Reading in the mid-noughties. I think it’s fair to say we are both of the belief that this man is the greatest football manager of all time. You might fire the likes of Bill Shankly, Brian Clough or Sir Alex Ferguson at us by means of riposte but only one of them won the Zenith Data Systems Cup which we all know is the real quiz. I don’t think any of them featured in Nigella Lawson’s erotic dreams either.

Steve Coppell was widely regarded as one of England’s most exciting players in the late 1970s and early 1980s impressing for Tranmere Rovers while he earned his economics degree from the University of Liverpool before moving on to Manchester United. With the Red Devils he won the FA Cup and Charity Shield in 1977 and his performances on the wing that season earned him his first of 42 England caps. A horrific challenge while on international duty against Hungary shattered his knee and although a temporary fix operation allowed him to represent his country at the 1982 World Cup in Spain the repercussions of this injury brought his playing career to an end at the relatively tender age of 28. The fact he played again at all after Jozsef Toth’s hideous lunge is particularly impressive as it later transpired that his anterior cruciate ligament was only reattached at one end.

In June 1984, and still two months shy of his 29th birthday, Coppell became manager of Crystal Palace. Under Terry Venables the Eagles had been proclaimed as “The Team of the Eighties” and had briefly topped the First Division in the 1979/80 season. However, financial difficulties and the unpopular Alan Mullery had left the Eagles languishing in the second tier. Coppell’s shrewd acquisitions, including plucking Ian Wright from non-league obscurity, saw Palace develop into an exciting, attacking side who earned promotion back to the top flight via the play-offs at the end of the 1988/89 season. As most of this happened before I was born I can’t really comment but my old man, who had lost interest in football in the early 1980s, suddenly found himself drawn back to Selhurst Park by Coppell’s brand of football.

Palace’s return to the First Division started inauspiciously with a 9-0 loss to Liverpool which still seems to get dredged up by Scousers of a certain vintage. In many ways this drubbing helped turn Palace’s season around and Coppell led the Eagles to the FA Cup Final against his former club Manchester United via a cathartic and compelling 4-3 victory over Liverpool. The Eagles forced United to a replay after a thrilling 3-3 draw at Wembley but fell short in the midweek final despite wearing an exceptional yellow and black striped away kit. Coppell did lead Palace to Wembley glory in the following season with a 4-1 victory over Everton in the Zenith Data Systems Cup which was matched with an exceptionally impressive third placed finish in the First Division. It was around this time that Palace chairman Ron Noades decided to racially abuse half of the playing staff leading to the departure of some of the club’s leading stars. Although Coppell managed to keep Palace in the top flight long enough to ensure they were part of the inaugural Premier League season they were relegated in the 1992/93 campaign and Coppell handed in his resignation.

Having been overlooked for the Middlesbrough job Coppell returned to Selhurst Park as Director of Football in 1995 ostensibly running the side while Ray Lewington led the coaching staff. With Palace in sixteenth in Division One Dave Bassett arrived as manager in February 1996 and led the side to the play-offs where they fell short in the final against Leicester City. Coppell departed from his upstairs role to take on the mantle of manager of recently relegated Manchester City in October 1996 but, after only 33 days and six games, handed in his resignation breaking a club record for the shortest spell in charge. He moved back to Selhurst Park to take on the Chief Scout job but, when Bassett buggered off to Nottingham Forest for no apparent reason in February 1997, Coppell found himself back in the manager’s seat. Six months later Palace were promoted back to the Premier League.

The 1997/98 season was fairly miserable for Palace and when Ron Noades sold the club (but not the ground) to Mark Goldberg in May 1998 for less than we spent on Christian Benteke Coppell was moved back upstairs to the Director of Football role with Terry Venables returning as manager. After leading Palace into the Intertoto Cup for a laugh Venables pulled of the ultimate Championship Manager move and went on holiday for a bit before handing in his resignation. With Palace haemorrhaging money and talent Coppell was once again thrust into the dugout where he led the team to mid-table respectability in challenging circumstances with a side full of young talent and shrewd loan acquisitions.

The arrival of Simon Jordan as Palace kingpin led many to state that the future was bright and the chairman was orange. Sadly this wasn’t the case for Coppell as Jordan looked to revolutionise the club by bringing in former manager Alan Smith to instil a “winning mentality”. Palace saved all their winning for the League Cup reaching the semi-finals but looked set for relegation until Steve Kember and Dougie Freedman saved the day. Coppell returned to Selhurst Park in 2003 with rivals Brighton and Hove Albion and led the Seagulls to a 5-0 loss much to the delight of the Palace faithful. Coppell denied deliberately throwing in the towel but then again he also fell asleep in his interview for the Brighton job so maybe it was one of the great acts of sabotage. With the Seagulls top of Division Two in October 2003 Reading came calling and with that I will pass over to Emlyn.

Following Reading is generally fairly good fun, but an exercise in mediocrity a lot of the time. This season is going fairly well, but it's also the first in a while we haven't bounced relentlessly around 16th position. A couple of years back, a yuletide game against relegation threatened Burton Albion was seen as an opportunity to bring in some fans and give them something to cheer, with a ticket price of only £5 and hopefully a win to encourage the fans to return. Reading lost 2-1.

There was a golden period following the club however. After a few years of consolidation following promotion from the third tier in 2002, and coach Steve Coppell having just finished his first full season as manager, Reading geared up for the 2005/06 season with some optimism of perhaps sneaking a play off spot to build on the seventh place finish the previous season.

In a fine display of bonfire pissing, the first game of the season ended in a disappointing loss to Plymouth Argyle; however, Reading would go on to lose only one more game that season, and set a record of 106 points that stands to this day. The squad showed the classic traits of the sum being greater than its parts, with players taken from the lower leagues joining players deemed not to have made the grade for bigger Premier League sides. The team used only 24 players throughout the season, with a close-knit squad engendering team spirit and understanding.

Hardly the most glamorous club, and devoid of any big names, Reading would now be playing at the top table and featured heavily on mainstream TV. Often as part of the montage of dross at the end of Match of the Day, but at least we were spared listening to U2 for a while. Celebrating the victory that had gained them qualification, Coppell ran beaming to the crowd and slung his suit jacket to them, mirroring his actions following saving Crystal Palace from relegation in 2000.

The success continued into the next season, with the spirit evident in returning from a two goal deficit in their opening Premier League encounter against Middlesbrough to win, and Reading finished the season in eighth position, narrowly missing out on European qualification. Coppell was unsurprisingly awarded the LMA Manager of the Year award for a second successive season, and broke from his tradition of only signing one year contracts to sign a two-year deal, with the club looking to establish themselves in the Premier League and increase the capacity of the ground.

Unfortunately, the following season did not go as well for Reading, and despite a spirited 4-0 win on the final day of the season, we were unable to escape relegation. Coppell stated following the game that he would consider his future, however such was the strength of feeling from the fans that a car park protest was formed at his parking spot, begging him to stay on as manager. Coppell agreed to do so, and Reading made a spirited attempt to regain their Premier League status the following year; however, defeat at Birmingham City on the final day meant that they qualified only for the playoffs, and loss to Burnley condemned the Royals to the Championship for another season.

Coppell resigned in the aftermath of the game. Despite his disappointment at not regaining promotion, the adulation for Coppell from Reading fans remains unbroken to this day. Indeed, just a few months after this, an FA Cup game against Liverpool featured Coppell as a TV pundit, and spontaneous applause and chants burst out from the fans when they spotted him in the press box, to which he responded with a beaming wave.

After just under a year without a club, Coppell was appointed the new manager at Bristol City. He moved swiftly to sign former player Kalifa Cissé from Reading, however after only four months in charge and ahead of the 2010/11 season, Coppell unexpectedly resigned and stated that he did not feel he would take another job in football, citing a lack of passion for the game.

Eventually, Coppell returned to the game in other roles, including brief stints as Director of Football at Crawley Town and Portsmouth, before returning to club management at a number of clubs in India. He has managed three sides there to date, though only for a season at a time, and also been reunited with former player André Bikey at Jamshedpur and subsequently ATK.

Coppell has occasionally been criticised in his career, specifically when he has left clubs after only a short time owing to pressure or simply not feeling the circumstances were right; this happened at Manchester City, Brighton, and Bristol City. It takes a lot to be a legend at two clubs though, and when the right circumstances arose, there were few better regarded managers in the game. Arise, Sir Steve.