Tony Mowbray

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Anthony Mark "Tony" Mowbray (born 22 November 1963) is an English former professional association football player, and is currently the manager of Celtic. Mowbray played for Middlesbrough, Celtic, and finally Ipswich Town as a centre back.

He began his coaching career with Ipswich Town and took his first managerial job at Scottish Premier League side Hibernian, where he won the Scottish Football Writers' Association Manager of the Year award. He moved on to West Bromwich Albion in 2006, where he won the Football League Championship in 2008, but then suffered relegation from the Premier League the following year.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Middlesbrough

Born in nearby Saltburn, he became the club captain when he was 22 years old. The club was in dire straits at the time and had gone into liquidation. Known to the Boro fans as "Mogga", he became a legend in Middlesbrough for being the local lad who led the club from liquidation back to the top flight of English football. Mowbray was the linchpin around which the Middlesbrough team was built for more than a decade. The Middlesbrough club fanzine Fly me to the Moon is named after a famous quote that the then Middlesbrough manager Bruce Rioch said about Mowbray - “If I had to fly to the moon I’d take Tony Mowbray, my captain, with me. He’s a magnificent man”. He was sold to Celtic in 1991 for a fee of £1million.

[edit] Celtic

During his playing career with Celtic, Mowbray's wife, Bernadette, a native of Renfrewshire, died of breast cancer. It is often asserted that^[1] the "huddle" which Celtic players still perform before each match was arranged as a tribute to Bernadette. However, it was merely suggested by Mowbray on a pre-season tour of Germany to bring the squad together at a time of uncertainty. The dignified manner in which he handled the tragedy of Bernadette was recorded in his book Kissed by an Angel and won him respect from all sides of Scottish football.

[edit] Ipswich

He later moved on to Ipswich Town, where he played for five years, becoming the team captain. He scored an equalising goal in the 2000 Division One playoff final victory against Barnsley. Ipswich won the match 4-2 and secured promotion to the FA Premier League. This match was the last of Mowbray's playing career.

[edit] Coaching career

Once his playing career finished he moved into coaching, starting as a first team coach at Ipswich Town. He had a brief spell as caretaker manager of Ipswich, following the sacking of George Burley and prior to the appointment of Joe Royle.^[2]

[edit] Hibernian

In May 2004, Mowbray was appointed manager of Hibernian, replacing Bobby Williamson.^[3] He gained much acclaim for the job he did, winning the Scottish Football writers' manager of the year award in his first season.^[4] Hibs finished in the top four in the SPL in his only two full seasons in charge, which was the first time that Hibs had done this in the top division in consecutive seasons since Eddie Turnbull was manager. During his tenure, season ticket sales at Easter Road almost doubled.

Hibs progressed to the later stages of every domestic cup competition in his tenure and made two appearances in European football. Hibs lost heavily to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the first round of the UEFA Cup and on the away goals rule to OB Odense in the 2006 Intertoto Cup. During mid-2006, Mowbray was interviewed for the vacant managerial position at Ipswich Town, but he rejected their approach.^[5] In September 2006 he signed a 12 month rolling deal with Hibs that was due to take effect from July 2007.^[6] Just one month later however, Mowbray moved to West Bromwich Albion.

[edit] West Bromwich Albion

In early October 2006, media reports linked him with the vacant managerial position at West Brom. On 10 October, it was confirmed by West Brom that they had asked Hibernian for permission to interview Mowbray, which was granted the following day. On 13 October, West Bromwich Albion announced that they had appointed Mowbray as their new manager.^[7]

Mowbray replaced Bryan Robson as Albion manager, and immediately faced the task of returning the Baggies to the Premier League after relegation under Robson the previous season. Although he managed to turn around the club's poor away form, an indifferent run of results at home towards the end of the season meant that Albion finished fourth in The Championship table behind Sunderland, Birmingham City and Derby County, and faced the lottery of the Play-Offs. Despite two famous victories over old rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the semi finals, Albion lost 1–0 to Derby County in the Wembley final.

As a result, during the close season, Mowbray set about restructuring his squad, moving out several of Robson's players for multi-million pound fees, after press reports of dressing room division.^[8] High profile players such as Jason Koumas, Diomansy Kamara and Curtis Davies were sold to Premier League clubs for large fees, in addition to the departures of Paul McShane, Nathan Ellington, Darren Carter and Steve Watson. Mowbray replaced them by signing a total of 14 permanent and loan players in the summer transfer window, making an overall profit in the process. His most expensive signings were Chris Brunt from Sheffield Wednesday for £3 million, Leon Barnett from Luton Town for £2.5 million, and James Morrison from Middlesbrough for £1.5 million.

Despite the large changes in his squad, Mowbray won the Football League Championship Manager of the Month award in September 2007, after Albion gained 13 out of the maximum 15 points and climbed to 2nd in the Division.^[9] At the turn of the New Year, Mowbray's young Albion team topped the table, receiving growing plaudits from the media^[10] and supporters^[11] alike for their attractive brand of attacking one touch passing football, a reflection of Mowbray's staunch footballing philosophy.^[12]

Mowbray guided West Brom to the Football League Championship title, meaning promotion to the Premier League and reached the semi-final of the FA Cup. The semi-final, the first to be played at the new Wembley Stadium, pitted West Brom against Portsmouth, the only remaining Premier League team left in the FA Cup. Portsmouth won the match 1-0 with the only goal of the game coming from Kanu. Mowbray won the Championship manager of the month award for April,^[13] as well as the League Managers Association manager of the year award.^[14]

After a trying 2008-09 season, West Brom were relegated from the Premier League, finishing 20th.

[edit] Celtic

On 8 June 2009 it was reported that Celtic had made an approach to West Bromwich Albion for Mowbray, to replace Gordon Strachan as their manager.^[15] A compensation fee of £2 million was agreed, and Celtic declared Mowbray as their new manager on 16 June 2009.^[16] He was unveiled as Celtic manager at a press conference on the 17th of June 2009. ^[17]. His coaching team will be Neil Lennon , Peter Grant Mark Venus and Stevie Woods. ^[18]

[edit] Honours

[edit] As a player

[edit] Promotions

• 1986–87: Division 3 Runner Up (promotion to Division 2) - Middlesbrough
• 1987–88: Division 2 3rd (promotion to Division 1) - Middlesbrough
• 1999–00: Division 1 Playoff winners (promotion to Premier League) - Ipswich Town

[edit] As a manager

[edit] Promotions

• 2007–08: The Championship Champions (promotion to Premier League) - West Bromwich Albion

[edit] Personal life

Mowbray is married to Amber and has two sons, Lucas and Max.^[19] The couple are expecting their third child shortly. Mowbray has been teetotal since around the age of 19.^[20]

[edit] Statistics

[edit] Manager

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	D	L	Win %
Ipswich Town (caretaker)		11 October 2002	28 October 2002	4	1	1	2	25
Hibernian		24 May 2004	13 October 2006	108	52	16	40	48.15
West Bromwich Albion		18 October 2006	16 June 2009	140	57	32	51	40.71
Celtic		16 June 2009	Present	0	0	0	0
Total				252	110	49	93	43.65

As of 17 June 2009.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tony Mowbray career stats at Soccerbase
• Tony Mowbray management career stats at Soccerbase