Management
He moved into management with York City at the start of the 1982–83 season as player-manager. He retired from playing after one season and in his second season as York manager guided them to Fourth Division title glory and promotion to the Third Division.
In January 1985 he guided the Third Division club to a famous victory over Arsenal in the FA Cup Fourth Round. In the next round York drew 1–1 at home with Liverpool, before losing 7–0 away at Anfield. The previous season, under Smith's guidance York became the first English club to reach 100 points when they romped away with the Fourth Division Championship. He remained at Bootham Crescent until the summer of 1987 when he moved to Sunderland who had just been relegated to the Third Division for the first time in their history. This was a surprise choice to many York fans as Smith had been lucky to keep his job that season as York finished one place above relegation.
In his first season at Sunderland he guided them to the Third Division championship and promotion with a record 101 points. They achieved a top-half finish in the 1988–89 Second Division campaign and reaching the playoff final in 1989–90. They lost 1–0 to Swindon Town but were promoted a month later when Swindon were found guilty of financial irregularities and remained in the Second Division. Sunderland struggled throughout 1990–91 and their battle against relegation from the First Division was lost on the last day of the season. Smith's side performed inconsistently on their return to the Second Division and with the team struggling near the foot of the table, he was sacked at the end of December 1991. He was replaced by Malcolm Crosby (initially on a 'caretaker' basis) and Sunderland subsequently reached that season's FA Cup Final where they lost to Liverpool.
Smith was soon back in the game as manager of Bristol City in the new Division One. But the club never looked like gaining promotion to the new FA Premier League and Denis Smith resigned in May 1993.
During his time as manager of Bristol City, he brought striker Andy Cole (then aged 20) on loan from Arsenal and after the player scored eight goals in 12 league games, he paid a club record £500,000 to secure him on a permanent basis, which provided excellent value for money as Cole established himself as one of the best goalscorers outside the top flight in the 1992–93 season, scoring 12 goals in 29 Division One games before selling him to Newcastle United for £1.75million in March 1993. Cole went on to become one of the most lethal goalscorers of the 1990s and 2000s, scoring more than 200 goals and during his spell at Manchester United winning a host of major trophies. He was also capped 17 times for England.
He made a return to management with Oxford United the following October but was unable to save them from relegation to Division Two.
In 1994–95, Oxford United just missed out on the Division Two playoffs but in 1995–96 were promoted back to Division One as runners-up of Division Two. They achieved a mid-table finish in the 1996–97 Division One campaign but Smith resigned the following December with the club £10 million in debt—a financial crisis which lasted until the end of 2000–01, by which time the club had been relegated to Division Three.
Smith was appointed manager of West Bromwich Albion two days before Christmas in 1997. He could only guide Albion to two mid-table finishes in Division One and was sacked in July 1999.
In February 2000, Denis Smith was appointed manager of Oxford United for the second time in seven years. He saved the club from relegation to Division Three but resigned after a terrible start to 2000–01, a season which ended in Oxford getting relegated.
Smith made his return to management in October 2001 with Wrexham, replacing Brian Flynn who had resigned after 12 years in charge. He was unable to save the club from relegation to Division Three and his task for restoring the club's fortunes was made all the harder by the collapse of ITV Digital which left Wrexham with virtually no funds for buying new players with. But he proved all the odds wrong at the end of the 2002–03 season, when Wrexham finished third in Division Three and claimed the last automatic promotion place to Division Two. As credit for his achievements he won the League Managers Association Manager of the Year Award for the second time in his managerial career — he had won it 19 years earlier when guiding York City to the Fourth Division championship in 1984.
The 2004–05 season was extremely difficult for Wrexham, thanks to behind the scenes manoeuverings by club chairman Alex Hamilton who was trying to evict the club from its ground (now owned by another of his companies), and the club was placed in Administration to escape its creditors, becoming the first club to suffer a consequential deduction of ten points, which saw the club relegated at the end of the season. Despite having to operate a hand-to-mouth cash-only existence, Smith still managed to take Wrexham to victory in the Football League Trophy. Wrexham's finances were still causing difficulty in 2005–06, and Smith was unable to guide the club to anything more than a mid table finish. With Wrexham hovering above the relegation zone, Smith and assistant Kevin Russell were sacked in January 2007.
In November 2008 Smith saw his autobiography released entitled "Just One Of Seven". He writes a weekly column for The Sentinel and is occasionally a commentator on Stoke matches for BBC Radio Stoke.
In July 2011 Smith re-joined Stoke City on a part-time basis as a mentor for young Academy players needing guidance off the pitch.
Read more about this topic: Denis Smith (footballer)
Famous quotes containing the word management:
“People have described me as a “management bishop” but I say to my critics, “Jesus was a management expert too.””
—George Carey (b. 1935)
“Why not draft executive and management brains to prepare and produce the equipment the $21-a-month draftee must use and forget this dollar-a-year tommyrot? Would we send an army into the field under a dollar-a-year General who had to be home Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays?”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)
“No officer should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns. Their right to vote and to express their views on public questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their official duties. No assessment for political purposes on officers or subordinates should be allowed.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)