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John Eric Black (born 1 October 1963) is a Scottish former professional football player and coach. Black played as a striker for Aberdeen and FC Metz, winning major trophies with both clubs, and earned two international caps for the Scotland national team. He was forced to retire from playing at a relatively early age and became a coach, working as a manager at Motherwell and Coventry City.
In summer 1986, Black joined FC Metz in France. He had initially agreed a deal in principle with Arsène Wenger to join Monaco, but this fell through when Wenger was not released from his previous club contract at that time as had been anticipated. After five seasons (1986 to 1991) with Metz, during which he won the Summer Cup (forerunner of the League Cup) within weeks of arriving in 1986 and the French Cup in 1988 (and off the field became a father to two children), Black was forced to retire from the game aged 27 due to a chronic back problem. Alex Ferguson later admitted that injury problems suffered by Black and other young players he had managed at Aberdeen were due to them playing an excessive number of games at a young age. In all, Black made 95 appearances for Metz, scoring 34 goals. Eric Black, FC Metz
Black joined Birmingham City in July 2004 as assistant manager to Steve Bruce. He managed one game as caretaker manager, after Bruce joined Wigan Athletic, before leaving St Andrew's in November 2007. He was assistant manager to Bruce at Sunderland from June 2009 and was appointed caretaker manager following the departure of Bruce. In his only game in charge, Sunderland were beaten 2–1 by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Black left Sunderland on 6 December 2011.
Black was appointed assistant manager to Steve Kean at Blackburn Rovers in January 2012. He was caretaker manager at Blackburn after the departure of Kean.
Black was an advisor at Blackpool to caretaker manager Barry Ferguson in 2014. Black was appointed as a coach at Wigan in July 2014.
In July 2015, Black was named as first team coach of Championship side Rotherham United. Black was appointed caretaker manager of Rotherham in September 2015, after manager Steve Evans left the club. Black left Rotherham in January 2016 and was then appointed first team coach at Aston Villa. He was appointed Villa manager on a temporary basis after Rémi Garde left by mutual consent in March 2016. Black left Villa in June 2016 following the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo.
Black joined Southampton on 30 June 2016, as assistant manager to Claude Puel. On 29 September, The Daily Telegraph alleged that Black had offered advice to a third-party player ownership consortium on how to bribe lower league clubs. An investigation by Southampton FC cleared Black of any wrongdoing, as the newspaper refused to provide any evidence to substantiate their allegation. He resigned in December 2017 for personal reasons, with the club citing ongoing back problems due to injuries sustained during his playing career. 18 months after leaving that post, he confirmed he no longer wished to be involved in professional coaching and was happy to have left the intense football environment after nearly four decades. Aberdeen icon Eric Black on why he walked away from football, The Scotsman, 13 April 2019
| +Appearances and goals by club, season and competition !rowspan="2" | Club !rowspan="2" | Season !colspan="3" | League !colspan="2" | National cup !colspan="2" | League cup !colspan="2" | Europe !colspan="2" | Other !colspan="2" | Total |
| Aberdeen | 1980–81 | Scottish Premier Division | 0 | |||||
| 1981–82 | 4 | |||||||
| 1982–83 | 19 | |||||||
| 1983–84 | 12 | |||||||
| 1984–85 | 19 | |||||||
| 1985–86 | 15 | |||||||
| FC Metz | 1986–87 | French Division 1 | 16 | |||||
| 1987–88 | 9 | |||||||
| 1988–89 | 2 | |||||||
| 1989–90 | 7 | |||||||
| 1990–91 | 0 | |||||||
| +Appearances and goals by national team and year !National team !Year !Apps !Goals | |||
| Scotland | 1987 | 2 | 0 |
Southampton
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