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Gary John Megson (born 2 May 1959) Manager profile at 4thegame is an English former football player and manager.
He has previously managed Norwich City, Blackpool, Stockport County, Stoke City, West Bromwich Albion, Nottingham Forest, Leicester City, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield Wednesday. He guided West Brom to promotion in 2001–02 and 2003–04, both times from the First Division to the Premier League.
He is the son of Don Megson and the brother of Neil Megson, both former players.
Megson immediately gained a place in Wednesday's starting lineup, and was a member of the team that gained promotion to the top flight in 1983–84, ending a 14-year exile from the elite. In his three years at Hillsborough, he missed only three league games. In the summer of 1984, he was signed by Nottingham Forest, only for Brian Clough to decide "he couldn't trap a bag of cement". Megson spent five months at the City Ground, without making a single first-team appearance before being sold to Newcastle United.
Megson played regularly for the Magpies for the remainder of the 1984–85 season, but lost his place in the line-up the following season, and moved back to Sheffield Wednesday. In his second spell with the Owls, Megson again established himself as an important member of the squad, and was rarely out of the starting eleven. In January 1989, he moved to Manchester City, where he spent three and a half seasons, and helped City finish fifth in his final two seasons there, having helped them win promotion in his first season.
He then moved to Norwich City on a free transfer in the summer of 1992, and spent three seasons at Carrow Road. He was an important member of the Norwich side that finished third in the inaugural season of the Premier League and played in the UEFA Cup for the first time as a result. When manager Mike Walker moved to Everton in January 1994, he was also assistant to the new Norwich manager John Deehan.
When Deehan resigned in April 1995, Megson briefly took charge as caretaker manager, but failed to save City from the drop, losing four and drawing one of his five games in charge. In the summer, he also left Norwich and finished his playing career with short spells at lower division sides Lincoln City and Shrewsbury Town. In December 1995, he returned to Norwich when he was re-appointed manager following Martin O'Neill's sudden departure to Leicester City. He remained as manager at Carrow Road until the end of the season, when Mike Walker was appointed for the second time.
The following season Megson took the club into the playoffs, winning the Division One Manager of the Month award for November 2000 along the way. Albion lost to Bolton Wanderers at the semi-final stage, but the following year the club won promotion to the Premier League for the first time, overcoming the eleven-point lead of their fierce local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the closing weeks of the campaign. This achievement earned Megson the Nationwide Division One Manager of the Year award, as well as the medieval title Lord of the Manor of West Bromwich. However, the club was barely prepared for the financial challenges of life in the top flight and a bitter quarrel soon developed between Megson and the club's chairman Paul Thompson over what Megson perceived as the latter's interference in footballing matters. An undignified public showdown resulted in Thompson resigning from the board in order to forestall Megson's departure. The board elected Jeremy Peace as Thompson's successor, and in July 2002 Megson signed a new three-year contract with Albion. However, in 2002–03 the club were relegated after just a single season in the Premier League.
Megson mounted a successful promotion campaign the following season, and a return to the Premier League – but by the summer of 2004, the relationship between Megson and Peace had become strained. By September, after a poor start to the season, Megson's job appeared to be under threat. The following month Megson, whose contract was due to end in June 2005, announced that he would not sign a new deal if the club offered one. The board chose to interpret this as a resignation, and on 26 October Megson was dismissed. A settlement for the remainder of his contract was reached in November 2004.
In June 2007 Megson was appointed as a coach at Stoke City by manager Tony Pulis. He retained this role until his appointment as manager of Leicester City.
A month into Megson's tenure at Leicester, Mandarić rejected an approach from Bolton Wanderers for the manager's services. On 23 October however, Bolton announced that Megson was their first choice to become their new manager, and made a second approach for him. The club said they were also willing to compensate Leicester should Megson leave the Walkers Stadium. Bolton want Megson as new manager, BBC Sport 23 October 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. This second approach was also rejected by Milan Mandarić, Foxes reject second approach, Sky Sports 23 October 2007. Retrieved on 2007-10-23. but Megson was eventually given permission to speak to Bolton and he left Leicester on 24 October 2007, just 41 days and nine EFL Championship games after his appointment.
By the New Year Bolton were lying 16th in the Premier League table, but only two points ahead of Fulham who were 19th. In January 2008 they sold Nicolas Anelka to Chelsea for £15 million, and brought in no comparable replacement. In February 2008 however they beat Atlético Madrid (who at the time were lying fourth in La Liga) 1–0 on Aggregate score, winning 1–0 at home and drawing 0–0 away, to reach the last 16 of the UEFA Cup for the first time in the club's history before proceeding to play the reserve team in Lisbon in the Last 16 with the tie tied at 1–1, Bolton lost the away leg 1–0. Megson picked a reserve side so that the first team were rested for Sunday's relegation battle against Wigan Athletic. They proceeded to lose 1–0 to a ten-man Wigan side. Their League form remained poor, and a 4–0 defeat at Aston Villa on 5 April left them in 18th place, two points adrift of safety. But they proceeded to take 11 points from their last five games (including a 1–1 draw at Chelsea on the final day of the season) to secure survival in the Premier League – the first time Megson had achieved this as a manager.
Megson won the Premier League Manager of the Month award for November 2008. Heading into the 2008–09 season, he brought in players such as Johan Elmander for a club record £8.2m, Fabrice Muamba from Birmingham City for £5m, Mustapha Riga from Levante UD, Danny Shittu for £2m and Ebi Smolarek on a season-long loan from Racing Santander with a view to a permanent deal. Bolton started the season unremarkably and by October Bolton were looking set for another relegation scrap. This caused increasing pressure on Megson but he was given time by Chairman Phil Gartside and managed to improve results, leading Bolton to a high of eighth in the league. On 1 March 2009, it was announced that Megson had agreed a new rolling contract with Bolton. He celebrated his new contract with a 1–0 victory over Newcastle United. Bolton finished 13th in the 2008–09 season.
During the summer of 2009 Megson added to the Trotters' squad with the additions of Portsmouth midfielder Sean Davis on a free transfer, Hull City's Welsh right-back Sam Ricketts, Aston Villa's England international defender Zat Knight for £4m, veteran left-back Paul Robinson on loan from West Brom and the South Korean international Lee Chung-Yong. Just before the transfer window closed he added the Croatian international Ivan Klasnić from FC Nantes on a season long loan. In the 2009 season, under Megson's tenure, he started the season in an inauspicious manner with defeats to Hull City and Sunderland before seeing excellent form in the next seven games. These games saw three wins, two draws and narrow defeats to Manchester United and Liverpool. After 25 October, Bolton lost five out of the next six games. The first three were losses by four goals and these were followed by a home defeat to Blackburn, a draw against Fulham and an away defeat at Wolverhampton Wanderers. In a period which lasted almost fifty days without a win Bolton played Manchester City and were scheduled games against other relegation candidates including West Ham United, Wigan Athletic, Burnley and Hull City. In the four games that were played Bolton were leading them all but ended with only one win and three draws, leaving the club 18th out of 20 and with 18 points from 18 games.
On 30 December 2009, Bolton announced that Megson had been relieved of his duties as manager with immediate effect. Bolton Wanderers official club statement said; "The decision has been taken in the light of the position the club finds itself in the Barclays Premier League at the halfway point of the season." It was later confirmed that as the club and their former manager could not agree a compensation deal Megson would be paid out the remainder of his rolling contract on a weekly basis, effectively putting him on a year's garden leave. Over two years after being dismissed by Bolton, Megson complained that he had never won the fans over and hit out at the club's supporters, claiming that they did not like him and he did not like them.
On 20 November 2017, he was named as the caretaker head coach of West Bromwich Albion "until further notice" after Tony Pulis was sacked. When Alan Pardew was appointed manager of the club, Megson departed.
| + Appearances and goals by club, season and competition | |||
| Plymouth Argyle | 1977–78 | Third Division | 2 |
| 1978–79 | Third Division | 8 | |
| 1979–80 | Third Division | 0 | |
| Everton | 1979–80 | First Division | 2 |
| 1980–81 | First Division | 1 | |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 1981–82 | Second Division | 5 |
| 1982–83 | Second Division | 10 | |
| 1983–84 | Second Division | 5 | |
| Newcastle United | 1984–85 | First Division | 2 |
| 1985–86 | First Division | 0 | |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 1985–86 | First Division | 3 |
| 1986–87 | First Division | 7 | |
| 1987–88 | First Division | 2 | |
| 1988–89 | First Division | 1 | |
| Manchester City | 1988–89 | Second Division | 1 |
| 1989–90 | First Division | 0 | |
| 1990–91 | First Division | 1 | |
| 1991–92 | First Division | 0 | |
| Norwich City | 1992–93 | Premier League | 1 |
| 1993–94 | Premier League | 0 | |
| 1994–95 | Premier League | 0 | |
| Lincoln City | 1995–96 | Third Division | 0 |
| Shrewsbury Town | 1995–96 | Second Division | 0 |
| Norwich City | 21 December 1995 | 31 July 1996 |
| Blackpool | 5 July 1996 | 1 July 1997 |
| Stockport County | 1 July 1997 | 25 June 1999 |
| Stoke City | 14 July 1999 | 15 November 1999 |
| West Bromwich Albion | 9 March 2000 | 26 October 2004 |
| Nottingham Forest | 10 January 2005 | 16 February 2006 |
| Leicester City | 13 September 2007 | 24 October 2007 |
| Bolton Wanderers | 25 October 2007 | 30 December 2009 |
| Sheffield Wednesday | 4 February 2011 | 29 February 2012 |
| West Bromwich Albion (caretaker) | 20 November 2017 | 29 November 2017 |
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