Club management (1979–1993)
Gould joined Chelsea as assistant manager to Geoff Hurst in 1979. When Hurst was sacked in April 1981, Gould took charge of first team affairs for the final two games of the season, before leaving the club shortly afterwards.
Gould began his managerial career with Bristol Rovers in October 1981 before returning to Coventry City as boss in May 1983. He remained there until he was sacked on 28 December 1984. [9] The highlight of this spell at Coventry came on 10 December 1983 when his unfancied Coventry side achieved a 4–0 win over Liverpool, the top English club side of the time who went on to win the league title, League Cup and European Cup that season. He made a swift return to management after accepting an offer to return to Bristol Rovers.
Gould is most famous for his achievements with Wimbledon. He moved to the South Londoners in the summer of 1987 after their first season as a First Division club, in which they had finished sixth. His first season brought one of the most famous FA Cup victories in history, when his unfancied Wimbledon side beat Liverpool to clinch the 1988 FA Cup final at Wembley. [10] They also finished seventh in the league. Gould is famous for adopting the technique of, as he says, "goal keepers who can kick the ball 90 yards and a 6-foot 2 bloke to head it in!", he said jokingly on talkSPORT with Andy Goldstein.
Gould remained with the Dons for two more seasons before quitting to make way for his assistant Ray Harford. In December 1990, Gould returned to football as assistant manager to Don Howe at Queen's Park Rangers – a role reversal of the management team that they had formed at Wimbledon. Gould lasted just two months at Loftus Road before accepting an offer to become manager of West Bromwich Albion. [11]
But he was unable to prevent them from suffering relegation to the old Third Division at the end of the 1990–91 season – the first time that Albion had slipped to such depths. In 1991–92, Albion just missed out on the playoffs in their first season as a Third Division club and Gould left in June 1992 to join Coventry, his former club. Ironically, Howe was working at Coventry by this time and the pair were joint managers, but Howe stepped down before the season began to leave Gould in sole charge.
He remained at Coventry City until October 1993, when he resigned despite defying all the odds and keeping them clear of relegation from the Premiership. In his first season, they had been fourth in the league as late as January before a late season dip in form saw them finish 15th. Earlier in the season he had paid Newcastle United £250,000 for striker Mick Quinn, who was among the top scorers in the first-ever Premier League season with 17 goals. He also oversaw a thrilling 5–1 victory in the league over Liverpool, and the following season they began with a similarly impressive 3–0 win over Arsenal at Highbury.
In August 2000, Gould was named as manager of Division Three side Cardiff City. But two months later he handed over his duties to Alan Cork and was promoted to the role of general manager. After seeing the Bluebirds win promotion at the end of 2000–01 he left Ninian Park to seek a return to management. [16]
Gould's final full-time managerial post came in February 2003 when he took over at Division Two strugglers Cheltenham Town. [17] Despite his efforts, Cheltenham were unable to avoid relegation back to Division Three and Gould resigned soon after the 2003–04 campaign was underway, following a run of six defeats in seven games. [18] Gould was unpopular with the fans throughout the start of 2003–04, resulting in a demonstration after the home match with Rochdale during which he came out to announce that he had resigned.
