Craig Shakespeare

Craig Shakespeare

Shakespeare with Leicester City in 2010
Personal information
Full name	Craig Robert Shakespeare
Date of birth	(1963-10-26) 26 October 1963 (age 60)
Place of birth	Birmingham, England
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1979–1981	Walsall
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1981–1989	Walsall	284	(45)
1989–1990	Sheffield Wednesday	17	(1)
1990–1993	West Bromwich Albion	112	(12)
1993–1997	Grimsby Town	106	(10)
1997–1998	Scunthorpe United	4	(0)
1998	Telford United	1	(1)
2000	Hednesford Town	1	(0)
Total		525	(68)
Managerial career
2006	West Bromwich Albion (caretaker)
2008–2010	Leicester City (assistant)
2010–2011	Hull City (assistant)
2011–2017	Leicester City (assistant)
2017	Leicester City
2019–2020	Watford (assistant)
2020–2021	Aston Villa (assistant)
2021–2022	Norwich City (assistant)
2023	Leicester City (assistant)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Craig Robert Shakespeare (born 26 October 1963) is an English football coach and former player who was most recently assistant manager of Leicester City.

A midfielder, he began his playing career with Walsall, where he made over 350 appearances. After a brief spell with Sheffield Wednesday, he also made over 100 appearances for both West Bromwich Albion and Grimsby Town. He also played for Scunthorpe United before finishing his career in non-league football with Telford United and Hednesford Town.

As a coach, Shakespeare has previously worked at West Bromwich Albion, Leicester City and Hull City. He was briefly caretaker manager at West Brom in 2006 and took a similar role at Leicester in February 2017 before he was appointed manager in March. He was appointed permanent manager of Leicester City on 8 June 2017 after signing a 3-year deal. He has since served as assistant manager for Everton, Watford, Aston Villa and the England national team.

Playing career

In his playing days he was an attacking midfielder; he favoured his left foot and his preferred position was on the left side of midfield. He signed as an apprentice at Walsall in September 1979, turning professional in November 1981. Shakespeare rates his goal in a 2–2 League Cup draw against Chelsea in October 1984 as the best of his career. ^[1] In 1987–88 he helped Walsall to win promotion to Division Two via the playoffs, an achievement which he has since described as his greatest in football. ^[1] He played well over 350 games for the Saddlers, scoring 59 goals, and in 1989 he moved to Sheffield Wednesday, then in the First Division, for a fee of £300,000.

He spent less than a year at Hillsborough, before moving to West Bromwich Albion for £275,000. He stayed at Albion for over three years, making 128 appearances in total and becoming the team's first choice penalty taker. He scored twice from the penalty spot in Albion's first ever game in the Third Division, a 6–3 victory over Exeter City in August 1991.

Albion were promoted in 1993, but Shakespeare moved to Grimsby Town, rejoining Alan Buckley under whom he had played at Walsall. He later moved on to Scunthorpe United, and also played for three non-league clubs before retiring.

Coaching career

In 1999, he re-joined West Brom as Football in the Community Officer. In this role, he was responsible for promoting football at grass roots level in the local community. He later took up the post of academy coach, then in 2006 became Reserve Team Coach. In October 2006, following the departure of Bryan Robson and then his assistant Nigel Pearson (who had been caretaker manager for a period of four weeks), Shakespeare was given charge of the first team for one game pending the arrival of Tony Mowbray. ^[2] The game was away to Crystal Palace; Albion won 2–0. ^[3]

Shakespeare left Albion in June 2008 to become Pearson's assistant manager at Leicester City, ^[4] a move that was confirmed on 1 July. ^[5] As well as having worked together on the West Bromwich Albion coaching staff, the two had also played together at Sheffield Wednesday. Shakespeare once said that Pearson was the best captain he had ever played under. ^[6]

Shakespeare then followed Pearson to Hull City, which lasted until 2011. ^{[7] [8]}

He then followed Pearson back to Leicester City when the latter was reappointed manager there in November 2011. ^[8] Following Pearson's sacking in July 2015, ^[9] Shakespeare remained as assistant manager to incoming manager Claudio Ranieri. The club subsequently being crowned English champions in 2015-16

When Sam Allardyce was made England manager in 2016 Shakespeare took on a coaching position alongside his Leicester job, but left when Allardyce resigned after just one match. ^[10]

When Ranieri was sacked on 23 February 2017, Shakespeare took over as caretaker manager. His first game in charge was a 3–1 victory over Liverpool in the Premier League. ^[11] On 12 March, he was named as the new manager of Leicester City. ^{[12] [ non-primary source needed ]} On 18 March, Shakespeare became the first Premier League manager ever to achieve 3 goals per game in his first three matches in charge. ^[13] Then on 1 April, he became the only English manager to win his first four league matches. ^[14]

On 8 June, Shakespeare signed a 3-year deal to be the permanent manager for Leicester City. ^[15] On 17 October 2017, he was fired after poor performances left the club in the bottom three of the Premier League. ^[16]

On 1 December 2017, Shakespeare was appointed first team coach at Everton following the appointment of Sam Allardyce as manager the previous day. ^[17] On 16 May 2018, Allardyce and his backroom staff, including Shakespeare, were sacked by Everton. ^[18]

On 6 December 2019, Shakespeare was reunited with Nigel Pearson once again, as he was named as assistant manager at Watford. ^[19] He remained in this role until 19 July 2020, when Pearson and his backroom staff were sacked, despite there only being two games left in the season, and Watford being out of the relegation zone at that point. ^[20] Watford went on to lose both their remaining games, and suffer relegation from the Premier League. ^[21]

On 7 August 2020, Shakespeare was appointed as assistant head coach to former Walsall teammate Dean Smith at Aston Villa, ^[22] the team he supported growing up. ^[23] On 8 November 2021, Shakespeare parted company with Aston Villa, the day after Smith left the club. ^[24] On 15 November 2021, Shakespeare was appointed assistant head coach at Norwich City, again under Dean Smith who became the club's new head coach. ^[25] On 10 April 2023, Shakespeare was appointed assistant head coach at Leicester City, again under Dean Smith who became the club's new head coach. ^[26]

Personal life

On 12 October 2023, it was announced that Shakespeare has been diagnosed with cancer. ^[27]

Managerial statistics

As of match played 16 October 2017

Managerial record by team and tenure

Team	From	To	Record					Ref
			P	W	D	L	Win %
West Bromwich Albion (caretaker)	17 October 2006	18 October 2006	1	1	0	0	100.0	[2] [28]
Leicester City	23 February 2017	17 October 2017 [29]	26	11	6	9	042.3	[28]
Total			27	12	6	9	044.4	—

Honours

Walsall

• Third Division play-off winner: 1988 ^[30]

References

1. "Pick a Number..." West Bromwich Albion F.C. 6 November 2007. Archived from the original on 6 January 2008. Retrieved 6 November 2007.
2. "Pearson stands down at West Brom". BBC Sport . 17 October 2006. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
3. "Shakey enjoys night in spotlight". West Bromwich Albion F.C. 18 October 2006. Retrieved 12 November 2007.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
4. "Shakespeare leaves Albion". West Bromwich Albion F.C. 27 June 2008. Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 28 June 2008.
5. "Pearson Adds Duo To Backroom Staff". Leicester City F.C. 1 July 2008. Archived from the original on 19 September 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
6. "Craig Shakespeare – Simply the Best". West Bromwich Albion F.C. 15 May 2007. Archived from the original on 5 August 2012. Retrieved 16 July 2008.
7. "Hull City name Nigel Pearson as new manager". BBC Sport. 29 June 2010. Retrieved 29 June 2010.
8. "Leicester City appoint Hull City's Nigel Pearson as boss". BBC Sport. 15 November 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2016.
9. "Nigel Pearson: Leicester boss's sacking linked to son's actions". BBC Sport. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
10. Tanner, Rob. "Leicester City's Shakespeare out of England set-up". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 7 March 2017.^{[ permanent dead link ]}
11. "Leicester City 3–1 Liverpool". BBC Sport. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
12. Herlihy, Anthony. "BREAKING: #lcfc is pleased to confirm Craig Shakespeare as its First Team Manager for the rest of the 2016/17 season". Leicester City (Twitter). Retrieved 12 March 2017.
13. Jack Skelton (18 March 2017). "West Ham United v Leicester City". BBC Sport. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
14. "Leicester City: Craig Shakespeare proud of historic start as manager". BBC Sport. 1 April 2017. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
15. "Craig Shakespeare: Leicester City caretaker named permanent manager". BBC Sport. 8 June 2017.
16. Guardian Sport staff (17 October 2017). "Craig Shakespeare sacked by Leicester City after four months in charge". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
17. "Lee And Shakespeare Join Coaching Staff". Everton F.C. 1 December 2017. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
18. Jones, Adam (16 May 2018). "Confirmed - Everton sack Sam Allardyce". Liverpool Echo. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
19. Leach, Tom (6 December 2019). "Former Leicester City duo take charge of Premier League rivals Watford". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
20. Fisher, Ben (19 July 2020). "Nigel Pearson sacked by Watford with two games of season remaining". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
21. "Managerless Watford relegated from the Premier League as Aubameyang inspires Arsenal to victory". BBC Sport. 26 July 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
22. "Craig Shakespeare joins Aston Villa as assistant head coach". Express & Star. 7 August 2020. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
23. Affleck, Kevin (24 April 2020). "My Best: Craig Shakespeare". Watford FC Official Site. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
24. "Villa confirm Shakespeare departure". Aston Villa Official Site. 8 November 2021. Archived from the original on 8 November 2021. Retrieved 8 November 2021.
25. "Norwich City: Dean Smith named new Canaries head coach". BBC Sport. 15 November 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
26. "'There looked to be a lack of confidence and energy'". BBC Sport. 11 April 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
27. "Craig Shakespeare: Former Leicester manager diagnosed with cancer". BBC Sport. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 12 October 2023.
28. "Managers: Craig Shakespeare". Soccerbase. Centurycomm. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
29. "Leicester City sack manager Craig Shakespeare after one Premier League win in eight". Sky Sports. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
30. Bateman, Cynthia (31 May 1988). "Kelly's rule of three". The Guardian . p. 12. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021– via Newspapers.com.

External links

• Craig Shakespeare at Soccerbase