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Jim Smith |
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Jim Smith had a chequered four year reign as manager of Birmingham City. The Blues suffered relegation in 1979 and won promotion 12 months later. The 'Bald Eagle', as he was affectionately known, had not tasted First Division football before moving to St.Andrews, having spent all of his playing career in the lower divisions. He began with Sheffield United but did not play in their first team before having spells with Aldershot, Halifax Town, Lincoln City and Boston United, before ending his playing career back in the league with a handful of games for Colchester United. HE managed Colchester from 1972 to 1975, before managing Blackburn Rovers from 1975 to 1978. Smith, born in Sheffield on 17 October 1940, guided Boston United ro victory in the Eastern Professional Floodlit Cup and Colchester ro promotiion from Division Four. The Birmingham board saw him as the man to motivate a team which lacked confidence. He could not prevent the Blues from being relegated at the end of his first full season but Birmingham bounced straight back to Division One in 1980. Smith bought experience to St.Andrews, signing Alan Curbishley, Colin Todd, Frank Worthington, Don Givens, Archie Gemmill, Willie Johsnon and Jeff Wealands. The previous season he gambled by importing the Argentinian international, Alberton Tarantini, and signing Walsall striker Alan Buckley, neither of whom proved long-term successes at St.Andrews. In 1980-81, the Blues finished 13th in Division One. The following season Smith signed two Dutchmen, Bud Brocken and Tony Van Mierlo - but results were poor and after Birmingham won only two games out of 14, Smith was asked to leave. Chairman Keith Coombes said "The decision to termintae Jim's contract was taken purely and simply because it was feelt that results over a fairly lengthy period of time demanded that particular course of action." The fact that Ron Saunders had recently left Aston Villa was made to appear coincidental! Smith had a few months out of football before taking over as manager of Oxford United in July 1982. He led them to the old Football League Third Division championship in 1984. The next year they were again promoted, this time into the top flight, for the first time in their history as Oxford won the old Second Division. Despite this spectacular success, United chairman Robert Maxwell refused to improve Smith's contract, which led to Smith's resignation from Oxford and then being offered the job of manager at Queens Park Rangers, which he accepted. In his first year at QPR, Smith took the club to the League Cup final, but they lost 3-0 to his former club Oxford. Smith continued to manage QPR until 1988 when he left to become manager of Newcastle United. However, the following year Newcastle were relegated and failure to reverse the club's fortunes led to Smith's sacking in 1991. He quickly bounced back and was appointed manager of Portsmouth the same year. He had a fairly successful reign at Fratton Park for four years, including reaching the FA Cup semi-finals in 1992, although the sale of key players such as John Beresford, Darren Anderton and Guy Whittingham began to have a negative effect on results and Smith left. Smith then went into semi-retirement and became chief-executive of the League Managers' Association in 1995. However, he returned to management that summer when offered the manager's position at Derby County. In his first full season in charge, Derby came second in the First Division (now the second tier of English football), and gained promotion to the FA Premier League. Smith was assisted by Steve McClaren, who has since found success as manager of Middlesbrough and England. For three seasons Derby showed impressive improvements in the Premiership, finishing 12th, 9th and 8th. However, in the next two seasons Derby narrowly avoided relegation, finishing 16th and 17th. Smith resigned at the beginning of the 2001-2002 season. In early 2002, Smith was appointed assistant manager at Coventry City, working alongside Roland Nilsson. Though results improved after he arrived, Smith was sacked, along with Coventry's entire management team, at the end of the season. Later that year, former club Portsmouth offered Smith a position as assistant manager to Harry Redknapp. Having accepted, Smith helped Redknapp win the First Division at the first attempt in 2002-2003, and went on to become a major part of Pompey's consolidation process in the Premier League. In November 2004, both Smith and Redknapp resigned from Portsmouth after the appointment of a director of football. Both considered this to threaten their authority and control in team matters. Redknapp soon became the manager of Southampton and Smith was appointed his assistant a few weeks later on December 22, 2004, having previously turned down the role of chief scout. However, Southampton were relegated at the end of the season and Smith's contract was not renewed due to cost-cutting. Smith returned to front-line management a few months later when he was appointed manager of Oxford United again in March 2006. In addition, he also became a director of the club. He was unable to save them from relegation to the Conference National, but remained at the club for the 2006-2007 season. | |
| Managerial Career | |||||||
| Competition | Played | Won | Lost | Drawn | For | Against | Perf % |
| League | 79 | 33 | 14 | 32 | 144 | 136 | 50.6% |
| FA Cup | xx | 33 | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx.x% |
| League Cup | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx.x% |
| Other | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx | xx.x% |