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Alan Durban

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Alan Durban
Personal information
Full name William Alan Durban[1]
Date of birth (1941-07-07) 7 July 1941 (age 83)[1]
Place of birth Bridgend, Glamorgan, Wales[1]
Position(s) Inside-forward / Midfielder
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1959–1963 Cardiff City 52 (9)
1963–1973 Derby County 346 (93)
1973–1978 Shrewsbury Town 156 (33)
Total 554 (135)
International career
1966–1972 Wales 27 (2)
Managerial career
1974–1978 Shrewsbury Town
1978–1981 Stoke City
1981–1984 Sunderland
1984 Willington
1984–1986 Cardiff City
1998 Stoke City (caretaker)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Alan Durban (born 7 July 1941) is a Welsh former international footballer and manager, whose career was at its peak between the 1970s and 1990s. He played in the Football League for Cardiff City, Derby County and was player-manager of Shrewsbury Town. He managed Stoke City (two spells), Sunderland and Cardiff City.[1]

Club career

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Durban was brought up in Bracken Road, Margam, Port Talbot. He began his career at Cardiff City, making his debut in a 2–1 win over Derby County in 1959. After initially making an impact on the team he fell out of favour and was transferred to Derby County for £10,000 in July 1963 at the age of 22 having played over 50 times for Cardiff City. He made his Derby debut on 24 August 1963 in a 3–1 defeat to Newcastle United and helped the side to thirteenth place in his first season and his partnership with the newly arrived Eddie Thomas saw the side begin to move up the table, finishing in 9th and 8th position in the following two years.

After finishing in seventeenth place during the 1966–67 season Tim Ward was replaced as the Derby manager by Brian Clough since the 1967–68 season. Under Clough, Durban was moved from inside-forward to an attacking midfield role and was handed the captaincy for the first time in a 5–1 win over his former club Cardiff City.[2] He won a Second Division title in 1968–69 and then a famous First Division championship medal with in 1971–72. He left Derby in 1973 after agreeing to become player-assistant manager of Shrewsbury Town after making 404 appearances for the "Rams" scoring 110 goals. He was appointed manager on 4 December 1973 following the dismissal of Maurice Evans, the man who had signed him three months earlier. With the "Shrews" he appointed former Derby teammate Richie Barker as his assistant and he helped Shrewsbury gain promotion in 1974–75 and consolidate their position in the Third Division. He retired from playing once he was made manager of Stoke City in February 1978.[1]

International career

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Durban was handed his debut for Wales on 18 May 1966 in a 1–0 defeat to Brazil at the age of 24. He went on to make 27 appearances for Wales, his final appearance coming on 27 May 1972 in a 0–0 draw with Northern Ireland.[3]

Managerial career

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He began his managerial career at Shrewsbury Town in February 1974; managing them until 1978 when he joined Stoke City, having won promotion from the Fourth Division and the Welsh Cup in 1977.[1] He helped Stoke gain promotion back to the First Division in dramatic fashion beating Notts County 1–0 on the final day of the 1978–79.[1] Stoke staved off a relegation battle in 1979–80 finishing in 18th position. During the 1980–81 season Stoke played out an awful 2–0 defeat away at Arsenal and a journalist told Durban that there was no entertainment watching his team's performance, to which Durban replied "This is soccer. If you want entertainment go and watch a bunch of clowns."[1] Stoke finished mid-table in 1980–81 and in the summer of 1981 he shocked Stoke by quitting in favour of becoming manager of Sunderland.[1] One of main reasons he left was that Sunderland had offered to buy his house in Shrewsbury for the same price he bought it.[4]

At Roker Park, Durban inherited a struggling squad and relegation was avoided in the final match of the season 1981–82. He attempted to build a youthful team that would mature, introducing Ally McCoist, Nick Pickering, Barry Venison, and Colin West into the first team. However, he was hampered by a severe restriction of transfer funds. The following two seasons glimpsed promise of better things, but an FA Cup loss hastened boardroom discontent, and he was dismissed in March 1984.[5] After leaving Sunderland he managed Willington in the Northern League for a short spell. Six months after leaving Sunderland, he joined Cardiff City, but his two-year spell in charge at Ninian Park turned into a disaster as they suffered consecutive relegations, falling from the Second Division to Fourth Division, and Durban was replaced by Frank Burrows.

Several years later, Durban returned to Sunderland to become chief scout under Peter Reid. He then briefly returned to Stoke as caretaker for five games at the end of the 1997–98 season but was unable to prevent Stoke's falling into the third tier. In summer 2010, he commenced part-time work as a regional scout for Championship side Norwich City.

In July 2011 Durban re-joined Stoke City on a part-time basis as a mentor for young academy players needing guidance off the pitch.[6][7] He retired at the age of 75.[4]

Personal life

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A book written by David Snowdon about Durban's career was published in 2018 titled Give Us Tomorrow Now: Alan Durban's Mission Impossible, mainly detailing his time at Sunderland.[8]

Career statistics

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Club

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Source:[9]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[A] Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Cardiff City 1959–60 Second Division 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0
1960–61 First Division 4 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2
1961–62 First Division 20 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 23 1
1962–63 Second Division 23 6 1 0 2 2 0 0 26 8
Total 52 9 1 0 5 2 0 0 58 11
Derby County 1963–64 Second Division 34 9 0 0 1 2 0 0 35 11
1964–65 Second Division 42 22 1 1 1 1 0 0 44 24
1965–66 Second Division 41 17 1 0 4 0 0 0 46 17
1966–67 Second Division 36 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 37 10
1967–68 Second Division 39 9 0 0 7 2 0 0 46 11
1968–69 Second Division 36 6 1 1 7 1 0 0 44 8
1969–70 First Division 41 9 4 4 6 0 0 0 51 13
1970–71 First Division 28 4 2 0 2 0 3 0 35 4
1971–72 First Division 31 6 5 4 1 0 4 1 41 11
1972–73 First Division 18 1 4 0 2 0 3 0 27 1
Total 346 93 19 10 29 6 10 1 404 110
Shrewsbury Town 1973–74 Third Division 35 9 2 0 0 0 0 0 37 9
1974–75 Fourth Division 44 11 2 0 2 1 0 0 48 12
1975–76 Third Division 42 10 3 1 3 0 0 0 48 11
1976–77 Third Division 18 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 21 1
1977–78 Third Division 17 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 20 2
Total 156 33 11 1 7 1 0 0 174 35
Career Total 554 135 31 11 41 9 10 1 636 156
A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the European Cup, Texaco Cup, Watney Cup.

International

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Source:[10]

National team Year Apps Goals
Wales 1966 1 0
1967 3 1
1968 2 0
1969 7 0
1970 4 0
1971 7 1
1972 3 0
Total 27 2

Managerial statistics

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Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
P W D L Win %
Shrewsbury Town 1 February 1974 13 February 1978 187 78 48 61 041.7
Stoke City 13 February 1978 1 June 1981 143 53 48 42 037.1
Sunderland 1 June 1981 2 March 1984 115 31 35 49 027.0
Cardiff City 23 September 1984 28 April 1986 87 22 17 48 025.3
Stoke City 8 April 1998 13 May 1998 5 2 0 3 040.0
Total[11] 537 186 148 203 034.6

Honours

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As a player

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Cardiff City

Derby County

Individual

As a manager

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Shrewsbury Town

Stoke City

References

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Specific

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Matthews, Tony (1994). The Encyclopaedia of Stoke City. Lion Press. ISBN 0-9524151-0-0.
  2. ^ "Alan Durban". sportingheroes.net. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
  3. ^ "Alan Durban – Wales international". sportingheroes.net. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
  4. ^ a b Vincent, Gareth. "The Alan Durban story: From Brian Clough to Sir Stanley Matthews to Pele and James Bond". BBC Sport. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  5. ^ David Snowdon, Give Us Tomorrow Now: Alan Durban's Mission Impossible (2018)
  6. ^ "Legends sign-up for Potters Premier League revolution". thisisstaffordshire.co.uk. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  7. ^ "Denis Smith and Alan Durban to assist Stoke's academy". BBC Sport. 13 July 2011. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  8. ^ "Give Us Tomorrow Now: How Alan Durban strove to satisfy Sunderland fans & an impatient boardroom". Roker Report. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  9. ^ Alan Durban at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
  10. ^ Alan Durban at National-Football-Teams.com
  11. ^ "Alan Durban". Soccerbase. Retrieved 2 July 2016.

General

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  • Hayes, Dean (2006). The Who's Who of Cardiff City. Breedon Books. ISBN 1-85983-462-0.
  • Snowdon, David (2018). Give Us Tomorrow Now: Alan Durban's Mission Impossible. Durrington: Pitch Publishing. p. 384. ISBN 9781785314483.
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