Graham Turner

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Graham Turner
Personal information
Full name	Graham John Turner
Date of birth	October 5, 1947 (age 59)
Place of birth	Ellesmere Port, England
Playing position	Chairman, Director of Football, Manager
Club information
Current club	Hereford United
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1964-1968 1968-1973 1973-1983	Wrexham Chester City Shrewsbury Town	77 (0) 218 (5) 355 (22)
Teams managed
1978-1984 1984-1986 1986-1994 1995-	Shrewsbury Town Aston Villa Wolverhampton Wanderers Hereford United
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Graham Turner (born 5 October 1947 in Ellesmere Port) is an English former footballer, and current chairman and manager of Hereford United. He has been the majority shareholder of the club since 1998 and is the third longest serving manager of a club in the Football League, behind Dario Gradi and Sir Alex Ferguson. He has huge managerial experience having managed over 800 Football League matches, and nearly 1,200 first team matches in total.

Graham's son, Mark Turner, currently plays for Alfreton Town and had spells at Wolves and Hereford while Graham was manager.

Contents 1 Career History 2 Hereford United 3 Managerial statistics 4 Honours

[edit] Career History

As a central defender he was an England youth international and started his playing career at Wrexham before moving to Chester City in January 1968. Five years later he moved to his third and final club Shrewsbury Town, for whom he made over 350 league appearances.

During the 1970s he played against Hereford United several times, the club he was later to buy. He became player-manager for the Shrews in the 1978-79 season, the same year the Shrews sealed the Third Division championship. Shrewsbury ultimately spent ten seasons in the Second Division and Turner twice led them to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. He ended his playing career in 1983, and left Shrewsbury after six seasons to take charge of Aston Villa in the summer of 1984. Unfortunately his time at Villa Park was less successful and he was sacked on 17 September 1986, just over two years after his appointment.

He was then appointed manager of Wolves, a club then in the Fourth Division and massively in debt. In his first season Wolves reached the play-offs but failed to secure promotion. However in the following two seasons saw two successive promotions with the help of goal-machine Steve Bull. Mid-table finishes in the Second Division, and subsequently Division One, followed before he left in March 1994.

[edit] Hereford United

He was appointed manager of Division Three side Hereford United for the 1995-96 season, a club with major financial problems. In his first season the team reached the play-offs, after a tremendous run from 19th to 6th in two months, but failed to progress past the semi-final stage. Unfortunately Graham was unable to retain several key players due to financial constraints and the 1996-97 season was a very different story.

Hereford spent most of the season in the bottom five of Division Three and faced a relegation decider on the last day of the season at home to Brighton. Hereford needed to win but a 1-1 draw meant they were relegated from the Football League on goals scored. After the match he handed in his resignation but there was overwhelming support for him to stay, so he did. In his third season he bought the controlling shares in the club, taking on a large debt and saving the club from going under. With the bank balance firmly in the red he had to endure several fruitless seasons in the Conference and had to sell key players to keep the club in business. Indeed in his entire time with the club, he has only spent £20,000 on transfer fees.

The financial situation was becoming desperate early in the 2001-02 season. After a humiliating defeat to Hayes, and with the proverbial wolves at the door, Graham relinquished control on first team matters. He handed the reins over to player-coach Phil Robinson while he concentrated on securing the club's financial future. When Hereford finished 17th at the end of the season, it appeared enough was enough and Graham handed in his resignation to the board. But after several discussions he again decided to continue to remain at the club, despite the deadline to repay the debt looming large.

He took the opportunity to build a new squad, retaining only six from the previous season. The collapse of ITV Digital meant there were many Football League players released and Graham took advantage of this. The team, built entirely of free transfers, evolved arguably into the best footballing side in the Conference achieving three consecutive 2nd places. Unfortunately Hereford failed to progress in the play-offs in 2003-04 and 2004-05 but in the 2005-06 season it was third time lucky as Hereford defeated Halifax in the 2006 Conference Playoff Final 3-2 to secure promotion to the Football League. After the match, Graham said his overwhelming feeling was "relief" after many hard seasons in the Conference.

[edit] Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				L	FAC	FLC	FLT	FAT	PO	OC	Total
Shrewsbury Town		1 November 1978	1 July 1984	241	21	17	-	-	-	11	290
Aston Villa		16 July 1984	14 September 1986	90	5	12	-	-	-	-	107
Wolverhampton Wanderers		7 October 1986	16 March 1994	346	17	19	18	-	4	-	404
Hereford United		1 August 1995	present	506	36	8	20	30	9	8	617

[edit] Honours

• Third Division (now Football League One): Winners (1978-79, 1988-89)
• Fourth Division (now Football League Two): Winners (1987-88)
• Conference National: Play-Off Winners (2005-06), Runners-Up (2003-04, 2004-05, 2005-06)
• Welsh Cup: Winners (1978-79, 1983-84)
• Football League Trophy (Sherpa Van Trophy): Winners (1987-88)

Hereford United F.C. - Current Squad
1 Brown | 2 Travis | 3 Thomas | 4 Rose | 5 Mkandawire | 6 Purdie | 8 Ferrell | 9 Sills | 10 Fleetwood | 12 Connell | 14 Thompson | 15 Gwynne | 16 Williams | 17 Giles | 18 McClenahan | 19 Palmer | 20 Jeannin | 21 Webb | 22 Fitzpatrick | 23 Gulliver | 24 Guinan | 25 Smith | 28 Beckwith | 30 Lewis | 31 Jennings | Manager: Turner