Ron Saunders

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Ron Saunders (born November 6, 1932 in Birkenhead) was an English football player and successful manager.

As a player Ron Saunders was a hard-shooting centre forward. He scored over 200 goals in 13 years as a centre-forward for Everton, Gillingham, Portsmouth, Watford and Charlton. Saunders was leading goalscorer for six consecutive seasons at Portsmouth and it was largely his goals that won Pompey the Third Division Championship in 1962. He remains their third highest goalscorer to this day. He retired from playing in 1967 with Charlton.

As a manager Saunders first tasted success at Norwich, guiding them to the Second Division title for the first time in 1972. A short spell at Manchester City followed, before he joined Aston Villa in 1974.

He managed Villa to League Cup in 1975 and again in 1977 before taking the club to its first Championship success for 70 years in 1981. He resigned from Villa on the verge of the club's greatest achievement, winning the European Cup, due to a disagreement with the board over his contract.

Surprisingly he moved straight to Villa's arch-rivals, Birmingham City. They went down in 1984 but he got them back into the top flight at the first attempt. In January 1986, Saunders walked out on struggling Birmingham to take charge of local rivals and fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion. He was unable to stop Albion from sliding into the Second Division and a year later, having failed to achieve promotion, he was sacked. Saunders, who was in his 55th year when leaving Albion, never returned to management.

On 23rd December 2006, Ron was the guest of honour at Villa Park for the match between Aston Villa and Manchester United. This was the first time he returned to the club since his resignation in 1982, as the guest of new chairman Randy Lerner.

His long-standing record of scoring 4 hat-tricks in one season for Tonbridge Angels was recently beaten by Jon Main.

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• Ron Saunders career information

Preceded by Joe McDonald	Yeovil Town F.C. manager 1967-1969	Succeeded by Mike Hughes
Preceded by Arthur Turner	Oxford United F.C. manager 1969	Succeeded by Gerry Summers
Preceded by Lol Morgan	Norwich City F.C. manager 1969-1973	Succeeded by John Bond
Preceded by Johnny Hart	Manchester City F.C. manager 1973-1974	Succeeded by Tony Book
Preceded by Vic Crowe	Aston Villa F.C. manager 1974-1982	Succeeded by Tony Barton
Preceded by Jim Smith	Birmingham City F.C. manager 1982-1986	Succeeded by John Bond
Preceded by Nobby Stiles	West Bromwich Albion F.C. manager 1986-1987	Succeeded by Ron Atkinson