Iain Dowie

Iain Dowie (born 9 January 1965) is a football manager, sports pundit and former Northern Ireland international footballer.

Iain Dowie
Personal information
Full name Iain Dowie
Date of birth (1965-01-09) 9 January 1965
Place of birth Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England
Height 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)[1]
Position(s) Striker
Youth career
Southampton
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1983–1985 Cheshunt 34 (2)
1985–1986 St Albans City ? (?)
1986–1988 Hendon 87 (47)
1988–1991 Luton Town 66 (15)
1989 → Fulham (loan) 5 (1)
1991 West Ham United 12 (4)
1991–1995 Southampton 122 (30)
1995 Crystal Palace 19 (6)
1995–1998 West Ham United 69 (9)
1998–2001 Queens Park Rangers 31 (2)
Total 445 (116)
National team
1990–2000 Northern Ireland 59 (12)
Teams managed
1998 Queens Park Rangers (caretaker)
2002–2003 Oldham Athletic
2003–2006 Crystal Palace
2006 Charlton Athletic
2007–2008 Coventry City
2008 Queens Park Rangers
2010 Hull City (Football Management Consultant)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He played as a striker from 1983 until 2001, notably in the Premier League for Southampton, Crystal Palace and West Ham United. He earned 59 caps for Northern Ireland, scoring 12 goals. He also played in the Football League for Luton Town, Fulham and Queens Park Rangers, and in Non-league for Cheshunt, St Albans City and Hendon. After retiring from playing he went on to manage Oldham Athletic, Crystal Palace, Charlton Athletic, Coventry City, Queens Park Rangers and Hull City (Football Management Consultant).

Club career

Born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Dowie was rejected by Southampton aged 16 and later went to the University of Hertfordshire to study for a M.Eng Degree in Engineering. On completion he became an employee of British Aerospace, whilst keeping up football at non-League level playing for Cheshunt alongside his brother Bob. He left Cheshunt to improve his fitness and signed for St Albans City, then moved on to Hendon. While playing for Hendon, Dowie was spotted by Luton Town who signed him in the 1988–89 season, when they were in the First Division. An old-fashioned centre-forward, he then moved in quick succession to Fulham (a brief loan spell), before establishing himself as a first team player in the 1989–90 season when his eight goals in 29 league games helped Luton finish seventeenth.[2]

On 22 March 1991, with Luton still in the First Division and Dowie still a first team regular with seven goals from 29 games that season, Dowie agreed to join Second Division promotion chasers West Ham United for a fee of £480,000. He proved himself to be a competent deputy for the injured Trevor Morley as his four goals in the final 12 league games of the season secured the team's promotion as Second Division runners-up. But when the 1991–92 season began, Morley had returned to fitness and Dowie found himself on the sidelines until his £500,000 move to Southampton on 3 September 1991 after less than six months at Upton Park.

He played alongside Alan Shearer and Matthew Le Tissier – two of the country's highest regarded strikers in the early 1990s – and scored nine goals in 30 league games to ensure that the team finished high enough for a place in the newly formed FA Premier League. His good form continued in the 1992–93 season, despite the loss of Shearer, as he scored 11 league goals. His tally dropped to five goals in 39 games during the 1993–94 season, though the club avoided relegation again, and he managed another five goals from 17 league games in the 1994–95 season before manager Alan Ball decided that he wanted younger partners for Le Tissier in attack, signing Gordon Watson and Neil Shipperley while dropping Craig Maskell and selling Dowie to Crystal Palace for £400,000 on 13 January 1995.

His spell at Palace was a frustrating one; he was cup-tied for the League Cup semi-finals against Liverpool,[3] and Palace reached the FA Cup semi-finals where they lost to Manchester United after a replay. Lastly, despite a dynamic fightback after being three goals down to Newcastle United on the final day of the season, they still lost 3–2 and were relegated from the Premier League one season after promotion.[4]

He then spent nearly three years back at West Ham. During his time back at West Ham, he came under fire from the supporters for going long periods without scoring at a time when the team were struggling for goals and had a crisis in attack. In fact, Dowie is probably best remembered by West Ham fans for scoring a bizarre headed own goal in an infamous defeat to Stockport County in the League Cup in front of the live Sky cameras at Edgeley Park.[5] Dowie then moved across London to Queens Park Rangers (QPR), where he ended his days playing in defence, and being player-manager of QPR's reserve team. Dowie also had a brief spell as caretaker manager of QPR in the autumn of 1998, between the dismissal of Ray Harford and appointment of Gerry Francis.[2]

International career

Dowie's father was born in Belfast,[1] thus qualifying him to play for Northern Ireland, for whom Dowie gained 59 caps and scored 12 goals.[6]

International goals

Scores and results list Northern Ireland's goal tally first.

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
116 October 1991Belfast, Northern Ireland Austria1–02–1UEFA Euro 1992 qualifying
225 May 1993Vilnius, Lithuania Lithuania1–01–01994 FIFA World Cup qualification
320 April 1994Belfast, Northern Ireland Liechtenstein4–04–11994 FIFA World Cup qualification
429 March 1995Dublin, Ireland Republic of Ireland1–01–1UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
526 April 1995Riga, Latvia Latvia1–01–0UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
625 May 1995Edmonton, Canada Chile1–01–2Friendly match
77 June 1995Belfast, Northern Ireland Latvia1–01–2UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
815 November 1995Belfast, Northern Ireland Austria2–05–3UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying
914 December 1996Belfast, Northern Ireland Albania1–02–01998 FIFA World Cup qualification
1014 December 1996Belfast, Northern Ireland Albania2–02–01998 FIFA World Cup qualification
112 April 1997Kyiv, Ukraine Ukraine1–01–21998 FIFA World Cup qualification
1218 November 1998Belfast, Northern Ireland Moldova1–12–2UEFA Euro 2000 qualifying

Management career

Oldham Athletic

After retirement from playing, Dowie then became assistant manager of Oldham Athletic. However, following the dismissal of manager Mick Wadsworth, Dowie became manager and led the club into the Second Division play-offs in the 2002–03 season after spending heavily. However, financial trouble hit Oldham and Dowie lost much of his first team squad. Funds were so hard for the club at the time that Dowie along with the remaining members of the squad were not paid for several months. Dowie tried to stick out the post for as long as possible until he decided to move on citing the need to support his family as a reason.

Crystal Palace

On 21 December 2003, Dowie was appointed manager of Crystal Palace, inheriting a squad with low morale and occupying 19th place in Division One. However, under his leadership, the club went on an impressive run that included 17 wins from 23 games after he took over, until the end of the season, enabling the club to finish in sixth place in the First Division, just scraping into the play-off places. This feat was attributed to complete change in the atmosphere and training regime at the club, including a tougher disciplinary regime, introduced by Dowie.[7] After beating Sunderland in the semi-final, on a penalty shootout, the club beat Dowie's former club West Ham by a single goal in the Final for a place in the FA Premier League. Dowie's squad contained some promising footballers, including Andrew Johnson. Dowie made a couple of signings to the Crystal Palace squad: he signed goalkeeper Gabor Kiraly to challenge Julián Speroni for the number 1 top. Kiraly was first choice throughout the season. The club lasted only one season there, being relegated on the final day of the season when Charlton Athletic scored a late equaliser in a 2–2 draw.

He remained at Palace when the club was relegated to the Championship despite rumours that he was approached by other Premier League clubs to take over. The only actual report of a club approaching Palace to speak to Dowie was when Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandarić approached Palace chairman Simon Jordan to speak to Dowie, in November 2005. Jordan refused this approach, and for the meantime Dowie remained at Selhurst Park.

After losing the play-off semi final to eventual winners Watford, Dowie left Crystal Palace by "mutual consent" on 22 May 2006 following discussions with chairman Jordan.[8] He had been allowed to leave without compensation being paid to Crystal Palace as he had wanted to be nearer to his family in Bolton.[9] Jordan was infuriated when just eight days later, on 30 May 2006, Premier League club Charlton unveiled Dowie as their new manager.[9]

Jordan then issued Dowie with a writ, claiming that he had misled him about his reasons for leaving Crystal Palace.[10] Dowie, however, insisted this was not the case, and was publicly backed by both Charlton Chief Executive Peter Varney, who branded the writ "a sad and pathetic publicity stunt", and chairman Richard Murray, who was adamant that his legal team could find no grounds for the writ to be upheld, and suggested that there may be more personal reasons behind the writ being issued.[11] The case was heard in the London High Court in the summer of 2007, and on 14 June The Hon. Mr Justice Tugendhat ruled that Dowie had "deceived" Jordan and made "false representations" in conversations with Crystal Palace on 20 and 22 May, stating he had had no contact with Charlton when he had in fact spoken to them on 17 and 22 May.[9] Dowie was ordered to pay Palace's legal bill, estimated at up to £400,000 and a similar amount to his own legal team in addition to compensation due to Crystal Palace.[12] In 2008 an out-of-court agreement between Dowie and Crystal Palace was reached "on terms acceptable to Crystal Palace Football Club".[13]

Charlton Athletic

When Dowie took over at the Valley, he was given more money than any previous manager to spend on players. He signed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, and Scott Carson on loan, but was unable to prevent the team suffering a disastrous start to the Premier League season.[14] Despite this, the team reached the quarter-final of the League Cup for the first time in their history. However, Dowie was unable to lift the team away from the relegation zone of the Premier League and build on the success of former manager Alan Curbishley, resulting in him and the club parting company on 13 November 2006, after just 15 games in charge.[15]

Soon after his departure from Charlton, in December 2006, he was linked with the vacant managers job at Hull City, but he turned down the position.[16]

Coventry City

Dowie was unveiled as Coventry City manager on 19 February 2007.[17] He found immediate success at the club with a number of wins but towards the end of the season their form dropped off and the Sky Blues finished 17th in the Championship table.

On 29 August, Dowie was linked with the vacant manager's position at Leicester City following the dismissal of Martin Allen. Coventry City dismissed claims that an approach was made and that any approach would be "firmly rebuffed".[18] These rumours renewed again on 24 October when Gary Megson left Leicester to manage Bolton Wanderers. Dowie refused to comment on the speculation.[19] On 11 February 2008, Dowie was released from his contract as Coventry manager,[20] which was officially cited as being due to significant differences of opinion between the management team and the Board as to how the club should be going forward.[21]

Queens Park Rangers

On 14 May 2008, Queens Park Rangers appointed Dowie as their new first team coach following the previous week's departure of Luigi de Canio.[22] He was sacked as manager of QPR after just 15 games in charge on 24 October, with the team in ninth position in the league.[23]

Newcastle United

On 1 April 2009, Newcastle United appointed Alan Shearer as manager until the end of the season, with Dowie being appointed to his coaching staff.[24]

Hull City

Dowie was named as the temporary "Football Management Consultant" of Premier League team Hull City on 17 March 2010,[25] after manager Phil Brown was placed on gardening leave.[26] He was faced with the challenge of guiding the Yorkshire club to Premier League safety in order to secure them a third season in the top flight; however, the challenge was effectively ended on 24 April 2010 when Hull were beaten 1–0 at home by Sunderland[27] and fellow relegation battlers West Ham United (a club that Dowie served twice as a player) won their game 3–2 against a Wigan Athletic side still faced with an outside chance of relegation.[28] Hull City were relegated on 3 May 2010 after an injury time equaliser from Wigan Athletic's Steve Gohouri made their game 2–2, ending Hull's hopes of survival with one game to go.[29]

Personal life

Dowie works as a commentator for Sky Sports News.

His niece Natasha Dowie is an international footballer who played for Charlton Athletic Women while he was manager of the men's team. Dowie has two sons, Oliver and William.[30] Dowie's brother, Bob, was a semi-professional footballer and manager and worked alongside Iain as Director of Football at Crystal Palace.[31]

In March 2016, Dowie was employed as Regional Sales Manager for "Go To Surveys".[32]

He coined the word 'bouncebackability' which entered the Oxford English Dictionary[33]

Managerial statistics
As of 9 May 2010[34]
TeamNationFromToMatchesWonDrawnLostWin %
Queens Park Rangers (caretaker)  England 28 September 1998 16 October 1998 2 1 0 1 050.00
Oldham Athletic  England 31 May 2002 19 December 2003 82 31 28 23 037.80
Crystal Palace  England 22 December 2003 22 May 2006 123 50 29 44 040.65
Charlton Athletic  England 30 May 2006 13 November 2006 15 4 3 8 026.67
Coventry City  England 19 February 2007 11 February 2008 49 20 8 21 040.82
Queens Park Rangers  England 14 May 2008 24 October 2008 15 8 3 4 053.33
Hull City  England 17 March 2010 9 May 2010 9 1 3 5 011.11
Total 295 115 74 106 038.98

Honours

As a player
Southampton

Promotions

Crystal Palace

Individual

References
  1. Chalk, Gary; Holley, Duncan; Bull, David (2013). All the Saints: A Complete Players' Who's Who of Southampton FC. Southampton: Hagiology Publishing. p. 301. ISBN 978-0-9926-8640-6.
  2. Gray, Sadie (1 August 2003). "Profile: Iain Dowie". The Times. London. Retrieved 4 April 2009.
  3. "Fowler has the fizz for Liverpool". The Independent. 9 March 1995. Retrieved 10 September 2018.
  4. Iain Dowie www.sporting-heroes.net
  5. "Rocket science, own goals and bouncebackability – The life and times of Iain Dowie". Mirrorfootball.co.uk. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  6. "Iain Dowie international career profile". Northern Ireland Football Greats. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  7. Brodkin, Jon (8 May 2004). "How Dowie set up the Palace revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  8. "Boss Dowie leaves post at Palace". BBC Sport. 22 May 2006. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  9. Grant, Alistair (15 June 2007). "Dowie called 'deceitful' by High Court judge". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  10. "Palace take action against Dowie". BBC Sport. 30 May 2006. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  11. "Dowie: Writ won't spoil big day". Sky Sports. 30 May 2006. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  12. "Dowie ordered to pay out 'cataclysmic' legal costs". The Guardian. 22 June 2007. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  13. "Palace settles dispute with Dowie". BBC Sport. 5 April 2008. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  14. Kelly, Rob (9 December 2010). "Top 10 most underwhelming managerial appointments". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 17 March 2012.
  15. "Charlton part company with Dowie". BBC Sport. 13 November 2006. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  16. "Dowie turns down job as Hull boss". BBC Sport. 16 December 2006. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  17. "Dowie takes over as Coventry boss". BBC Sport. 19 February 2007. Retrieved 19 February 2007.
  18. "Coventry deny Foxes' Dowie link". BBC Sport. 5 September 2007. Retrieved 27 October 2007.
  19. "Dowie sacked as Coventry manager". BBC Sport. 11 February 2008. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  20. "Ranson explains Dowie departure". BBC Sport. 12 August 2008. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  21. "Dowie confirmed as coach of QPR". BBC Sport. 14 May 2008. Retrieved 14 May 2008.
  22. "QPR part company with boss Dowie". BBC port. 24 October 2008. Retrieved 24 October 2008.
  23. "Shearer confirmed as Magpies boss". BBC Sport. 1 April 2009. Retrieved 2 April 2009.
  24. "Dowie Takes City Role". Hull City AFC. 18 March 2010. Archived from the original on 14 March 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  25. "Iain Dowie confirmed as new Hull City manager". BBC Sport. 17 March 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2010.
  26. Sheringham, Sam (24 April 2010). "Football – Hull 0–1 Sunderland". BBC News. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  27. Bevan, Chris (24 April 2010). "Football – West Ham 3–2 Wigan". BBC News. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  28. "Hull relegated after Wigan draw". The Independent. 3 October 2010. Retrieved 18 October 2014.
  29. Cheese, Caroline (3 May 2010). "Football – Monday football as it happened". BBC News. Retrieved 4 May 2010.
  30. "Bob Dowie". Aylesbury United F.C. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
  31. McCartney, Aiden (21 March 2016). "You'll never guess where former Coventry City manager Iain Dowie is working now". Coventry Telegraph. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  32. "Bouncebackability: a word coined for the play-offs that fits them perfectly". The Guardian. 25 May 2018.
  33. "Managers: Iain Dowie". Soccerbase. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  34. Holley, Duncan; Chalk, Gary (2003). In That Number – A post-war chronicle of Southampton FC. Hagiology Publishing. p. 301. ISBN 0-9534474-3-X.
  35. "Manager of the Month: January 2004". League Managers Association. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
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