Terry Butcher is a significant figure in British football. At first he became a true legend of the English “Ipswich”, then he made no less for the Scottish club “Rangers”, but after the end of his career as a player, he trained more than one British club and even was an assistant coach in the Scottish team. The central defender at one time was one of the most formidable opponents of any striker, and everyone remembered the 1989 episode when Terry Butcher played before the final whistle with a broken head in the match against Sweden. However, first things first - how was the career of this phenomenal football player?
Carier start
Terry Butcher was born on December 28, 1958 in Singapore. However, his parents were British, and pretty soon the boy ended up in England, where he lived throughout his childhood. He was fond of football and was a fan of the Ipswich Town club, for which his father was also a fan, so the fate of the boy was a foregone conclusion. At an early age, he went to the academy of this team and played for youth teams, until in 1976 he was offered a professional contract. However, Butcher did not immediately get a place at the base - until the age of twenty he played for the double, only occasionally appearing in the main team. During this time, he played only three matches, but then gradually began to approach the base. As a result, he became one of the team leaders and, after six full seasons, having played 271 matches, became a full-fledged pillar of the club’s defense. Only when he was 28 years old Terry Butcher decided to leave his favorite childhood club to go on promotion. Indeed, by that time the team was no longer so strong, and for all this time Terry was able to win the UEFA Cup in 1981 - this is where his achievements for Ipswich ended. And in 1986, he moved to the Scottish Rangers club, where he also managed to become a legend.
Going to the Rangers
At 28, Terry Butcher became a Rangers player and, of course, immediately turned out to be one of the key defensive players in the club. In the first season, he managed to win both the Scottish League and the League Cup, after which he took three more trophies over the course of four years - he twice won the championship and once in the League Cup. But in 1990, it turned out that the defender became a little old and clumsy for the Scottish club, so he was sold at Coventry City - this was Butcher's second English club after Ipswich Town. As for the “Rangers”, there is the defender of 127 matches and also became a player whom fans have long remembered - and still remember. But what happened to the 32-year-old footballer next?
Continuing Career at Coventry
In the new club, the defender did not stay too long - he stayed there for only two seasons. At the same time, he was no longer just a football player - Butcher moved to Coventry from FC Rangers to the position of playing coach. For two years, he released himself on the field only six times, but at the same time constantly led the game process from the edge. Naturally, this could not be regarded as a full-fledged coaching experience - Butcher has so far looked at how he will go in for coaching, whether he will be able to train clubs in the future on an ongoing basis. As a result, he decided that he would end the player’s career, but at the same time he did not become a full-fledged coach - at least not immediately. Of course, he would like to head some major club like FC Rangers, for which he played as a player. But so far no one needed Butcher's services. So, January 1992 is considered the first date for a player to officially end his career.
Career renewal
However, Terry Butcher is a football player who could not reconcile himself with the fact that he needed to move away from football. Therefore, less than a year later, the defender resumed his career by signing a contract with Sunderland. Again, he became not just a player, but a playing coach. This time he played absolutely all 38 matches for the club, coaching him at the same time. However, he had one more step before finally saying goodbye to his football career - Butcher went to Scotland, where he signed a short-term contract with the Clydebank club, for which he played three matches within a month. After that, in December 1993, central defender Terence Ian Butcher officially announced that he was leaving football at the age of 35.
Team appearances
Although Butcher was born in Singapore, he was an Englishman, so he played for the England team, for which he spent as many as 77 matches. He made his debut in 1980 in a friendly match against the Australian national team, which preceded the 1980 European Championships , which Terry naturally did not go to, as he was too young and inexperienced. But at the 1982 World Cup, he was in the application and even became a key player in the defensive order of the British. He played four of five matches, giving one assist. Under him, the British only conceded one goal. The next major tournament was the 1986 World Cup , in which the British took off in the quarter-finals from the Argentines - Butcher played in all five matches, giving an assist in one of them. Butcher did not go to the 1988 European Championship anymore - and the British flew out in disgrace, losing all three group matches. As for the 1990 World Cup , it was Terry's last. He played in five of seven matches and helped the team get to the semifinals, where she lost to the Germans. Butcher did not participate in the match for third place, and the British lost him. Separately, it is worth noting the duel of 1989 against the national team of Sweden, according to which many remember this defender.
Then he was the captain of the national team and was injured - his head was broken, but he courageously played the match until the final whistle. Terry Butcher in the blood is a sight that all those who saw that match remember.
Return to football
As you recall, Butcher ended his career as a player in 1993, after which he retired for a long period. Until 2002, he was not particularly active in football, until he decided to follow his vocation. In April, he was appointed coach of the Scottish club “Motherwell”. Why did this club choose Terry to return to football? Scotland has always played an important role in his life, and he would have dreamed of leading the Rangers, but they have not yet been waiting for him, so he decided to start with something not so impressive. As a result, Butcher led the team for four years, but his results left much to be desired. Of the 175 matches, he won only 60, so in May 2006, Terry moved to Australia, where he was offered a job at the Sydney club.
Success at Sydney
Butcher had been in Australia for a little less than a year, and his coaching at the helm of Sydney was one of the best in his career. Of the 23 matches, he won 9 and lost only six. But the homeland was calling the British coach, so in February 2007 he returned to the British Isles to become Jimmy Bowne's assistant at the helm of the Scottish club Patrick Thistle. There he spent only one month before he received a new invitation - from the English club Brentford.
English failure
Butcher could not prove himself in the new club - he did not hold out in the coach’s chair even for a full season. Of the 23 matches for which Patrick led the players, they won only five. Therefore, in December of that year, he was forced to resign, as the fans were extremely unhappy with him. After that, Butcher decided that he still needed to practice - under the leadership of George Burley, who led the Scottish team. So he worked for almost two years, learning on a new level coaching and football. Scotland during this time did not show particularly impressive results, and in November Burley was fired from the post of national team coach. Butcher also left, but did not continue to work with an experienced mentor, but went his own way.
A new beginning in Inverness
In parallel with the work in the national team, Butcher began coaching the Scottish club Inverness. Even the head coaches sometimes combine work in the national team and the club, let alone the assistant coach. Nothing prevented him in January 2009 from accepting a small club, which at that time played in the second division. However, Butcher showed that he was not just wasting time — he had learned something. For almost five years he spent at the helm of this team, Terry was able to raise her to the top division. Moreover, it was in this club that he had the best coaching result. Of the 208 games, the team lost only 65, while winning 86 times. As a result, Butcher's activity attracted the attention of the larger Scottish Hibernian club, which he led in November 2013.
Scottish failure
Unfortunately, it turned out that it was Inverness that was the best stage in Butcher's career, because at Hibernian he completely failed. In 29 matches, the club was able to win only six victories, which led to a flight to the second division. In June of the following year, a meeting was held to discuss the future of the club - and the management decided to terminate the contract with Butcher ahead of schedule. Simply put, he was fired for unsatisfactory results.
The worst result at Newport
In December of that year, Butcher wanted to become a coach of Motherwell, who had already coached earlier, from 2002 to 2006, but after some time withdrew his candidacy. As a result, for about a year he did not appear in a coaching position in any of the clubs, until it turned out that in May 2015 he signed a contract with the Welsh club “Newport”, which played in the second Welsh league. It would seem that a coach with such experience could show an impressive result in such a league, but Butcher was waiting for the most terrible failure of his career. He was the coach of “Newport” for only 12 matches and managed to win only one. Having scored five points, the club was at the very bottom of the second league, so Butcher was fired on October 1, 2015. Since then, he has been unemployed. Perhaps in the future he will resume coaching, but so far he has arranged for himself another break.