DARE I MENTION DARIO

The beauty of all this is that I can do as I am told! 42 years of marriage has blessed me with that. The "longest list" of managers blogged yesterday inevitably did not cover everyone. A fabulous, honest and genial manager Dario Gradi was overlooked. to be honest he didn't cross my radar, he should have done.

Dario was another one of those schoolmaster coaches, who probably was a better coach having had instruction in how to organsie and getting on with people. Many managers blast into the game knowing what they know from a disjointed experience as footballers. Sometimes both procedures work, sometimes they don't.

Dario, a graduate from Loughborough University, taught at Glyn GS, Ewell, just up the road from Charterhouse and he was assigned by the FA (a thing they used to do as part of their outreach programme) to help coach at the school once a week. I also came across Dario at Sutton United and when the FA was offering courses etc. He played for Sutton in that famous team that beat the 1970s Leeds Utd side in the FA Cup.
The nearest I got to such notoriety with Sutton was losing to Bournemouth at Dean Court in the 1st round proper some years after.

Dario then played briefly for Tooting and Mitcham (that's one club) and Wycombe Wanderers before the Wombles joined the FL. Working for the FA full time meant he lost his amateur status and could not play full time. So he then coached at Chelsea in 1971, then went to Sutton, Derby, Wimbledon and Leyton Orient.

Dario had spells managing Wimbledon and Crystal Palace that didn't go very well and then nestled at Crewe Alexandra (how many Premier and Football League clubs, past and present, have had an X in their name? Where are most of them now?) in 1983. He managed until 2007, handed over the reigns and then had two short "interims" and finally became Technical Director. Dario was a hands on manager who didn't mind shoving goals around the training pitch and picking up bibs. A nice man. he managed over 1300 games at Crewe.

If you read the list of present FL managers Arsene (16) and Paul Tisdale (see yesterday) top the list in double figures and then it goes Karl Robinson MKD (6+), Paul Hurst Grimsby (5+), Jim Bentley Morecambe (5+) and Steve Davies Crewe (4+). It doesn't stretch to much more than that.

He was inducted into the Football Hall of Fame, he has a street named after him in Crewe and has a trophy named after him in the Surrey Schools FA U13 tournament. He is 74 years old and still doing the biz.
http://baileyfootballblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/cobblers-up-crewe-down.html