John Gregory
John enjoyed a distinguished career which saw him play for several top clubs. Starting his career as an apprentice at Northampton Town he signed for Aston Villa in 1977, where he spent two years before moving onto Brighton. John then went to QPR in 1981, before a final move to Derby County in 1985, where he stayed for two years before effectively hanging up his boots.
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As a tireless midfielder, he made 600 appearances in his career scoring 83 goals, the highlight winning six full international caps for England.
John served his managerial apprenticeship at a variety of clubs, firstly as a young manager at Portsmouth, then briefly at Plymouth and then joined Brian Little as a Coach at Leicester City. When Little moved onto Aston Villa John joined him again and was appointed First Team Coach at Villa Park in November 1994. He left Villa to become Manager of Wycombe Wanderers in October 1996, and made a dream return after being appointed Manager by Chairman Doug Ellis following Brian Little’s departure.
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After an unbeaten start to the season in 1998, John led Villa to the top of the Premiership which lasted a club record twelve matches. In his four years in charge of Villa, they qualified for the UEFA Cup, and finished in the top eight on each occasion, 7th in his first half-season as manager, 6th in 1999 and 2000 and 8th in 2001.
John was most recently Manager of Derby County, being appointed on January 30 2002, after resigning from Aston Villa.
