Place of birth Wolverhampton, England Years Team Height 1.83 m Career end 1995 | Playing position Team Apps Career start 1977 Position Midfielder | |
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Full name Sean Michael O'Driscoll Date of birth (1957-07-01) 1 July 1957 (age 59) Similar Steve Cotterill, Billy Davies, Fawaz Al‑Hasawi, Dean Smith, Colin Pascoe | ||
Sean Michael O'Driscoll (born 1 July 1957) is an Irish head coach and a former footballer. He has previously managed Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers, Crawley Town, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City F.C. and Walsall. He was known by the nickname "Noisy" in his playing days at Fulham. He represented the Republic of Ireland as a player.
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Joe masi on sean o driscoll sacking
Playing career
As a player, O'Driscoll was a midfielder for Fulham (1979–84) and Bournemouth (1984–95). He also won three caps for the Republic of Ireland. When he retired in 1995, he had played a club-record 423 league games for Bournemouth (the record has since been broken by Steve Fletcher), and subsequently joined the club's coaching staff.
Bournemouth
In August 2000, he was appointed manager, and despite limited financial resources, achieved good results, including promotion via the Third Division play-offs in the 2002–03 season.
Doncaster Rovers
O'Driscoll left Bournemouth in September 2006 to become manager of Doncaster Rovers during the season the club moved from Belle Vue to Keepmoat. Notable events early in his career with Doncaster include a 4–0 victory away at Brentford, winning the manager of the month award for January 2007, and also overseeing Rovers' 3–2 success over Bristol Rovers in the Football League Trophy final in 2007. This success meant that O'Driscoll had achieved the rare feat of managing two different teams to victory at the Millennium Stadium.
In O'Driscoll's first full season in charge, 2007–08, he steered Doncaster to promotion into the Championship after a 1–0 victory over Leeds United in the League One play-off final at Wembley Stadium. The following season, 2008–09, saw his side meet his demands of not being relegated back down again. They ended up 14th, comfortably clear of relegation.
For the following season and a half, O'Driscoll turned Doncaster into a comfortable mid-table team on one of the tightest budgets in the Championship. However, a plethora of injuries in the second half of the 2010–11 season (which at one point even saw the club request to postpone a match with Norwich City because they were struggling to field a first 11.) saw Doncaster go on a dreadful run of form winning just one of their final 19 matches of the season, though they still survived due to their good form over the first half of the season.
O'Driscoll could not inspire a comeback during the start of the following season and on 23 September 2011 with Doncaster taking just a single point from their first seven games, it was confirmed that O'Driscoll, along with his assistant Richard O'Kelly, had been relieved of their duties by Doncaster Rovers.
He became Nottingham Forest coach under Steve Cotterill in the 2011-2012 Championship season. He left the club to join Crawley as manager in the summer of 2012.
Crawley Town
O'Driscoll was appointed Crawley Town manager in May 2012. In July 2012 he left the club without managing a competitive game to take over at Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest
On 19 July 2012 O'Driscoll was appointed as manager of Nottingham Forest by the club's owners, the Al Hasawi family. By 31 August 2012 he had signed 11 new players, including fans favourite Guedioura. He also linked up once again with former Doncaster players Simon Gillett, James Coppinger and Billy Sharp.
After just five months in charge of the club, just hours after a 4-2 victory over Leeds United, O'Driscoll was sacked on 26 December 2012. He has left Nottingham Forest twice in one year after previously being the club's coach during the 2011-2012 season.
Bristol City
O'Driscoll was announced as Bristol City manager on a 12-month rolling contract on 14 January 2013. The club were bottom of the Football League Championship at the time of his appointment. O'Driscoll's first match in charge of Bristol City came on 19 January 2013, a 1–0 defeat against Leeds United at Elland Road. He earned his first win as Bristol City manager on 26 January 2013, a 2–1 victory against Ipswich Town at Ashton Gate. This sparked an initial upturn in City's fortunes, with 5 wins and 2 draws from their next 10 games taking them on the verge of climbing out of the relegation zone. However the form was not sustained, with 7 defeats, 2 draws and no wins from their last 9 games seeing City relegated to League One with 3 games to spare and finishing bottom of the table.
The start of the 2013 season saw the club at the bottom of the division with 6 points from 6 draws, no wins and 5 losses. Bristol City parted company with O'Driscoll on 28 November.
England U19s
On 3 September 2014 the FA announced that Sean O'Driscoll would replace the outgoing Noel Blake in the post of England U19 manager. On 6 July 2015 it was confirmed that Sean had negotiated his release from this role in order to take over as assistant manager at Liverpool F.C
Liverpool (assistant)
On 6 July 2015 it was announced by Liverpool that Sean O'Driscoll had been appointed assistant manager, replacing Colin Pascoe for the 2015–16 Premier League season. Upon being appointed, O'Driscoll said he was excited to be joining one of the world's most iconic football clubs.
He left the position in October 2015 after the sacking of Brendan Rodgers.
Walsall
On 18 December 2015, O'Driscoll was announced as head coach of Walsall. O'Driscoll's first match in charge of Walsall ended in a 2-0 victory over Port Vale. On 6 March 2016, O'Driscoll was sacked by Walsall.
Manager
As of 6 March 2016.As a player
Bournemouth
As a manager
Bournemouth
Doncaster Rovers