Rallying call to save Royal British Legion clubs
- Today's leader
Graham Turner back as Shrewsbury Town boss
Friday 11th June 2010, 2:55PM BST.
Graham Turner manager of Shrewsbury Town
Shrewsbury Town legend Graham Turner today made an emotional return as manager – 26 years after leaving the club.
The 62-year-old was unveiled as the new boss of Shropshire’s only Football League club at a press conference at the club’s Greenhous Meadow stadium this morning.
Turner has agreed a three-year-deal as manager, and will have the option of an extra year as director of football.
He played 355 games for the club, and spent six years in charge in his first spell as manager between 1978 and 1984, the most successful period in the club’s history.
His appointment comes six weeks to the day after the sacking of Paul Simpson.
“We are absolutely delighted that Graham has agreed to join us,” said vice-chairman Keith Sayfritz, speaking on behalf of chairman Roland Wycherley and the board.
“We feel it’s the final piece in the jigsaw.”
Turner only became available last week after he ended his 15-year-stint with Shrewsbury’s League Two rivals Hereford, where he served as both manager and chairman.
And excited Town supporters will be hoping he can rekindle the glory years of the late 1970s and early 1980s when Shrewsbury won the Division Three title and finished eighth in the second tier of English football, equalling their best ever finish. They also enjoyed two memorable runs to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
“We are delighted with the appointment of Graham Turner and we are hoping he can rejuvenate the fortunes of the club,” said shrewsTRUST press officer Adrian Plimmer.
“We have gone back to a tried and tested policy which has served the club very well in the past.
“We are sure the expectation levels will rise amongst the older generation.
“But there is also another challenge for Graham to try to win over a new generation of supporters.”
Turner also had spells as manager of Aston Villa and Wolves before moving to Hereford. Other names linked with the Town job have included former Notts County boss Steve Cotterill, ex-Wolves defender Mark Venus and Paul Sturrock.
By James Garrison
Sponsored Links
UK Sport
Shropshire Star on Twitter
Keep updated with the latest breaking news and content on our Twitter feed.
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Shropshire Star and Express & Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
Entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases.
OUR NEW APP
Get the new Shropshire Star app
Download the Shropshire Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
shropshirestar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
What about Mourinho? Benitez? I’m so disappointed.
Report abuse
Can’t say that I am surprised, Graham has done well as a manager.
Looking forward now to the new season!
Report abuse
So common sense returns to Shreswbury Town at long last. One can only hope that the STFC Board will back Graham Turner’s appointment with the cash required to secure the quality players Town need in order to retrieve lost ground. Graham Turner has demonstrated his astute managerial skills time after time and it’s a crying shame the club ever let him go. Turner’s teams always play creative and constructive football, even lowly Hereford. Let’s hope he can work his magic once again and restore pride in our club.It’s long overdue. If Joe Hart gets a full game during the World Cup then Town will garner £500,000. Should that happen Graham Turner will spend it wisely, you’ll see.
Report abuse
Peters Out!
Report abuse
bring back danny hall
Report abuse
Lets hope this is not a backwards step, what exactly did Turner do at Hereford? He took them up using mostly loan players and they came straight back down the next year, dont get me wrong I was on the terraces in the heady Turner days but lets hope that we are not getting too romantic about memories like that, surely we cannot get served up the same dross like we had last season.
Report abuse
Graham Turner appointment as Shrewsbury Town new manager
I’m a little bit surprised to see Graham comeback when he had so much success here last time I just feel that the club are going back instead of forward the game is far different now and when Turner was there in the late 70s and 80s though Graham did a good job then and I believe his heart is in the right place and I wish him all the success in the future and I hope it works out for him and Shrewsbury Town and I’d probably like to have seen a player manager in charge of Shrewsbury and have more success when we have player managers time will tell good look Graham I think this time you might need it .Sometimes you have to look above the manager you pay peanuts you get Monkeys
Report abuse
The sorry, predictable saga of STFC starts all over again as it has time after time over the years. Let’s face it guys and ladies, we have a mediocre team, just about able to survive in a mediocre table. We shouldn’t expect anything great from them because those running the show don’t have an original thought in their heads.
This time next year we will still be where we are now, there will be both slatings and praise in equal numbers for Graham Turner, we will have had a couple of good runs – and many bad ones and the whole depressing cycle will have another run of exactly the same.
Nobody can tell me that time after time after starting the season with blinding performances sufficient to get enough points for safety, the habitual run of losses and abysmal performances afterwards are not a contrived tactic.
Put simply, they don’t want promotion because they can’t handle everything that goes with it.
Report abuse
Welcome back Turner, none of us can guess what will happen next season, but one thing is certain about this appointment, there is absolutely no other manager out there that could have brought Shropshire pride back to the Town than Graham Turner, so lets put out blue and amber back on get back to basics and do all the right things that Simpson tried to get out of the players but somehow never quite sustained it long enough to achieve promotion.
If I see 150% effort and pride on that pitch then I’ll support this appointment all the way, I hope that goes for all the real supporters out there. Let the signings begin! and the pride rebuilt.
Report abuse
lowly hereford true blue mike? are you taking crazy pills? get off your high horse shrews and bulls are in the same division and i cant wait to see us giving you a good beating at edgar next season,good luck with graham hope he takes you to the conference like he did with us back in the nineties taking 9 long years to scrape us out,good riddance.
Report abuse
Andy – yes, Turner did use loanees at Hereford but it worked well enough to get promoted; but what more do you want?True, they came straight back down, but the Town is a bigger club than HUFC and could probably make more of the opportunity thanks to a better financial basis. Stuart – the decision’s been made. If the time comes when we all have to say yes, Turner was a mistake, I’ll buy it. But whoever got the job I would have let him get on with it rather than play a gloomy Nostradamus before even the preseasons had started.
Report abuse