Guy Whittingham (born 10 November 1964) is an English football manager and former professional footballer. As a player, he was a striker from 1988 until 2005, notably in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

for Aston Villa and

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an offshoot ...

. Having started his career with non-league

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

he went on to play in the Football League for

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

, Oxford United and

Wycombe Wanderers Wycombe Wanderers Football Club is an English professional association football club based in the town of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play their ho ...

. He amassed over 450 appearances throughout his career. Following retirement, he became manager of

non-League Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to d ...

side Newport (IOW) before managing AFC Newbury. He was caretaker manager of Portsmouth from November 2012 until April 2013 when he took the role on a permanent basis before being sacked in November 2013. He later had a spell as assistant manager of

Crawley Town Crawley Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Crawley, West Sussex, England. The club was founded as Crawley Football Club in 1896, changed its name to Crawley Town Football Club in 1958. The team com ...

Playing career

Born in Evesham, after leaving the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

, he joined

Waterlooville Waterlooville is a market town in the Borough of Havant in Hampshire, England, approximately north northeast of Portsmouth. It is the largest town in the borough. The town has a population of about 64,350 and is surrounded by Purbrook, Blendwort ...

for the start of the 1987–88 season where, after two games for the reserves, he was quickly promoted to the first team and became the club's top goalscorer in the 1987–88 season. One of his goals came in the first round proper of the F.A.Cup against Aylesbury United. He then spent a season at

before, in the summer of 1989, he was signed by

, where he then spent the majority of his career, scoring 99 times in 173 league appearances, including Pompey's former record of 42 league goals in the 1992–93 season (48 in all competitions) as the club missed out on automatic promotion to the

goals scored Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. He was known while at Fratton Park as "Corporal Punishment". In 1993 he signed for Aston Villa in the

. He had a good run in the team and scored important goals against Everton, Arsenal and

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

, before leaving on loan in February 1994 to join

; this meant he missed out on Villa's victory in the 1994 Football League Cup Final. In December 1994 he joined

, proving to be very popular at the Owls. Whilst at Wednesday he had a second loan spell at Wolves, as well as being loaned to

and Portsmouth who he would later rejoin permanently in 1999. At Portsmouth during his loan spell his seven goals in nine matches helped the club avoid relegation to the third tier. In the 2000–01 season, his last as a professional, he scored for three clubs, notching for

(against

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

), Oxford United (against Swindon Town) and Wycombe Wanderers (against Bristol City). He also featured in Wycombe's

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

semi-final against

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

. This was the second time that Whittingham had been denied in an FA Cup semi-final by the Merseyside team, having lost in a penalty shootout to Liverpool whilst at Portsmouth in 1992.

Managerial and coaching career

Whittingham later went on to become player-manager of Newport (IOW), but left them in May 2005 when the club ran into financial difficulties. He returned to management at AFC Newbury but when that club suffered financial difficulties and the loss of their ground, Whittingham left in June 2006. In August 2006 he took up a coaching role at

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the 2011 census. The town lies on the River Itchen, ...

. In January 2009, he joined the Portsmouth first-team coaching staff as development coach. He was named joint caretaker manager of

together with Stuart Gray on 14 October 2011, when

Steve Cotterill Stephen John Cotterill (born 20 July 1964) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. He is currently the manager of side Shrewsbury Town. Cotterill had a nine-year career as a footballer playing for Burton Albion, Wimbledon, ...

left to become manager of

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

. The next day the pair won their first game in charge against Barnsley 2–0 at Fratton Park. Whittingham once again became caretaker manager of the south coast club following

Michael Appleton Michael Antony Appleton (born 4 December 1975) is an English professional football manager and former player. He is currently the head coach of Blackpool. As a player, he operated as a midfielder, in a nine-year career that began in 1994 and e ...

leaving to take the vacant position at Blackpool, and stayed as caretaker until the club exited administration in April 2013, with his full-time appointing imminent. On 25 November 2013, Whittingham was relieved from his duties following a meeting with the Portsmouth board. The 2–1 loss to Southend proved to be his last game in charge on the south coast. Whittingham was appointed first team coach at Crawley on Friday 13 December 2013. Whittingham left the club in April 2014 when it was "mutually agreed" that his contract would not be renewed. Whittingham joined the FA as a coach educator on 1 August 2014.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Individual * PFA Team of the Year: 1992–93 First Division

References

External links

Profile
a
UpThePosh! The Peterborough United Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whittingham, Guy 1964 births Sportspeople from Worcestershire Living people English footballers Waterlooville F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Watford F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Oxford United F.C. players Wycombe Wanderers F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Portsmouth F.C. non-playing staff Portsmouth F.C. managers Newport (IOW) F.C. players Newport (IOW) F.C. managers A.F.C. Newbury managers English football managers English Football League managers People from Evesham Association football forwards Crawley Town F.C. non-playing staff