Maurice Edgar Setters (16 December 1936 – 22 November 2020) was an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

player and manager. As a player, he made more than 400 appearances in

the Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional association football, football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in Association football around the wor ...

for

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third tier of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. The club is nicknamed t ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

, and in the

United Soccer Association The United Soccer Association was a professional soccer league featuring teams based in the United States and Canada. The league survived only one season before merging with the National Professional Soccer League to form the North American S ...

with the

Cleveland Stokers The Cleveland Stokers were a soccer team based in Cleveland, Ohio that played in the United Soccer Association during 1967 and the North American Soccer League in 1968. Their home field was Cleveland Stadium. History United Soccer Association In ...

(Stoke City under another name). Setters played in the left

wing half A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

position. As manager, he took charge of

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

and (briefly)

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 ...

, and spent several years as assistant manager of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

. Setters died on 22 November 2020 at the

Doncaster Royal Infirmary Doncaster Royal Infirmary is a district general hospital of 800 beds, located in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It is managed by Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. History Early history Doncaster Royal Infir ...

, aged 83.

Playing career

Setters started his career with

reserved, making his first-team debut against Southend United in March 1954, his only appearance for the "Grecians" in the 1953–54 season. He played a further nine games for Exeter in the 1954–55 season. First Division team

showed interest in acquiring Setters. Exeter were reluctant to let him go but the £3,000 transfer fee was sufficient at a time of financial problems for the club. Setters went on to play 120 games for West Brom. In January 1960, he was transferred to

for a fee of £30,000.

Matt Busby Sir Alexander Matthew Busby (26 May 1909 – 20 January 1994) was a Scottish football player and manager, who managed Manchester United between 1945 and 1969 and again for the second half of the 1970–71 season. He was the first manager of an ...

signed Setters as a replacement for the injured

Wilf McGuinness Wilfred McGuinness (born 25 October 1937) is an English former football player and manager, who played twice for England in his short playing career. He succeeded Sir Matt Busby as manager of Manchester United in 1969. Following his tenure at t ...

who had suffered a career ending leg break. Setters developed his reputation for being one of footballs 'hard men' and his combative style made him a key part of the team. A poor 1962–63 league campaign saw Manchester United nearly relegated in the Second Division but they did beat

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

3–1 in the

1963 FA Cup Final The 1963 FA Cup Final was the final of the 1962–63 FA Cup, the 82nd season of England's premier club football competition. The match was played at Wembley Stadium (which was fully roofed for the first time) on 25 May 1963 and contested by Manc ...

. A much improved 1963–64 season brought a 2nd-place finish behind

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

. A 7–0 win over

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

early in the 1964–65 season was Setters 159th and final game for Manchester United as he was sold to

for £30,000. He played 19 times for Stoke in 1964–65 as Stoke claimed a mid-table finish of 11th position. At the end of the campaign, with the squad training for their pre-season in the United States, Setters was involved in a 'bust-up' with teammate Calvin Palmer. Setters apologised to manager

Tony Waddington Anthony Waddington (9 November 1924 – 21 January 1994) was an English football manager at both Crewe Alexandra and Stoke City. Waddington had a seven-year playing career with Crewe Alexandra before becoming a coach at Stoke City. He progre ...

and was allowed to travel to the United States but Palmer did not apologise and was forced to stay in England. Out in America, Setters played nine times for the

scoring three goals. He missed just three matches in 1965–66 playing in 45 fixtures. His run in the first team continued in 1966–67 until he sustained injury against

on 4 March 1967 which allowed

Alan Bloor Alan Bloor (born 16 March 1943) is an English former footballer and manager. He made 394 league appearances in the Football League for both Potteries teams. He spent eighteen years as a centre-half at Stoke City between 1960 and 1978, helping ...

to take his place. After failing to dislodge Bloor, Setters joined

in November 1967 for a £25,000 fee. During this time he played nine games as a guest player with the

in the North American

. Setters made 59 appearances for Coventry in just under three years at

Highfield Road Highfield Road was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. for 106 years. History It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game ...

and ended his career with a four-month spell with

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

from January 1970, playing in eight games.

International career

Setters played for England School Boys and the

England Youth England national under-18 football team, also known as England under-18s or England U18(s), represents England in association football at under-18 age level and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in Englan ...

teams. He made 16 appearances for the under-23 team. Setters was included in the provisional England squad for the

1958 FIFA World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Brazil ...

squad but was not selected for the main team.

Managerial career

Setters was appointed manager of

in May 1971 and remained until November 1974 when he was dismissed. Setters later won a case for unfair dismissal. He had a short break from football before becoming

Jack Charlton John Charlton (8 May 193510 July 2020) was an English footballer and manager who played as a defender. He was part of the England national team that won the 1966 World Cup and managed the Republic of Ireland national team from 1986 to 199 ...

's assistant at

in 1977. When Charlton resigned on 27 May 1983, Setters stayed on as

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular manager is dismissed or leaves for a different club. However, a care ...

for four weeks, although the club played no matches during this period. Setters became assistant manager and coach at Rotherham United in 1983 and in 1984 was chief scout at Newcastle United. Setters later linked up with Jack Charlton again from 1986 to 1995 as assistant manager with the

senior squad. He was also Sir

Bobby Charlton Sir Robert Charlton (born 11 October 1937) is an English former footballer who played either as a midfielder or a forward. Considered one of the greatest players of all time, he was a member of the England team that won the 1966 FIFA World ...

's best man at his wedding in 1961.

Later life

When Charlton resigned as Ireland manager in 1995 the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) assumed Setters would follow him. However he continued to turn up to work as assistant manager of the national team and manager of the under-21 team. Setters was sacked but initiated a claim for unfair dismissal. Charlton appeared at the tribunal to support Setters and the FAI eventually settled the claim. Setters had Alzheimer's disease from around 2016 and from 2018 was in a residential care home. He became ill in mid-November 2020 and died at Doncaster Royal Infirmary on 22 November, aged 83.

Career statistics

Playing career

Source: :A. The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the

FA Charity Shield The Football Association Community Shield (formerly the Charity Shield) is English football's annual match contested at Wembley Stadium between the champions of the previous Premier League season and the holders of the FA Cup. If the Premier L ...

Managerial career

Source:

Honours

Manchester United *

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 compet ...

: 1962–63

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Setters, Maurice 1936 births 2020 deaths English footballers England under-23 international footballers English football managers Association football wing halves Exeter City F.C. players West Bromwich Albion F.C. players Manchester United F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players United Soccer Association players Doncaster Rovers F.C. managers Sheffield Wednesday F.C. managers 1958 FIFA World Cup players People from Honiton English Football League players Cleveland Stokers players Coventry City F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States English expatriate footballers Neurological disease deaths in England Deaths from Alzheimer's disease FA Cup Final players