John Eric Black (born 1 October 1963) is a Scottish former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and coach. Black played as a striker for

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

and

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, winning major trophies with both clubs, and earned two international caps for the Scotland national team. He was forced to retire from playing at a relatively early age and became a coach, working as a manager at

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

and Coventry City.

Playing career

Born in

Bellshill Bellshill (pronounced "Bells hill") is a town in North Lanarkshire in Scotland, southeast of Glasgow city centre and west of Edinburgh. Other nearby localities are Motherwell to the south, Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Hamilton to the south ...

, Lanarkshire, Black spent his early life in the

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

area before his family moved north to

Nigg, Highland Nigg (from the meaning "the notch", referring to a feature of the hills above the parish church) is a village and parish in Easter Ross, administered by the Highland Council. It lies on the north shore of the entrance to the Cromarty Firth. The ...

due to his father's job in the offshore oil industry, and he signed for

in 1980 (a week after Bryan Gunn who came from the same part of the country).AFC FPS In Conversation With Eric Black
Aberdeen FC RedMatchday Programme, 31 December 2019 He won the Scottish 2nd XI Cup with the reserves. Black was heavily involved in the most successful era of Aberdeen's history under the management of Alex Ferguson, the pinnacle being their victory in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983 with a 2–1 win over

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

, in which the then 19-year-old Black scored the first goal. Black's main assets were his strength in the air (despite not being particularly tall) and goalscoring instincts.Eric Black
AFC Heritage Trust In February 1983, Black scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 win against Celtic, as of 2020 still the last visiting player to score three at Celtic Park. He made 180 appearances (30 as substitute) in all competitions for Aberdeen and scored 70 goals between 1981 and 1986, winning two

Scottish Football League The Scottish Football League (SFL) is a defunct league featuring professional and semi-professional football clubs mostly from Scotland.One club, Berwick Rangers, is based in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is located approximately 4&nbs ...

titles, three Scottish Cups and a Scottish League Cup as well the Cup Winners' Cup and the European Super Cup in 1983. He missed out on a potential fourth Scottish Cup medal when he was overlooked for the 1986 final having already agreed to move abroad. In summer 1986, Black joined

in France. He had initially agreed a deal in principle with Arsène Wenger to join

Monaco Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a Sovereign state, sovereign city-state and European microstates, microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria, in Western Europe, ...

, but this fell through when Wenger was not released from his previous club contract at that time as had been anticipated. After five seasons (1986 to 1991) with Metz, during which he won the Summer Cup (forerunner of the League Cup) within weeks of arriving in 1986 and the French Cup in 1988 (and off the field became a father to two children), Black was forced to retire from the game aged 27 due to a chronic back problem. Alex Ferguson later admitted that injury problems suffered by Black and other young players he had managed at Aberdeen were due to them playing an excessive number of games at a young age. In all, Black made 95 appearances for Metz, scoring 34 goals.

Coaching career

Black was a coach and assistant manager at Celtic, leaving the club when head coach John Barnes was sacked in February 2000. Black was appointed manager of

in October 2001. He was appointed Coventry City manager in January 2004, following the resignation of Gary McAllister. Black was sacked by Coventry for "being inconsistent", despite a 5–2 win against Gillingham. and 6-1 away to Walsall. This angered many fans who believed that Black had brought an attractive and highly effective style of football back to the club and was merely being moved on for a bigger name (he was succeeded by Peter Reid, who proved to be a major disappointment). Black joined

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

in July 2004 as assistant manager to Steve Bruce. He managed one game as caretaker manager, after Bruce joined

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

, before leaving St Andrew's in November 2007. He was assistant manager to Bruce at

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

from June 2009 and was appointed caretaker manager following the departure of Bruce. In his only game in charge, Sunderland were beaten 2–1 by Wolverhampton Wanderers. Black left Sunderland on 6 December 2011. Black was appointed assistant manager to Steve Kean at Blackburn Rovers in January 2012. He was caretaker manager at Blackburn after the departure of Kean. Black was an advisor at

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. It is located on the Irish Sea coast of the Fylde peninsula, approximately north of Liverpool and west of Preston, Lancashire, Preston. It is the main settlement in the Borough of Blackpool ...

to caretaker manager Barry Ferguson in 2014. Black was appointed as a coach at Wigan in July 2014. In July 2015, Black was named as first team coach of

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side Rotherham United. Black was appointed caretaker manager of Rotherham in September 2015, after manager Steve Evans left the club. Black left Rotherham in January 2016 and was then appointed first team coach at Aston Villa. He was appointed Villa manager on a temporary basis after Rémi Garde left by mutual consent in March 2016. Black left Villa in June 2016 following the appointment of Roberto Di Matteo. Black joined

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

on 30 June 2016, as assistant manager to Claude Puel. On 29 September, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' alleged that Black had offered advice to a third-party player ownership consortium on how to bribe lower league clubs. An investigation by Southampton FC cleared Black of any wrongdoing, as the newspaper refused to provide any evidence to substantiate their allegation. He resigned in December 2017 for personal reasons, with the club citing ongoing back problems due to injuries sustained during his playing career. 18 months after leaving that post, he confirmed he no longer wished to be involved in professional coaching and was happy to have left the intense football environment after nearly four decades.Aberdeen icon Eric Black on why he walked away from football
The Scotsman, 13 April 2019

Career statistics

Club

International

Managerial record

Honours

Aberdeen * Scottish Premier Division: 1983–84, 1984–85 * Scottish Cup: 1981–82, 1982–83, 1983–84 * Scottish League Cup: 1985–86 * European Cup Winners' Cup: 1982–83 * European Super Cup:

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

Metz * Coupe de la Ligue: 1985–86 *

Coupe de France The Coupe de France (), also known in English language, English as the French Cup or less commonly as the France Cup, is the premier Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in French football organised by the French Football Fed ...

: 1987–88 Southampton *

EFL Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

runner-up: 2016–17 (assistant manager; received medal at club annual awards evening)

References

External links