Paul Jonathan Trollope (born 3 June 1972) is a football coach and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

, who played as a midfielder. He was most recently the assistant manager of

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club from Luton, Bedfordshire, England. The club currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "The Hatters", L ...

. Born in England, he represents Wales internationally. As a player, he began his career with

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team, known as the "Robins", currently compete in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded as Swindon A ...

in 1989, but made his name at

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

between 1992 and 1995. He then transferred to

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club in Derby, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. One of the 12 founder members of the English Football ...

, before signing with

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

in 1997. After five years he moved on to

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team competes in EFL League One, League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the c ...

via

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

. He joined his final club,

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

, in 2004, before retiring as a player in 2007. He played for Wales at international level. While still a player, he was appointed

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 caret ...

of Bristol Rovers in 2005. Impressing in the position he was handed the job permanently, and took the club to the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

final in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, as well victory in the League Two play-off final. Stabilizing the club in

League One League One or League 1 may refer to: Association football * EFL League One, the third tier of football in England. * China League One, the second tier of football in China * K League 1, the top-tier football in South Korea * Lao League 1 * Lea ...

, he took Rovers to the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

quarter-finals in

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

, equalling a club record in the competition. After two more seasons finishing mid-table in League One, he was sacked after a poor start to

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

. He was first-team coach at

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 ...

for the 2011–12 season, and then followed manager

Chris Hughton Christopher William Gerard Hughton (born 11 December 1958) is a professional football manager and former player. Born in England, he represented the Republic of Ireland national team. He was most recently head coach of the Ghana national te ...

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

until April 2014. On 24 November 2016, Trollope joined Brighton and Hove Albion alongside Chris Hughton's coaching team, as assistant manager.

Playing career

Club career

Trollope was born in

Swindon Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, and is the son of former

defender John Trollope. He began his career at Swindon Town as a trainee, turning professional in December 1989, but failed to make the first team. He joined

on loan in March 1992 and signed on a free transfer for the

Plainmoor Plainmoor is an association football stadium located in the Plainmoor suburb of Torquay, Devon, England. Since 1921, the stadium has been the home of Torquay United F.C., Torquay United Football Club, who currently compete in the National Leagu ...

side that summer. after 106 league games and 16 goals for Torquay, he was a regular under manager Don O'Riordan and started to attract Premier League clubs and moved to

in December 1994 for a fee of £100,000. He had loan spells with

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Nicknamed "the Mariners", the club was f ...

in August 1996 and

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition buildin ...

in October 1996. He moved to

in November 1997 for a fee of £600,000. He made ten league appearances during Fulham's 2000–01 season after which they were promoted to the

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

. However, he left the Cottagers to join

on a free transfer in March 2002 after losing his place at

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football stadium in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...

. He stayed only a few months at

Highfield Road Highfield Road was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City for 106 years. History It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game on 30 ...

, moving to

in July after being released at the end of the season.

International career

In May 1997, Trollope was called up by then Wales manager,

Bobby Gould Robert Alfred Gould (born 12 June 1946) is an English former footballer and manager. Early life Robert Alfred Gould was born in Wyken, Coventry, Warwickshire on Wednesday, 12 June 1946. He is the son of Henry Gould and Helen McKellar Gould ...

, and made his debut in a 1–0 victory over

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

at Kilmarnock. While Trollope was never able to hold down a regular place in the

Wales national football team The Wales national football team () represents Wales in international Association football, football. It is controlled by the Football Association of Wales (FAW), the governing body for football in Wales. They have been a member of FIFA since ...

, he made nine appearances for the senior squad over six years, culminating in March 2003 in a 4–0 home victory over

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

in the ultimately unsuccessful qualifying campaign for

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. Th ...

Management career

Bristol Rovers

In June 2004 he moved to

on a free transfer. In his second season, he became

and was then appointed first-team coach in a two-tier managerial structure, alongside Director of Football

Lennie Lawrence Robin Michael Lawrence, commonly known as Lennie Lawrence, (born 12 December 1947) is an English football manager. He is assistant manager and non-executive director at National League side Hartlepool United. Lawrence was a semi-professional a ...

, in November 2005. His first season in charge ended in a respectable midtable position of 12th place in League Two. The following year Rovers reached the

final but lost to

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team currently competes in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system after winning the 202 ...

. They made up for this loss by winning promotion to

via the play-offs. In the 2007–08 season, Trollope steered Bristol Rovers to mid-table security after a shaky start. Rovers also made the quarter-finals of the FA Cup for the first time in 50 years. In September 2009, following more success, he signed a rolling one-year contract under which his title changed to manager. Despite his achievements at the club, he was sacked on 15 December 2010, with Rovers lying in the League One relegation zone. His overall record in charge of the club was 106 wins and 71 draws from 284 games. During his time with the club, Trollope won the

EFL League One Manager of the Month EFL most commonly refers to English as a foreign language. EFL may also refer to: Sports * Eastern Football League (Australia), an Australian rules football league * Eastern Football League (Scotland), a defunct Scottish football competition ...

award on two occasions, for October 2008 after four wins and one draw from five and September 2009.

Return to coaching

In July 2011, Trollope was appointed 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 ...

club

to work with manager

. When Hughton left for Premier League club

at the end of the season, Trollope went with him, again as first-team coach. He left the club when Hughton was dismissed in April 2014. Trollope was appointed head coach of Championship club

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It currently competes in , the third tier of the English football league system in the 2025–26 season following relegation. Founded in 1899 a ...

in February 2015. On 21 July 2015, Trollope was appointed as a coach for the Wales national team alongside his role at Cardiff City.

Cardiff City

At the end of the 2015–16 season, Cardiff manager

Russell Slade Russell Mark Slade (born 10 October 1960) is an English former professional football manager and coach. Having had an extended career at reserve team level, Slade entered professional sports coaching with Notts County in 1993. He briefly took ...

moved into a head of football role and Trollope was named as his successor, his first job in management since departing Bristol Rovers six years previously. Slade later resigned from his role, after just two weeks, on 3 June. After a poor start to the season, winning 2 of his opening 12 matches, Trollope was sacked by the club on 4 October 2016.

Brighton & Hove Albion

On 24 November 2016, Trollope joined

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gr ...

as assistant manager. After the sacking of Chris Hughton on 13 May 2019 as Brighton manager, Trollope was also relieved of his duties at the club.

Nottingham Forest

On 8 October 2020, Trollope again followed former manager Chris Hughton as assistant, joining

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

Luton Town

In November 2022, Trollope joined

as joint-assistant manager to former international teammate Rob Edwards.

Managerial statistics

Honours

As a player

Derby County *

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was the top division of the Football League in England from 1888 until the end of the 1991–92 season, when its teams broke away to form the Premier League. From 1992 to 2004, the name First Division was g ...

second-place promotion: 1995–96 Fulham *Football League First Division: 2000–01 *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third tier ...

: 1998–99

As a manager

Bristol Rovers *

Football League Two play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

runner-up: 2006–07 Individual *

Football League Two Manager of the Month 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 ...

: April 2007 * Football League One Manager of the Month: October 2008, September 2009

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Trollope, Paul 1972 births Living people Footballers from Swindon English men's footballers Welsh men's footballers Wales men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Swindon Town F.C. players Torquay United F.C. players Derby County F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Fulham F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Northampton Town F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players English Football League players Premier League players English football managers Welsh football managers Bristol Rovers F.C. managers Cardiff City F.C. managers English Football League managers Birmingham City F.C. non-playing staff Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Cardiff City F.C. non-playing staff Nottingham Forest F.C. non-playing staff Luton Town F.C. non-playing staff