Gordon Lee

Who is Gordon Lee?

Gordon Francis Lee is a former English footballer and football manager. He played 120 league matches in a 12-year career in the Football League, before going on to greater success as a manager.

A right-back during his playing days, he moved from Hednesford Town to Aston Villa in 1955. He spent the next eleven years with the "Villans", winning a Second Division championship medal in 1959–60, a League Cup winners medal in 1961, as well as a League Cup runners-up medal in 1963. He then moved on to Shrewsbury Town in 1966, where he made the shift from player to coach.

He began his management career with Port Vale in 1968, leading them to promotion out of the Fourth Division in 1969–70. Switching to Blackburn Rovers in January 1974, he took them to the Third Division title in 1974–75. This won him the top job at Newcastle United, and in 1976 he led Newcastle to the League Cup final. He took up the reins at Everton in January 1977, and also took them to the League Cup Final later in the year. After losing his job at Everton in May 1981, he was appointed manager of Preston North End, before he departed two years later. In 1985 he moved to Iceland to manage KR Reykjavik, before he left the club in 1987. Returning to England behind the scenes at Leicester City, he spent a brief period of 1991 as the club's caretaker-manager.