Ken Furphy

Who is Ken Furphy?

Ken Furphy is an English former football player and manager.

Despite being on the books at Everton between 1950–1951, Furphy was a lower league player with Runcorn Darlington and then Workington. He was selected to play for the Third Division North representative side in 1954/55.

In 1964, as Workington's player-manager, he led them into the Division 3 and left to become player-manager at Watford where he remained for several years, winning promotion to Division 2 for the first time in the club's history in 1969, and reaching the FA Cup semi-final a year later. He moved to Blackburn Rovers as manager in 1971 for two seasons before being announced as the new manager of Sheffield United on 9 December 1973.

Despite financial difficulties due to the building of the new South Stand, he led United to sixth place in the First Division, a 0-0 draw away to Birmingham City on the last day of the 1974-75 season left them just one point short of a UEFA cup place. However, the following season started disastrously with just one win from 11 games and his contract was terminated on 6 October 1975. Furphy left for America to manage the New York in the NASL.