Dave Watson

Norwich City

Watson played for the Liverpool reserves before joining Norwich City for £50,000 on 29 November 1980. He made his league debut in the local derby against Ipswich Town on Boxing Day that year. He played 18 league games in the 1980–81 First Division campaign and scored three goals, but was unable to prevent the Canaries from sliding into the Second Division. Over the next five years, Watson was rarely absent from the Norwich side and helped them win promotion from the Second Division in the 1981–82 season. He eventually made 256 appearances for Norwich, and as club captain lifted the League Cup in 1985. They were demoted to the Second Division that year, but won promotion the following year as champions.

Everton

Watson moved on to play for Everton for £900,000 on 22 August 1986 after six years at Norwich. He remained at Goodison Park for 15 years, his first game for them coming on 23 August 1986 when they won 2–0 at home to Nottingham Forest on the opening day of the league season. He helped them win the league title in their first season, and also helped them reach the FA Cup final in 1989, where they lost 3–2 to local rivals Liverpool in extra time. Watson was an integral part of the Everton side throughout the 1990s, and following the departure of goalkeeper Neville Southall in 1998 he became the club's oldest and longest serving player. However, the 1990s were a generally unsuccessful decade for Everton after the glories of the 1980s. They…

Watson was capped 12 times at senior level for England. His first cap came on 10 June 1984 in a 2–0 friendly win over Brazil. By the time of his transfer from Norwich to Everton two years later, he had been capped six times for England. He won a further six England caps, bringing his tally to 12 by the time he made his final England appearance on 18 June 1988 in England's 3–1 European Championship defeat by the Soviet Union in 1988.

Watson was appointed Everton manager in March 1997 for the remainder of the 1996–97 season following the resignation of Joe Royle, but reverted to his playing duties in June 1997 when Howard Kendall was appointed manager for the third and final time. Watson's first-team opportunities gradually faded, but he made one appearance for Everton during the 2000–01 season, before finally announcing his retirement as a player at the age of 39, and moving into management with Tranmere Rovers. His key objective at Tranmere was to regain their Division One status which had just been lost, but he failed to achieve that goal and was dismissed after just one season at the helm. He later became a scout for Birmingham City before joining Wigan Athletic as their youth-team coach on 23 April 2008. In 2002, Watson was voted into the Norwich City F.C. Hall of Fame. Watson was appointed as Under 18 Coach at Newcastle United on 7 November 2011. On 28 January 2015, Watson was brought into John Carver's backroom team at Newcastle United for the remaining 16 games of the 2014–15 season.

Norwich City

Football League Cup: 1984–85 Football League Second Division: 1985–86 Everton

Football League First Division: 1986–87 FA Cup: 1994–95; runner-up: 1988–89 FA Charity Shield: 1987, 1995 Individual

Norwich City Player of the Year: 1983 FA Cup final Man of the Match: 1995 Norwich City Hall of Fame Inductee