Micky Quinn

Early career

Quinn began his career as an apprentice with Derby County signing for the East Midlands club upon leaving school in 1978. However, Quinn only lasted four months at the Baseball Ground, and returned to his Merseyside home, suffering from homesickness. Eager to turn professional, Quinn joined Wigan Athletic in September 1979 as an apprentice and signed professional forms later in that season, being given his Fourth Division debut by manager Ian McNeill in April 1980, just prior to his 18th birthday. He went on to score 19 goals in 69 Fourth Division games for Wigan. After helping Wigan gain promotion to the Third Division in 1982, manager Larry Lloyd considered Quinn too inexperienced for the higher level of league football and was given a free transfer to Stockport County, who were still in the Fourth Division, and it was at Stockport where Quinn established himself as a regular goalscorer. Now having proven his worth, Quinn attracted the interest of manager Joe Royle at Second Division Oldham Athletic and joined the club for £53,000 in January 1984. Quinn was at Boundary Park for just over two years and proved himself as a competent goalscorer at the higher level of football.

Portsmouth

After scoring 34 goals in 80 Second Division games for Oldham, Quinn joined Portsmouth in March 1986, with manager Alan Ball paying £150,000 for Quinn's services in an attempt to push for promotion to the First Division, but Portsmouth just missed automatic…

Quinn has since worked as a radio presenter on Talksport, where he covers both horse racing and football. Quinn appeared on the BBC's Football Focus as part of their "Cult Heroes" series in 2005, inspired by his relatively prolific two seasons at Highfield Road.

Quinn was born in the Everton area of Liverpool in Lancashire (now Merseyside) in 1962, the oldest of four children born to Michael Quinn and Patricia Silvano. From the age of five, he lived on the Cantril Farm estate and from that young age he has been a supporter of Liverpool. He is the grandson of Italian-born boxer Luigi Silvano (known professionally as Lou Sullivan).

Quinn attracted the crowd chant of "Who Ate All the Pies?" due to his physique, which he used as the title of his 2003 autobiography. In 1996, Quinn retired as a player and started a career as a racehorse trainer. He used to have stables at Newmarket in Suffolk, however had to retire due to it not being financially viable. Quinn was banned from training racehorses in 2001 after being found guilty of neglecting animals in his care. In June 2001, the Jockey Club inquiry found that three horses—Winsome George, Arab Gold, and Zola—were in poor condition with rain scald and were underweight, having been left out at grass near his Wantage stables. He was originally suspended for two and a half years, which would have kept him out of the sport until January 2004, Following an appeal, the ban was reduced to 18 months. The ban expired, and his licence was returned to him in January 2003, allowing him to resume training. Quinn returned to training, but later cited financial reasons for stepping down from the training ranks in December 2022, when his string was reduced to two horses.