Billy Davies

As a schoolboy, Davies was associated with Manchester United and he was offered a contract by then manager Dave Sexton. Davies started his professional playing career at the Scottish club Rangers. He made his debut aged 17 years, 115 days against Brechin City on 23 September 1981, but rarely featured for the first team in his six years at Ibrox. He then had spells with Swedish teams Jönköping and Elfsborg. Davies went on to play for St Mirren, Leicester City and Dunfermline Athletic before he finished his playing career with Motherwell in his native Scotland.

Motherwell

Davies went on to player-coach and then manage Motherwell, helping them first avoid relegation with few games remaining in his first season in charge. In the next season he took them to the brink of European football. The subsequent season was less successful, due mainly to the club's financial situation. The club sold nine first-team players in the off-season and Davies resigned on 18 September 2001 after poor form saw Motherwell gain just three points from seven matches at the start of the 2001–02 season.

Preston North End

Davies moved south to England and took on the role of assistant manager to former Scotland national coach Craig Brown at Preston North End. Following Brown's departure on 29 August 2004, Davies was installed as caretaker manager before being given the job permanently on 27 September. Davies took Preston to the brink of the Premier League via the play-offs in May 2005 but lost in the final. Despite a difficult start to the 2005–06 season, a 25-game unbeaten run meant Preston went on to qualify for the play-offs for a second successive season although the side again failed to win promotion as they were knocked out by Leeds United after losing the semi-final second leg, after he famously left Elland Road following the first leg issuing the quote "Job done" to the media, only to lose at home and be knocked out. Davies's success at Deepdale saw him linked with a number of other jobs. He was interviewed for the position at Charlton…

Billy Davies is the elder brother of John Davies and the brother-in-law of John Spencer. Davies signed both his brother and Spencer when he was manager of Motherwell. Davies frequently refers to himself in the third person during interviews as a running gag.

Derby County

Football League Championship play-offs: 2007 Individual

SPL Manager of the Month: November 2000 Football League Championship Manager of the Month: January 2006, April 2006, November 2006, January 2007, December 2009, January 2011, March 2013