Ron Atkinson

Atkinson was born in Liverpool in the Old Swan area of the city as was his brother Graham Atkinson who was also a professional footballer. After a few years his family moved to Shard End (then in Warwickshire, now an area of Birmingham). He attended Lea Village Secondary School. After beginning his career as a ground staff boy at Wolverhampton Wanderers, he was signed by Aston Villa from works team BSA Tools at the age of 17. Atkinson has referred to then Villa coach Jimmy Hogan as his biggest influence. He never played a first-team match but team-mate Dennis Jackson noted "I played with Ron in about 100 reserve games. And according to Ron he was man of the match in at least 99 of them." Atkinson was transferred to Headington United (renamed Oxford United in 1960) in the summer of 1959 on a free transfer. There he played alongside his younger brother Graham. He went on to make over 500 appearances in all competitions as a wing-half for the club, earning the nickname "The Tank" and scoring a total of fourteen goals. He was United's captain through their rise from the Southern League to the Second Division, achieved in only six years from 1962 to 1968. He was the first ever footballer to captain a club from the Southern League through three divisions of the Football League, and played three seasons in the Second Division.

Kettering Town and Cambridge United

After retiring from playing, Atkinson became manager player of non-league Kettering Town in 1971, aged only 32. His success there led to a move to the league with Cambridge United, in November 1974, going on to win the Fourth Division in 1977 and leaving them when they were on the verge of promotion to the Second Division, which they later achieved that season under Atkinson's assistant John Docherty.

West Bromwich Albion

In January 1978, Atkinson moved to manage First Division West Bromwich Albion. He soon signed Brendon Batson from his former club, to play alongside Laurie Cunningham and Cyrille Regis. Never before had a team in the top division of English football simultaneously fielded three black players on a regular basis. Atkinson led West Bromwich Albion to third place in the league in the season 1978–79 and also to the UEFA Cup quarter-finals. On 30 December 1978, they achieved a famous 5–3 victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford. The club were second in the table at the time, only beaten off top spot from Liverpool by goal difference. They finished fourth in 1981, and shortly after this Atkinson was appointed the manager of Manchester United following the dismissal of Dave Sexton.

Manchester United

Atkinson was seen as the man who could bring the spark to Manchester United that had been so sorely lacking under his predecessor. Sexton had taken them to second place in the league in 1980 but did…

TV work

Atkinson was already working as a pundit for ITV Sport and after leaving management he continued in this role. For a number of years, he covered most of the channel's live matches, sometimes as a studio guest, but more often as the "ex-football insider" member of a two-man commentary team. His commentaries with Brian Moore and then Clive Tyldesley provided the basis for the 1990s and early-2000s ITV Champions League nights. He was also the main co-commentator for ITV's coverage of the European Championships and the World Cup during this period. He also fronted two series of Extra Time with Ron Atkinson for Central Television, with Ron interviewing football personalities like Kevin Keegan, Terry Venables and Martin O'Neill. In 1997, he appeared as manager of Harchester United in Dream Team. Following his unsuccessful short spell at Nottingham Forest in the 1998-99 season, Atkinson chose to step away from football management and prioritise his media punditry and commentary duties. In August 2013, Atkinson became a housemate on the twelfth series of Celebrity Big Brother. He was the second housemate to be evicted on Day 9 after receiving the fewest votes to save him against Charlotte Crosby, Courtney Stodden, Lauren Harries and Louie Spence.

Music

In 2002, Atkinson released a Christmas song, "It's Christmas – Let's Give Love a Try", but this failed to gain chart success. The following year, Atkinson was a guest on an episode of TV chat show Room 101…

Manager

Kettering Town

Southern League Premier Division: 1972–73 Southern League Division One North: 1971–72 Northants Senior Cup: 1972–73 Cambridge United

Football League Fourth Division: 1976–77 Manchester United

FA Cup: 1982–83, 1984–85 FA Charity Shield: 1983 Sheffield Wednesday

Football League Cup: 1990–91 Aston Villa

Football League Cup: 1993–94 Individual

Premier League Manager of the Month: March 1995