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Longest serving managers in football

Friday 04 November 2011 18:59 GMT

Longest serving managers in football

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1/15Longest serving managers in football

Longest serving managers in football

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Dario Gradi (Crewe Alexandra 1983-2007, 2008, 2009-present) Gradi joined Crewe Alexandra, a team finishing regularly near the bottom of Division Four, in June 1983. In 1989 he earned the team promotion to end 25 years in the Football League's bottom division. They went back down again two years later, but in 1994 won promotion to Division Two and in 1997 they reached Division One for the first time in their history. Gradi has helped launch the careers of many players who went on to play top division and even international football including David Platt, Danny Murphy, Robbie Savage and Neil Lennon. He became Technical Director on 1 July 2007, however became caretaker manager on 18 November 2008, before taking over again as caretaker on 2 October 2009 and has been in charge ever since.

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Longest serving managers in football

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Sir Matt Busby (Manchester United 1945-69) Sir Matt joined United after the war on 1 October 1945 and by the end of his second season had led them to the runners-up spot in the league. He followed this up in 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1951 before finally winning the league in 1952. He also won the FA Cup in 1948. He won the league in 1956 and 1957 and guided his side to the 1957 FA Cup final. His team were known during this period as the 'Busby Babes' because of the young age of his squad. On 6 February 1958 on the way home from a European Cup their plane crashed on the runway at Munich Airport leading to the deaths of seven players. Star player Duncan Edwards died two weeks later from injuries and two other players were never able to play football again. However Busby managed to successfully rebuild his team and guided them to an FA Cup win in 1963, as well as the league in 1965 and 1967. The biggest success of his career came on 29 May 1968 when the team won the European Cup for the first ever time. He retired as manager a year later however did come back briefly in December 1970 as caretaker.

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Longest serving managers in football

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Bill Shankly (Liverpool 1959-74) Shankley took over Liverpool at a time when they were languishing in the Second Division. By 1962 he had won the league and gained promotion into the top flight. Just two years later the side clinched their sixth league title, before winning the FA Cup for the first time in their history in 1965 with a 2-1 defeat of Leeds. Shankly added to his league titles in 1966 before repeating the success in 1973 as well as winning the club their first European trophy with the UEFA Cup in the same season, beating Borussia Monchengladbach 3-2 on aggregate. In the following year they finished second in the league but won the FA Cup, beating Newcastle 3-0 in what proved to be Shankly's last game in charge as he soon retired.

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Sir Alex Ferguson is celebrating 25 years as manager of Manchester United.

It has been a time of unrivalled success for the Red Devils in which Ferguson has lifted 37 trophies.

Here, we take a look at other long serving managers, both in England and abroad and assess their success.

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