Tony Mowbray

Anthony Mark Mowbray (born 22 November 1963) is an English football manager and former footballer who is currently manager of club Birmingham City.

Mowbray played for Middlesbrough, Celtic and Ipswich Town as a defender.

He began his coaching career with Ipswich Town and took his first managerial job at Scottish Premier League side Hibernian, where he won the Scottish Football Writers' Association Manager of the Year award in his first season.

After playing his first match for the club in 1982, Mowbray became captain of Middlesbrough in 1986 when he was just 22 years old.

Affectionately known to Boro fans as "Mogga", Mowbray became a legend in Middlesbrough for being a local lad who led the club from liquidation back into the top league of English football within two seasons.

In 1991 after 348 appearances for Boro, Mowbray moved to Scottish club Celtic for £1 million.

During his playing career with Celtic, Mowbray's wife Bernadette, a native of Renfrewshire, died of breast cancer.

The episode is recalled in Mowbray's book, "Kissed by an Angel."

It is often asserted that the "huddle" which Celtic players still perform before each match was arranged as a tribute to Bernadette.

However, it was merely suggested by Mowbray on a pre-season tour of Germany to bring the squad together at a time of uncertainty.

He later moved on to Ipswich Town, where he played for five years, becoming the team captain.

He scored an equalising goal in the 2000 Division One playoff final victory against Barnsley.

Ipswich won the match 4–2 and secured promotion to the FA Premier League.

This match was both Mowbray's Wembley debut and the last of his playing career.

Once his playing career finished he moved into coaching, starting as a first team coach at Ipswich Town.

He had a brief spell as caretaker manager of Ipswich, following the sacking of George Burley and prior to the appointment of Joe Royle.

In May 2004, Mowbray was appointed manager of Hibernian, replacing Bobby Williamson.

He gained much acclaim for the job he did, winning the Scottish Football Writers' Association manager of the year award in his first season.

Hibs finished in the top four in the SPL in his only two full seasons in charge, which was the first time that Hibs had done this in the top division in consecutive seasons since Eddie Turnbull was manager.

Hibs progressed to the later stages of every domestic cup competition in his tenure and made two appearances in European football.

Hibs lost heavily to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in the first round of the 2005–06 UEFA Cup and on the away goals rule to OB Odense in the 2006 Intertoto Cup.

He moved on to West Bromwich Albion in 2006, where he won the Football League Championship in 2008, but then suffered relegation from the Premier League the following year.

Mowbray was then appointed as manager of Celtic, but was dismissed after nine months for poor results.

Mowbray subsequently took the manager's role at another of his former clubs, Middlesbrough.

During mid-2006, Mowbray was interviewed for the vacant managerial position at Ipswich Town, but he rejected their approach.

In September 2006 he signed a 12-month rolling deal with Hibs that was due to take effect from July 2007.

Just one month later however, Mowbray moved to West Bromwich Albion.

West Bromwich Albion appointed Mowbray as their manager on 13 October 2006.

Mowbray faced the task of returning the Baggies to the Premier League after relegation the previous season.

Although he managed to turn around the club's poor away form, an indifferent run of results at home towards the end of the season meant that Albion finished fourth in The Championship table behind Sunderland, Birmingham City and Derby County, and faced the lottery of the Championship play-offs.

Despite two famous victories over old rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in the semi-finals, Albion lost 1–0 to Derby County in the Wembley final.

As a result, during the close season, Mowbray set about restructuring his squad, moving out several of Robson's players for multimillion-pound fees, after press reports of dressing room division.

High-profile players such as Jason Koumas, Diomansy Kamara and Curtis Davies were sold to Premier League clubs for large fees, in addition to the departures of Paul McShane, Nathan Ellington, Darren Carter and Steve Watson.

Mowbray replaced them by signing a total of 14 permanent and loan players in the summer transfer window, making an overall profit in the process.

His most expensive signings were Chris Brunt from Sheffield Wednesday for £3 million, Leon Barnett from Luton Town for £2.5 million, and James Morrison from Middlesbrough for £1.5 million.

In 2007, Mowbray was placed at number 7 in a chronological list of Middlesbrough legends compiled by local newspaper the Evening Gazette.

The Middlesbrough club fanzine Fly me to the Moon is named after a quote about Mowbray from ex-Middlesbrough manager Bruce Rioch – "If I had to fly to the moon I'd take Tony Mowbray, my captain, with me. He's a magnificent man".

After a poor start to the 2013–14 season, Mowbray left Middlesbrough in October 2013.

After a spell with Coventry City, he was appointed Blackburn Rovers manager in February 2017.

He was unable to prevent Rovers being relegated to League One, but then won promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt.