Alan Durban

Alan Durban
Personal information
Full name	William Alan Durban
Date of birth	7 July 1941 (age 82)
Place of birth	Bridgend, Glamorgan, Wales
Position(s)	Inside-forward / Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team
1959–1963	Cardiff City
1963–1973	Derby County
1973–1978	Shrewsbury Town
Total
International career
1966–1972	Wales
Managerial career
1974–1978	Shrewsbury Town
1978–1981	Stoke City
1981–1984	Sunderland
1984	Willington
1984–1986	Cardiff City
1998	Stoke City (caretaker)
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

William Alan Durban (born 7 July 1941) is a

the Football League for Cardiff City, Derby County and was player-manager of Shrewsbury Town. He managed Stoke City (two spells), Sunderland and Cardiff City.^[1]

Club career

Durban was brought up in Bracken Road,

Eddie Thomas

saw the side begin to move up the table, finishing in 9th and 8th position in the following two years.

After finishing in seventeenth place during the

Richie Barker as his assistant and he helped Shrewsbury gain promotion in 1974–75 and consolidate their position in the Third Division. He retired from playing once he was made manager of Stoke City in February 1978.^[1]

International career

Durban was handed his debut for Wales on 18 May 1966 in a 1–0 defeat to Brazil at the age of 24. He went on to make 27 appearances for Wales, his final appearance coming on 27 May 1972 in a 0–0 draw with Northern Ireland.^[3]

Managerial career

He began his managerial career at Shrewsbury Town in February 1974; managing them until 1978 when he joined Stoke City, having won promotion from the Fourth Division and the Welsh Cup in 1977.^[1] He helped Stoke gain promotion back to the First Division in dramatic fashion beating Notts County 1–0 on the final day of the 1978–79.^[1] Stoke staved off a relegation battle in 1979–80 finishing in 18th position. During the 1980–81 season Stoke played out an awful 2–0 defeat away at Arsenal and a journalist told Durban that there was no entertainment watching his team's performance, to which Durban replied "This is soccer. If you want entertainment go and watch a bunch of clowns."^[1] Stoke finished mid-table in 1980–81 and in the summer of 1981 he shocked Stoke by quitting in favour of becoming manager of Sunderland.^[1] One of main reasons he left was that Sunderland had offered to buy his house in Shrewsbury for the same price he bought it.^[4]

At

Willington in the Northern League for a short spell. Six months after leaving Sunderland, he joined Cardiff City, but his two-year spell in charge at Ninian Park turned into a disaster as they suffered consecutive relegations, falling from the Second Division to Fourth Division, and Durban was replaced by Frank Burrows

.

Several years later, Durban returned to Sunderland to become chief scout under Peter Reid. He then briefly returned to Stoke as caretaker for five games at the end of the 1997–98 season but was unable to prevent Stoke's falling into the third tier. In summer 2010, he commenced part-time work as a regional scout for Championship side Norwich City.

In July 2011 Durban re-joined Stoke City on a part-time basis as a mentor for young academy players needing guidance off the pitch.^[6]^[7] He retired at the age of 75.^[4]

Personal life

A book written by David Snowdon about Durban's career was published in 2018 titled Give Us Tomorrow Now: Alan Durban's Mission Impossible, mainly detailing his time at Sunderland.^[8]

Career statistics

Club

Source:^[9]

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition
Club	Season	League			FA Cup		League Cup		Other^[A]		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Cardiff City	1959–60	Second Division	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	0
	1960–61	First Division	4	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2
	1961–62	First Division	20	1	0	0	3	0	0	0	23	1
	1962–63	Second Division	23	6	1	0	2	2	0	0	26	8
	Total		52	9	1	0	5	2	0	0	58	11
Derby County	1963–64	Second Division	34	9	0	0	1	2	0	0	35	11
	1964–65	Second Division	42	22	1	1	1	1	0	0	44	24
	1965–66	Second Division	41	17	1	0	4	0	0	0	46	17
	1966–67	Second Division	36	10	1	0	0	0	0	0	37	10
	1967–68	Second Division	39	9	0	0	7	2	0	0	46	11
	1968–69	Second Division	36	6	1	1	7	1	0	0	44	8
	1969–70	First Division	41	9	4	4	6	0	0	0	51	13
	1970–71	First Division	28	4	2	0	2	0	3	0	35	4
	1971–72	First Division	31	6	5	4	1	0	4	1	41	11
	1972–73	First Division	18	1	4	0	2	0	3	0	27	1
	Total		346	93	19	10	29	6	10	1	404	110
Shrewsbury Town	1973–74	Third Division	35	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	37	9
	1974–75	Fourth Division	44	11	2	0	2	1	0	0	48	12
	1975–76	Third Division	42	10	3	1	3	0	0	0	48	11
	1976–77	Third Division	18	1	1	0	2	0	0	0	21	1
	1977–78	Third Division	17	2	3	0	0	0	0	0	20	2
	Total		156	33	11	1	7	1	0	0	174	35
Career Total			554	135	31	11	41	9	10	1	636	156

A. ^ The "Other" column constitutes appearances and goals in the European Cup, Texaco Cup, Watney Cup.

International

Source:^[10]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Wales	1966	1	0
	1967	3	1
	1968	2	0
	1969	7	0
	1970	4	0
	1971	7	1
	1972	3	0
Total		27	2

Managerial statistics

Managerial record by team and tenure
Team	From	To	Record
Team	From	To	P	W	D	L	Win %
Shrewsbury Town	1 February 1974	13 February 1978	187	78	48	61	041.7
Stoke City	13 February 1978	1 June 1981	143	53	48	42	037.1
Sunderland	1 June 1981	2 March 1984	115	31	35	49	027.0
Cardiff City	23 September 1984	28 April 1986	87	22	17	48	025.3
Stoke City	8 April 1998	13 May 1998	5	2	0	3	040.0
Total^[11]			537	186	148	203	034.6