Roy Evans
 |
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Roy Quentin Echlin Evans | ||
| Date of birth | 4 October 1948 | ||
| Place of birth | Bootle, England | ||
| Playing position | Left half | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Liverpool | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1965–1974 | Liverpool | 9 | (0) |
| 1973 | → Philadelphia Atoms (loan) | 19 | (2) |
| Teams managed | |||
| 1994–1998 | Liverpool | ||
| 1998 | Liverpool (Joint with Gérard Houllier) | ||
| 2000 | Fulham (Joint with Karl-Heinz Riedle) | ||
| 2001 | Swindon Town | ||
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
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Roy Quentin Echlin Evans (born 4 October 1948) is an English former Liverpool football player who eventually rose through the coaching ranks to become team manager.
An England schoolboy international, Evans was a defender who was a long way down the pecking order at Liverpool in the 1950s and 1970s—he also spent the summer of 1973 in the North American Soccer League with the Philadelphia Atoms. Liverpool manager Bill Shankly saw something different in Evans, suggesting that he tried a career as a coach.
So began a long run through the rankings at Liverpool, starting as a coach under Bill Shankly, who retired in 1974 to be succeeded by assistant Bob Paisley. When Paisley retired in 1983, his own assistant Joe Fagan was promoted to the manager's seat. Fagan retired after two seasons to be succeeded by striker Kenny Dalglish (who was appointed player-manager), and Evans was now coaching under his fourth manager. When Dalglish quit in 1991, Evans found himself on the coaching staff of his fifth Liverpool manager in 18 years—Graeme Souness, a former Liverpool player who had previously been manager of Rangers.
With long-time first-team coach Ronnie Moran also on board at the same time, this internal coaching system at Liverpool became known as The Boot Room. Evans is the most recent Liverpool manager to graduate from it, while Moran retired in 1999 without ever taking over as manager (although he was caretaker for a few weeks in 1991 between Dalglish's resignation and Souness's appointment).
On 28 January 1994, Souness quit as Liverpool manager in the wake of a shock FA Cup exit at the hands of Bristol City. Evans then took over as manager of a Liverpool side who were mid-table in the Premier League and out of contention for any major honours, although they were 8th by the end of the season. Evans had inherited a side from Souness that had lost confidence in the four years following Kenny Dalglish's departure, as well as a side that was mismatched largely due to the signings that Souness made and the lack of quality in expensive foreign signings. It is widely believed that Evans improved a Liverpool side that was severely weakened by Souness' radical bid to transform the side by changing things too quickly and usher out the old guard.
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