Tommy Craig

{{Short description|Scottish football player and manager (born 1950)}}

{{Infobox football biography

| name = Tommy Craig

| image =

| fullname = Thomas Brooks Craig{{Hugman|4279|access-date=19 February 2017}}

| height =

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|df=y|1950|11|21}}

| birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland

| position = Midfielder

| currentclub =

| youthyears1 = | youthclubs1 =

| years1 = 1967–1968 | caps1 = 45 | goals1 = 8 | clubs1 = Aberdeen

| years2 = 1968–1974 | caps2 = 214 | goals2 = 38 | clubs2 = Sheffield Wednesday

| years3 = 1974–1977 | caps3 = 124 | goals3 = 22 | clubs3 = Newcastle United

| years4 = 1977–1979 | caps4 = 27 | goals4 = 2 | clubs4 = Aston Villa

| years5 = 1979–1981 | caps5 = 52 | goals5 = 9 | clubs5 = Swansea City

| years6 = 1981–1984 | caps6 = 98 | goals6 = 10 | clubs6 = Carlisle United

| years7 = 1984–1985 | caps7 = 11 | goals7 = 0 | clubs7 = Hibernian

| totalcaps = 571 | totalgoals = 89

| nationalyears1 = 1976 | nationalteam1 = Scotland

| nationalcaps1 = 1 | nationalgoals1 = 0

| manageryears1 = 1993–1998 | managerclubs1 = Scotland U21

| manageryears2 = 2009–2010 | managerclubs2 = Charleroi

| manageryears3 = 2014 | managerclubs3 = St Mirren

}}

Thomas Brooks Craig (born 21 November 1950) is a Scottish former football player and coach. Craig had an 18-year playing career as a midfielder, playing over 100 league games for English clubs Sheffield Wednesday and Newcastle United. Towards the end of his playing career he became a coach, and he has worked for clubs including Hibernian, Celtic, Aberdeen, Newcastle and St Mirren.

Playing career

Craig was born in Glasgow. A midfielder, he started his playing career at Aberdeen. In 1969 Sheffield Wednesday paid £100,000 for his services, a club record transfer fee at the time, as well as a British record for a teenager. Craig scored 37 league goals for Wednesday, including many from the penalty spot. During his time at the club, Wednesday were relegated from the top flight following Craig's first full season, and they continued to struggle in Division Two, finally being relegated again shortly after he left for Newcastle United in 1974. While at the club, Craig was the fan favourite and was described as "an adopted Geordie".{{cite news|title=Former Newcastle United man on his time at St James' and becoming a manager at 63|url=http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/former-newcastle-united-man-time-7142294?|publisher=Chronicle Live|date=19 May 2014|access-date=25 May 2014}}

After leaving Newcastle he went on to join Ron Saunders' Aston Villa, however, his stay was short lived as Saunders was clearing the decks in order to turn Villa into the Championship and European Cup winning force of the early 1980s. He subsequently moved on to Swansea City, Carlisle United and Hibernian before becoming a coach.

Craig was capped once by Scotland, against Switzerland in 1976.

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Craig was made assistant manager to John Blackley at Hibernian, before briefly taking over as caretaker manager upon Blackley's departure. He was then Billy McNeill's assistant manager at Celtic, where they won the championship in their centenary year. A spell at Aberdeen as assistant to Roy Aitken followed, before he took up the coaching role of Scotland's Under-21 team.

Craig spent time as a first team coach of Newcastle United, until he was released in September 2006.[http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~905182,00.html Tommy Craig - Statement | Newcastle United | News | Latest News | Latest News] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001014351/http://www.nufc.premiumtv.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10278~905182,00.html |date=1 October 2006 }} While at Newcastle United, Craig stated he learned coaching development under the first team managers during his seven years as a coach. He was then chosen by John Collins to be his assistant at Hibernian. Following Collins' resignation, Craig acted as the caretaker manager of Hibernian for the second time. He left the club after four games, following the appointment of Mixu Paatelainen as manager.[http://news.stv.tv/sport/4121-craig-leaves-hibs/ Craig leaves Hibs] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20120714145811/http://news.stv.tv/sport/4121-craig-leaves-hibs/ |date=14 July 2012 }}, STV, 11 February 2008. Craig joined Charleroi as assistant coach to Collins in December 2008.[http://www.sporting-charleroi.be/code/fr/hp_news_plus.asp?pk_id_news=5926 Le RCSC a un nouvel entraîneur.], R. Charleroi S.C., 15 December 2008. {{in lang|fr}} On 20 November 2009, he was appointed as head coach on a one-and-a-half-year contract.[http://www.sporting-charleroi.be/code/fr/hp_news_plus.asp?pk_id_news=6530# Le Sporting a son nouveau coach.], R. Charleroi S.C., 20 November 2009. {{in lang|fr}} Despite this contract, Craig was sacked on 14 April 2010.[http://www.sporting-charleroi.be/code/fr/hp_news_plus.asp?pk_id_news=6794 Communique T. Craig]{{cite web |url=http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/football/world-football/2010/04/15/tommy-craig-axed-as-charleroi-boss-86908-22187324/ |title=Tommy Craig axed as Charleroi boss |work=Daily Record |date=15 April 2010 |access-date=15 April 2010}}

St Mirren manager Danny Lennon appointed Craig as first team coach on 22 July 2011.{{cite news|url=http://www.saintmirren.net/pages/?p=4998|title=Saints Appoint First Team Coach|publisher=St Mirren F.C.|date=22 July 2011|access-date=23 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928224940/http://www.saintmirren.net/pages/?p=4998|archive-date=28 September 2011}} Craig was part of the coaching team that won the 2012–13 Scottish League Cup with St Mirren. On 13 May 2014 Craig was appointed as St Mirren manager, following the departure of Lennon.{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27398509|title=St Mirren: Tommy Craig appointed as Danny Lennon's successor|publisher=BBC |work=BBC Sport|date=13 May 2014|access-date=13 May 2014}} Immediately after taking the job, Craig included two players on his coaching team, Jim Goodwin and Gary Teale. Craig was sacked in December 2014, after 19 matches in charge.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30395673 BBC Sport] St Mirren were joint bottom of the Scottish Premiership and lost 4–0 to Inverness in the Scottish Cup.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/30275611 BBC Sport]

=Managerial statistics=

rowspan="2"\|Team !rowspan="2"\|Nat !rowspan="2"\|From !rowspan="2"\|To !colspan="5"\|Record
class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
G	W	D	L	Win %
align=left\|Scotland U21 \|{{flagicon\|Scotland}} \|align=left\|1993 \|align=left\|1998
align=left\|Charleroi \|{{flagicon\|Belgium}} \|align=left\|2009 \|align=left\|2010	19	2	3	14	10.53
align=left\|St Mirren \|{{flagicon\|Scotland}} \|align=left\|2014 \|align=left\|2014	19	3	3	13	15.79