Walter Rayner

{{Short description|English football manager (born 1882)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}}

Walter Rayner (born 1882) was a British football manager and player.{{Cite news |date=26 January 1924 |title=Charlton Athletic: "The Club Without a Past" |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-standard-charlton-athletic-the/169907915/ |access-date=2025-04-09 |work=Evening Standard |via=Newspapers.com}} He was Charlton Athletic's first full-time manager as a professional football team from June 1920, when the club played in the Southern League, to May 1925, when the club played in the Football League.{{Cite book |last=Clayton |first=Paul |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780755310203/page/20/mode/2up?q=%22Walter+Rayner%22 |title=The Essential History of Charlton Athletic |date=2001 |publisher=Headline Book Publishing |isbn=9780755310203 |pages=20-36}}{{cite web |title=Charlton - Manager history |url=https://www.soccerbase.com/teams/team.sd?team_id=527&teamTabs=managers |website=Soccerbase |publisher=Centurycomm |accessdate=8 October 2021 }} He became manager of Wigan Borough F.C. in October 1925.

Rayner had been recruited by Charlton from Tottenham Hotspur F.C., where he was a player-coach. He had also been a player-coach at Arsenal F.C. During his career as a player, he played for Norwich City F.C. In 1909, he was the reserve team captain at Luton Town F.C.{{Cite web |title=WALTER RAYNER |url=https://hattersheritage.co.uk/players/walter-rayner-p234 |access-date=2025-04-09 |website=Hatters Heritage}}

In February 1926, Rayner was suspended from Wigan after a dispute with a referee and opposing players, and was banned from football management following an enquiry into financial irregularities at Charlton.　After his career in football, he ran a hardware store in Croydon.