Les Shannon

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Les Shannon
Personal information
Full name	Les Shannon
Date of birth	12 March 1926(1926-03-12)
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Date of death	2 December 2007 (aged 81)
Place of death	Leighton Buzzard, England
Playing position	Centre-forward
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1944-1949 1949-1958	Liverpool Burnley Career	011 0(1) 263 (39) 274 (40)
National team
	England "B"
Teams managed
1966-1969 1969-1970 1971-1974 1975-1976 1979-1980 1980-1981 1982-1984	Bury Blackpool PAOK Thessaloniki FC Iraklis OFI Crete Brann OFI Crete Olympiacos Aigaleo FC
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Les Shannon (12 March 1926 – 2 December 2007)^[1] was an English football player and manager.

Contents 1 Playing career 2 Coaching and management 3 Film and TV advisor 4 Death 5 See also 6 Notes 7 Further reading 8 External links

[edit] Playing career

Shannon was born in Liverpool; a centre-forward, he started his playing career with his hometown club of Liverpool in November 1944. He made his debut for the Reds four years later, against Manchester City at Anfield on 17 April, 1948, as a substitute for Albert Stubbins. His only goal for the Merseyside club came the following season, in a 2-1 win at Sheffield United on 30 August, 1948.

After Shannon's contract with Liverpool expired in November 1949, he joined Burnley. Playing on both flanks for Burnley, Shannon clocked up 263 league appearances and scored 39 goals.

Shannon retired from playing first-team football in September 1958 and captained Burnley's reserve team for a year.

[edit] Coaching and management

In 1959, Shannon moved into coaching with Everton, and in 1962, he joined Billy Wright's backroom staff at Arsenal.^[2]

After four years at Highbury, Shannon took over as manager of Second Division Bury. Bury finished bottom in his first season in charge, but he guided them back the following season as runners-up to Oxford United, only to see them make the drop again in 1969.

After Bury's relegation, Shannon took over as manager of Blackpool, with whom he had instant success, finishing as runners-up to Huddersfield Town and winning promotion back to the top flight. This was achieved without the services of the club's star player, Tony Green, who sat out the entire 1969-70 season due to injury. In 1970-71, however, his yo-yo effect reared its head again, when Blackpool finished bottom and were relegated to the league's second tier once again. Shannon had left his position only two months into the season after only seventeen months in charge. He was replaced, in a caretaker role, by Jimmy Meadows.

After several years of coaching in Greece including PAOK Thessaloniki FC from 1971 to 1974, leading them to win the Greek Cup twice in 1972 and 1974, and Iraklis F.C. in 1975-76, Shannon returned to England and settled in Bedfordshire. He became a scout for Luton, which would be his final role in football.

[edit] Film and TV advisor

Shannon's knowledge of football led to his working alongside Pelé in coordinating the football sequences of the 1981 war movie Escape to Victory.^[3] He was also enlisted as an advisor on the Channel 4 series The Manageress in 1989.^[1]

[edit] Death

Shannon died after a long battle with Alzheimer's Disease. At his memorial service at the Square Methodist Church, Dunstable, former Manchester United manager Wilf McGuinness spoke about the life and times of Les, whilst one of the songs chosen was "You'll Never Walk Alone", sung by two of his great nephews Tom Wing and James Wing, a homage to Les' beginnings in football.

[edit] See also

• Blackpool F.C. season 1969-70
• Blackpool F.C. season 1970-71

[edit] Notes

[edit] Further reading

• Calley, Roy (1992). Blackpool: A Complete Record 1887-1992, Breedon Books, ISBN 1-873626-07-X

[edit] External links

• Profile at LFC History.net
• Profile at ClaretsMad

v • d • e Bury F.C. – Managers Hargreaves (1887) • Hamer (1887–1907) • Montgomery (1907–15) • Cameron (1919–23) • Hunter (1923–27) • P. Smith (1927–30) • Paine (1930–34) • Bullock (1934–38) • Dean (1938–44) • Porter (1944–45) • Bullock (1945–49) • McNeil (1950–53) • Russell (1953–61) • Stokoe (1961–65) • Head (1965–66) • Shannon (1966–69) • Marshall (1969) • Hart (1970) • McAnearney (1970–72) • Brown (1972–73) • B. Smith (1973–77) • Stokoe (1977–78) • Hatton (1978–79) • Connor (1979–80) • Iley (1980–84) • Dobson (1984–89) • Ellis (1989–90) • Walsh (1990–95) • Ternent (1995–98) • Warnock (1998–99) • Redmond (1999–2000) • Preece (1999–2003) • Barrow (2003–05) • Casper (2005–08) • Brass (2008) • Knill (2008–)

v • d • e Blackpool F.C. – Managers Barcroft (1903–09) • Cox (1909–11) • Norman (1918–23) • Buckley (1923–27) • Beaumont (1927–28) • Evans (1928–33) • MacFarlane (1933–35) • Smith (1935–58) • Suart (1958–67) • Mortensen (1967–69) • Shannon (1969–70) • Meadows* (1970) • Stokoe (1970–72) • Potts (1972–76) • Brown (1976–78) • Meadows* (1978) • Stokoe (1978–79) • Ternent (1979–80) • Ball (1980–81) • Brown (1981–82) • Ellis (1982–89) • Mullen (1989–90) • White* (1990) • Carr (1990) • Ayre (1990–94) • Allardyce (1994–96) • Megson (1996–97) • Worthington (1997–99) • McMahon (2000–04) • Hendry (2004–05) • Grayson (2005–) * as caretaker-manager

Persondata
NAME	Shannon, Les
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Shannon, Les
SHORT DESCRIPTION
DATE OF BIRTH	March 12, 1926(1926-03-12)
PLACE OF BIRTH	Liverpool, England
DATE OF DEATH	2007-12-2
PLACE OF DEATH	Leighton Buzzard, England