Dave Bassett
David "Harry" Bassett born
4 September 1944,
Stanmore,
London is an
English football manager. He is currently unemployed, after leaving
Southampton F.C. due to the appointment of
George Burley. As a player he was a defensive midfielder at semi-professional level, playing for
Hayes,
Wycombe Wanderers,
Walton & Hersham FC and later
Wimbledon FC. He was a member of the Wimbledon team who forced a famous draw in the 4th round of the FA Cup against reigning League Champions
Leeds United F.C. in 1975. He retired from playing soon after Wimbledon entered the Football League in 1977, and became a coach with the club.
Promoted to first team manager following the departure of
Dario Gradi, Bassett guided
Wimbledon's rise up through the Football League during the 1980's. The team won promotion from the
Fourth Division in 1982-83. In June 1984, Bassett had agreed to take charge of Crystal Palace but never signed the contract. Within 72 hours after accepting Palace's offer, he changed his mind and returned to Wimbledon.
In 1985-86, they finished third in the
Second Division and were promoted to the
First Division after just a mere nine seasons of league football. They briefly topped the league in September 1986, and although their stay at the top of the division was short-lived they still managed to finish in an impressive sixth place.
The team's style of muscular, direct "long ball" play, termed by Bassett as "route one football" ( as in the most direct route to goal) was disliked by the footballing press and pundits but brought great success and was difficult to play against. Whilst hugely popular with both the club's fans and his players, Bassett nevertheless felt that he had taken the club as far as he could and resigned as manager in 1987 to take up an offer from Watford, handing over the reins to
Bobby Gould - who promptly guided Wimbledon to a famous
FA Cup victory over Liverpool the following season.
Bassett's reign as
Watford manager was short-lived, and he was never given the chance to mould the side as he saw fit. The team had just finished ninth in 1986-87 under the management of
Graham Taylor, who had left to take charge of relegated Aston Villa. But with an aging squad and no money to spend, Watford started the 1987-88 season terribly and the blame was placed squarely on Bassett, who was sacked in January
1988 when relegation to the Second Division looked certain. Before Bassett's arrival, Watford had lost their key player John Barnes to Liverpool and this undoubtedly helped cause their rapid decline.
In 1987-88, Dave Bassett became one of the few managers to have the dubious honour of being involved with two relegated clubs in the same season. On January 21, 1988, within weeks of leaving Watford he took over at
Sheffield United. Despite bringing many new players, he was unable to prevent a weak team from sliding into the
Third Division after losing the double-legged play-off with
Bristol City 2-1.
However, with the Bassett bringing his own backroom staff during the close season and more new players brought in, he took them back up at the first attempt in 1988-89. A second successive promotion following in 1989-90, and First Division football returned to
Bramall Lane in the 1990-91 season for the first time since the 1970's. The most influential player in this team was striker
Brian Deane, who was capped three times by
England.
Sheffield United failed to win any of their first 16 league games in 1990-91, and went into the new year at the bottom of the
First Division. But a rousing resurgence in the second half of the season saw
the Blades climb up to a secure 13th place in the final table. They did even better in 1991-92, finishing ninth in the First Division and securing a place in the new
FA Premier League.
Sheffield United's Premier League debut was reasonable. They finished 14th in the final table, reached the semi finals of the
FA Cup, and condemned
Nottingham Forest to relegation by winning the penultimate game of the season. But Brian Deane was sold to
Leeds United during the
1993 close season, and without him the Blades struggled. Bassett's luck finally ran out on the last day of the 1993-94 season when they lost 3-2 at
Chelsea, having led 2-1 with 5 minutes remaining, when a single point would have kept them in the Premiership. An eighth place finish in the 1994-95
Division One campaign was not enough for a playoff place, and Bassett resigned the following December with relegation looking more likely than promotion and protests against the board mounting.
Dave Bassett took over at
Crystal Palace in early February, taking charge of a club which was standing in 16th place in Division One and had lost most of its players the previous summer. Dave Bassett set about rejuvenating the side, and a storming run meant that automatic promotion was still a possibility until the last-but-one game of the season. In the end, they finished third in the table and reached the playoff final where they lost 2-1 to
Leicester City.
In March 1997, Dave Bassett left Crystal Palace (who went on to win promotion under new manager Steve Coppell with the side Bassett had built) to take charge of Premiership strugglers
Nottingham Forest. He was unable to prevent them from being relegated, but they were promoted back to the Premiership at the first attempt after winning the 1997-98 Division One championship with some ease. But Forest kicked off a terrible start to the 1998-99 Premiership, and Bassett was sacked in October after 19 months at the helm. Forest were unable to avoid the drop under Bassett's successor
Ron Atkinson, and have remained outside the Premiership ever since.
Dave Bassett's next job was at
Barnsley. He succeeded
John Hendrie as manager in May 1999, and rounded out a good job in his first season at the helm. The team reached the Division One playoff final but missed out of promotion to the Premiership after losing to Ipswich Town. Bassett left in December 2000 after failing to mount another promotion challenge, and Barnsley slipped into Division Two (now
Football League One) in 2002.
Dave Bassett's next job was perhaps his least successful. He was named as Leicester City manager in October 2001 and took charge of a club which 12 months earlier had established a two-week lead at the top of the Premiership. For a while it looked as though Bassett could save Leicester's Premiership status, but a four-month winless run from December condemned the team to relegation from the Premiership after a six-year tenancy. Just before relegation was confirmed, Bassett became Director of Football (a role which he left when Craig Levien took over as Leicester City manager) and handed over his managerial duties to assistant
Micky Adams.
Bassett was appointed assistant to
Harry Redknapp at
Southampton in the summer of
2005, after the departure of
Jim Smith. When Redknapp left in December 2005, Bassett became the caretaker manager, in a dual role with
Dennis Wise. He left the club with some acrimony after
George Burley was eventually appointed full-time manager of the Saints, stating that he had been led to believe by the chairman that he was the players' choice as next manager.
