Matt Gillies

Matthew "Matt" Muirhead Gillies (12 August 1921 – 24 December 1998) was a Scottish football player and manager who played for, captained, coached and managed Leicester City for a total of 15 years between 1952–1955 and 1956-1968. He is the club's longest serving manager, lasting a decade in the manager's seat between November 1958-November 1968. He took charge of Leicester for a club record 508 matches, as well as making 111 appearances for the club as a player.

Career

Playing career

Gillies played for Motherwell, and then joined Bolton Wanderers after the war, going on to make almost 150 Football League First Division appearances for them. In 1952 he moved to Second Division Leicester City and after seeing his leadership skills, was quickly made club captain by manager Norman Bullock. He captained the side to the 1953-54 Second Division title.

Managerial career

Leicester City

Gillies took a brief break from football after finishing his playing career at Leicester in the summer of 1955, but returned to the club less than a year later to become part of the club's coaching staff in April 1956, before being made the club's manager on 1 November 1958.

Known as being canny in the transfer market (perhaps most notably in signing then unknown, 22-year old goalkeeper Gordon Banks from Chesterfield for just £7,000 in 1959, but also in the signings of club stalwarts such as...
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