David Booth (born 2 October 1948) is an English football manager and former player.[1]
Early years
Booth was brought up in Darton near Barnsley and attended Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, Wakefield where he played rugby and cricket. Football was not played at his school. Dave joined Barnsley and made his first team debut at 19 years of age at left back where he played most of his career.[2] He was later signed by Laurie McMenemy, later of Southampton and the England coaching staff, who was then manager of Grimsby Town.
Managerial career
David Booth became manager of Grimsby Town in January 1982 with the club at the bottom of the Second Division, following the dismissal of George Kerr. A late upturn in form enabled Grimsby to escape relegation, and good form continued into the 1982–83 season with Grimsby as high as 4th after two-thirds of the season. However, failure to win their last 14 games meant that Grimsby only narrowly avoided relegation.
The 1983–84 season, however, would see Grimsby emerge as serious promotion contenders for the majority of the season. They were third in the table at the end of February 1984, but a late dip in form meant they finished in fifth place and ten points off the top three, but it was and remains their highest finish in the league since relegation from the First Division in 1948. Good form continued the following season with a tenth-place finish, and disposing Everton from the League Cup, but Booth resigned in November 1985 to participate in a property developing venture abroad, and was replaced by Mick Lyons.
He later managed Darlington but could not prevent relegation from the Third Division. The initial challenge for promotion was not sustained and the side was facing relegation from the League when Booth was sacked in February 1989. Following this he became Assistant Manager and latterly Caretaker Manager at Peterborough United after the sacking of Mark Lawrenson. He was sacked after a brief spell and some poor performances with Chris Turner becoming manager who earned successive promotions to the second division.[3]
In 1991, Booth moved to Ghana first coached at Obuasi Ashanti Gold and led them to the championship. He was recommended by Bobby Charlton when Charlton's company, BCI, worked as consultants for the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation who funded the football club. 'I had never been to Africa before I took a short-term contract at Obuasi and I treated it like an adventure,' said Booth. He signed up for four weeks and stayed for four years;[4] moved on to Brunei, then moved back after Ghana after long time Asante Kotoko S.C. as a technical director.[5]
He moved to India in 2003 to manage Mumbai-based club Mahindra United guiding them to win Federation Cup, Super Cup and the Mumbai Football League.[6] But then there was an apparent falling out with Chairman Alan Durante, and he departed for South-East Asia.
In South East Asia, he was the coach of the Myanmar national football team in 2003 guiding them to the semi-finals of the 2003 SEA Games.
Upon returning to India with newly formed Mumbai FC to join his friends Henry Menezes and Arshad, he promoted the club from second division and ensured Mumbai FC as a mid-table I-League club.[7] With the relative success of Booth, Menezes and Arshad, Mahindra United was quick to offer better contracts to the trio.[8] with Booth signing a 3-year deal with Mahindra United starting from August 2009.[9]
