Chic Bates

Chic Bates
Personal information
Full name Philip Desmond Bates[1]
Date of birth (1949-11-28) 28 November 1949 (age 75)[1]
Place of birth West Bromwich, England[1]
Height 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)[2]
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Stourbridge
1974–1977 Shrewsbury Town 160 (45)
1977–1979 Swindon Town 63 (15)
1979–1980 Bristol Rovers 29 (4)
1980–1986 Shrewsbury Town 134 (19)
Total 386 (83)
Managerial career
1984–1987 Shrewsbury Town
1997–1998 Stoke City
1999 Shrewsbury Town
2004 Shrewsbury Town
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Philip Desmond "Chic" Bates (born 28 November 1949) is an English former football player and manager.[1]

Bates played non-league football with Stourbridge before becoming a professional with Shrewsbury Town in 1974. He had a fine debut season scoring 17 goals as the "Shrews" gained promotion to the Third Division. He continued to perform well and in 1977 he joined Swindon Town where he spent two years before joining Bristol Rovers. After a year at Rovers he re-joined Shrewsbury Town and in 1984 he became player manager.

He left in 1987 to become assistant manager to Lou Macari at Swindon Town and followed Macari to Stoke City and Celtic and back to Stoke. After Macari left Stoke in May 1997 Bates was appointed as manager and despite a decent start Stoke's form fell away and with the side destined for relegation he was sacked in January 1998. He returned to Shrewsbury and had two spells as caretaker manager.

Playing career

Bates was born in West Bromwich began his career with non-league Stourbridge before joining Shrewsbury Town in 1974.[1] He became a useful forward for the "Shrews" and in his first season as a professional he scored 17 goals helping the team gain promotion.[1] He continued to impress for Shrewsbury and caught the eye of a number of larger clubs and eventually left for Swindon Town in 1978.[1] He spent two years at Swindon and had a short spell at Bristol Rovers before returning to Shrewsbury Town where became player manager.[1]

Managerial career

Bates was appointed player manager of Shrewsbury Town in 1984 and retired from playing in 1985 taking up full-time management a position he would keep until November 1987.[1] He again left Shrewsbury for Swindon Town becoming assistant manager to Lou Macari and Osvaldo Ardiles.[1] When Macari was appointed manager of Stoke City in 1991 he appointed Bates as his assistant and the pair worked together at Stoke until October 1993 when they joined Celtic.[1] A year later they returned to Stoke and after Macari left again in May 1997 Bates was surprisingly given the vacancy in the club's first season at the Britannia Stadium.[1]

Whilst Bates was a useful and popular coach he was not thought to be a successful manager.[1] Regardless, to Bates' credit Stoke made a steady start to the 1997–98 season and by the end of October Stoke were in a play-off position.[1] But results started to go wrong which hit rock bottom in January 1998 with a 7–0 defeat at home to Birmingham City.[1] The result prompted ugly scenes at the final whistle as around 2,000 fans invaded the pitch and entered the directors box.[1] Bates was sacked a week later.[1] He moved back to Shrewsbury and became assistant manager filling in as caretaker on two occasions firstly in November 1999 and 22 October 2004 to 15 November 2004.

Dementia

In 2013 Bates was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimers.[3][4]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[5]
Club Season League FA Cup League Cup Other[a] Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Shrewsbury Town 1974–75 Fourth Division 46 17 2 0 2 0 0 0 50 17
1975–76 Third Division 43 7 3 3 3 1 0 0 49 11
1976–77 Third Division 45 13 5 2 2 0 0 0 52 15
1977–78 Third Division 26 8 4 0 2 1 0 0 32 9
Total 160 45 14 5 9 2 0 0 183 52
Swindon Town 1977–78 Third Division 14 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 14 1
1978–79 Third Division 42 14 4 2 5 0 0 0 51 16
1979–80 Third Division 7 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7 0
Total 63 15 4 2 5 0 0 0 72 17
Bristol Rovers 1979–80 Second Division 11 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 11 2
1980–81 Second Division 18 2 0 0 6 2 0 0 24 4
Total 29 4 0 0 6 2 0 0 35 6
Shrewsbury Town 1980–81 Second Division 15 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 18 3
1981–82 Second Division 40 4 4 3 2 0 5 1 51 8
1982–83 Second Division 38 9 1 0 4 0 2 0 45 9
1983–84 Second Division 16 3 1 0 2 0 0 0 19 3
1984–85 Second Division 20 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 22 1
1985–86 Second Division 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 0
Total 134 19 10 4 9 0 7 1 160 24
Career total 386 83 28 11 29 4 7 1 450 99
  1. ^ Includes Football League Group Cup.

Managerial statistics

Managerial record by team and tenure
Team From To Record
P W D L Win %
Shrewsbury Town 23 July 1984 23 November 1987 164 56 38 70 34.1
Stoke City 1 July 1997 22 January 1998 33 11 9 13 33.3
Shrewsbury Town 8 November 1999 16 November 1999 1 0 1 0 0
Shrewsbury Town 22 October 2004 15 November 2004 5 1 1 3 20
Total[6] 203 509 69 47 33.5

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Lowe, Simon (2000). Stoke City The Modern Era – A Complete Record. Desert Island Books. ISBN 1-874287-39-2.
  2. ^ Dunk, Peter, ed. (1987). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1987–88. London: Queen Anne Press. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-356-14354-5.
  3. ^ "Shrewsbury legend inspires African trek".
  4. ^ "Town Legend Daughter's Charity Challenge".
  5. ^ Chic Bates at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)
  6. ^ "Chic Bates". Soccerbase. Retrieved 2 July 2016.