Warren Joyce

Warren Garton Joyce (born 20 January 1965) is an English football manager and former player, who is currently the lead coach of Nottingham Forest's U21 squad.

As a player, he played in The Football League for Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End, Plymouth Argyle, Burnley and Hull City. After taking over as player-manager of Hull City in 1998, he eventually moved to Belgium, where he was appointed manager of Manchester United's feeder club Royal Antwerp in 2006.

Two years later, he returned to England as co-manager of the Manchester United reserves, along with former Manchester United forward Ole Gunnar Solskjær. When Solskjær left in 2011, Joyce took charge of the reserves. In November 2016, he was signed by Wigan Athletic as a replacement for Gary Caldwell, but left four months later. In June 2017, Joyce was announced as the new manager for Melbourne City in the A-League. On 8 May 2019, Melbourne City announced they had severed ties with Joyce.

In June 2019, he became the Development coach with League Two side Salford City, spending two years with the Ammies before taking on the role of lead U18 coach with Nottingham Forest in July 2021.^[3]

Joyce was born in Oldham, Lancashire, the son of Walter Joyce, the former Burnley, Blackburn Rovers and Oldham Athletic player, and began his career as a trainee with Bolton Wanderers in 1981.^{[citation needed]} He broke into the first team as a midfielder and in six years made a total of 221 appearances for Bolton, scoring 21 goals.^{[citation needed]}

In October 1987, however, Preston North End manager John McGrath offered £35,000 for his services.^{[citation needed]} With Joyce's father Walter now a coach at Deepdale (he had previously coached at Oldham Athletic), Joyce decided to make the move.^{[citation needed]}

Over the next five years, he became a popular figure at Preston earning himself the nickname "Psycho", due to his never-say-die commitment to the cause.^[4] In all he played 208 matches for the Lilywhites scoring 44 goals,^{[citation needed]} winning the club's player of the year award and being made club captain.^{[citation needed]} However, when Plymouth Argyle made a £160,000 offer for him in May 1992, Preston were forced to accept and he was on his way to Home Park.^{[citation needed]}

His stay in Devon was short, with Joyce playing only 40 games and scoring four goals in his year there.^{[citation needed]} When Burnley offered £140,000 for him in July 1993 Plymouth decided to cash in, he was on his way back to Lancashire.^{[citation needed]} In three years at Turf Moor he played 90 games and scored 12 goals.^{[citation needed]}

A loan stay though at Hull City in January 1995 paved the way for a permanent deal 18 months later, and in July 1996 Joyce signed for Hull.^{[citation needed]} He went on to play a total of 170 games for Hull scoring 19 goals, becoming club captain at Boothferry Park.^{[citation needed]} Later in November 1998 he was asked to stand in as caretaker manager following the departure of Mark Hateley.^{[citation needed]}

City soon made the appointment permanent with Joyce taking on the dual role of player-manager.^{[citation needed]} At the time of his appointment, City were rooted to the foot of the 4th Division table and looked to be heading out of the Football League – and into bankruptcy.^{[citation needed]} However, under Joyce's stewardship, City staged a remarkable turnaround and achieved survival with games to spare; City fans christened this season "the Great Escape".^[5]

Joyce started coaching at Bury F.C. while still a player at Burnley F.C. in 1993 and later joined Manchester United F.C.'s U-16s, where he worked with renowned youth coach Eric Harrison and helped develop talents such as Wes Brown and David Healy.^[6]

Whilst still a senior player at Hull City F.C., Joyce was asked to step in as caretaker in 1998 eventually taking over as player-manager, where he managed to turn around the season and kept the club away from relegation. Joyce put together a competitive squad with a limited budget and later sold 3 young players to Premier League teams for over £1m.^[7]

From 2000 to 2004, Joyce was the Assistant Academy Director at Leeds United F.C., where he won 3 Premier League youth titles and the Premier League National Champions Cup alongside developing important players such as James Milner, Aaron Lennon and Scott Carson.^[7]

After a year-long stint from 2004 to 2005 at Stockport County as the Individual Development Coach, Joyce joined Tranmere Rovers F.C., where he was responsible for developing talents including Aaron Cresswell, Steve Davies and Will Vaulks.^[8]

In 2006, Joyce was appointed manager of Belgian Pro League side Royal Antwerp F.C., which is a feeder club for Manchester United F.C. Joyce helped the club achieve back-to-back playoffs in the Challenger Pro League and developed local talents such as Mohamed Cisse and John Utaka who were sold for over £2m.^[9]

After 2 years in Belgium, Joyce was appointed as the co-manager of the Manchester United F.C. Reserves alongside Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. In 2010, after Ole's departure to Molde F.K., Joyce was appointed as the sole manager, where he worked closely with Alex Ferguson. Joyce oversaw the development of talents such as Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Adnan Januzaj into the 1st team and established himself as the most successful reserves manager ever in the club's history by winning 6 Premier League titles, 2 runners-up finishes and 9 major international cups in 8 years. The talents produced at the club by Joyce went on to become 60 internationals and 89 out of 91 were sold for over £1m.^[10]

After 6 years at Manchester United F.C. Reserves, Joyce was appointed as the manager at Wigan Athletic F.C. in 2016, where he oversaw the sale of Yanic Wildschut for £8.5m after an initial signing of £300,000. Joyce departed the club after 4 months after a life-threatening eye injury.^[11]

In 2017, Joyce joined Australian A-League side Melbourne City F.C., where he took the club to a 3rd place finish, semi-final position in the playoffs and quarter-finals of the Australia Cup in his 1st season. During his 2nd season, the club again reached the play-offs and quarter-finals of the Australia Cup. Joyce also worked on developing important talents for the club, with 9 players making it to the Australian Olympic Football Team and 20 players going on to play in the Australian A-League. He also oversaw the sale of Daniel Arzani for an A-League record of $8m and promoted talents such as Riley McGree, Connor Metcalfe, Denis Genreau and Nathaniel Atkinson.^[12]

Joyce joined Salford City F.C. in 2019 as the Development Coach and won the EFL Trophy for the first time in the club's history. He also worked on developing young talents at the club, helping Luke Burgess revive his career in league football and assisting 5 players from the club to play professional league football. Joyce also oversaw the sale of Brandon Thomas-Asante for £500,000 after acquiring him on a free transfer.^[13]

In 2021, Joyce was appointed as the U-18s Development Coach at Nottingham Forest F.C., where he reached the FA Youth Cup final for the first time in the club's history in 2022. After winning 13 games and helping the club move to the top of the league, Joyce was promoted to the U-21s coach role, where he helped 7 players secure 1st team debuts. Under his watch at the U-21s, 4 youth team players have made international debuts, Zach Abbott became Nottingham Forest F.C.'s youngest ever player at 16 and Dale Taylor became Northern Ireland national football team's youngest debutant.^[14]

As of 4 June 2019^[15]

• Warren Joyce at Soccerbase