Wally Downes

Wally Downes

Downes with West Ham United, January 2011
Personal information
Full name	Walter John Downes
Date of birth	(1961-06-09) 9 June 1961 (age 55)
Place of birth	Hammersmith, London, England
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1979–1988	Wimbledon	207	(15)
1987	→ Newport County (loan)	4	(2)
1988	Sheffield United	9	(1)
1988	Hayes
Total		220	(18)
Teams managed
2002–2004	Brentford
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Walter John "Wally" Downes (born 9 June 1961) is an English former football player and manager and coach. He was most recently first team coach with West Ham United before leaving this post in December 2012. He is the nephew of former world middleweight boxing champion Terry Downes.

Downes started out as an apprentice with Wimbledon and was their first ever full-time Football League apprentice. He is often cited as being the main instigator of the Crazy Gang spirit at the club, as it rose from the Fourth to the First Division inside a decade. In 1979, aged 17 he scored on his league debut against Barnsley and went on to make over 200 appearances for Wimbledon, usually as a midfielder.

In 1988, he left to join his mentor and former Wimbledon manager Dave Bassett at Sheffield United, but his career for his new club was severely limited by a number of serious injuries.

Following four broken legs he retired through injury. Downes took a coaching position at Crystal Palace, and spent 12 years at Selhurst Park, most of these under Steve Coppell.

Downes then once again rejoined Coppell, this time at Reading, initially on a casual basis, but quickly proved himself invaluable, and took on the job of coaching Reading's defence. As a result, Downes was a major reason for Reading's impressive defensive display in the 2005–06 Championship season, where Reading had the best defensive statistics in the entire English football pyramid, and were promoted to the Premier League with a record 106 points.