Gregory back in harness

Gregory's relationship with Ellis was not always smooth

John Gregory obviously pays little heed to the old football maxim that you should never go back.

His appointment as Derby's new manager is the second time he has returned to manage a club he played for.

Just as he was at Aston Villa, Gregory was a combative midfielder with the Rams for three years, mostly under Arthur Cox.

It was a playing career that began at Northampton, and took him to Villa, Brighton, QPR and Derby, that enabled him to astutely develop the networking skills that served well when he decided to move into coaching and management.

  John Gregory factfile

1954: Born, 11 May in Scunthorpe.

1972: Professional debut with Northampton.

1977: Joins Aston Villa for £40,000.

1979: Transferred to Brighton for £250,000.

1981: Joins QPR for £300,000, while there wins six England caps.

1990: Appointed Portsmouth manager.

1996: Wycombe appoint him as manager.

1998: Surprise choice as Villa manager.

2002: 24 Jan, resigns as Villa manager.

2002: 30 Jan, appointed Derby manager.

Gregory's first sortie into management was at Portsmouth, thanks to former QPR chairman Jim Gregory.

Gregory (Jim) appointed Gregory (John) as first-team coach to manager Alan Ball.

The joke at Fratton Park was that John was Jim's son, but Ball did not see the funny side when he was sacked in January 1989 and Gregory was handed the managerial reins with little or no experience.

Jim Gregory was never a man to allow sentiment to cloud his hard-headed judgement and gave John Gregory just under a year before sacking him.

A record of 25 defeats in his 50 games which dragged Pompey into the relegation zone could have strangled Gregory's fledgling managerial career at birth.

But Gregory then found another helping hand from former Villa team-mate Brian Little.

Little took Gregory on to the Leicester staff in 1991, and it was at Filbert Street that he forged his reputation as a coach.

Under Little and Gregory, Leicester flitted between the top flight and the second tier, but when the call came from Aston Villa in November 1994, it proved too tempting a siren song for Little, who again invited Gregory along.

Despite his experience at Portsmouth, Gregory harboured ambitions to manage again and had no hesitation in taking on a big task at Wycombe Wanderers.

Stormy relationship

Gregory dragged The Chairboys off the bottom of Division Two during his first half-season in charge at Adams Park.

They were a comfortable middle-table team when chairman Doug Ellis made Gregory a surprise choice to succeed the very man who had taken him to Villa Park - Brian Little.

Again, Gregory's initial brief was to head off relegation.

But in inspiring Villa to a run of nine wins in their last 11 games Gregory not only took them clear of threatened relegation but booked a place in the Uefa Cup with a seventh place finish.

Despite their reputation as one of England's biggest clubs, Gregory's ambition for Villa often did not appear to match that of Ellis.

A club record 12-game unbeaten start to the 1998-99 season saw Villa top the Premiership, but Gregory was forced to watch Dwight Yorke leave for Manchester United.

The following year, Gregory guided Villa to their first FA Cup final since 1957 but Gregory knew they were still some way short of mounting a challenge for the Premiership title.

Never one to pull his verbal punches, Gregory and Ellis enjoyed a stormy relationship, often crossed swords and words over the amount of spending power Gregory thought was needed to convert Villa into one of the Premiership's elite clubs.

Gregory was powerless as Diego Forlan joined Manchester United

Although the figures show that Gregory bought £61m worth of players in his four years, he was always required to balance the books.

He recouped £57m, and his net spending of £16 during his four years compares favourably with managers of similar-sized clubs.

Ellis's vice-like grip on the Villa purse strings further frustrated Gregory as he missed out on Leicester midfielder Muzzy Izzet and was beaten to the punch by Blackburn for Andy Cole's services.

Although the timing was a surprise, Gregory's decision to quit Villa was not a shock.

Gregory emerged from a self-imposed silence to reveal the final straw had been the refusal of funds to launch a bid for Diego Forlan.

Now Gregory is back on familiar ground, trying to carry out a familiar task.

To keep a club he once played for, from being relegated.