Steve Holland (footballer)

Steve Holland

Personal information
Date of birth	(1970-04-30) 30 April 1970
Place of birth	Derby, England
Team information
Current team	Chelsea (First Team Coach)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1986–1987	Derby County	0	(0)
1988–1989	Bury	0	(0)
1991	Northwich Victoria	18	(3)
Managerial career
2007–2008	Crewe Alexandra
2009–2011	Chelsea Reserves
2011–	Chelsea (assistant manager)
2013–	England Under-21s (assistant manager)
2015	Chelsea (caretaker manager)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Steve Holland (born 30 April 1970) is an English football coach who is currently assistant first team coach at Chelsea. Holland managed Crewe Alexandra until November 2008, where he took over following Dario Gradi's decision to step down as manager in 2007.

Playing career

As a schoolboy, Holland progressed through the academy at Derby County until his late teens, when, after a bad injury, he was told that he would not be kept on. He had short stints playing professional football for Bury and for Husqvarna ff of Sweden and semi-pro for Northwich Victoria but, aged 21 and after several unsuccessful trials at various clubs, Holland decided to go into coaching.

Coaching career

Holland was appointed as a youth coach at Crewe Alexandra in 1992 by Dario Gradi, who had coached Holland as a schoolboy.

In 2006, he entered onto the UEFA Pro Licence course and completed it in June 2007. He also completed the LMA PFA Certificate in applied management at Warwick University in 2009.

Holland slowly made his way through the coaching ranks at Crewe before becoming the club's Academy Director, looking after the club's successful academy. Holland also had a spell as first team coach during the clubs successful period in the Championship. At the start of the 2006–07 season, Gradi revealed that Holland would be involved more in the first team set-up for the season. On 20 April 2007, it was announced by the football club that Gradi would be taking up a new role as Technical Director on 1 July 2007 while Holland would be promoted to the role of First-Team Coach, whilst keeping his job as Academy Director. Gradi revealed that Holland was the "right man" to eventually replace him and that the move was a "gradual transition". The move meant that Holland's role at the club was much nearer to being a manager rather than a coach. He left this role on 18 November 2008 and was replaced by former manager Dario Gradi, after which he held talks with the club to decide his future there.

However, in December 2008, it was reported that Holland would be leaving Crewe. In March 2009, he was appointed manager of the youth academy at nearby Stoke City.

On 12 August 2009, Holland was named the reserve team manager for Chelsea. In the 2009–10 season, Holland was part of the Chelsea management team that won the Domestic Double, for the first time in the clubs history. In the 2010–11 season, Holland's Reserve Team won the Barclays Premier Reserve league. They beat Northern Champions Blackburn Rovers in a play-off final having secured the Southern championship for the first time since 1994.

On 29 June 2011, it was announced that Holland would become assistant first team coach at Chelsea under new manager André Villas-Boas. When Villas-Boas was dismissed on 4 March 2012 and Roberto Di Matteo was appointed caretaker manager of Chelsea, Holland filled the role of assistant first-team coach. He continued in this position under the interim manager Rafael Benítez and after José Mourinho was brought back to the club in 2013.

In August 2013, Holland was appointed assistant manager to the new England Under 21s manager Gareth Southgate.

Honours as coach

Chelsea

• FA Cup (1): 2011–12
• UEFA Champions League (1): 2011–12
• UEFA Europa League (1) : 2012–13
• Football League Cup (1): 2014–15
• Premier League (1): 2014–15