Club management (1979–1993) Gould joined
Chelsea as assistant manager to
Geoff Hurst in 1979. When Hurst was sacked in April 1981, Gould took charge of first team affairs for the final two games of the season, before leaving the club shortly afterwards. Gould began his managerial career with Bristol Rovers in October 1981 before returning to Coventry City as boss in May 1983. He remained there until he was sacked on 28 December 1984. The highlight of this spell at Coventry came on 10 December 1983 when his unfancied Coventry side achieved a 4–0 win over
Liverpool, the top English club side of the time who went on to win the league title, League Cup and European Cup that season. He made a swift return to management after accepting an offer to return to Bristol Rovers. Gould is most famous for his achievements with
Wimbledon. He moved to the South Londoners in the summer of 1987 after their first season as a
First Division club, in which they had finished sixth. His first season brought one of the most famous
FA Cup victories in history, when his unfancied Wimbledon side beat
Liverpool to clinch the
1988 FA Cup final at
Wembley. They also finished seventh in the league. Gould is famous for adopting the technique of, as he says, "goal keepers who can kick the ball 90 yards and a 6-foot 2 bloke to head it in!", he said jokingly on
Talksport with
Andy Goldstein. Gould remained with the Dons for two more seasons before quitting to make way for his assistant
Ray Harford. In December 1990, Gould returned to football as assistant manager to
Don Howe at
Queen's Park Rangers – a role reversal of the management team that they had formed at Wimbledon. Gould lasted just two months at
Loftus Road before accepting an offer to become manager of West Bromwich Albion. But he was unable to prevent them from suffering relegation to the old
Third Division at the end of the
1990–91 season – the first time that Albion had slipped to such depths. In
1991–92, Albion just missed out on the playoffs in their first season as a Third Division club and Gould left in June 1992 to join Coventry, his former club. Ironically, Howe was working at Coventry by this time and the pair were joint managers, but Howe stepped down before the season began to leave Gould in sole charge. He remained at Coventry City until October 1993, when he resigned despite defying all the odds and keeping them clear of relegation from the
Premiership. In his first season, they had been fourth in the league as late as January before a late season dip in form saw them finish 15th. Earlier in the season he had paid
Newcastle United £250,000 for striker
Mick Quinn, who was among the top scorers in the first-ever Premier League season with 17 goals. He also oversaw a thrilling 5–1 victory in the league over
Liverpool, and the following season they began with a similarly impressive 3–0 win over
Arsenal at
Highbury.
International management (1995–1999) His next stop was with the
Welsh national team. He became national coach in June 1995 but quit four years later after their failure to qualify for the
1998 FIFA World Cup and
UEFA Euro 2000. Gould was not at all highly regarded by the Welsh fans, following questionable tactics and major fallings out with players such as
Nathan Blake, when Blake refused to play after accusing Gould of making a racist remark in training, as well as
Mark Hughes. Gould also engaged in a wrestling bout with
John Hartson. A comical incident occurred early in the career of
Robbie Savage when Savage jokingly threw a replica of
Paolo Maldini's shirt away on
Sky Sports before a match against Italy. Gould initially dropped Savage from the squad for disrespecting Maldini, only to reinstate him the next day. Gould's final match was a 4–0 defeat to Italy in which he allegedly instructed Mark Hughes "not to tackle the Italians as they'll only dive".
Back to club football (2000–2003) In August 2000, Gould was named as manager of Division Three side
Cardiff City. But two months later he handed over his duties to
Alan Cork and was promoted to the role of general manager. After seeing the Bluebirds win promotion at the end of
2000–01 he left Ninian Park to seek a return to management.
Return to club football Gould was appointed as manager of
Weymouth in the
Conference National on 12 April 2009 for the final five games of the season.{{Cite news ==Personal life==