Shortly after announcing his retirement, Burkinshaw moved to
Zambia where he coached for a few months before returning to England as first team coach of
Newcastle United. He was sacked by Newcastle on 1 May 1975 and joined
Tottenham Hotspur as coach a month later. He became manager after
Terry Neill left as manager for Arsenal in 1976. He was manager from 14 July 1976 to 31 May 1984, and he won more major competitions at the club than all but one other Spurs manager (that being
Bill Nicholson). Spurs were relegated in Burkinshaw's first year in charge but bounced straight back for promotion the following year. He signed two Argentine
World Cup stars,
Osvaldo Ardiles and
Ricardo Villa, in 1978. It was considered a brave move but Ardiles would become one of the Spurs greats and Villa would score one of the greatest goals ever seen at
Wembley in the
1981 FA Cup Final replay. Burkinshaw's Spurs, with Ardiles, Villa and
Glenn Hoddle, won two successive
FA Cups. In his final game in charge, Spurs won the
UEFA Cup for a second time after a penalty shoot-out after the second leg at
White Hart Lane. In doing so, they beat an
Anderlecht team that included the future Spurs Sporting Director
Frank Arnesen. On leaving White Hart Lane for the last time, brought about by a disagreement with the board, he was said to have remarked: "There used to be a football club over there" (actually a misattribution – it was written by journalist Ken Jones who mentioned to Burkinshaw as he was leaving the club the Frank Sinatra's song "
There Used to Be a Ballpark", said to be about the demolition of
Ebbets Field, and Burkinshaw nodded in agreement.) In June 1984 he was appointed as coach to the
Bahrain national side. He left that role in July 1986. Burkinshaw later managed
Sporting Clube de Portugal until he was sacked in February 1988. In October 1988 he returned to England as manager of
Gillingham, but resigned in April 1989 with the team on the verge of relegation to
Division Four. Burkinshaw took charge of big-spending Malaysian state team
Pahang between late April and July 1991, leading them to the top of the league table before departing for Swindon Town. Burkinshaw was later Chief Scout for
Glenn Hoddle and Ossie Ardiles at
Swindon Town and in May 1992 became assistant to Ardiles at
West Bromwich Albion. When Ardiles moved to manage Tottenham in the summer of 1993, Burkinshaw was promoted to Albion manager. His career as Albion manager lasted just one season (
1993–94) and he was sacked after they narrowly avoided relegation back to Division Two. He was later Director of Football at
Aberdeen before briefly taking charge as caretaker-manager at Pittodrie when
Roy Aitken was sacked in 1997, he left when
Alex Miller was appointed as the club's new manager. In March 2005 Burkinshaw was appointed assistant manager at
Watford. He left this position in December 2007 due to a serious family illness, having helped the club reach promotion to the
Premier League in 2006. ==Honours==