Gordon Milne & Joe Mercer
The M Men
Following the departure of Noel Cantwell during the 1971-72 season and Bob Dennison taking over as caretaker manager for the remainder of the season Gordon Milne and Joe Mercer were appointed as joint managers in June 1972. Joe took the role as General Manager and Gordon was team boss. They were great appointments with Joe taking Gordon under his wing following Joe’s success at Manchester City leading them to the First and Second Division titles, FA Cup and League Cup Final victories along with a European Cup Winners Cup in 1970.
Gordon was part of the Liverpool side of the 1960s and in the 1966 England World Cup squad. He went on to play for Blackpool alongside his future Sky Blues signings Tommy Hutchison, John Craven and Neil Ramsbottom. In 1970 he joined non league Wigan Athletic and guided them to a league title and an FA Cup run that ended with a narrow defeat at Joe’s Manchester City.
The offer from Sky Blues Chairman Derrick Robins was too good to turn down and the season 1972-73 would see an FA Cup quarter final appearance and some signing that would bring entertainment back to Highfield Road. Gordon took over full control in 1974 when Joe joined the City board and remained at Highfield Road as ‘gaffer’ til moving to Leicester City in 1981. He went on to continued managerial distinction until the late 1990s in the UK, Japan and Turkey. Joe retired from the CCFC Board in 1981 and died in 1990 age 76.
Gordon (a long time CCFPA member) has returned to see us in Coventry a number of times in recent years. His Managerial record (from Wikipedia) is reproduced below. :-
Managerial statistics
Thanks to former CCFPA committee member Dean Nelson for sourcing the images.
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