Grayson: Simon Nicholas (Simon)

1986-1992 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Midfield

Born: Ripon, North Yorkshire: 16-12-1969

Debut v Huddersfield Town (a): 15-0-1987

5’11” 11st 7lb (1987)

Grayson made his League debut as a seventeen year-old when United were hit by a crop of injuries in 1987-1988. A Bedale School pupil, he represented North Yorkshire Schools before joining Leeds as an apprentice in 1986. He played at Wembley in only his fourth game for Leeds, in the Mercantile Credit Centenary competition in April 1988. Unable to force his way into the first team on a regular basis, he joined Leicester City for £50,000 in March 1992, on the same day Ali Mauchlen made the opposite journey on a loan spell. Mauchlen did not get a first team outing and returned to Filbert Street where Grayson featured in the Foxes side beaten 1-0 by Blackburn Rovers in the 1992 Division One Play-offs. Grayson returned to Wembley two years later, as Leicester’s skipper and Player of the Year and led his side to Play-off glory against Derby County. He won a League Cup Winners’ Medal with Leicester in 1997, and was voted the club's player of the season in the same year. After six goals and two hundred and twenty-nine games for Leicester City he was transferred to Aston Villa for £1,350,000 in July 1997. He moved to Blackburn Rovers for £750,000 in July 1999 after two goals and sixty-four games in Villa colours. He found a regular place at Ewood Park but his career stalled due to financial reasons relating to extra fee being payable on a games played basis and although managing forty games in a three year stay and he went on loan to Sheffield Wednesday, in August 2000, playing five games, Stockport County, in January 2001, playing fourteen times, Notts County, in September 2001 scoring once in thirteen games, and Bradford City from February to April 2002, where he got in seven games, all to restrict his games with Rovers, before joining Blackpool permanently in July 2002. He was made Captain at Blackpool and became a regular. He scored three goals in fifty appearances for the Seasiders. Grayson moved into coaching in 2004-05, managing the reserve squad at Bloomfield Road with some success. The fact that the reserve side were winning and playing passing football didn't go unnoticed, and he was named caretaker manager of the first team in November 2005 following Colin Hendry’s departure. After successfully saving Blackpool from relegation that season he was given the job on a permanent basis for the start of the 2006-07 season where he has steered a Blackpool side battling against relegation, in the previous season, to promotion contenders. Grayson retired from playing at the end of the 2005-06 season to focus purely on the managerial side of the game. He had scored six goals in the League in one hundred and twenty-six ppearances, of which fourteen were as a substitute. He scored a further goal from six starts and one game from the bench in the League Cup. He also made ten F.A. Cup appearances and seven starts and two games from the bench in other games without scoring. In late 2006, he led Blackpool to only one defeat in fourteen league games, a sequence that included five wins out of six, resulting in their appearance in the four play-off positions. The run also brought attendances of over 7,000 to Bloomfield Road. This led to his being awarded the League One "Manager of the Month" award for December 2006. On 6th January 2007, he guided Blackpool to the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in seventeen years after beating Aldershot Town 4-2 at Bloomfield Road. They were knocked out by Norwich City, 3-2, after extra time, in a replay at Carrow Road and narrowly missing out on a trip to London to face Chelsea in the last sixteen. On 1st May 2007, Grayson was fined £250 by the FA for remarks made to an official during a match at Rotherham United. Grayson received his second League One "Manager of the Month" award of the 2006-07 season in May 2007. Two days later, on 5th May 2007, Grayson guided Blackpool to a third-place finishing position in League One and a place in the end-of-season play-offs. Blackpool beat Oldham Athletic 5-2 on aggregate over the two legs of the play-off semi-final. They met Yeovil Town in the final at the newly-renovated Wembley Stadium on 27th May 2007 and won 2-0, securing promotion to The Championship. It was their tenth-consecutive victory, a new club record. For the first league game in the Championship, on 11th August 2007, Blackpool travelled to Leicester City, with whom Grayson spent the longest period as a player. Blackpool won by a single goal. This victory, combined with one in the next game at Huddersfield Town in the League Cup on 14th August, extended Blackpool's run of consecutive victories to twelve games. The run was ended four days later with a draw at Bristol City, but their unbeaten record was extended to thirteen games. In October 2007, he guided Blackpool to the fourth round of the League Cup for the first time in thirty-five years, but were finally beaten by Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane. On 21st December 2007, Grayson signed a new two-and-a-half-year contract, keeping him as manager of Blackpool until June 2010. He became Manager of Leeds United on 23rd December 2008 and guided them to promotion to to the Championship as runners-up in League One in 2009-10. He took Leeds to seventh position in 2010-11, but, after a 1-4 home defeat to Birmingham City, he was sacked on 1st February 2012, despite having an almost 50% win record and several of his better players sold. Cricketing brother Paul, who played for Essex, also had trials at Elland Road. His father Adrian was once on York City’s books.