Bryan Gunn

Club career Aberdeen

Gunn commenced his professional career with Aberdeen in 1980, (signing a week prior to Eric Black who came from the same part of the country) and forged a good relationship with Aberdeen manager Alex Ferguson — evidenced by the fact that in 1997 Ferguson brought Manchester United to Carrow Road for Gunn's testimonial match. He later said, "I probably babysat more than I played". Gunn settled into playing in goal. He made his debut against Hibernian at Pittodrie on 30 October 1982, Despite being rivals for a first-team place, Gunn had an excellent relationship with Leighton that included joining Leighton's family for a meal once a week. and the SFL Reserve Cup in 1984–85 At senior level, he also received Scottish League Cup and European Cup Winners Cup As well as making several key saves, he was credited with playing a part in Aberdeen's second goal following a long kick upfield. The transfer nearly went through in the summer of 1986, but Ferguson delayed the move until October to allow time for Leighton to recover from an injury.

Norwich City

Gunn says of the move south: "Norwich was easy to settle into, a bit like Aberdeen in many ways — a city surrounded by lovely countryside and lots of farms." Ken Brown wanted to be fair to Benstead and made Gunn wait. A 6–2 defeat at Anfield proved to be the catalyst for Gunn's promotion to the first team. He made his debut in a Full Members Cup win against Coventry City, conceding a penalty, and made his league debut in a 2–1 victory against Tottenham Hotspur at Carrow Road on 8 November 1986.

Norwich went on to finish fifth in the First Division in his first season, their highest-ever league finish at the time. The purpose of the proposed transfer was to replace Leighton, who by then had moved to Manchester United, where he was reunited with Alex Ferguson. Gunn made several saves that kept the Canaries in the match. He describes the save he made from Bayern striker Adolfo Valencia as the finest of his career; However, he was involved in an own-goal incident in an East Anglian derby match in the 1995–96 season, when a backpass from Robert Ullathorne bounced awkwardly off the pitch and over Gunn's attempted clearance kick. and had a clean sheet at Celtic Park (stopping them from winning the SPL that day)."

In 1983, Gunn travelled with the Scotland Under-19s to Mexico for the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship. Gunn played in all four of Scotland's matches and it was a formative experience, as he faced a variety of challenges in the tournament. The adidas ball in use "really zipped through the air", which encouraged long-range shots at the high altitude. In the first match, against South Korea, an element of the 26,000 crowd "clearly didn't like us at all ... I got absolutely pelted with coins ... and rotten fruit". The final insult was when he was hit on the back of the neck by a rancid-smelling plastic bag containing rotten fish. Gunn found it "intimidation ... a nightmare" but adopted the strategy of patrolling the edge of his area to stay out of range and had "one of the best games of my life": he kept a clean sheet as Scotland won 2–0. although Gunn believes the true figure was over 100,000. Once more, Gunn was targeted with a variety of missiles, including a bottle of Johnnie Walker, but as Scotland held on to their early 1–0 lead, the fans became disillusioned with their own team and switched to sending a "hail of bottles and coins" on the Mexican players. Scotland lost 1–0 in the quarter-final against Poland.

Gunn made six full international appearances for Scotland, conceding 10 goals. He was a member of the squad for the 1990 FIFA World Cup, but played in none of Scotland's three matches at the tournament, He made his Scotland debut in a pre-tournament friendly match against Egypt, but was at fault for two Egyptian goals, resulting in a 3–1 defeat for Scotland. The embarrassment was made worse by the fact that his parents were watching. Gunn made four appearances for Scotland in 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification matches. After his retirement from playing professional football in 1999,

Over the years, Gunn progressed from hospitality into other corporate positions at Norwich; he acted as sponsorship manager from 1999 to 2006. Manager Peter Grant moved Gunn to the "backroom" sports management side of the business in 2007. Gunn worked in a liaison role in negotiations of possible transfers and loan signings, tasks where he could make use of contacts gained during his playing career. Later in the season, Gunn was promoted to head of player recruitment, while retaining his goalkeeping coach role.

Manager of Norwich City Following the sacking of Roeder as Norwich manager in January 2009, Gunn was asked to take temporary charge of the first team. In an interview with BBC Radio Norfolk, he revealed that he "told the players that they've let people down." In his first match as caretaker manager, he received "a euphoric reception" from the fans, The players were equally supportive: according to Scotland on Sunday, "in the dressing room afterwards, [Norwich] midfielder, Darel Russell, dragged the chairman, Roger Munby, into the shower, and demanded that Gunn be appointed permanently."

Gunn appointed a backroom staff of former Norwich colleagues, making Ian Crook first-team coach and John Deehan chief scout. However, the initial turnaround in form could not be maintained; having lost their last three games of the season, Norwich were relegated from the Championship. Gunn labelled his players as an "embarrassment" after the 4–2 defeat to Charlton Athletic that sealed relegation to League One. Despite relegation to the third tier of English football for the first time in nearly 50 years, writing in Tales from the City, Gunn said of the match "Even going to Charlton on the last day, I thought we could survive... We lost 4-2 and were relegated to the third tier. I was shell-shocked; the emptiest I have ever felt in a sporting or professional context. The directors went on the field to face the fans and to thank them for their support and I had tears in my eyes when I saw Delia and Michael doing that. I told them how sorry I was."

Relegation changed Gunn's mind about taking the Norwich job. He had decided not to continue in the role if Norwich had remained in the Championship, and would have tried to land a job with Norwich that would have allowed more time to be spent with his family. Crook, as first team coach, and former Canary Ian Butterworth, as assistant manager, Over the summer, Gunn signed 12 players, including Australian Michael Theoklitos, a goalkeeper from Melbourne Victory. He then steered the club through a programme of pre-season friendly matches, in which Norwich was unbeaten. For the opening game of the new season, Norwich were to play at home against Colchester United, rivals for the Pride of Anglia. Gunn's team suffered a 7–1 defeat, and Theoklitos, signed by Gunn on a free transfer, was particularly blamed by the press for the scale of the defeat.

As early as during the match itself, fans and the media began to react strongly to the shock of Norwich's worst-ever home defeat. During the first half, after the side had gone 4–0 down, two supporters approached the Norwich bench, appearing to throw their season tickets at Gunn. Media coverage of the match was unsurprisingly negative: the BBC used terms such as "calamitous defending", "Colchester run riot", "dismal", and a "disastrous start"; However, Gunn was sacked by McNally on 14 August 2009, six days after the defeat by Colchester.

—

After football Gunn began work in November 2009 as director of business development for OneStream, part of the Digital Phone Company, based in Great Yarmouth. His role was to "promote their communication and mobile working solutions". In his new role as director of talent recruitment at a sports agency, he is responsible for recruiting young footballers. According to The Daily Telegraph, before her marriage, Susan was "a beauty queen turned lingerie model" who "launched a fashion business". The couple met in Spain, where Susan had a bridal wear company,

The Gunns have had three children: Francesca, Melissa and Angus. On the books as a youth player at Norwich City, in October 2010 he was selected for England under-16s, a full year ahead of the age group. In July 2011, Angus joined Manchester City; he has "sharp reflexes and strong wrists" and an "ambitious streak". before returning to Norwich. Angus also played for the England under-21 football team, but changed his international allegiance in March 2023 so he could play for Scotland.

According to Scotland on Sunday, Gunn suffers from ankylosing spondylitis, "a rheumatic spinal condition", diagnosed in about 1995, "which he controls with medication". Gunn's autobiography—In Where it Hurts—was published in 2006, and includes a foreword by his former manager Alex Ferguson.

Gunn describes the period of Francesca's illness and death and how it caused him to reflect on his career: "We had a charmed life ... then Francesca became ill. There was a game in the autumn of '92 ... that we lost 7–1 at Blackburn. The team stayed in a bleak hotel and it rained endlessly. I just wanted to get back home. With hindsight you think, 'Why the bloody hell was I playing?' Very soon afterwards, Francesca died. She was sleeping between us. I realised what was happening and woke Susan. We cradled Francesca and cried." Gunn played a match for Norwich against Queens Park Rangers at Carrow Road just days after his daughter died; he said of it, "When I ran out, I thought, wow, I could feel the whole stadium was with me. I never thought about packing it in." as the club finished third in the Premiership, its highest ever league position. under the auspices of The Dove Trust. The fund aims to address three issues:

"Equipping local hospitals to be better able to deal with children suffering from the disease on both in-patient and out-patient bases. Providing training for nurses and other staff involved in the care of children with leukaemia over and above that which is available from their employers. To support further research into the causes and cures of leukaemia." the result of his long years of service as player and official for the club. He polled 37% of votes, ahead of Robert Fleck and Iwan Roberts. In response to his achievements with Norwich City and his charitable work, which has benefited the local university, in 2002 Gunn was made Sheriff of Norwich for the year by the City Council.

1993–94

1997–98 Scottish League Cup: 1985–86

Scotland U18 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship: 1982

Footnotes