Chic Bates

Philip Desmond "Chic" Bates (28 November 1949 – 13 May 2025) was an English football player and manager.

Bates played non-league football with Stourbridge before becoming a professional with Shrewsbury Town in 1974. He had a fine debut season scoring 17 goals as the "Shrews" gained promotion to the Third Division. He continued to perform well and in 1977 he joined Swindon Town where he spent two years before joining Bristol Rovers. After a year at Rovers he re-joined Shrewsbury Town and in 1984 he became player manager.

He left in 1987 to become assistant manager to Lou Macari at Swindon Town and followed Macari to Stoke City and Celtic and back to Stoke. After Macari left Stoke in May 1997, Bates was appointed as manager and despite a decent start Stoke's form fell away and with the side destined for relegation he was sacked in January 1998. He returned to Shrewsbury and had two spells as caretaker manager.

Playing career Bates was born in West Bromwich began his career with non-league Stourbridge before joining Shrewsbury Town in 1974.

Bates died on 13 May 2025, at the age of 75, following complications of Alzheimer's and frontotemporal dementia.

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