Paul Groves

Scunthorpe United Groves joined Scunthorpe United on a one-month loan on 27 February 2004 following the appointment of Nicky Law at Grimsby. Whilst there he scored the 100th league goal of his career, scoring twice in a 3–1 win at York City. He was described as "inspirational" by Scunthorpe manager Brian Laws. He signed for Scunthorpe on a permanent contract until the end of the 2003–04 season on 30 March after reaching a settlement on the remainder of his Grimsby contract.

York City Groves signed a one-year contract with York City, who had recently been relegated to the Conference National, in June 2004 along with former Grimsby teammate Kevin Donovan. After one season with York, Groves left the club.

Stafford Rangers In the summer of 2005, he was appointed player-assistant manager when he signed for Conference North side Stafford Rangers. He brought his 19-year playing career to a close in May 2006 after helping them to promotion to the Conference National after making 32 appearances and scoring five goals in the 2005–06 season.

Management and coaching career

Grimsby Town Groves who at the time was the club captain at Grimsby Town was installed as the player/caretaker manager at the club following the sacking of Lennie Lawrence and long serving assistant manager John Cockerill. A week later in December 2001 he was installed as full-time player-manager of Grimsby. At the time of his appointment the club were and had been in the second tier of English football since 1998 and were heading into a third successive relegation battle despite the fact the club had briefly topped the table in September. He brought back former player Graham Rodger as his assistant and bolstered his side with several good loan signings, including Charlton Athletic duo Andy Todd and Martin Pringle. Groves managed to steer the club to safety and secured Town's place within what is now the Football League Championship for another year. The 2002–03 season was not as successful: the club was eventually relegated. A poor start to the 2003–04 season saw Groves sacked from his managerial duties in February 2004 but remarkably he was kept on as a player until the end of the season but found himself farmed out to local rivals Scunthorpe United on loan by his replacement Nicky Law. He left Grimsby during the summer of 2004 and signed for York City as a player.

Portsmouth In July 2006, he joined the coaching staff at Portsmouth under Harry Redknapp. He was appointed as caretaker manager at Portsmouth alongside Ian Woan on 24 November 2009 after Paul Hart left the club, before the appointment of Avram Grant two days later on 26 November. He remained at Pompey under Grant.

West Ham United In July 2010, Groves joined West Ham United as senior coach working under manager Avram Grant having previously worked under him at Portsmouth, but he parted company with the club on 24 June 2011 weeks after the dismissal of Avram Grant.

AFC Bournemouth Groves became youth team manager of AFC Bournemouth in July 2011. On 25 March 2012, following the dismissal of Lee Bradbury, he became joint-caretaker manager of Bournemouth with head of youth Shaun Brooks, until the end of the 2011–12 season. In May 2012, despite having won only two of his eight games as caretaker manager, Groves was appointed as manager on a permanent basis, to the upset of a number of fans, who had called for an experienced candidate. Groves and assistant Shaun Brooks parted company with Bournemouth on 3 October 2012 after only one win in the new season. Two weeks later both Groves and Brooks were re-appointed to their previous roles at the club with Groves once again becoming youth team manager. He left Bournemouth in January 2014.

Other positions In June 2014, Groves joined Crawley Town as a first-team coach. Groves left Crawley in May 2015. In July 2015, he was appointed Academy manager at Bristol City. In March 2017 he joined Northern Premier League side Mickleover Sports as Assistant Manager. On 20 April 2017 new Birmingham City manager Harry Redknapp appointed Groves as first-team coach, reuniting the pair whom had worked together at Portsmouth. He remained with the club under Redknapp's successor, Steve Cotterill, but left when Cotterill was sacked in March 2018 with the team in the relegation zone.

On 9 July he was named as John Gregory's assistant for Indian Super League side Chennaiyin FC. In June 2019, he was appointed assistant manager at Maccabi Haifa, remaining in the position until he accepted the manager's role at Gloucester.

Gloucester City On 8 December 2020, Groves joined National League North side Gloucester City as first team manager. The 2020–21 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic on 18 February 2021, at the time Gloucester were top of the league and were five points clear after eighteen games, the cancellation meant that Gloucester would not be able to carry the season on in hope of promotion.

On 25 September 2021, following a 3–0 defeat to Gateshead, Groves was sacked by the club.

Return to coaching Following his departure from Gloucester, Groves returned to Mickleover as a first team coach.

In August 2022, Groves moved to Indian Super League club NorthEast United as an assistant to Israeli head coach Marco Balbul. In October 2025, he made a fresh return to the coaching staff at Mickleover.

Managerial statistics + Managerial record by team and tenure

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Grimsby Town Football League Second Division play-offs: 1998 Football League Trophy: 1997–98

Stafford Rangers Conference North: 2005–06

Individual PFA Team of the Year: 1991–92 Fourth Division, 1997–98 Second Division Grimsby Town Player of the Year: 1998–99