Theo Foley

Theo Foley (2 April 1937 – 26 June 2020) was an Irish association footballer and football manager/coach.

He was born in Inchicore, Dublin, Ireland.

Playing career

During his footballing career, he played as a defender for Home Farm, Exeter City, Northampton Town and Charlton Athletic.

He also appeared nine times for the Republic of Ireland.

In May 1990 when Graham changed his managerial staff, he appointed Stewart Houston as his number two. Rather than take the reserve team managers job, Foley left Arsenal to manage Northampton Town where he remained for two years.

In April 1993 he became youth team coach at Fulham. He was assistant manager at Southend United from June 1994 until he was dismissed on 10 February 1997. In the summer of 1997, he joined Leeds United to become a scout under George Graham. In July 1998 he became Reserve Team Coach at Tottenham Hotspur, linking up with Graham again three months later when the latter became Spurs manager. Foley remained at the club even after the sackings of both Graham and Stewart Houston in March 2001. However he was made redundant along with several other coaching staff members in July 2003 by Enic in a cost cutting exercise. He did some scouting for Wolves for a time. After this he went into retirement though he was a matchday host for Charlton and in retirement watched Millwall and Arsenal.

Author

In October 2018, Foley published his autobiography "Theo Give Us A Ball" which he wrote with his son Paul.

Death Theo Foley died on 26 June 2020, aged 83.