Steve Walford

Stephen James "Steve" Walford (born 5 January 1958 in Highgate, England) is an English former footballer turned manager. Playing as a defender, Walford featured for clubs such as Tottenham Hotspur, Arsenal, Norwich City, West Ham United and West Bromwich Albion in all.

Born in Highgate, London, Walford began playing as a centre half. He started his footballing career at Tottenham Hotspur in 1974, making only two appearances before being signed by Arsenal's former Spurs manager Terry Neill for £25,000 in 1977. Walford came on as a substitute in Arsenal's victorious 1979 FA Cup Final side. He in all made 98 appearances for the Gooners, scoring four goals. In 1981, he moved to Norwich City for £175,000 and stayed there for three years, seeing the club through relegation from and then promotion to the First Division.

After 108 appearances for Norwich, Walford moved on to West Ham United in 1983 for a fee of £160,000; he played 115 times for the Hammers over the next four years. Towards the end of his West Ham career, he had loan spells at Huddersfield Town, Gillingham and West Bromwich Albion. He moved abroad to play for Lai Sun of Hong Kong in 1989 before returning to England to play for Wycombe Wanderers under Martin O'Neill the following year.

After a brief spell at Wealdstone, Walford returned to Wycombe to become O'Neill's assistant, in maintaining a lengthy working partnership with the Northern Irishman ever since working under O'Neill at Norwich City, Leicester City, Celtic, Aston Villa and Sunderland. He joined O'Neill's coaching staff again after he was appointed manager of Republic of Ireland national football team on 5 November 2013. On 18 September 2015, he returned to club football after being appointed as the Assistant Manager to Neil Lennon at Bolton Wanderers, replacing Johan Mjallby who left for personal reasons. He lasted just seven months in his role at Bolton and on 14 April 2016 left the club along with Garry Parker following the club's relegation from the Championship.

Player

• FA Cup: 1979

Coach

• Football League First Division Play-offs (1): 1995–96
• League Cup (2): 1996-97, 1999-2000

• Scottish Premier League (3): 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04
• Scottish Cup (3): 2000-01, 2003-04, 2004-05
• Scottish League Cup (1): 2000–01