Guðjón Þórðarson

Guðjón Þórðarson (born 14 September 1955) is an Icelandic footballer manager and former player.

He has previously been manager of Iceland, Icelandic clubs ÍA, KA, KR, Keflavík, BÍ/Bolungarvík and Grindavík, English clubs Notts County, Stoke City, Barnsley and Crewe Alexandra, Norwegian club Start and Faroese club NSÍ Runavík.

Guðjón has three sons who have also played professional football, namely: Bjarni, Joey and Þórður Guðjónsson.

His grandson Ísak Bergmann Jóhannesson is a current professional player.

Guðjón played 212 league matches for his hometown club, ÍA Akranes.

In his career, Gudjon won five league titles and five cup titles.

He also played 22 European games for ÍA Akranes.

Guðjón played in his only international match in 1985.

Guðjón's last season as a player was 1986 and his first coaching job was at ÍA Akranes in the 1987 season.

Guðjón then left off to Akureyri to become manager of KA Akureyri in 1988.

The team won its first and only league title surprisingly in 1989.

That has to be known as a big achievement for Guðjón given the players he had in his squad.

After being relegated in 1990, ÍA Akranes appointed Guðjón as manager.

The team was promoted at first attempt, and subsequently won the Icelandic league the following year, in 1992.

The team dominated Icelandic football the next few years and became league champions of Iceland for five years running, 1992–1996.

KR Reykjavik, Iceland's oldest and most successful club, appointed Guðjón after the 1993 season.

The team had not won the Icelandic league for more than 20 years and Guðjón was seen as the right man to win the title.

He did not win the league in his two-year stint at the club, but the team did however win the Icelandic Cup on both occasions 1994 and 1995.

Guðjón came back to Akranes after his spell at KR and guided the team to win the Icelandic league and the Cup in 1996.

After the season, actually late in November 1996 ÍA Akranes terminated his contract.

But Guðjón wasn't out of a job for too long.

In June 1997 he took charge of the Iceland national team.

Guðjón was successful as manager of the Iceland national team.

During the three years he was in charge, the team played 24 games, winning ten of them, drawing four and losing eight.

The team scored 35 goals in the process, conceding 23.

Guðjón became Stoke City manager in November 1999, when he joined the club following the successful acquisition of the club by a group of Icelandic businessmen headed by Gunnar Gíslason.

They decided to bring in their own man to replace the existing manager Gary Megson.

Guðjón brought in a number of his fellow countrymen to the club with the arrival of Einar Daníelsson, Sigursteinn Gíslason, Brynjar Gunnarsson and his son Bjarni Guðjónsson.

He got off to a perfect start as Stoke manager as his side beat Wycombe Wanderers 4–0 on 23 November 1999.

Good results continued as more Scandinavian players arrived at the club such as Frode Kippe, Mikael Hansson and Arnar Gunnlaugsson.

The team was close to qualifying to the European Championship in 2000, despite being placed in a strong qualifying group alongside Ukraine, Russia and current world champions France.

The game that took place at Stade de France was one that put Icelandic football to a higher standard.

After being 2–0 down at half time, to come back too 2–2, and closely losing in additional time 3–2.

Stoke also reached the 2000 Football League Trophy Final where they faced Bristol City in front of 75,057 at Wembley.

Goals from Graham Kavanagh and Peter Thorne earned Stoke a 2–1 victory.

In the league Stoke finished in sixth position reaching the play-offs where they faced Gillingham.

Stoke won the first leg 3–2 but two controversial refereeing decisions cost Stoke dearly and they lost the second leg 3–0.

In 2000–01 Guðjón was again busy bringing in Icelandic players with Ríkharður Daðason, Stefán Þórðarson, Birkir Kristinsson and Danish defender Henrik Risom all agreeing to move to Stoke-on-Trent.

Results were often inconsistent meaning automatic promotion was not possible and Stoke made it into the play-offs.

They faced Walsall who, after a 0–0 draw in the first leg, beat Stoke 4–2, meaning that Stoke faced a fourth season in the third tier.