Richard Shaw (footballer)

Richard Edward Shaw (born 11 September 1968) is an English football coach and former professional footballer, who is under-23s coach at Championship side Watford.

As a player, he was a defender from 1986 until 2008, notably in the Premier League for Crystal Palace and Coventry City as well as in the Football League for both Hull City and Millwall.

He later became a coach and joined the coaching staff at Millwall where he saw time as caretaker manager in 2007. He later returned to Coventry in 2012 as assistant manager where he also took over temporarily. The following season he re-joined Palace as their under-23 side coach from 2013 in a role he held until 2019. In 2021 Shaw became assistant coach for Watford's under-23s.

Shaw started his career at Crystal Palace, coming up through their youth system. He enjoyed a brief loan spell to Hull City before becoming a major part of the first team, playing in the 1990 FA Cup final. Crystal Palace were a yo-yo-club at the time after a promising start to the 1990s, where they also finished third in the league a year after reaching the FA Cup final. They were relegated in 1993, promoted in 1994 and relegated again in 1995, with Shaw being established as a regular player by the time they were in this period of instability. They also reached a further two League Cup semi-finals and an FA Cup semi-final in the five seasons which followed their FA Cup final appearance.

One of his more infamous moments in a Palace shirt came in January 1995, during the Eagles' home fixture against Manchester United. United midfielder Eric Cantona attempted to get on the end of a long clearance by Peter Schmeichel and was obstructed by Shaw, who had very effectively marked him out of the game. The Frenchman retaliated by kicking Shaw and was sent off. On his way from the pitch Cantona launched a 'kung-fu' style kick against a Crystal Palace fan, Matthew Simmons, followed by a series of punches.^[3] The event has become a famous part of English football's history for the wrong reasons.

Despite Shaw's best efforts throughout the season (for which he was named "Player of the Year"), Palace were relegated back to Division One. They had reached the semi-finals of both cups that season.

Shaw began the 1995–96 season still with Palace in Division One, but he signed for Coventry City in November 1995 for £1m. He performed consistently well for Coventry over 10 years, making over 350 appearances and scored his first and only goal for Coventry after over 250 games against Gillingham in May 2004.^[4] He won the "Player of the Year" award at the club in 1998/99 and the "Players' Player of the Year" award in 2002/03. Having spent a decade at Coventry where he had gained much respect from the fans, his testimonial match against Celtic in April 2006 was a big success, with the Sky Blues ending as 3–1 winners over the Scottish champions,^[5] before he was released at the end of that season.

He then moved back to south London, signing for League One side Millwall. He made himself an ever-present in the side over the next season, winning the club's "Player of the Year" award in the process, the third club at which he had won this accolade.

Whilst at Crystal Palace Shaw was called up to the England squad by Terry Venables as cover for the Umbro Cup in 1995.^[6] However, he was ultimately never capped by the senior side.

In October 2007, while still a player, Shaw was appointed caretaker manager of Millwall after the sacking of Willie Donachie.^[7] The club appointed Kenny Jackett as manager on 6 November 2007, after which Shaw played very little.^[8] Approaching his 40th birthday, he retired at the end of the 2007–08 season and took up a coaching role with the South London club.

Prior to the start of the 2012–13 season, Shaw left Millwall to take up the assistant manager's position at his previous club Coventry City, working under his former Crystal Palace teammate Andy Thorn. The Midlands side had removed their previous assistant manager Steve Harrison following the club's relegation from the Championship.^[9] After the club drew their opening three games of the League One season, Thorn was sacked and Shaw was appointed caretaker manager, working alongside first-team coach Lee Carsley.^[10] His first game in charge saw Coventry defeat local rivals Birmingham City 3–2 in the League Cup.^[11] At this time Shaw succeeded in reaching the final shortlist for the permanent manager's post alongside Mark Robins and Paul Ince.^[12] Shaw managed five further Coventry matches, winning a Football League Trophy tie against Burton Albion on penalties, but losing four consecutive league games. On 19 September, the day after the last of those matches, a 4–1 defeat at recently promoted Shrewsbury Town, Robins was appointed permanent manager of Coventry.^[13][14] Shaw returned to his position of assistant manager, but Steve Taylor, Robins's colleague at Barnsley and Rotherham, was appointed first-team coach and Shaw's contract was ultimately terminated 27 days after the appointment of the new manager.^[15][16][17]

By January 2013, Shaw was an under-23 coach at Crystal Palace.^[18] In October 2019, the club issued a statement announcing that Shaw was to leave "to pursue other opportunities".^[19] Shaw joined Watford in January 2021, working as under-23 assistant coach under Omer Riza.^[20]

Crystal Palace

• Football League Second Division/Football League First Division : 1994–95
• Football League Second Division/Football League First Division :Play-off Winner 1988–89
• Full Members Cup : 1990–91
• FA Cup : Finalist 1989–90

• Crystal Palace Young Player of the Year: 1986
• Crystal Palace Player of the Year :1994–95
• Coventry City Player of the Year 1998–99 & 2001–02
• Coventry City Hall of Fame^[21]
• Millwall Player of the Year 2006–07

Richard Shaw is the founder and co owner of Tornado football.^[22]

Source: Richard Shaw at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)

• Richard Shaw at Soccerbase