Lennie Lawrence, born Robin Michael Lawrence on 12 December 1947, was the Director of Football at Bristol Rovers between 2006 and 2010. Rovers were originally looking for a new manager following the departure of Ian Atkins, but Lawrence convinced the board that a continental-style two-tier management structure would be in the best interests of the club, and he was awarded the Director of Football position with caretaker manager Paul Trollope as the new First-Team Coach.
The explanation of the roles of Lawrence and Trollope has been given by the club. Trollope is in charge of team selection and tactics, but everything else is overseen by Lawrence. Over time more of the management responsibilities were handed to Trollope, resulting in his job title changing to Manager in 2009, and at the end of the 2009-10 season it was felt that Lawrence's input was no longer required and he left the club.
Career[]
Lennie is an unusual figure in modern football management in that he has never played the game professionally. He played on the non-league circuit for Croydon, Carshalton Athletic and Sutton United, but never made it into the Football League as a player.
His managerial career started at Plymouth Argyle, where he was appointed caretaker manager for five games in 1978. He took a coaching role at Lincoln City before moving to Charlton Athletic as the reserve team manager. In 1982 he was promoted to first team manager, for his first permanent managerial job. He stayed in place at Charlton for nearly nine years before heading north to become manager of Middlesbrough. He went on to manage at Bradford City, Luton Town, Grimsby Town and Cardiff City before moving away from management to work as a consultant for Cardiff and Director of Football at Rovers.
After being let go by Rovers Lennie took up a football consultancy role with his former club Carshalton Athletic, before being appointed as technical director at Hereford United in December 2010.
- Managerial stats, as at 20 June 2009
| From | To | Club | Pld | W | D | L | % Won |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 February 1978 | 16 March 1978 |  Plymouth Argyle |
5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 22 November 1982 | 10 July 1991 | Charlton Athletic |
393 | 120 | 109 | 164 | 30.5 |
| 10 July 1991 | 19 May 1994 | Middlesbrough |
157 | 61 | 43 | 53 | 38.9 |
| 25 May 1994 | 27 November 1995 | Bradford City |
77 | 29 | 20 | 28 | 37.7 |
| 21 December 1995 | 4 July 2000 | Luton Town |
248 | 89 | 66 | 93 | 36.6 |
| 29 August 2000 | 28 December 2001 | Grimsby Town |
77 | 22 | 19 | 36 | 28.6 |
| 18 February 2002 | 25 May 2005 |  Cardiff City |
174 | 72 | 50 | 52 | 41.4 |