William Reid (born 18 July 1963) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player who recently was assistant manager to Graham Potter at Chelsea.
Reid played for Queen of the South, Clyde, Hamilton Academical and Stirling Albion during the 1980s and 1990s. After a spell as caretaker manager of Clyde in 2002, he was appointed manager in 2004. After one season as Clyde manager, Reid was appointed manager of Hamilton. The club won promotion to the Scottish Premier League in 2008, when Reid also won the PFA Scotland Manager of the Year award. Despite being relegated in 2011, Reid continued as Hamilton manager until April 2013. In November 2013, he moved to Swedish club Östersund as an assistant coach.
Playing career
In his playing days Reid started off at Dumfries club, Queen of the South where he was signed by Nobby Clark.[2] Reid was later remembered by teammate Tommy Bryce as one of the best players at the club.[2] The three were part of Queen's 1985–86 Scottish Second Division promotion success. It was at Queens where Reid gave his longest service as a player.
Reid began his managerial career in 2002 with a caretaker appointment at a club he had played for, Scottish First Division club Clyde. This was in between the departure of Allan Maitland and the appointment of Alan Kernaghan. He took over the Bully Wee on a permanent basis in July 2004 following Kernaghan's two-year spell in charge. Reid took the club to third place in the 2004–05 Scottish First Division in his only season in charge.[1]
After leading Hamilton to an impressive seventh-place finish in the Scottish Premier League in 2009–10, Reid was linked with a move to a number of clubs[4] including Swansea City, but rejected their approach claiming to have unfinished business with Hamilton.[5][6] Hamilton were relegated from the top flight in 2011.[7] Reid left Hamilton by mutual consent on 3 April 2013, after more than seven years in the job.[8]
Reid was appointed assistant manager at Swansea City on 11 June 2018, again working with Graham Potter.[11] Swansea finished in 10th place in their first season back in the Championship after relegation from the Premier League.[12] The Swans made the quarter final of the FA Cup controversially losing to Manchester City.[13]
Brighton & Hove Albion
Potter was appointed as the new Brighton & Hove Albion manager on 20 May 2019 where Reid, coach Bjorn Hamberg and head of recruitment Kyle Macaulay moved to the Sussex club alongside Potter.[14] Reid was set to take charge of Brighton's away fixture at Leicester City on 23 January 2022, due to Potter testing positive for Covid–19. However, Reid himself later tested positive meaning first team coach Björn Hamberg had to take charge of the 1–1 draw.[15][16]
Chelsea
In September 2022,[17] Reid moved to Chelsea from Brighton as Potter's assistant coach,[18] along with attacking coach Bruno Saltor Grau, defensive coach Bjorn Hamberg, and goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts.[17][19] Just over 6 months in, after a sustained run of poor results, Reid left Chelsea along with Potter.[20][21]
Personal life
His son, Billy Jnr, was also a footballer, who played for Clyde.