Jesse Carver

27th June 1955 – 31st December 1955

It was a major shock in the football world when Coventry City unveiled Jesse Carver as their new manager in January 1955. Carver was a highly rated coach in Italy at the time and many wondered why he chose to manage an English Division 3 side. Since Jack Fairbrother’s resignation the previous October chief scout Charlie Elliott had been the caretaker manager, and he continued to hold the reins until Carver arrived from his previous job with AS Roma.

Jesse Carver was born in Liverpool in 1911. He joined Blackburn as a 18-year old groundstaff boy and spent seven years at Ewood Park becoming the first choice centre-half in 1931 abd playing almost 150 games for the Division One side. Although under six foot and short for a stopper his strong tackling and intelligent reading of the game mpre than made up for his lack of inches. In 1936 he joined Newcastle for £2,000, making 76 appearances in the three seasons leading up to World War 2. and later Bury. Played at centre-half or wing-half. Captain of Bury reserve side & enjoyed shouting instructions and helping young players. During the war he served with the police force. After the war he became assistant trainer at Huddersfield and he began to realise that he had more talent as a coach than as a player. He successfully applied to coach Dutch club Xerxes in Rotterdam. He built his training routines around using the ball, instead of boring repetitive lapping and Xerxes flourished and headed the championship and he was asked to coach the national team, a position he held for two years including the 1948 Olympic Games in London.

After one season coaching at Millwall he was appointed trainer to the England ‘B’ team on the successful 1949 tour of Holland & Finland. A job at the FA looked likely but as the FA hesitated Juventus jumped in and offered him the coach’s job. He led Juve to the championship in his first season.

Jesse still wanted to prove himself in England however and in the Summer of 1952 he was persuaded to return to coach West Brom and had an immediate impact with the team playing attacking football and up amongst the league leaders. With the manager’s chair empty Carver wasn’t offered the job despite his success & in early 1953 Torino lured him back to Italy & he saved the famous club from relegation.

He only stayed at Torino a year before moving to AS Roma. His salary at Roma was £5,000; he and his wife had an apartment in the Via Archemedes, where his neighbours included ex-King Farouk and Ingrid Bergman. Several English First Division clubs coveted him but in early 1955 Coventry tempted him with a salary close to £100 per week (at a time when most players were earning £15). But perhaps the challenge at Coventry was more compelling than the lure of the chequebook.

Football writer Brian Glanville who was close to Jesse in Italy revealed in recent years that months after accepting the Coventry job Carver was offered the England manager’s job but turned it down because he had given his word to City chairman Erle Shanks. The FA were prepared to sack Walter Winterbottom to make the position his.

Carver arrived in Coventry with a tan that complemented his man about town personality and with his tailored light grey suits and camel coat he looked more like a Hollywood film mogul than a football manager. He warned supporters not too expect too much but his words went unheeded – promotion talk was, as always, in the air.

His innovations were far-reaching, from wooden shoes and bathrobes for the players to prevent them catching cold whilst getting out of the showers to made to measure lightweight continental boots for all the players. He also bought 40 footballs, one for each player on the staff as he expected them to practice their ball skills at all times.

He also brought from Italy former Swedish national coach George Raynor as his number two, another man with an outstanding reputation on the continent.

Over 24,000 fans were at the opening day win over Bournemouth and the football was slick and exciting. At home Carver’s team were unbeatable but away from home they struggled for results and promotion hopes looked slim. Throughout the autumn rumours persisted of a move back to Italy but these were quashed by chairman Shanks.

By now it had become apparent that Carver and Raynor’s continental style was not quite enough to win promotion amidst the hurly-burly of the Third Division and Carver re-shaped his approach. In December he bought Ken McPherson from Middlesbrough, a big bustling centre-forward and the team won five games on the trot culminating in a 5-1 thrashing of Millwall in front of a crowd of 30,000.

But there was another major story brewing. Behind the scenes Carver had made it clear to Shanks – he wanted to leave. The Midlands didn’t suit his wife’s health and he made an urgent request to be released from his three-year contract. The board reluctantly agreed and Carver left the club on New Years Eve. He denied that there were any other offers for his services but within hours of him returning to Italy on 3rd January Internazionale announced he would be their new manager.

City released him on the understanding that he didn’t work in England during the remaining period of his Coventry contract. He did return to a coaching job at Tottenham in 1958 but failed to settle and later he moved to Portugal. After a spell in the USA he retired to England in the late 1960s. He died in Bournemouth in 2003.

One of soccer’s many ‘rolling stones’

Joined: 27th June 1955
First game: 20th August 1955 v Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, home, Third Division South, won 3-1

Left: 31st December 1955
Last game: 31st December 1955 v Colchester United, away, Third Division South, lost 0-2

28 games as manager

	Lge	Pl	W	D	L	F	A	Pts	Win %	Pos
1955-56	Div 3 S	27	14	4	9	47	33	32	51.8	7th
Totals		27	14	4	9	47	33	32	51.8

FA Cup: 1 game (loss)