Darren Moore

Darren Moore
Darren Mark Moore (born 22 April 1974) is a professional football manager and former player who played as a centre-back. He is the current manager of EFL Championship club Huddersfield Town.
Born in England, he earned two international caps for Jamaica. Moore is also a member of the management committee of the Professional Footballers' Association. As a player, he represented Torquay United, Doncaster Rovers, Bradford City, Portsmouth, Derby County, Barnsley and Burton Albion. He also played for West Bromwich Albion, going on to serve as their manager between 2018 and 2019.
Early life
Moore was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, and attended James Watt Primary School and Holyhead Secondary, both in Handsworth. He played for Holly Lane Colts and in 1989 had a trial with Walsall.
Club career
Torquay United
He began his football career as a trainee with Torquay United in June 1990, and made his debut while still a trainee on 24 March 1992, in a 2–1 defeat at home to Birmingham City. He turned professional in November 1992. Moore began the following season as first choice in the centre of defence, alongside Wes Saunders and went on to play over 100 league games for Torquay before leaving to join Doncaster Rovers for a fee of £62,500 in July 1995.
Doncaster Rovers
Moore arrived at Doncaster with Torquay teammates Scott Colcombe and Duane Darby. He appeared in the first game of the season, a home victory against Scarborough om 12 August. His first goal came in a draw at Barnet on 4 November that season. Altogether Moore played 84 games and scored 8 goals in his two seasons at Belle Vue.
His time at Doncaster wasn't easy as the club at that time was in the grip of owner Ken Richardson, who had been charged with attempting to burn the main stand down, something that had happened only days before Moore had arrived at the club. Financially the club was in dire straits and worse, Kerry Dixon, the manager, had said Richardson was picking the team not him. On the back of this, on 4 June 1997 he left for Bradford City for a fee of £310,000.
Bradford City
He played 18 times during his first season with injuries limiting his starts. But in 1998–99 he started 44 games helping City to promotion into the Premier League for the first time. During the summer he refused to sign a new contract and fell out of favour with manager Paul Jewell. He played just once more for Bradford, in the League Cup against Reading.
Portsmouth
Portsmouth snatched his services from a collection of other suitors, for a fee of £500,000, in November 1999. He spent less than two years at Fratton Park before returning to the West Midlands with West Bromwich Albion for a fee of £750,000 on 14 September 2001.
West Bromwich Albion
The following day he made his Albion debut, as a second-half substitute in a 2–1 win at Watford. Moore proved to be a rock at the heart of the Baggies defence as they earned promotion to the Premier League in 2001–02, and was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the First Division. After Albion were relegated from the top flight, he helped them bounce back at the first attempt, figuring in the promotion winning side of 2003–04.
Moore struggled to hold down a regular first team place during the first half of the 2005–06 season. He was sent off in the match against Wigan Athletic on 15 January 2006, his only dismissal in over 100 games for Albion. It proved to be his last game for the club, and later that month he was signed for Derby County by Phil Brown for a fee of £300,000, rising to £500,000 depending on appearances.
Derby County
Moore was a pivotal figure in the 2006–07 Derby side that clinched promotion back to the Premier League after a five-year absence by winning the Championship play-off final 1–0 against his former club West Brom. This was the fourth time he had been part of a squad which won promotion to the Premier League, following on from his successes at West Brom (twice) and Bradford. His form that year led to him being named in the PFA Team of the Year for the 2006–07 Championship. In the 2007–08 Premiership season, Derby were relegated as the bottom club, although Moore was awarded the club's internal Player of the Season award. Following the club's relegation, manager Paul Jewell allowed Moore to talk to his former club Bradford City, who were managed by his former teammates Stuart McCall and Wayne Jacobs as assistant. However, Bradford City decided not to pursue their interest in Moore, instead opting to sign Graeme Lee.
Barnsley
Moore signed for Barnsley on 2 July 2008. Barnsley manager Simon Davey said they beat off competition from several sides to land the experienced defender. He scored his first goal for the club on 1 November 2008, with a header in a 3–1 win against Charlton Athletic. He scored his second goal for the club on 17 April 2010 against Swansea City. On 2 May 2010, after the West Bromwich Albion game, Moore was released by Barnsley.
Burton Albion
Moore signed for Burton Albion on 7 May 2010, days after his release from Barnsley, rejecting offers from higher-level clubs. On 3 August 2010, he was announced as the club's new captain, replacing Darren Stride. Moore left the club on 7 February 2012. He then played for a while for Wellington Amateurs, before returning to his old club West Brom, employed as a youth coach.
International career
Moore made two appearances for the Jamaica national team from 1999 to 2000.
Managerial career
West Bromwich Albion
On 2 April 2018, West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew, was dismissed from his post after a run of poor results, leaving them bottom of the Premier League and ten points from safety. Moore was then appointed as caretaker manager, taking charge of all current first team affairs until the end of the season. This made him the first ever Jamaican to manage in the Premier League. Under his leadership, West Brom went undefeated in April, a run that included a 1–0 away win against Manchester United – handing the league title to United's arch-rivals Manchester City, in part earning Moore the Premier League Manager of the Month honour. Following the award for this achievement Moore gathered his entire staff to join in with the photograph, he believed that this was a fitting illustration to show the importance of each individual working together to succeed. However, West Brom were relegated from the Premier League later that day following Southampton's win against Swansea City, ending the club's eight-year tenure in the top-flight.
On 18 May 2018, Moore was appointed as the permanent head coach of West Bromwich Albion, after impressing during his caretaker spell with the Baggies. Moore then led the team to fourth in the Championship with the club still in with a chance of automatic promotion to the Premier League, but this was cut short with his surprise sacking with only ten games remaining of the regular season. The Club appointed James Shan to temporarily replace Moore in caretaker charge, leading them to defeat in the play-off semi-finals against eventual winners Aston Villa. Slaven Bilić was appointed as Moore's permanent successor in June 2019.
Doncaster Rovers
Moore returned to management during the summer, after agreeing to replace Grant McCann as the manager of League One side Doncaster Rovers. Moore's reign in charge began well, as they maintained a six-game undefeated streak, prior to losing 1–0 against Blackpool.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, all football and other sporting competitions were halted from March 2020 onwards. On 9 June, all clubs voted to curtail the season, meaning the final league table would be calculated by a points-per-game method; Doncaster narrowly missed out on play-off qualification, finishing the season in ninth position.
In October 2020, when Gerhard Struber left Moore's former playing side Barnsley, Moore immediately became the favourite to replace him as their new manager, which would have seen him return to the Championship after a year-long absence, though it was Valérien Ismaël who was appointed as Struber's replacement. That season saw Moore's side regain significant form, which saw the manager nominated for the division's Manager of the Month accolade for both September 2020 and January 2021.
After going through the entirety of January 2021 winning every single league match possible, reports emerged where Moore was linked with Sheffield Wednesday FC and was headhunted for the managers position. This resulted in Sheffield Wednesday paying Doncaster Rovers compensation for his services.
Sheffield Wednesday
On 1 March 2021, Moore left Doncaster with the club in the League One play-off positions to join Sheffield Wednesday, sitting inside the Championship relegation zone. His first game in charge was at home to Rotherham United, where they eventually lost to 10-men, thanks to a 90+7 minute stoppage time winner from Freddie Ladapo. The following two games resulted in defeat against Reading and Norwich City, but he picked up the first point of his reign in a 1–1 draw with Huddersfield Town. On 20 March, he got his first win in the local derby against Barnsley, winning the game 2–1 thanks to two Jordan Rhodes goals. Prior to the game against Watford on 2 April 2021, it was announced that he wouldn't be in the dugout due to a positive Covid-19 test and would subsequently miss the games against Cardiff City and Queens Park Rangers. He returned to the dugout for the defeat against Swansea City, but he suffered a setback a few days later in his recovery, developing pneumonia as a result of Covid-19. He returned to the dugout again for the final game of the season, and must-win tie, against Derby County on 8 May 2021. The game finished 3–3, seeing Sheffield Wednesday finish in last place and relegated back to League One. After the match, owner Dejphon Chansiri confirmed that Moore would remain as manager for the following season.
The following season saw Moore nominated for November Manager of the Month following 11 points and 11 goals in five unbeaten games. He received another nomination for the month of February too, with Sheffield Wednesday winning five of their six games - four of them by a two-goal margin - to move into the play-off picture. Moore led his side to the play-offs by earning 16 points from the final 21 available, getting himself his third and final nomination for EFL Manager of the Month for the 2021–22 season. In the play-offs though, they fell short, losing 2–1 to Sunderland over two legs, finishing his first full season at the club with 85 points.
After failing in the play-offs the previous season, he kicked off the following season in great form; four wins from five games, with a clean sheet in each, gave him a manager of the month nomination for August. Getting 14 points from 7 games in October and 6 points from 2 in November would see him get back-to-back EFL Manager of the Month nominations for October and November. Another 9 points in January from 3 games with a combined score of 7–0, gave him another nomination for January. The club went 20 league games without defeat and managed to go top of the league, resulting in another nomination for manager of the month. On 11 April, he was nominated for EFL League One Manager of the Season alongside Kieran McKenna and Steven Schumacher. A dip in form saw his team finish the league season in third spot, earning a play-off tie against Darren Ferguson's Peterborough United. Wednesday lost the first leg by a convincing 4–0 scoreline and were booed off the pitch by their own fans. In the aftermath of the defeat, Moore received racist abuse. Moore worked hard to change the mindset and mentality of his staff during the run-up to the 2nd leg. He forged a togetherness and belief that anything was possible during training and tactical sessions. He even prepared his team with 'real time' penalty shoot outs where he re-enacted crowd noise, embellished by academy players and staff behind the goal to create a hostile atmosphere. He also analysed and shared numerous football come backs to build confidence and a will to win. Furthermore he reached out to the fans, producing a personal video message played before kick off to galvanise and ignite S6 on the night of the return fixture. The second leg was played at a full Hillsborough Stadium where the Owls won on penalties (scoring all 5 spot kicks), after the tie was locked at 5–5, following an amazing 5–1 Wednesday comeback. Moore had such a positive impact on the squad that long standing captain Barry Bannan personally thanked him in front of the whole squad following the game saying, "What he has done is unbelievable, to turn around the mindset of the players. I'm so proud of him how he's handled this week after the racism he's experienced. This one's for him."
Moore would then go and lead Sheffield Wednesday to promotion back to the Championship with a 1–0 win against Barnsley at Wembley in the final on 29 May 2023, capping a season in which he presided over three club records (number of points (96), longest unbeaten run (23), and highest number of clean sheets (24)), in addition to 12 away wins, as well as the biggest comeback in EFL play-off history.
On 19 June 2023, Moore left the club by mutual consent, after he and Sheffield Wednesday's chairman, Dejphon Chansiri, failed to agree on the terms of a potential contract renewal.
Huddersfield Town
On 21 September 2023, Moore was appointed as manager of Huddersfield Town, succeeding outgoing Neil Warnock.
Personal life
At West Brom he has been known by supporters as "Big Dave".
Moore is a devout Christian. He is active in the Christian charity Faith and Football with Linvoy Primus and Lomana LuaLua and has described the two as his best friends. In 2005, Moore, along with Primus, walked the Great Wall of China to raise money for children's causes. He has raised thousands of pounds for Christian Aid and Oxfam and started to raise awareness about helping children in third-world countries. Moore and Primus have organised another charity bicycle ride from Charlton to Portsmouth, via Barnet and Reading, all clubs where Primus played, to raise money for the Faith and Football charity. In 2004, Moore received an award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Grass Roots and Community Football Projects' as part of the Professional Footballers' Association's 'Let's Kick Racism Out of Football' campaign.
Playing statistics
Club
International
Managerial statistics
Honours
Player
Individual
PFA Team of the Year: 1998–99 First Division, 2001–02 First Division, 2006–07 Championship
Manager
Sheffield Wednesday
EFL League One play-offs: 2023
Individual
Premier League Manager of the Month: April 2018
EFL Championship Manager of the Month: September 2018
References
External links
Darren Moores Faith and Football page
Darren Moore Official Website at Icons.com
Profile on The Official Reggae Boyz Supporterz Club website
1974 births
Living people
Footballers from Birmingham, West Midlands
English men's footballers
Jamaican men's footballers
Jamaica men's international footballers
Men's association football defenders
Torquay United F.C. players
Doncaster Rovers F.C. players
Bradford City A.F.C. players
Portsmouth F.C. players
West Bromwich Albion F.C. players
Derby County F.C. players
Barnsley F.C. players
Burton Albion F.C. players
Premier League players
English Football League players
English football managers
Jamaican football managers
West Bromwich Albion F.C. managers
Doncaster Rovers F.C. managers
Sheffield Wednesday F.C. managers
Huddersfield Town A.F.C. managers
Premier League managers
Association football coaches
Blackburn Rovers F.C. non-playing staff
West Bromwich Albion F.C. non-playing staff
English Christians
English people of Jamaican descent
Black British sportsmen