page_title: Billy Ayre
section_title: Cardiff City
hierarchical_section_title: Billy Ayre / Managerial career / Cardiff City
caption_attribution_description: English: Billy Ayre with Neil Smith (In Blackpool Shirt) &amp; friend, prior to the Seasiders' play-off final against Leyton Orient at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales.
context_page_description: William Ayre was an English footballer who played for three clubs in a sixteen-year professional career, making over three hundred League appearances in the process. After retiring from the playing side of the game, he became a manager, and took the helm at five clubs between 1984 and 2000. He guided Blackpool to two successive play-off finals, in 1991 and 1992, during his four years in charge of the club.
context_section_description: Ayre then assisted Frank Burrows at Cardiff City and helped them to promotion to Division Two in 1998–99.
  After a month-long break while having a benign tumor removed, Ayre was installed to the manager's seat at Cardiff when Burrows resigned in January 2000. "This came as a complete shock," he said at the time. "I was on the motorway driving back to South Wales when the chairman rang me. I want to keep the job, and I hope I'm given the chance to prove myself."
  "There will be changes," he continued. "I will be tweaking a few things, and we will be looking at the playing system. I'm still stunned about what has happened, but we have to revitalise and rejuvenate the team quickly. Frank Burrows brought me to Cardiff and did everything within his power for the club. But we have to look forward, we have to work quickly. That's what Frank would want."
  Regarding the tumor, Ayre said: "That wasn't something which bothered me too much. That may sound strange, but it was outside my control, so I got on with things. Now the Cardiff City job has been given to me, albeit temporarily for now, and that is within my control. I haven't spoken to Frank yet, because he has gone away. But I will talk to him soon."
  Also regarding his tumor, he stated: "I'm not at all frightened. I know the risks. The odds of people not even surviving the treatment are 20–1, but that doesn't bother me. I've backed a few 20–1 winners in my time. One in four people get cancer, and I'm pleased it's me and not somebody else in my family. I'd rather take it, because I think I can deal with it."
  Ayre stayed on beyond the end of the season despite the Bluebirds falling back into Division Three. He was demoted to assistant manager when owner Sam Hammam installed Bobby Gould in August 2000. His services were disposed of completely two months later when Alan Cork was put in charge of first-team affairs and Gould was appointed general manager.
caption: Ayre (centre) in 2001 on 26 May 2001 at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, just under a year before his death
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