fullname youthclubs years youthyears clubs caps birth_place goals height position manageryears birth_date managerclubs article_title name
paul david compton cheltenham town cardiff city ? 1986 -- 1987 1987 -- 1991 1991 1991 -- 1993 -- 1997 -- 1998 1978 1983 -- 1984 1984 -- 1986 ? -- 1978 cheltenham weymouth bashley torquay united bideford town cardiff city aldershot torquay united newport county 64 13 95 27 21 stroud , england 0 0 4 2 0 6 1 central defender 1990 1992 -- 1993 6 june 1961 weymouth torquay united paul compton
 paul compton
paul compton

paul david compton -lrb- born 6 june 1961 -rrb- is an english former professional footballer and football club manager .
he most notably managed torquay united during the 1992 -- 93 season , and was assistant manager at dorchester town prior to rejoining torquay united in the summer of 2008 as joint manager of their new youth set-up .
he was born in stroud .
after ending an apprenticeship with cardiff city , compton joined trowbridge town in 1978 , moving to bournemouth in october 1980 for a fee of # 10,000 .
he played 64 times for the cherries before a free transfer took him to aldershot in december 1983 .
this was swiftly followed by another free transfer move to torquay united in february 1984 where he quickly established himself as an aerial presence in torquay 's defence , though lacking the pace that could have taken him to a higher level .
after his debut away to hereford united on 25 february , he played every game until the end of the season and played fairly regularly for the gulls before leaving to join newport county in december 1986 .
he left newport , prior to their eventual demise , shortly after playing in the welsh cup final defeat against merthyr tydfil , in the summer of 1987 , joining weymouth , taking over as player-manager in 1990 and leaving in february 1991 to join bashley with weymouth bottom of the southern league premier division .
compton rejoined torquay united in august 1991 as youth coach , although he also restarted his professional playing career .
on 8 may 1992 , compton was appointed as manager of torquay , shortly after their relegation back to the bottom flight of the football league .
the expected push for promotion did not materialise and torquay found themselves in a relegation battle , which , only after neil warnock was brought in and compton had reverted to his old youth coach role , they survived .
he later became assistant manager under eddie may in 1995 , but left the club altogether the following summer when may was replaced by kevin hodges , who opted to dispense with compton 's services .
between 1996 and 1997 he was the youth coach at preston north end , but returned to the south-west , joining bideford as player , playing in the centre of defence alongside former torquay player phil lloyd .
in the 1998 close season , compton returned to plainmoor as torquay united 's youth coach , bringing through many of the players that later brought money into plainmoor on their sale .
in september 2000 , shortly after making the shortlist for the youth development job at southampton , compton moved to swansea city as director of youth development at the vetch field .
with swansea in the midst of a serious financial crisis , compton , along with the swans management team of colin addison and peter nicholas , was made redundant , the welsh side no longer able to pay his wages .
he subsequently joined west bromwich albion as youth coach , before joining cardiff city as head of player recruitment .
he left this post in august 2007 , and became assistant manager at dorchester town in december 2007 .
immediately upon appointment , however , he took control of first team affairs whilst director of football shaun brooks took time off due to ill health .
in june 2008 he became joint manager of torquay united 's youth set-up alongside matt williams .
