Profile

Irish midfielder Jim Magilton was a Liverpool apprentice at the same time as Steve McManaman and Mike Marsh.

Although Jim's talent as a youngster was obvious, he never managed to make the big breakthrough at Anfield such was the competition at Anfield at the time from the likes of Steve McMahon, Ronnie Whelan and Jan Molby.

He was, however, good enough to make over 500 Football League appearances for Oxford United, Southampton, Sheffield Wednesday and Ipswich Town as well as representing his country (Northern Ireland) 52 times.

Although still registered as a player at the end of the 2005-06 season, Jim approached the Ipswich board with a view to taking over the manager's role from Joe Royle, who had just left the club. Once his appointment as manager was confirmed, he stated that he would not consider himself for first-team action any longer at the age of 37 but that he hoped to play occasionally for Ipswich's reserve team.

There was immediate pressure on Magilton to mastermind Ipswich's return to the Premier League, a status they had lost in 2002. In his first full season in charge (2006-07), Town finished in 14th position; they improved that final position to 8th a year later but just missed out on the play-offs. Failure to again reach at least the play-offs in 2008-09 put the manager under severe pressure and he was sacked in April, 2009 with Roy Keane being announced as his replacement the following day.

Magilton was not out of work for long. On the June 3, 2009, he was appointed manager of Championship club Queens Park Rangers to replace previous boss Paulo Sousa who had been dismissed around the same time Magilton left Ipswich in April.

Other Clubs:
Oxford, Southampton, Sheff Wed, Ipswich