Simon Grayson: How I want to be remembered

Former Blackpool boss Simon Grayson has revealed how he hopes to be remembered once his career in football is over.

The 50-year-old’s second stint as Seasiders boss proved nowhere near as successful as his first and ended with the sack in February.

Grayson has admitted to being unsure whether the Blackpool hotseat will be his last. But if that seven-month stint with the Seasiders proves to be his managerial swansong, the Yorkshireman says he can look back over his career with contentment.

Grayson told The Gazette: “For 32 years now I’ve done something, playing and managing, that people can never take away from me.

“I’ve had 500 games as a player, I’ve had promotions and I’ve had nearly 700 games as a manager.

“If someone had offered me that at 16, when I was leaving school, I’d have taken it.

“In my managerial career, I’ve had good times and bad times.

“But when I finish, I just hope people look back at me and say I’m a good guy that gave everything to what he did, whether it’s managing, playing, cycling, whatever.

“Life never goes smoothly all the time and, certainly as a football manager, you come through periods when you’ve not been successful stronger.

“Weak people will not be able to deal with situations but I feel myself I’m a strong character.

“From being a player and experiencing the disappointment of losing finals or being left out of teams, I used those experiences to come through it stronger by turning those negatives into positives.”

As for the good times, Grayson’s highlights will always include promotion with Blackpool in 2007 – the first of four clubs he took up from League One – but that isn’t the proudest achievement of his managerial career.

Pulling off the same feat three years later at Leeds United, the club he supported as a boy and where his playing career began, will always be extra special.

He added: “The proudest one is the promotion with Leeds because of what it meant as a supporter and what it meant to the city, and how we overcame a lot of adversity in that particular time.”

But Grayson is less certain when it comes to contemplating what will come next.

He said: “Who knows where the future is going to be? Hopefully my son (Joe) will develop his career at Blackburn Rovers and will go on to have a good career.

“But ultimately it’s about being a good person and having the right attitude.”