Brian Flynn has agreed to join Doncaster Rovers as a watchful eye for fellow Welshman Dean Saunders. Rovers are taking a different strategy for recruitment and Dean has asked his former Welsh management team member Brian to help develop this.
Dean Saunders “It’s great to get him in with us as he has vast experience, I know him well and he is someone I trust. He knows the club having played for and captained them. He will be looking out for elite players for us and if we get promoted he will provide us with a list of players we can look at.”
The ex-Wales international, who has an impressive background where he represented his country 66 times, had a long and distinguished career and comes to south Yorkshire looking to aid Saunders’ recruitment policy.
Although born at Port Talbot in South Wales on October 12th 1955, Brian Flynn began his football career with Second Division Burnley as an apprentice in 1970. Being on the small side at 5ft 4ins they usually find themselves discarded but the Burnley management obviously saw great potential in Brian. He enjoyed three seasons in the top Division with the club before transferring to Leeds United in November 1977.
Meanwhile, aged 19, he had made his debut for the Welsh international team and soon became a regular, gaining 66 caps for his country. He returned to Burnley in 1982 before moving on to Cardiff City two years later. A year later, November 1985, he joined Doncaster Rovers but left at the end of the season to join Bury. Six months on and he moved to Ireland as Player-Coach to Limerick City before Dave Cusack brought him back to England and Doncaster Rovers on a non-contract basis in August 1987. Shortly after Cusack was dismissed from his post as Manager, Brian left for Wrexham, initially as a player but became Player-Manager before retiring as a player and concentrating on the Manager’s job.
Overall he spent 12 years in the Managerial seat at the Racecourse Ground but all good things come to an end and he was dismissed from the post in September 2001. He did some coaching before accepting the Manager’s job at Swansea City in September 2002 having turned the job down six months earlier. He left that job in March the following year by “mutual consent”. However, his next move saw him take the international stage as Coach to the Welsh Under 21 team, a job he had a spell doing whilst he was Manager of Wrexham. Only a defeat by the English Under 21’s in 2009 stopped them qualifying for the UEFA U21 Championships for the first time. When John Toshack left his post as Manager of the Welsh national team in 2010, Brian stepped in as Caretaker-Manager until Gary Speed was appointed. However, his contract as Under 21 Coach was not renewed at the end of May 2012.