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Matthew Gill

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Norwich Career: Schoolboy (1988-90) / 2009-11 (15 appearances) 2015-18 (Coach)
Current Club: Southampton (Assistant Manager)
Date of Birth: 8/11/1980 (Cambridge)
Nationality: English

Biography

Matthew Gill became Bryan Gunn's first signing of the 2009 pre-season when he agreed to join the Canaries from Exeter on 9th June 2009 on a free transfer

The former Fakenham High School pupil and Old Catton juniors player stated his playing career with Peterborough as a trainee before signing a professional contract. Over 7 seasons, he made 149 first team appearances scoring five goals.

On 3 May 2004, Gill moved to league two side Notts County for the 2004–05 season. After a tough start at Meadow Lane, Gill was placed on the transfer list by struggling manager Gary Mills. In November 2004 Mills was replaced by Ian Richardson who immediately removed him from the list. Gill went on to make 57 appearances for the Magpies before being transferred to Conference National side Exeter City on 16 January 2006 during the 2005–06 season, on a free transfer.

Over the next three seasons, he made 130 appearances with Exeter, experiencing both the higs of being named League Two player of the month for September 2008 but also being sent off for a headbutt in the Conference play-off finals at Wembley in 2007- he was the first player to be dismissed at the new Wembley.

He is the brother of former youth team player Darren Gill. Matthew was also at Norwich as a youngster,attending a centre of excellence whilst aged 8-10.

Matthew made his debut for Norwich in the 7-1 shock home defeat to Colchester on the opening day of the 2009/10 season. He made 10 appearances during 2009/10 bu was linked with a switch to Wycombe during the 2010 pre-season

Matthew was loaned to former club Peterborough at the end of September 2010; but returned to City and established himself in the first team.

On 21st January 2011, Gill was loaned to Walsall for one month and made five appearances, scoring twice before returining to Norwich. He made 5 appearances for Norwich in 2010/11

Gill was released by Norwich on 1st June 2011 with manager Paul Lambert speaking highly of him: "Gilly is a great pro and for his own career he has to go and play," "Same as Jens, he was never a problem, but they have to go and play football. Sometimes when you lose people, especially like Gilly, it's a sore one."

On 6th June 2011, Matt signed a three year contract with Bristol Rovers. Along with fellow signing Scott Bevan, Gill was the first signing for new Rovers manager Paul Buckle.

On 18th October 2013, Matt was loaned to Exeter until the end of December 2013. He has featured 50 times fortBristol Rovers, but after struggling with a knee injury last season, he has been told by manager John Ward he is no longer in his first-team plans.

On 11th December 2013, Rovers announced that Gill's contract would be cancelled by mutual consent in January 2014. He signed for Exeter in January 2014.

Gill joined Tranmere Rovers on 29th May 2014. Tranmere's new manager Rob Edwards was assistant manager at Exeter and so knew Gill. Edwards said "He's someone who will come in and help the club raise the bar. He will contribute on the pitch and on the training ground and is someone who will help everyone around the club.He'll help the younger players learn about winning, about how to train properly and understand what the club is about." On 8th September 2014, he was named as Assistant Manager, following three months working with the manager at the club

After Edwards was replaced by Micky Adams, Gill left Tranmere by mutual consent on 3rd November 2014.

Gill returned to Norwich in 2015 to work in the Academy as a coach. He took on the interim role of Norwich's Under-23 manager for the last 12 matches of 2016/17 following the exit of Dmitri Halajko, who left to become head of technical coaching at Leicester City’s academy in February. Gill's role was confirmed as being permanent on 4th July 2017.

Gill left Norwich at the end of October 2018 to link up with former manager Paul Lambert at Ipswich where Gill will be first team coach.

Gill tested positive for Covid-19 at the end of October 2020.

On 7th May 2021 it was reported that Gill would be leaving Ipswich with new manager Paul Cook seeking to bring in his own coaching team. Cook said “I had a chat with Matt and he knows how the game works. He’s been great in my time here but I want to bring in a few new faces ahead of the new season and he understands that."

On 29th June 2021 Gill joined Russell Martin's coaching team at MK Dons as Technical and Strategic Development Coach. Gill said “I’m really pleased to be here and be a part of things,I’ve known Russ a long time and I’ve always hoped that, at some point, we would be able to work together, as our views on the game are pretty aligned. When the opportunity presented itself to come here and do that, it was something I was really looking to do."

On 1st August 2021 Martin took charge of Swansea City with Gill joining him in South Wales. On 16th June 2022 it was reported that Gill had been promoted to the position of Assistant Manager, filling the vacancy caused by Luke Williams' departure in February 2022 and to which Gill had covered. Gill said “I am really happy and proud to be taking on the role. Working with Russell has been brilliant, and I really enjoyed stepping up and taking on more responsibility over the last few months. I absolutely love working for the club, I love being here and it has been a brilliant experience. Everything about being here has been great so to step up will make it even more enjoyable. I hope this will help with continuity, part of the way we work as a group involves getting to know the players really well and building relationships with them. That’s how Russell likes to lead, and that is how I like to coach so we hope those relationships we already have can help us hit the ground running in pre-season.”

On 27th June 2023 it was reported that Gill had followed Martin to Southampton, taking up the role of Assistant Manager. Also heading from Swansea to Southampton were goalkeeping coach Dean Thornton, first team sports scientist Rhys Owen and Tactics and Insights Analyst Ben Parker.


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