Kevin Reeves was
Norwich's first £1 million pound sale when he moved to Manchester
City in March 1980. It was the start of a disturbing trend as other
Canaries later commanded this fee. These included Justin
Fashanu, Dave Watson Andy Townsend, Robert Fleck, Andy Linighan, Chris Sutton, Ruel Fox, Mark Robins, Jon
Newsome, Ashley Ward, Andy Johnson ,
Darren Eadie, Craig Bellamy and no
doubt many others to come. At the time, Kevin was an England international
having made his debut against Bulgaria in November 1979 as did Glenn
Hoddle.
Kevin had played 133 games for the Canaries scoring 42 goals , all
bar five in Division One league matches. Norwich made a £950,000
profit on Kevin as John Bond had signed him
from Bournemouth for £50,000 in February 1977. Another example
of the Norwich-Bournemouth link (see Mark Nightingale, Roger Brown, Dale Gordon, Marcus Oldbury). Bond was his manager at Bournemouth, at
Norwich, at Manchester City and then later Burnley.
At Maine Road, Kevin made 130 appearances for Manchester City scoring
34 times including a penalty in the 1981 FA Cup final replay against
Tottenham. He joined Burnley in August 1983 but was forced to retire
in January 1984 with an arthritic hip injury at the tender age of
26. Burnley's playing squad included Wayne
Biggins, Roger Hansbury and Mike Phelan. He worked on the coaching staff at Burnley
before moving into amateur football with Boston Town, Barrow and
Yeovil Town. He joined Birmingham City as youth coach under John
Bond from February 1986 to May 1987. He moved to Crewe as PFA representative
and spent a short spell at Stockport before teaming with Bryan Flynn
at Wrexham in November 1989 as Assistant Manager.
Bryan and Kevin's spell at The Racecourse Ground came to an end
on 24th September 2001 when they both left the club "by mutual consent"
ending one of the longest running management teams in English football.
Whilst waiting for another management opportunity for the Flynn-Reeves
partnership, Kevin has been working for the Press Association collating
football statistics. Speaking to him at the Norwich City centenary
dinner in September 2002, I must comment that it was a true pleasure
to talk with Kevin about his career.
The Flynn-Reeves partnership was restored in league football on
Thursday 19th September 2002 when Bryan Flynn was named Swansea's
Director of Football with Kevin appointed as his first team coach.
At the time of their appointment, Swansea were rooted to the botoom
of Division Three and seemed destined to drop into the Conference.
The Flynn-Reeves partnership was successful in avoiding this with
the Swans finishing in 21st place. As a result, the two of them
signed new two year deals in May 2003.
On 18th March 2004, Reeves and Flynn were surprisingly sacked by
Swansea. Names suggested to replace them included Andy Melville,
Dean Saunders and
Mike Walker. Kevin scouted
in the North and Midlands for Portsmouth before being appointed
Stoke City's Chief Scout at the beginning of August 2005. The following
August, he returned to Swansea City as their Chief Scout