Gustavo Poyet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Gustavo Poyet
Full name	Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez
Date of birth	15 November 1967
Place of birth	Montevideo, Uruguay
Position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	None
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1988-89 1989-90 1990-97 1997-2001 2001-04 2006	Grenoble River Plate Real Zaragoza Chelsea Tottenham Hotspur Swindon Town	? (?) ? (?) 239 (63)^[1] 105 (36) 82 (18) 0 (0)
National team
1993-2000	Uruguay	26 (3)
Teams managed
2006 2006-	Swindon Town (assistant manager) Leeds United (assistant manager)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Gustavo Augusto Poyet Domínguez (born November 15, 1967 in Montevideo, Uruguay) is a footballer and is currently assistant manager at Leeds United. His teams included Real Zaragoza, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.

A powerful and prolific goalscoring midfielder, Poyet moved to Zaragoza in 1990. His team won the Copa del Rey in 1994 and the Cup Winners' Cup a year later, beating Arsenal in the final. He captained the team in that final and became Zaragoza's longest-serving foreign player. He scored an impressive 60 goals in 240 games for the club. Poyet joined Chelsea on a free transfer in June 1997.

Not long into his first season at Chelsea, he suffered cruciate ligament damage but recovered to play in the team's successful Cup Winners' Cup final against VfB Stuttgart. The following year he contributed 14 goals - making him the club's 2nd highest scorer - to help Chelsea finish 3rd in the Premiership, including a crucial headed goal in 1-0 win against Leeds United. In 1999-00, he scored 18 goals (which again made him Chelsea's 2nd highest scorer), with a scissors-kick volley against Sunderland, a long range strike against SS Lazio and both of Chelsea's goals in the FA Cup semi-final against Newcastle United among the most memorable, as the team won the FA Cup and reached the Champions League quarter-finals.

With the arrival of new manager Claudio Ranieri in September 2000, Chelsea was a team in transition. With Ranieri seeking to reduce the average age of the squad, Poyet became surplus to requirements and requested a transfer. He joined Tottenham Hotspur in May 2001 for around £2.2m and - in an action that tarnished his reputation among some Chelsea fans due to the fierce rivalry between the clubs - he kissed the Tottenham badge in front of the Chelsea fans after scoring during a League Cup semi-final at White Hart Lane. In 145 appearances for Chelsea, Poyet scored 49 goals.

Poyet scored 14 goals in his debut season for Spurs and helped his team reach the League Cup final, but they lost 2-1 to Blackburn Rovers. His time at the club was blighted by injuries and he again sustained cruciate ligament damage in August 2002 but still managed 23 goals in 98 games.

He was also a Uruguay international and helped his country win the Copa América in 1995 (and in doing so was voted player of the tournament). He won 23 caps.

In July 2006, he became a player and assistant manager at Swindon Town alongside ex-Chelsea team mate, Dennis Wise. ^[2] Both Poyet and Wise were given permission to talk about forming the new Leeds United management team on 23rd October 2006 and looked set to take the place of caretaker manager, John Carver, until Swindon Town withdrew permission due to disagreements over compensation ^[3]. On the 24th October 2006, Poyet was confirmed as assistant manager of Leeds Utd with Dennis Wise as the manager. He is fast becoming something of a cult hero with his wit and charm with the fans behind the teams bench.