Michael Doyle | Getting To Know The Manager

It would be easy to assume that 42-year-old Michael Doyle has been retired from playing football for a while. However, such is the longevity of the Irishman that he only hung up his boots in Summer 2021, calling an end on a playing career spanning 23 years and three decades.

That career was to begin in Glasgow and end in Nottingham, via Aarhus, Coventry, Leeds, Sheffield, and Portsmouth. Loyalty was a key part in Doyle’s career, with the midfielder adored in Coventry, where he made 373 of a remarkable 843 career appearances.

A Celtic academy graduate, Doyle never made a league appearance for the club, instead his first taste of senior football came in Denmark with Aarhus in the 2001/02 season, where he played 22 games, scoring four goals. A move to Coventry City in 2003 would be the start of an eight year stint with the Sky Blues.

Such was his success with Coventry that an international call up to Ireland came in 2004 against the Netherlands, whilst his stay in the Midlands was interrupted only by a very successful loan to then-League One Leeds United for the 2009/10 season. Doyle would play 52 times for Leeds, including in the infamous 1-0 win at Old Trafford against Man United in the FA Cup, before Leeds would go on to finish second and be automatically promoted to the Championship.

Four years at Sheffield United from 2011 would see Doyle handed the captain’s armband at Bramall Lane, before being captain at Portsmouth for two seasons. A return to Coventry after leading Pompey to the League Two title gave Doyle more promotion success, this time helping the Sky Blues get out of League Two via the playoffs, before joining Notts County aged 37.

Despite suffering his first career relegation to the National League with the Magpies, Doyle was ever-present in the side who suffered heartbreak against Harrogate at Wembley in the play-offs, before a chaotic 2020/21 season saw Doyle score goal of the season with a stoppage time screamer against Dagenham & Redbridge in the FA Trophy.

The same opponents would be victim to more heroics, as ‘Schmeichel Doyle’ played 72 minutes in goal against the Daggers in a 3-1 victory, before Doyle ended the season as part of Ian Burchnall’s coaching staff.

Focus shifted purely to his role as assistant head coach in 2021/22 as Notts were defeated in the playoffs, before a move to Forest Green Rovers with Burchnall ended in January 2023. Doyle joins the Cards from his previous role as Professional Development Phase coach at Portsmouth and will look to transfer his playing and coaching experiences into his first senior management role.

Woking Chief Executive John Katz said, “We had the decision to be safe or be bold, and we took the decision to be bold with this appointment.” For a man who has been trusted as a senior player and a leader by the likes of Mark Robins, Paul Cook, Nigel Clough, Simon Grayson and Neal Ardley, now Doyle has his chance to be bold at the Laithwaite.