John Leslie McGreal (born 2 June 1972) is an English football manager and former professional footballer who is currently an U21s coach at Ipswich Town.
He began his career at Tranmere Rovers, making his debut in the 1991–92 season. He became a first-team regular from the 1993–94 season, playing a total of 233 games across eight seasons, until he was sold to Ipswich Town for a £750,000 fee in August 1999. He helped his new club to win promotion into the Premier League with victory in the 2000 play-off final. He played 54 Premier League games in two seasons, before Ipswich were relegated back into the First Division in 2002. He stayed with the club for another two years before signing with Burnley in June 2004. He spent three seasons in the Championship with Burnley, being named as Player of the Year in 2005, and retired at the end of the 2006–07 season. He played a total of 489 league and cup games in 16 seasons as a professional in the English Football League and Premier League, scoring seven goals.
McGreal went into coaching after retiring as a player, joining the Colchester United Academy in 2009. He briefly stood in as the first team's caretaker-manager in November 2015, before being given the job on a permanent basis following the club's relegation out of League One in May 2016. He took charge for four seasons, with the club twice finishing one place outside the League Two play-offs and losing in the play-off semi-finals at the end of the 2019–20 season. He was sacked in July 2020. After a brief stint as Swindon Town boss, McGreal rejoined Ipswich Town in December 2021 as a coach for the U23s (now the U21s) and development squad.
Playing career
Tranmere Rovers
Born in Birkenhead, McGreal began his career with local club Tranmere Rovers at the age of 17 and moved from Warwick Rimmer's youth-team to the first-team set-up under John King in 1990. He scored his first and only goal for the club on 23 February 1994, in a 1–1 draw with Leicester City at Filbert Street. However he also scored the equalising goal for Leicester with an own goal when he sliced in Ian Ormondroyd's header, which would otherwise have gone wide. He played 27 games in the 1996–97 season as Tranmere finished 11th in the First Division under the stewardship of John Aldridge. He missed just four league games during the following campaign as Rovers posted a 14th-place finish. He featured 42 times in the 1998–99 season, helping Tranmere to another mid-table finish, in his final season at Prenton Park.
Ipswich Town
In the summer of 1999, with Huddersfield Town manager Steve Bruce and Ipswich Town manager George Burley both interested in signing McGreal, he opted to sign for the Suffolk club after a £650,000 offer (rising by two further instalments of £50,000 after 30 and 60 games) was accepted by Tranmere. He was signed as a long-term replacement for Tony Mowbray. McGreal made his Ipswich debut on 7 August 1999, in a 3–1 win over Nottingham Forest at Portman Road. He received his first red card in only his eighth match for the club on 11 September, during a 1–1 draw with Portsmouth. He helped the team reach the play-off final at Wembley, where they beat Barnsley 4–2 to earn promotion to the Premier League.
In his third Premier League match for Ipswich, McGreal scored his first goal for the club with the opener in a 3–0 win over Everton at Goodison Park in a season which saw Ipswich climb the league table to ultimately finish fifth and earn a place in the 2001–02 UEFA Cup. He scored his second goal with the winner in a 2–1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on 12 January 2002, but he couldn't help halt the side's slide down the league as they finished the 2001–02 season in 18th-place and were relegated back to the First Division.
The following season saw Ipswich once again playing in the UEFA Cup having qualified through the UEFA Respect Fair Play ranking, as McGreal scored in his first game of the new campaign as Town defeated Avenir Beggen 8–1 at Portman Road in the qualifying round second leg match on 29 August 2002. He scored once more in an injury-affected season with the opener in a 2–2 draw against Burnley, but could only muster 22 appearances all season. Another injury-hit season followed, where he missed much of the start of the season but returned to help Ipswich reach the play-offs, but they were defeated over two legs by West Ham United. McGreal scored once during the 2003–04 season, in a 1–1 draw with Reading on 10 January. McGreal left the club in the summer in search of a longer contract offer elsewhere and manager Joe Royle said that "I never wanted to lose him and of the eight players that left the club in the summer he was my biggest regret".
