Simon Grayson returns to Leeds after trophy-winning spells in India and Nepal | OneFootball

Simon Grayson has returned to Leeds to launch a youth academy after lifting silverware in India and Nepal. He has not ruled out a future return to the professional game.

"I’m not saying I got jaded or anything, but over the last few years, I feel like certain people at clubs I’ve gone to work for, they’ve not fulfilled the promises they made that attracted me to their football club," he said, speaking to The Athletic.

He began at Blackpool in November 2005 and worked at eight more English clubs until October 2025, when Hartlepool United sacked him. Abroad, he led Bengaluru from June 2022 to December 2023, and a bold call to drop Sunil Chhetri preceded a 10-match winning run, the Durand Cup win and runs to the ISL play-off and AIFF Super Cup finals in 2023.

"I said to myself, I said to my family: ‘This is going to go one way or the other’," says the former Leeds boss. "I’m either going to mess it up and I’m coming home, or I’m going to get it right and be praised."

Early 2025 brought a three-month stint with Lalitpur City. Amid play-off chaos in Kathmandu, Lalitpur advanced then won the month-long NSL contested by seven teams in March and April 2025.

In January this year he became a board advisor at Cork City, and from March he has assisted John Herdman part-time with Indonesia. He is starting at Woodhall Sports Hub, a £9.6million facility.

His Simon Grayson Football Academy will coach four to 16-year-olds across three evenings a week. "You can only regret the things you don’t do," he said.

Source: NY Times

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