Player-managers and great goalkeepers

It's not a usual career move to go from management back to playing but it has happened, largely to men who became player-managers at a young age. There are three in the Premier League era: Attilio Lombardo who, after being Crystal Palace's player-manager in 1998, returned to Italy to appear in Serie A for Lazio and Sampdoria; Stuart Pearce, who took over as Nottingham Forest manager for the second half of the 1996-97 season and, after their relegation, went on to play for Newcastle and West Ham; and Peter Reid, who was Manchester City's manager for three years, whilst still playing. After his sacking at Maine Road, he played eight games for Southampton as well as lower-division football for Notts County and Bury.
Another notable example is that of Trevor Francis, sacked as QPR manager in 1990, two years before the Premier League began. He then joined Sheffield Wednesday, initially as a player, though he subsequently became manager when Ron Atkinson moved to Aston Villa. One prominent near-miss, by the way, is Peter Shilton whose record-breaking career was mentioned in the last column; after being sacked by Plymouth, he signed for three Premier League clubs (Wimbledon, Coventry and West Ham) but, as the reserve goalkeeper, didn't take the field for any of them. A former England team-mate of his, Ray Wilkins, played top-division football in Scotland with Hibernian after leaving his job as manager of QPR.
Perhaps the most remarkable story is that of Ivor Broadis. In 1946, the 23-year-old became the youngest player-manager in the history of the Football League at Carlisle. While Reid and Francis were sacked, Broadis relinquished his position for a different reason: he sold himself to Sunderland (Carlisle replaced him, incidentally, with an untried manager named Bill Shankly). Broadis went on to play for Manchester City and Newcastle and scored for England in the 1954 World Cup - eight years after his managerial career had begun.