Adrian Whitbread

Adrian Richard Whitbread (born 22 October 1971 in Epping, Essex) is a former professional footballer and current head coach of Puerto Rico FC.

He played for Leyton Orient, Swindon Town, West Ham United, Portsmouth and Reading before retiring from playing due to a persistent knee injury. After his playing career ended, Whitbread became a coach. He had spells as assistant manager at Barnet, Brentford, Milton Keynes Dons and Leicester City. He has also coached overseas for Puerto Rico Islanders and Carolina Railhawks where he was head coach and for Antigua Barracuda FC, the Bahrain FA U23 Squad and Olympic team. Whitbread has frequently worked under the managership of Martin Allen as he is in his current first-team coach role at Barnet.

Playing career

Whitbread began his professional career as a trainee with Leyton Orient in 1989. He captained the team at the age of 21, and helped Leyton Orient to promotion to the Football League Second Division in 1992. He made a total of 155 league and cup appearances for Leyton Orient in four seasons, before joining Swindon Town in July 1993 for £500,000, and made 38 league and cup appearances for Swindon in the 1993–94 season. Following Swindon's relegation from the Premier League, Whitbread joined West Ham United in August 1994 in part-exchange for Joey Beauchamp.