His coaching skills were quickly in demand and between 1957 and 1961 he was a coach with Sunderland. Management career Brighton and Hove Albion His first managerial position came in June 1961 when he was appointed manager at Brighton & Hove Albion. At the end of his first season in charge, Brighton were relegated from the Second division in last place. He stayed at Brighton until February 1963, when he was replaced by Archie Macaulay. Coaching There followed spells as coach with Cambridge University and Hastings, before taking the managerial reins at Stevenage Town F.C. from January 1964 until 1967. He then had brief spells coaching at Hull City and with San Diego Toros. Rosenborg He was appointed as head coach at Norwegian side Rosenborg ahead of the 1969 season replacing Knut Næss. His first meeting with the Rosenborg players is legendary: "This is a ball," Curtis stated whilst pointing to the round leather ball. "Don't go too fast, now!" Odd Iversen laughed. Curtis introduced modern defensive football to Norway, with a flat backline 4–4–2 formation, pressure on the ball carrier and tactical focus. The 1969 debut season ended with a premiership title for Rosenborg, with Odd Iversen scoring 26 of the team's 36 league goals. Despite this success, both the club leadership and the spectators disliked George Curtis's defensive style and pressure was put on Curtis to play a more attacking style. In September 1969, Rosenborg met Curtis's former club, Southampton, in the first round of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, with Southampton going through 2–1 on aggregate, the goals coming from Ron Davies and Terry Paine with Rosenborg's goal scored by Sunde. Curtis was allowed to continue for one more season. Despite coming second in the 1970 league season, it was an anti-climax. The dynamic duo of Iversen and Harald Sunde had been sold to Belgian Division 2 club Racing Mechelen before the start of the season and with them went all of Rosenborg's attacking play. 18 league games later, Rosenborg ended up with an almost unbelievable goal difference of 15–5! At the end of the season, George Curtis was dismissed and was replaced by Nils Arne Eggen. Norway national team Curtis returned to England, but in 1972 he returned to Norway to coach the national team. During the Euro 72 qualifying campaign, Norway picked up only one point in six games, and in a World Cup qualifier against