[3] Following his retirement from playing in 2001, he entered football coaching and then management, firstly of Wrexham and since then of Doncaster Rovers, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Crawley Town and Chesterfield.

[citation needed] A goalless four-game loan spell at local rivals Cardiff City also came in 1984–85, before he signed for Second Division club Brighton & Hove Albion on a free transfer on 7 August 1985.

[citation needed] Their relegation saw most of the country's top clubs queue up in their bid to capture Saunders' services, and Everton were favourites to sign him, and there were also approaches from Aston Villa's new manager Ron Atkinson, and Nottingham Forest's Brian Clough.

[citation needed] Saunders scored 23 goals in all competitions, though just 10 of these were the league where the club only managed a sixth-place finish - one of their lowest positions since their current top flight tenure began in 1962.

[citation needed] Linking up with Dwight Yorke, Saunders continued scoring as Villa challenged for the inaugural Premier League title but the team ultimately finished runners-up behind Manchester United.

[citation needed] At one stage during the campaign Saunders recorded a run of seven goals in six games, including braces against Wimbledon in a 7–1 victory, and Sheffield Wednesday.

In fact, according to Shelley Webb's book Footballers' Wives Tell Their Tales, the first Saunders' wife Helen knew of the move was when she went to Turkey with him one weekend, to find that by Monday he had signed for the Istanbul club and this was her new home.

[citation needed] His only season at the City Ground was a disappointment with a shortage of goals which contributed to Forest's relegation before joining Sheffield United in Division One.

[11][12] Saunders remained at Sheffield United for two years before another spell abroad with Benfica (again under Souness) before moving back to the Premier League with newly promoted Bradford City.

[citation needed] He made his international debut, aged 21 in a 1–0 friendly win against the Republic of Ireland in Dublin on 26 March 1986 coming on as a 60th minute substitute for Gordon Davies.

He scored 22 international goals, putting him fourth on the all time Wales list behind Ian Rush, Ivor Allchurch and Trevor Ford.

[18] When Souness was sacked on 2 February 2006 due to a run of poor results, his entire backroom team including Saunders were also replaced.

[19] Saunders started the Certificate in Football Management course at the University of Warwick Business School in June 2007 and [20] holds the UEFA Pro Licence coaching badge.

[24] Despite his new deal Saunders remained at Wrexham for only ten matches of the following season, during which he led the team to second place, before he moved to Doncaster Rovers of the Championship.

[26] Despite this opening victory a run of poor results saw a section of fans call for Saunders to be sacked as Doncaster remained at the bottom of the league.

[citation needed] On 14 July 2012 Saunders made a brief return to playing as he came off the bench to score in Doncaster's 4–2 friendly victory over Cleethorpes Town.

In August 2019, Saunders was jailed for 10 weeks, but freed after one day pending an appeal, for refusing to provide a roadside breath test, following reports that he had been driving erratically.