after he retired from playing, houston moved into coaching. in 1990, he was appointed as george graham's assistant at arsenal. he took over as the club's caretaker manager when graham was sacked in 1995, and again in 1996 after the sacking of graham's replacement, bruce rioch. at the end of his tenure with arsenal, he took over as manager of queens park rangers, where he appointed rioch as his assistant, but the pair were sacked after failing to get the club promoted back to the premier league. he then had spells as the first-team coach at ipswich town, tottenham hotspur and walsall. houston later worked as a scout for arsenal.