Clive Allen

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Clive Allen
Clive Allen 2016.jpeg
Allen in 2016
Personal information
Birth name Clive Darren Allen
Date of birth (1961-05-20) 20 May 1961 (age 63)
Place of birth Stepney, London, England
Height 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) [1]
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Havering/Essex Schools
Romford Juniors
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
1978–1980 Queens Park Rangers 49 (32)
1980 Arsenal 0 (0)
1980–1981 Crystal Palace 25 (9)
1981–1984 Queens Park Rangers 87 (40)
1984–1988 Tottenham Hotspur 105 (60)
1988–1989 Bordeaux 19 (13)
1989–1991 Manchester City 53 (16)
1991–1992 Chelsea 16 (7)
1992–1994 West Ham United 38 (17)
1994–1995 Millwall 12 (0)
1995 Carlisle United 3 (0)
Total407(194)
International career
1976 England Schoolboys 7 (1)
1978–1979 England Youth 13 (3)
1980 England U21 3 (0)
1984–1988 England 5 (0)
Managerial career
2007 Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker)
2008 Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker)
Football career
Career information
StatusRetired
Position(s) Placekicker
Career history
As player
1997 London Monarchs
Career highlights and awards
    Records The Football Database
    Career stats
    PAT 7/10
    FG 6/6
    *Club domestic league appearances and goals

    Clive Darren Allen (born 20 May 1961) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward for seven different London clubs. Allen was a prolific striker throughout his career.

    Contents

    In 1986-87 he won the PFA and Football Writers' Association player of the year awards. He also won 5 caps for England from 1984 to 1988.

    Early life

    Clive Allen was born in Stepney, London on 20 May 1961. His father, Les Allen, was a member of Tottenham Hotspur's Double-winning team of 1960–61. His younger brother, Bradley Allen, and cousins Martin and Paul Allen also played football professionally. [2]

    Club career

    Queens Park Rangers

    He started his career at Queens Park Rangers in the late 1970s, and scored 32 league goals in 49 appearances, before moving to Arsenal. [3]

    Arsenal

    Allen signed for Arsenal in the summer of 1980 for a fee of £1.25m. He did not play a competitive match for the club, although he did play three pre-season matches. He soon moved on to Crystal Palace in a swap deal with Kenny Sansom. [4]

    Crystal Palace

    Allen was Palace's top scorer for the 1980–81 season with nine goals in the league and 11 in all competitions, when Palace finished bottom of the First Division. [5]

    In one of his earliest games for the club, Allen was at the centre of a notorious incident in the defeat against Coventry City on 6 September 1980, when his shot flew into the goal and rebounded from the stanchion holding up the netting so quickly that it was ruled not a goal, the referee mistakenly ruling that the ball had hit the frame of the goal. As highlights of the match were being televised by the BBC, the incident was captured on camera. [6]

    Return to Queens Park Rangers

    QPR, still in the Second Division, were now managed by Terry Venables (who had signed Allen for Palace) and in Allen's first season back at the club (1981–82) he scored 13 Second Division goals, though not enough to win promotion. QPR also reached the FA Cup final for the first time with Allen scoring the goals in 1–0 victories in both the sixth Round (vs Crystal Palace) [7] and semi-final (vs West Bromwich Albion). [8] Allen was injured in the final against Tottenham Hotspur and subsequently missed the replay. [9]

    Over the next two seasons, Allen scored 27 League goals as QPR first won the Second Division Championship in 1982–83 and then finished fifth in the First Division in 1983–84. He moved to Tottenham for a £700,000 fee. [10]

    Tottenham Hotspur

    Allen scored twice on his debut on 25 August 1984, a 4–1 away win at Everton, and scored 10 goals from 18 appearances in his first season, in which Spurs finished third behind Liverpool and Everton. [11] [12]

    In 1986–87 he scored 33 League goals, and 49 goals in all competitions, a record for the club. [13] He scored, but was on the losing side alongside his cousin Paul Allen, in the 1987 FA Cup Final. That season he also won the PFA Player of the Year and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year awards.

    Bordeaux

    He moved from Spurs to join Bordeaux in March 1988, scoring 13 goals in 19 league games. [13] [14]

    Later career

    In July 1989 he joined Manchester City, who had just been promoted to the First Division. He scored 10 league goals in his first season, but only four goals in 1990–91. He managed three appearances and scored twice in the league for City the following season, and was transferred to Chelsea in December 1991. [15]

    He scored seven goals in 16 games over the next three months with Chelsea, scoring the winning goal in an FA Cup fourth-round tie against Everton. He then joined West Ham United in March 1992, scoring once in four league games, but was unable to stop them from being relegated. [16]

    He scored 14 goals in the 1992–93 Division One campaign as West Ham were promoted as runners-up. His goal on the last day of the season, against Cambridge United, secured promotion to the Premier League. [17] He played just seven league games in the 1993–94 in the Premier League, scoring two goals against Sheffield Wednesday in August 1993, although he did score West Ham's first goal in the Bobby Moore Memorial Match against a Premier League XI at Upton Park in March 1994 in a 2-1 win for the Hammers. He played his final game for West Ham later in the same month in a 0–0 FA Cup sixth-round game at Upton Park against Luton Town, coming on as a substitute for Lee Chapman. [18]

    In January 1994, when Allen was out of favour at West Ham United, Tottenham manager Ossie Ardiles (who had been his Tottenham team-mate the previous decade) expressed interest in bringing Allen back to White Hart Lane as he looked to spend up to £500,000 on a striker to cover for the injured Teddy Sheringham, but the transfer did not happen. [19] Allen opted to drop down a division and join Millwall for a fee of £75,000. [18]

    He ended his career with three league games for Carlisle United in 1995–96. [3]

    International career

    In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his first England cap against Brazil. In total he made five appearances for England without scoring. [20]

    American football career

    In 1997, he played as Kicker for the London Monarchs in NFL Europe. [21]

    Personal life

    His son Oliver is also a footballer. In 2019, Allen published his autobiography, Up Front: My Autobiography. [22] Allen also works as a commentator on ESPN and BT Sport predominantly for coverage of Ligue 1, Bundesliga, FA Cup, and UEFA club competitions.

    Career statistics

    Club

    Appearances and goals by club, season and competition [23] [24]
    ClubSeasonLeagueNational cupLeague cupEuropeTotal
    DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
    Queens Park Rangers 1978–79 First Division 104104
    1979–80 Second Division 39283928
    Total49324932
    Crystal Palace 1980–81 First Division259259
    Queens Park Rangers 1981–82 Second Division3713213914
    1982–83 Second Division25132513
    1983–84 First Division25142514
    Total8740218941
    Tottenham Hotspur 1984–85 First Division1374 [lower-alpha 1] 2179
    1985–86 First Division199199
    1986–87 First Division3933649125449
    1987–88 First Division34113411
    Total105602442173112
    Bordeaux 1988–89 Division 1 19133 [lower-alpha 1] 02213
    Manchester City 1989–90 First Division30103010
    1990–91 First Division204204
    1991–92 First Division3232
    Total53165316
    Chelsea 1991–92 First Division167167
    West Ham United 1991–92 First Division4141
    1992–93 Second Division27142714
    1993–94 Premier League 723010112
    Total381730104217
    Millwall 1994–95 First Division120120
    Carlisle United 1995–96 Second Division3030
    Career total407194731072422199
    1. 1 2 Appearances in UEFA Cup

    Honours

    Queens Park Rangers

    Individual

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