Gregg Blundell

Gregg Blundell

Personal information
Full name	Gregg Steven Blundell
Date of birth	(1977-10-03) 3 October 1977 (age 45)
Place of birth	Liverpool, England
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1994–1997	Tranmere Rovers	0	(0)
1997	Knowsley United
1997–2001	Vauxhall Motors
2001–2003	Northwich Victoria	90	(39)
2003–2005	Doncaster Rovers	86	(28)
2005–2007	Chester City	57	(12)
2007–2009	Darlington	71	(10)
2008	→ Accrington Stanley (loan)	2	(0)
2009	Chester City	[1]
2009	→ Barrow (loan)	19	(2)
2010–2011	Barrow	9	(0)
Total		334	(91)
International career
2003	England C	1	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Gregg Steven Blundell (born 3 October 1977) is an English retired footballer who played as a striker. He is now a physiotherapist for Liverpool. Prior to his appointment at Tranmere he combined playing football and being the club's physiotherapist at Barrow AFC ^[2] in the Conference National. ^[3]

Football career

Early career

Gregg started as a trainee at Tranmere Rovers but was released. After a spell with Knowsley United, he began a prolific scoring record with Vauxhall Motors, who rose through the non-league pyramid in his spell there. The goals continued to flow after a move to Football Conference club Northwich Victoria in 2001. Despite playing for a side in the bottom half of the table, Blundell had a strong scoring record. This prompted a move to Conference promotion chasers Doncaster Rovers in March 2003.

Doncaster Rovers

Blundell's first season with Rovers ended with his promotion to the Football League, after play-off wins over future club Chester City and Dagenham & Redbridge. His belated Football League debut at Leyton Orient on 9 August 2003 saw him open the scoring in a 3–1 win, as Rovers went on to win the Division Three title. Blundell scored 18 goals during the season.

However, many Rovers fans felt that he had reached his level at League one and despite being given chances in the first team, he never managed to achieve the success he had the season before.

Chester City

Blundell was signed by Chester City from Doncaster Rovers for a Club Record Fee in July 2005 (reputedly £105,000). He made a quick impact with Chester, bagging six goals by the end of September 2005 as Chester challenged for promotion from Football League Two. But his season was to lie in tatters after an injury sustained against Rochdale on 7 October 2005. After missing three months out injured, just one more goal was managed before the end of the season. His confidence was still never fully recovered the following season and Chester accepted a nominal bid for Blundell from Darlington as transfer deadline day approached in January 2007.

Darlington

He was re-united with former manager Dave Penney at Darlington. Again the goals did not flow in the rest of the season, but he did score a late penalty equaliser on his return to Chester in April 2007. Apart from a loan spell with Accrington Stanley, Blundell remained at Darlington until the summer of 2009 when he returned to Chester who had just suffered relegation to the Conference National.

Chester and Barrow

Blundell stayed just a half a season with Chester, scoring three goals in eighteen league games, before moving to Barrow AFC on loan as Chester looked to cut costs. With Chester unable to pay their players, Blundell left in January 2010, signing permanently with Barrow.

On 13 March 2010, Gregg scored the only goal of the match as Barrow beat Salisbury City in the 1st Leg of the FA Trophy Semi Final at Salisbury. He remained with Barrow for the following season, but left in June 2011. ^[2]

Personal life

He graduated from the University of Salford in 2008 with a degree in Physiotherapy ^[4] and has been studying for a master's degree in Football Rehabilitation at Edge Hill University. ^[2]

Blundell is the uncle of Tranmere Rovers midfielder James Wallace. ^[5]

Physiotherapy career

After combining playing football and physiotherapy at Barrow, he retired from professional football at the end of the 2010–11 season and on 21 June 2011 Tranmere Rovers confirmed his appointment as the club's new physiotherapist. ^[6] Since 2016, he has been a physiotherapist for Liverpool ^[7]

Honours

As a player

Doncaster Rovers

• Nationwide Division Three Title winner: 2003–04

Barrow AFC

• FA Trophy winner: 2009–10

Individual

• Football Conference Goalscorer of the Month: August 2002 ^[8]

Physiotherapist

• Premier League: 2019–20 ^[9]
• FA Cup: 2021–22 ^[10]
• Football League Cup/EFL Cup: 2021–22; ^[11] runner-up: 2015–16 ^[12]
• FA Community Shield: 2022 ^[13]
• UEFA Champions League: 2018–19; ^[14] runner-up: 2017–18, ^[15] 2021–22 ^[16]
• UEFA Super Cup: 2019 ^[17]
• FIFA Club World Cup: 2019 ^[18]
• UEFA Europa League runner-up: 2015–16 ^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. All Chester City players' statistics for the 2009/10 season were expunged after Chester were expelled from the Conference National for breaking league regulations
2. "Blundell Leaves Holker Street". North West Evening Mail. 2 June 2011. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
3. Williams, Mike; Williams, Tony, eds. (2013). Non-League Club Directory 2014. Tony Williams Publications. p. 1006. ISBN   978-1-869833-72-5.
4. My Graduation - July 2008 graduation booklet p. 34, University of Salford, July 2008
5. "Sheffield United: Ronnie says Wallace will be worth the wait". Sheffield Star. 22 August 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2014.
6. "New Physio For Rovers". Tranmere Rovers FC. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
7. "Gregg Blundell". Liverpool FC. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
8. "Conference end of season awards". ConfGuide.com. 14 June 2003. Archived from the original on 2 July 2003. Retrieved 14 March 2023.
9. "James Milner: Overview". Premier League. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
10. McNulty, Phil (14 May 2022). "Chelsea 0–0 Liverpool". BBC Sport. Retrieved 14 May 2022.
11. McNulty, Phil (27 February 2022). "Chelsea 0–0 Liverpool". BBC Sport. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
12. McNulty, Phil (28 February 2016). "Liverpool 1–1 Manchester City". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 8 March 2018. Retrieved 21 December 2017.
13. Hafez, Shamoon (30 July 2022). "Liverpool 3–1 Manchester City". BBC Sport. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
14. McNulty, Phil (1 June 2019). "Tottenham Hotspur 0–2 Liverpool". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 1 June 2021. Retrieved 1 June 2019.
15. McNulty, Phil (26 May 2018). "Real Madrid 3–1 Liverpool". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
16. McNulty, Phil (28 May 2022). "Liverpool 0–1 Real Madrid: Reds beaten in Paris as Vinicius Jr hits winner". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
17. Rose, Gary (14 August 2019). "Liverpool 2–2 Chelsea". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 20 May 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2019.
18. Poole, Harry (21 December 2019). "Liverpool 1–0 Flamengo". BBC Sport. Archived from the original on 5 April 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

External links

• Gregg Blundell at Soccerbase