Clive Darren Allen(born 20 May 1961) is an English former professionalfootballerwho played as aforwardfor seven different London clubs. Allen was a prolific striker throughout his career.

Clive Allen
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*
Years Team Apps (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)
Total 407 (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
1997London Monarchs
Career highlights and awards
RecordsThe Football Database
Career stats
PAT7/10
FG6/6
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

In 1986-87 he won thePFAandFootball Writers' Associationplayer of the year awards. He also won 5 caps for England from 1984 to 1988.

Early life

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Clive Allen was born inStepney,London on 20 May 1961. His father,Les Allen,was a member of Tottenham Hotspur's Double-winning team of1960–61.His younger brother,Bradley Allen,and cousinsMartinandPaul Allenalso played football professionally.[2]

Club career

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Queens Park Rangers

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He started his career atQueens Park Rangersin the late 1970s, and scored 32 league goals in 49 appearances, before moving toArsenal.[3]

Arsenal

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Allen signed forArsenalin 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 toCrystal Palacein a swap deal withKenny Sansom.[4]

Crystal Palace

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Allen was Palace's top scorer for the1980–81 seasonwith 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 againstCoventry Cityon 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 theBBC,the incident was captured on camera.[6]

Return to Queens Park Rangers

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QPR, still in theSecond Division,were now managed byTerry 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 (vsCrystal Palace)[7]and semi-final (vsWest Bromwich Albion).[8]Allen was injured in thefinalagainst 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

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

In1986–87he 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 cousinPaul Allen,in the1987 FA Cup Final.That season he also won thePFA Player of the YearandFootball Writers' Association Footballer of the Yearawards.

Bordeaux

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

Later career

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In July 1989 he joinedManchester City,who had just been promoted to the First Division. He scored 10 league goals in his first season, but only four goals in1990–91.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 anFA Cupfourth-round tie againstEverton.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 the1992–93Division One campaign as West Ham were promoted as runners-up. His goal on the last day of the season, againstCambridge United,secured promotion to the Premier League.[17]He played just seven league games in the1993–94in the Premier League, scoring two goals againstSheffield Wednesdayin 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 atUpton ParkagainstLuton Town,coming on as a substitute forLee Chapman.[18]

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

He ended his career with three league games forCarlisle Unitedin 1995–96.[3]

International career

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In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his firstEnglandcap againstBrazil.In total he made five appearances forEnglandwithout scoring.[20]

American football career

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In 1997, he played as Kicker for theLondon MonarchsinNFL Europe.[21]

Personal life

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His sonOliveris also a footballer. In 2019, Allen published his autobiography,Up Front: My Autobiography.[22]Allen also works as a commentator onESPNandBT Sportpredominantly for coverage ofLigue 1,Bundesliga,FA Cup,andUEFA club competitions.

Career statistics

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Club

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Appearances and goals by club, season and competition[23][24]
Club Season League National cup League cup Europe Total
Division Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Queens Park Rangers 1978–79 First Division 10 4 10 4
1979–80 Second Division 39 28 39 28
Total 49 32 49 32
Crystal Palace 1980–81 First Division 25 9 25 9
Queens Park Rangers 1981–82 Second Division 37 13 2 1 39 14
1982–83 Second Division 25 13 25 13
1983–84 First Division 25 14 25 14
Total 87 40 2 1 89 41
Tottenham Hotspur 1984–85 First Division 13 7 4[a] 2 17 9
1985–86 First Division 19 9 19 9
1986–87 First Division 39 33 6 4 9 12 54 49
1987–88 First Division 34 11 34 11
Total 105 60 2 4 4 2 173 112
Bordeaux 1988–89 Division 1 19 13 3[a] 0 22 13
Manchester City 1989–90 First Division 30 10 30 10
1990–91 First Division 20 4 20 4
1991–92 First Division 3 2 3 2
Total 53 16 53 16
Chelsea 1991–92 First Division 16 7 16 7
West Ham United 1991–92 First Division 4 1 4 1
1992–93 Second Division 27 14 27 14
1993–94 Premier League 7 2 3 0 1 0 11 2
Total 38 17 3 0 1 0 42 17
Millwall 1994–95 First Division 12 0 12 0
Carlisle United 1995–96 Second Division 3 0 3 0
Career total 407 194 7 3 1 0 7 2 422 199
  1. ^abAppearances inUEFA Cup

Honours

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Queens Park Rangers

Individual

References

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  1. ^Bob Goodwin (16 August 2017).The Spurs Alphabet.Lulu. pp. 5–.ISBN978-0-9540434-2-1.
  2. ^Mark Metcalf; Tony Matthews (15 January 2012).The Golden Boot: Football's Top Scorers.Amberley Publishing.ISBN978-1-4456-1118-1.
  3. ^ab"Clive Allen".Post War English & Scottish Football League A — Z Player's Database.Neil Brown.Retrieved31 October2017.
  4. ^David Gerges."Sol Campbell, Clive Allen, Joey Beauchamp and the Top 10 shortest transfers of all-time".Mirror Football.Trinity Mirror. Archived fromthe originalon 25 November 2009.Retrieved28 October2012.
  5. ^holmesdale.net, Holmesdale Online."1980/81 revisited".Retrieved8 April2018.
  6. ^"Back in the Day: September 6th - The Clive Allen Ghost Goal".rednbluearmy.co.uk.6 September 2017.Retrieved8 October2023.
  7. ^QPR 1 Crystal Palace 0.YouTube — QPR Official.Archivedfrom the original on 13 December 2021.
  8. ^QPR 1 WBA 0.YouTube — QPR Official.Archivedfrom the original on 13 December 2021.
  9. ^"The 1982 FA Cup Final Replay: QPR (0) – Tottenham Hotspur (1)".indyrs.co.uk. 27 May 2012.Retrieved6 April2020.
  10. ^Nick Constable (15 September 2014).Match of the Day: 50 Years of Football.Ebury Publishing. pp. 208–.ISBN978-1-4481-4253-8.
  11. ^"Clive Allen".11v11.Retrieved27 January2016.
  12. ^"Tottenham Hotspur 1984–1985".statto. Archived fromthe originalon 8 April 2016.Retrieved27 January2016.
  13. ^ab"Great players: Clive Allen".History of the club.Tottenham Hotspur. Archived fromthe originalon 4 February 2013.Retrieved19 August2012.
  14. ^"Clive Allen".Footballdatabase.Retrieved1 October2022.
  15. ^Tony Matthews (21 November 2013).Manchester City: Player by Player.Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 10–.ISBN978-1-4456-1737-4.
  16. ^"Clive Allen".11v11.Association of Football Statisticians.Retrieved8 April2018.
  17. ^"Top 3 Goal Nets: Chris Scull Remembers..."West Ham United. 21 September 2017.Retrieved10 May2018.
  18. ^ab"Clive Allen".westhamstats.info.Retrieved8 April2018.
  19. ^"Football: Ardiles looking to Angell or Allen".Independent.co.uk.14 January 1994.Retrieved8 April2018.
  20. ^"Clive Allen".England Football Online.25 September 2010.Retrieved9 April2018.
  21. ^Halling, Nick (12 May 1997)."American football: Allen puts Monarchs back on target".The Independent.London.Retrieved19 August2012.
  22. ^Clive Allen (17 October 2019).Up Front: My Autobiography.deCoubertin Books.ISBN978-1-909245-96-9.
  23. ^"Clive Allen » Club matches".worldfootball.net.Retrieved5 May2023.
  24. ^Clive Allenat National-Football-Teams
  25. ^Lynch.The Official P.F.A. Footballers Heroes.p. 146.
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