Clive Allen

Clive Darren Allen (born 20 May 1961) is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward for seven different London clubs. Allen had been a prolific striker[2] throughout his career.

This article is about English footballer. For the basketball player, see Clive Allen (basketball).

Clive Allen
Allen in 2016
Personal information
Birth name Clive Darren Allen
Date of birth (1961-05-20) 20 May 1961
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)
National team
1980 England U21 3 (0)
1984–1988 England 5 (0)
Teams managed
2007 Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker)
2008 Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Early life

Clive Allen was born in Stepney, London on 20, May 1961. His father is Les Allen who was a member of Tottenham Hotspur's Double-winning team of 1960–61. His younger brother is Bradley Allen and his cousins Martin Allen and Paul Allen also played football.[3]

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.[4]

Arsenal

Allen signed for Arsenal in the summer of 1980 for a fee of £1.25m, but he did not play a single competitive match (although he did play three matches in Arsenal's 1980–81 pre-season friendly campaign). He shortly moved on to Crystal Palace in a swap deal with Kenny Sansom.[5]

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.[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 had their most successful FA Cup run, reaching the FA Cup Final for the first time with Allen scoring the goals in 1–0 victories in both the 6th 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.[13]

He also picked up the titles of PFA Player of the Year and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year.

Bordeaux

He moved from Spurs to join Bordeaux in March 1988.[13]

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.[14]

He scored seven goals in 16 league games over the next three months with Chelsea before he joined West Ham United in March 1992, scoring once in four league games but was unable to stop them from being relegated.[15]

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.[16] He played just seven league games in the 1993–94 in the new Premier League scoring two goals, against Sheffield Wednesday in August 1993. He played his final game for West Ham in March 1994 in a 0-0 FA Cup sixth-round game at Upton Park against Luton Town, coming on as a substitute for Lee Chapman.[17]

In January 1994, when Allen was out of favour at West Ham United, Tottenham manager Ossie Ardiles (who had been his Tottenham teammate the previous decade) expressed interest in bringing Allen back to White Hart Lane as he looked to spend up to £500,000 on buying a striker to cover for the injured Teddy Sheringham, but the transfer did not happen.[18] Allen opted to drop down a division and join Millwall for a fee of £75,000.[17]

He ended his career with three league games for Carlisle United in 1995–96.[4]

International career

In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his first England cap against Brazil. In total he made five appearances for England.[19]

American football career
Clive Allen
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

    In 1997, he played for the London Monarchs in NFL Europe.[20]

    Personal life

    His son Oliver was also a footballer. In 2019, Allen published his autobiography, Up Front: My Autobiography.[21]

    References
    1. Bob Goodwin (16 August 2017). The Spurs Alphabet. Lulu.com. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-0-9540434-2-1.
    2. "An Audience with Clive Allen | Sportsfreak". www.sportsfreak.co.nz.
    3. Mark Metcalf, Tony Matthews (15 January 2012). The Golden Boot: Football's Top Scorers. Amberley Publishing. ISBN 9781445611181.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
    4. "Clive Allen". Post War English & Scottish Football League A — Z Player's Database. Neil Brown. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
    5. David Gerges. "Sol Campbell, Clive Allen, Joey Beauchamp and the Top 10 shortest transfers of all-time". Mirror Football. Trinity Mirror. Archived from the original on 25 November 2009. Retrieved 28 October 2012.
    6. www.holmesdale.net, Holmesdale Online. "1980/81 revisited". Retrieved 8 April 2018.
    7. QPR 1 Crystal Palace 0. YouTube — QPR Official.
    8. QPR 1 WBA 0. YouTube — QPR Official.
    9. "The 1982 FA Cup Final Replay: QPR (0) – Tottenham Hotspur (1)". indyrs.co.uk. 27 May 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
    10. Nick Constable (15 September 2014). Match of the Day: 50 Years of Football. Ebury Publishing. pp. 208–. ISBN 978-1-4481-4253-8.
    11. "Clive Allen". www.11v11.com. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
    12. "Tottenham Hotspur 1984–1985". www.statto.com. Archived from the original on 8 April 2016. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
    13. "Great players: Clive Allen". History of the club. Tottenham Hotspur. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
    14. Tony Matthews (21 November 2013). Manchester City: Player by Player. Amberley Publishing Limited. pp. 10–. ISBN 978-1-4456-1737-4.
    15. "Clive Allen". 11v11.com. Association of Football Statisticians. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
    16. "Top 3 Goal Nets: Chris Scull Remembers..." West Ham United. 21 September 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2018.
    17. "Clive Allen". westhamstats.info. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
    18. "Football: Ardiles looking to Angell or Allen". 14 January 1994. Retrieved 8 April 2018.
    19. "Clive Allen". England Football Online. 25 September 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
    20. Halling, Nick (12 May 1997). "American football: Allen puts Monarchs back on target". The Independent. London. Retrieved 19 August 2012.
    21. Clive Allen (17 October 2019). Up Front: My Autobiography. deCoubertin Books. ISBN 978-1-909245-96-9.
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