Wayne Routledge

Routledge began his career at Crystal Palace, making his starting debut against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the age of 17 in September 2002, and scoring after just one minute on the field. He made his Palace debut in October 2001 in a 1–0 home defeat by West Bromwich Albion, aged only 16. He was England's second ever player to score at the new Wembley Stadium.

He was an important member of the team which won promotion to the Premiership via the play-offs in 2003–04, and he was ever present as Palace battled for their Premiership place in 2004–05 and, although they just failed to avoid the drop, Routledge proved to be an exciting talent on the wing and up front, chipping in with an impressive 8 assists. He was not to leave the top flight, though. After rejecting a contract with the club that developed him as a youngster in January, Tottenham Hotspur signed him on 1 July 2005.[7] The clubs could not come to an agreement over a fee for Routledge so the transfer went to a tribunal. There it was agreed that Palace would receive an initial £1.25 million, rising to £2 million depending upon appearances in future.

After impressing in the pre-season, his career at White Hart Lane started slowly as he sustained a broken foot on his league debut for the club, but on 12 December 2005 he made his return as a substitute in only his second match for Spurs against Portsmouth.

He was loaned to Portsmouth in the January 2006 transfer window[8] and made 13 appearances for them before returning to Spurs at the season's end. Routledge impressed Portsmouth boss Harry Redknapp in a home match against Bolton Wanderers in March 2006, when, with Bolton 1–0 ahead with only three minutes left to play, Routledge outpaced three Bolton players into the penalty box to connect with a long pass from Matthew Taylor and set Azar Karadas up for a spectacular volley which levelled the match and ultimately earned relegation-threatened Portsmouth a crucial 1–1 draw, a result that began a run of good late season form for them.

After impressing in the pre-season again, he was once again loaned out on a year deal to Fulham as part of the deal that brought Steed Malbranque to Spurs.[9] This was also partly due to the emergence of Aaron Lennon at both club and international level.

His Fulham bow came as a 34th minute replacement for injury victim Jimmy Bullard in a 2–1 victory at Newcastle United. He went on to create two goals in the final ten minutes of the match. He is most remembered during his time at Fulham for his winning goal in a thrilling FA Cup tie against Leicester City in January 2007, which ended 4–3 to Fulham.[10]

On 30 January 2008 Routledge joined Aston Villa on an 18-month contract in a deal worth £1.5 million.[11] He made his first-team debut on 5 April 2008 coming on as a late substitute for Stiliyan Petrov in the 86th minute in a 4–0 win against Bolton.

On 10 July 2008, Routledge was the subject of a scathing verbal attack from Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan. Jordan was giving an interview about now ex-Palace midfielder John Bostock, during which he used Routledge as an example of why he believed the youth player should not leave Palace to join Tottenham.

"When Spurs came knocking I told Wayne to stay and learn his trade at Palace, but he went, he grabbed the money, and now he's at Villa not getting in the first team, just like he didn't get in the Spurs team, just like he didn't get in the Portsmouth team and just like he didn't get in the Fulham team."[12]

In November 2008 after making just one league appearance for Aston Villa so far during the season, Routledge was allowed to join Championship club Cardiff City on a two-month loan deal after the club suffered a double injury blow when both Joe Ledley and Peter Whittingham were ruled out for one and three months respectively.[13] He made his debut for the club on 22 November in a 2–1 defeat to Plymouth Argyle during which he supplied the through pass for Michael Chopra to score Cardiff's only goal of the match.[14] He scored his first goal for the club in just his second match when he found the net against Reading during a 2–2 draw on 25 November.[15] He soon found the net for a second time, this time scoring Cardiff's second goal in the 2–2 draw at Burnley.[16]

In the lead up to the opening of the January transfer window it was revealed that Cardiff had offered a fee of around £3 million in order to sign Routledge on a permanent deal. The transfer was expected to be completed prior to the clubs FA Cup third round match against Reading on 3 January, but the day before Routledge rejected the deal and was subsequently recalled from his loan spell.[17][18]

On the same day that his loan spell at Cardiff was terminated, Routledge signed a ​3 ¹⁄₂-year contract at rival Championship club Queens Park Rangers for a fee of £600,000.[19] Routledge made his debut in a 1–1 draw with Coventry City on 10 January. Routledge then scored in his very next match against Derby County on Nigel Clough's first match in charge, and his first away match for QPR.

His performance further improved in a League Cup tie against Exeter on 11 August 2009, when Routledge scored a second half hat trick.[20] He also scored a late goal against Accrington Stanley to seal a second round League Cup victory.

On 26 January 2010 Routledge signed for Newcastle United for an undisclosed fee, on a ​3 ¹⁄₂-year deal, and wore the number 10 shirt.[21] He made his debut for Newcastle a day later coming on for Peter Løvenkrands in a 2–0 win over former club Crystal Palace and assisted Nile Ranger the second goal of the match.[22] Routledge scored his first goal for Newcastle in the Championship match against Coventry City with a fine volley from 30 yards out to bring the match to 1–1, Newcastle having previously gone behind. He was later awarded a penalty for Newcastle after being brought down by Leon Barnett, which Løvenkrands put into the back of the net. The match finished in a 4–1 win for Newcastle United.[23] He netted his second goal for the club against Blackpool, getting the final goal in yet another 4–1 win.[24] Routledge scored his third goal on 19 April 2010, rounding the Argyle goalkeeper to slot home, as Newcastle beat Plymouth away to secure the Championship title.[25]

Due to his good form in the team, he kept his place for Newcastle's opening matches of the Premier League. He started Newcastle's opening five matches on the wide right of midfield, in an unchanged team which saw them pick up seven points from the first five matches and climb to 5th in the table on 18 September 2010. Routledge lost his place however and found himself serving bench duty. Starting with a 2–1 win over West Ham United in October, the form of Joey Barton wide on the right and Cheick Tioté and Kevin Nolan in the middle ensured Routledge was kept out once more. As the form of the team deteriorated, Routledge returned on 27 November in the 1–1 draw with Chelsea.

On 21 January 2011, Routledge returned to Queens Park Rangers, signing a loan until the end of the season, where he scored on his debut.[26] On 25 April Routledge scored the goal to all but seal QPR's place in the Premier League against Hull City. It was reported on 20 April 2011 that Newcastle United had terminated his contract with mutual consent, allowing him to move to QPR permanently,[27] however these reports were never substantiated by the club or player.

Routledge playing for Swansea City in 2011

On 4 August 2011, Swansea City announced the signing of Routledge on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee and he played his debut against La Liga team Real Betis in a pre-season friendly.[28] He made his competitive debut on 15 August 2011, a 4–0 defeat against Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.[29] Routledge scored his first goal for Swansea on 2 January 2012, the second in a 2–0 victory against his former club Aston Villa at Villa Park.[30]

On 28 January 2013, Routledge signed a new four-year contract with Swansea,[31] and on 25 September 2014, it was extended by the club until 2018.[32] His contract was not renewed and the club confirmed on 18 May 2019 that he will be one of a number of released players upon expiry of his current contract.[33] The player has since re-signed for Swansea on 23 May on a new contract with reduced wages.[34]

On 7 August 2020, Routledge signed a new one-year deal with Swansea City. [35]