Clive Allen

Clive Allen

Personal information
Full name	Clive Darren Allen
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker manager)

Clive Darren Allen (born Stepney, London, 20 May 1961) is a former English international football player and a prolific scorer for a number of clubs.

Allen is the son of ex-Tottenham Hotspur forward Les Allen, who was a member of the legendary team which won the First Division title and FA Cup "double" in 1961 (the Cup success occurred exactly two weeks before Allen Jnr's birth). He is the brother of former footballer Bradley Allen and cousin of football manager Martin Allen and ex West Ham United and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Paul Allen.

A fearfully accurate centre forward, Allen joined Queens Park Rangers as a youth player, making his debut in 1978. Allen scored a hat trick on his full debut vs Coventry City in a 5-1 win, but QPR were relegated at the end of that season and Allen became a first-choice striker in their quest to return to the top flight, scoring a phenomenal 28 goals in 1979-80, though not enough to achieve promotion for his club. This prompted Arsenal to make a bid of £1,250,000 for him in the summer of 1980, which QPR accepted. This was big news in the sports pages as Allen was still a teenager.

There followed a most bizarre sequence of events which led to Allen leaving Arsenal within just two months of arriving at Highbury, having not played a single competitive match (although he did play three matches Arsenal's 1980-81 pre-season friendly campaign). He was sold in part-exchange to Crystal Palace in another seven-figure deal which saw England full back Kenny Sansom come the other way. There was a rumour that QPR and Palace had secured a deal for Allen on the condition that QPR did not sell Allen to Palace directly, and Arsenal acted as go-betweens. This has never been confirmed.

During his time at Palace, Allen "scored" one of the most controversial disallowed goals of all-time. During Palace's 3-1 away defeat to Coventry City, on 6 September 1980, Allen, who had already scored earlier in the game, was fouled just outside the Coventry penalty area. Allen took the free-kick himself, which thumped against the right-hand stanchion inside the goal (from Allen's view), then appeared to hit the net, before coming back out again. After much arguing and consulting with his linesman, the referee decided that the goal did not count, and this counted towards a season of misery for Palace, in which they were eventually relegated.

Following relegation, Allen left Palace (having scored just eight goals), and moved back to his former club QPR, after a tumultuous two years elsewhere in London.

QPR, still in the Second Division, were now managed by Terry Venables and Allen's first season back at the club (1981-82) revived his fortunes as 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 vital goals in 1-0 victories in both the 6th Round (vs Crystal Palace) and Semi final (vs West Bromwich Albion). Getting to the FA Cup final was unusual for a club outside the top flight - and, adding extra intrigue to the occasion, QPR's opponents were Tottenham, his father's former club.

The day went appallingly for Allen - he was injured after just two minutes (following a late tackle) at Wembley and he had to be substituted early into the second half. The match ended 1-1 after extra-time but Allen was not fit enough to take part in the replay, which Tottenham won 1-0.

Over the next two seasons, Allen scored 27 League goals as QPR first won the Second Division Championship in 1982-83 and then consolidated their new status helping them to finish fifth in the First Division in 83-84. In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his first England cap by Bobby Robson in a friendly against Brazil, coming on as a substitute. England won 2-0 but when Allen started the next game of this tour of South America three days later, they lost 2-0 to Uruguay. He played in the third game of the tour too, which was a goalless draw against Chile. Upon arriving home, Allen joined Tottenham, following in his father's footsteps, for £700,000.

A settling-in period at Spurs followed, with Allen scoring twice on his debut and ultimately weighing in with eight goals from 15 appearances in his first season. He suffered with injury during his first two years but a fully-fit Allen took to the field at the start of his third season as Spurs found themselves able to chase three trophies thanks to their red-hot goalscorer. By now, Allen's cousin Paul had also joined the club.

Allen, playing as a lone forward with the creative forces of Glenn Hoddle, Osvaldo Ardiles and Chris Waddle laying on the chances, fired 33 League goals plus 16 more in the League Cup and FA Cup competitions as Spurs reached both semi-finals while challenging for the League. In the League Cup semi, Spurs faced their fierce rivals Arsenal and Allen scored three goals over three matches (it was level after two legs so a replay was required) but still Arsenal won through to the final. However, Spurs reached the 1987 FA Cup Final at Wembley after easily overpowering Watford in the semi. As the season drew to a close, Allen got his fourth England cap in a goalless draw versus Turkey, scoring a disallowed goal.

At Wembley, Spurs took on Coventry City and Spurs started as clear favourites. After all, Spurs had won all seven of their previous FA Cup finals and Coventry had never reached the final before.

Five years earlier Allen picked up an injury in the second minute of the FA Cup final; this time he picked up a goal. An early Hoddle free kick was cleared to Waddle on the right flank, and the England winger thundered in a near post cross which the perfectly-positioned Allen headed home. However, it would all end in heartbreak for Tottenham, as Coventry fought back to win 3-2 in extra time. Allen's final tally of 49 goals in all competitions that season broke the Spurs club record held by Jimmy Greaves, and remains unbroken to this day. He also picked up the titles of PFA Player of the Year and Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year.

Tottenham seemed to peak at this point and the following season Allen's touch was not quite the same. He scored eleven goals and won a fifth and final England cap in another goalless draw, versus Israel. He never scored for his country. In March 1988, Spurs sold Allen to French champions Bordeaux for £1 million. Eighteen months later he joined Manchester City, but despite a good goalscoring record he fell out of favour when Peter Reid took over as manager. He subsequently had short spells with Chelsea, West Ham United, Millwall and Carlisle United before retiring during the 1995-96 season. In an intriguing change of sport, he had a brief spell with the London Monarchs in the NFL Europe.

Allen was the Tottenham Hotspur reserve team coach under Martin Jol at White Hart Lane, as well as being a pundit for a variety of media organisations. He was coach of Spurs Reserves when they won the FA Premier Reserve League Southern Division in 2005-06. His son Oliver played for Stevenage but was bought out of his contract due to a persistent knee injury.

After Jol's dismissal in October 2007, Allen took up the position of Interim Manager of the senior squad. He took charge of the team for one match, a 1-2 defeat by Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League, before handing the reins over to Juande Ramos.

Clive Allen has worked for ITV as an analyst on football shows such as The Goal Rush and UEFA Champions League coverage.

Managerial Stats

Club	First Game	Last Game	G	W	D	L	Win %
Tottenham Hotspur	26 October 2007, v Blackburn Rovers, White Hart Lane, Premier League	26 October 2008, v Bolton Wanderers, White Hart Lane, Premier League	2	1	0	1	50%

References

• Clive Allen at Englandstats.com

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