Clive Allen

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

Clive Allen
Born	(1961-05-20) 20 May 1961 Stepney, Greater London
Height	5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)
Association football career Full name Clive Darren Allen 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 1980 England U21 3 (0) 1984–1988 England 5 (0) Managerial career 2007 Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker) 2008 Tottenham Hotspur (caretaker) *Club domestic league appearances and goals
Football career
Career information
Status	Retired
Position(s)	Placekicker
Career history
As player
1997	London Monarchs
Career highlights and awards
Records	The Football Database
Career stats
PAT	7/10
FG	6/6

Clive Darren Allen (born 20 May 1961) is a retired English footballer, 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 team which won the First Division title and FA Cup "double" in 1961. 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.

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.

Arsenal

Allen signed for Arsenal in the middle 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.

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.

Return to Queens Park Rangers

QPR, still in the Second Division, were now managed by Terry Venables (who had signed Allen for Palace) 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).

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 1983–84, but would be playing UEFA Cup football for Tottenham rather than QPR the following season as a £700,000 fee took him to White Hart Lane.

Tottenham Hotspur

Allen scored twice on his debut and eight goals from 15 appearances in his first season, where Spurs finished third after being top of the league at Christmas.

In 1986–87 he scored 33 League goals, and 49 goals in all competitions.

His goal tally that season broke the Spurs club record held by Jimmy Greaves, and remains unbroken. No player associated with any top division club has managed to match or exceed Allen's total of goals in all competitions since then, either. However, his top-flight league goals tally was surpassed by Andy Cole of Newcastle United in 1993–94 and a year later by Alan Shearer at Blackburn Rovers.

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.

Later career

He spent just one season in France before returning to England in August 1989 when he joined Manchester City, who had just been promoted to the First Division. He scored 10 league goals as City survived their first season back in the top flight, but scored just four goals in 20 league games 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.

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 and unable to stop them from being relegated.

He scored 14 goals in the 1992–93 Division One campaign as West Ham were promoted as runners-up, but played just seven league games (scoring twice) in the 1993–94 in the new Premier League.

In January 1994, when Allen was out of favour at West Ham United, Tottenham manager Ossie Ardiles (who had been his Tottenham team mate 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 never happened. Allen opted to drop down a division and join Millwall for a fee of £75,000. In 1995 Allen ended his career with 3 games for Carlisle United.

International career

In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his first England cap in a friendly against Brazil, coming on as a substitute. England won 2–0 but when Allen started against Uruguay England lost 2–0. He received his third cap in a goalless draw against Chile. On 29 April 1987, Allen got his fourth England cap in a goalless draw versus Turkey. He won his fifth and final England cap in another goalless draw, against Israel on 17 February 1988.

Managerial career

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.

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.

American football career

In 1997, he was playing for the London Monarchs in NFL Europe.

Personal life

His son Oliver was also a footballer.

Managerial statistics

Club	First Game	Last Game	G	W	D	L	Win %
Tottenham Hotspur	26 October 2007, v Blackburn Rovers, White Hart Lane, Premier League	6 November 2011 (joint with Joe Jordan), v Fulham, Craven Cottage, Premier League	4	2	0	2	50%

External links

• Clive Allen England profile at Englandstats