CLIVE ALLEN – THE DISCARDED MARKSMAN

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When Mel Machin convinced the City board to part with £1.1m to bring Clive Allen to Maine Road, it proved a smart piece of business.

Allen had tried a brief foray into French football with Bordeaux, but, never one to stay somewhere he wasn’t entirely happy, he wanted a move back to England and when City moved in, he was more than happy to don the pale blue shirt.

Allen had made his name at QPR and Crystal Palace before signing for Spurs. He’d actually spent two months as an Arsenal player during the summer but moved on without ever kicking a ball for the Gunners!

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At White Hart Lane he became a Tottenham legend scoring 60 goals in 97 league starts though he was – incredibly – overlooked by England throughout his career.

He arrived at City with nothing but a prolific reputation to uphold.

And though he failed to score in any of his first four games for City, Allen rolled home the winner in his fifth match – ironically against his old employers QPR – in a 1-0 victory.

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He was then out for the next three games and missed out on the epic 5-1 win over Manchester United that season.

Allen announced his return by scoring two goals from the bench in the next two games.

City then managed just four goals in the next six games – Allen scored them all meaning that he’d now registered seven strikes in 14 starts – a more than decent return in a side that was struggling somewhat.

But when Machin was sacked and Howard Kendall came in, the whole shape and style of the team changed and Allen’s role steadily diminished.

Kendall brought in Adrian Heath and Wayne Clarke and the former Everton pair competed with Allen for the No.9 shirt and when Allen did start, he was invariably hauled off at some point.

In fact, he rarely completed 90 minutes under Kendall, who obviously thought the former Spurs man didn’t have enough of a team ethic to play in his side.

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The attacking football under Machin was replaced by the ultra-cautious, workmanlike displays under Kendall who preferred steady seasoned pros to get the job done

It wasn’t riveting but, in fairness, it was effective and it kept City in the top flight.

But things were about to take a turn for the worse for Allen. During the 1990/91 season, Kendall bought Niall Quinn and with David White the preferred strike partner to the new man, Allen was substitute for 10 of the first 14 games and completely left out of the remaining four.

When Kendall quit his post in November 1990, his successor, Peter Reid, continued the trend, but at least gave the striker a chance with eight starts after Christmas.

Allen had, if anything become more popular as fans believed he should be a regular starter given his goals record and it became something of a problem for Reid.

The writing was very clearly on the wall and despite the City fans calling Allen’s name continuously as Heath tried his best, Reid would not buckle and left Allen out of the side completely until he was finally named on the bench for the October trip to Notts County.

Running on to a rapturous welcome at Meadow Lane from around 7,000 travelling City fans, Allen scored twice in a couple of minutes to turn the game around and City won 3-1.

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The frustrated striker reeled away emotionally, kissing his badge to the delight of the Blue army and it was his name they were chanting at the final whistle – but Reid was unimpressed and he was then dropped completely for the next three games.

Whether Reid took the celebrations to be a personal dig at him or not, only he could say – and we may never know what words were exchanged in the dressing room or training pitch afterwards – but it’s safe to assume that’s exactly what Allen meant and with good reason.

Allen was the player the fans wanted and he had the pedigree and record to back up his claims for a first team berth.

In fact, in just a few minutes against Notts County, Clive Allen equalled the tally Adrian Heath managed in all of his previous 65 games – not that ‘Inchy’ didn’t contribute, but he was never a natural scorer.

Allen deserved better and while everyone knew he wouldn’t get in the mix in a midfield ruck or track back 50 yards and clear the ball from his own box – as Heath might have done – that wasn’t his job nor the reason Machin had bought him.

He was there to score goals and when Chelsea made a seemingly derisory bid of £250,000, Reid, it’s probably fair to say, couldn’t wait to off-load a striker who was, frankly, becoming an embarrassment to his reign.

So what of Allen’s stay with City? His record was a goal every other game and he was just 30 when Chelsea’s offer came in. Despite the troubles, the bond he had made with the City fans was probably as strong as at any of his previous clubs.

To perhaps illustrate that, Chelsea was no more than an escape route for all concerned, Allen only stayed at Stamford Bridge for four months before joining West Ham for a year – his record at both clubs, for the record, was a goal every other game.