Paul Walsh

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Personal information
Paul Walsh
Full name	Paul Anthony Walsh
Date of birth	1 October 1962
Place of birth	Plumstead, England
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Retired
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1979-1982 1982-1984 1984-1988 1988-1992 1991 1992-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996	Charlton Athletic Luton Town Liverpool Tottenham Hotspur QPR (loan) Portsmouth Manchester City Portsmouth	87 (24) 80 (24) 77 (25) 128 (19) 2 (0) 73 (14) 53 (16) 21 (5)
National team
1982-1983 1983-1984	England U21 England	4 (4) 5 (1)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

Paul Anthony Walsh (born 1 October 1962 in Plumstead, London) was a diminutive and pacy centre forward who shot to fame in the 1980s after joining Liverpool.

Walsh began his career at Charlton Athletic and quickly established himself in the team bfore being transferred to Luton Town who were then in English football's top flight. His impish, natural predatory instincts around the penalty area earned him the first of five caps for England and in 1984, he won the PFA Young Player of the Year award.

He was purchased by Liverpool for £700,000 and, with Ian Rush injured at the start of his first season, Walsh was expected to slot in alongside Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish straightaway. This he did with aplomb, scoring mere seconds into his debut against West Ham United and leading the line with confidence, skill and trickery.

As Liverpool's campaign to defend the European Cup gathered pace, Walsh scored crucial goals in latter stages of the competition, including two in the quarter finals against Austria Vienna, missing out on a hat-trick when the opposing goalkeeper saved his penalty. Liverpool made the final and Walsh was selected by manager Joe Fagan to start the game, but the Heysel Stadium disaster put his joy into perspective, and Liverpool ultimately lost the match.

Walsh was cursed with poor luck the following season, suffering niggling injuries and thereby necessitating Dalglish's appearance in the side more than the new player-manager would have possibly preferred. An ankle injury suffered in February 1986 put paid to Walsh's season as Liverpool won the League championship and FA Cup "double". Walsh played enough games for a title medal but missed the FA Cup final victory over fierce Merseyside rivals Everton.

Dalglish scaled down his playing career the following year, and Walsh got more of a look-in after recovering from another injury which had ruled him out of the opening dozen games. He played in the 1987 League Cup final but Liverpool lost 2-1 to Arsenal and Walsh was dropped afterwards.

A trophyless season meant that Dalglish spent big on new players to revive Liverpool's fortunes and Walsh suffered as a result as John Aldridge was bought to replace Rush as the natural finisher of the team with Peter Beardsley coming in at huge expense to provide the craft. This new strike partnership was an instant success as Liverpool went unbeaten for a record-equalling first 29 games of the season while Walsh, having unwisely questioned Dalglish's offer of a role in midfield was relegated to a few cursory appearances as a substitute.

Liverpool waltzed to the League title and Walsh joined Tottenham Hotspur, beginning a spell of productive but short-lived spells at a number of different clubs. He won the FA Cup with Tottenham in 1991, coming on as a substitute at Wembley. His journeyman career took in periods at QPR, Portsmouth (twice) and Manchester City before suffering the knee injury in 1996 which brought his career to an end.

Walsh was a cult hero at Portsmouth. In the 1992-1993 season, Portsmouth placed third in the First Division, missing out on automatic promotion to the Premier League (as it was named at the time) on goal difference to West Ham United, and Guy Whittingham broke goalscoring records for Portsmouth, who were the strongest side in the division in the second half of the season following a lukewarm start. Despite Whittingham's goalscoring exploits, the Pompey fans voted Walsh their player of the year, recognising that it was his guile and craft that made the Portsmouth attack so effective. Walsh subsequently formed a solid partnership with John Durnin, but the potency of the Portsmouth side had faded and Walsh was sold to Manchester City as part of Portsmouth chairman John Gregory's gradual selloff of the club's most valuable playing assets. Walsh later returned to Portsmouth, but soon after the move he suffered his career-ending injury.

After ending his career, Walsh has worked in the media, providing studio-based match analysis for both ITV and Sky Sports.