Tony Cottee
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Tony Cottee | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Anthony Richard Cottee | |
| Date of birth | 11 July 1965 | |
| Place of birth | Plaistow, England | |
| Height | 5 ft 7 in (1.70 m) | |
| Playing position | Striker (retired) | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1982–1988 1988–1994 1994–1996 1996–1997 1997–2000 1997 2000 2000–2001 2001 |
West Ham United Everton West Ham United Selangor Leicester City → Birmingham City (loan) Norwich City Barnet Millwall Total |
212 (92) 184 (72) 68 (24) 24 (14) 85 (27) 5 (1) 7 (1) 16 (9) 2 (0) 603 (240) |
| National team | ||
| 1984–1987 1986–1989 |
England U21 England |
8 (1) 7 (0) |
| Teams managed | ||
| 2000–2001 | Barnet | |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Anthony Richard "Tony" Cottee (born 11 July 1965 in Plaistow) is an English former football player.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
During his career Cottee played for a number of sides, including West Ham United, Everton and Leicester City. He made his West Ham first team debut against Tottenham Hotspur on New Year's Day 1983, scoring in the process. A prolific goalscorer especially in his West Ham days, where he was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1986, which encouraged Everton to smash the British transfer record in 1988, paying West Ham £2.2 million for his services. He kick-started his Goodison Park career in spectacular fashion as the former Upton Park favourite grabbed a hat-trick in his debut, scoring the first goal within minutes after kick-off in front of the ecstatic home crowd. At Everton Cottee formed several fertile striking partnerships with the likes of Scottish super-striker Graeme Sharp and the old Anfield Road hero Peter Beardsley. None of those pairings, however, proved as devastating as his legendary partnership with Frank McAvennie at Upton Park. In fact, the McAvennie-Cottee partnership, was arguably one of the hottest striking-forces in the English League during the latter half of the 80s. Cottee remained at Everton until 1994, when he returned to West Ham in exchange for David Burrows. He remained at Upton Park for another two years, until 1996, when he was given a free transfer and moved to Selangor of Malaysia, winning the Malaysian FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup. He remained there for only ten months before returning to England with Leicester City in 1997, where he continued until 2000.
In September 2000 Cottee was given a free transfer by Leicester so that he could take up a player-coaching role at Norwich City[1], however this did not last long as Cottee struggled to meet the demands placed on him. After being released by Norwich on October 31 of that year he took over as player-manager of Barnet, a team closer to his home in London. After winning his first game with the club 7–0, Barnet hit a run of poor form which left them facing relegation from the Football League. Cottee resigned on March 16, 2001[2], however his replacement, John Still, was unable to rescue the team from relegation. A week after resigning from Barnet, Cottee signed for Millwall on transfer deadline day. During this remarkable season, which was his last as a player, Cottee played for a different team in each of the top four divisions of English football in the same season[3], a rare achievement last performed by goalkeeper Eric Nixon in the late 1980s.
Cottee gained seven England caps, played in the 1989 FA Cup Final for Everton and won the League Cup with Leicester City in the late 1990s. He is now a commentator with Sky Sports.
[edit] Trivia
Cottee has admitted to diligently maintaining a scrapbook containing press cuttings of every goal he has scored throughout his playing career.[4]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Mark Hughes |
PFA Young Player of the Year 1986 |
Succeeded by Tony Adams |
|
|||||
