Bradley James Allen (born 13 September 1971) is an English football coach and former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

, who is an academy coach at

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

side

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

. As a player, he was a forward who notably played in the

for

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England, which compete in the . After a nomadic early existence, they have played home matches at Loftus Ro ...

and

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in ...

. He also played in the Football League for

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

Grimsby Town Grimsby Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire, England, that in the 2022–23 season will compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system, following the victory in t ...

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

and

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers Football Club are a professional football club in Bristol, England. They compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. They play home matches at the Memorial Stadium in Horfield, they have been ...

before finishing his career with spells in non-league with

Hornchurch Hornchurch is a suburban town in East London, England, and part of the London Borough of Havering. It is located east-northeast of Charing Cross. It comprises a number of shopping streets and a large residential area. It historically formed a l ...

and Redbridge. He represented

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

at under-21 level, earning eight caps and scoring two goals. Allen joined

as a youth team coach in 2013, having previously worked as a PE Teacher and sports co-commentator.

Club career

Queens Park Rangers

Born in

Harold Wood Harold Wood is a suburban neighbourhood of Romford in the London Borough of Havering. It is situated east-northeast of Charing Cross and near to the Greater London boundary with Essex. History Toponymy The name Harold Wood was recorded in ab ...

, London, Allen began his career with

, where he signed professionally in 1988 during the tenure of Jim Smith, although Smith was replaced by

Trevor Francis Trevor John Francis (born 19 April 1954) is an English former footballer who played as a forward for a number of clubs in England, the United States, Italy, Scotland and Australia. In 1979 he became Britain's first £1 million player foll ...

midway through Allen's first professional season. Over the coming years, he went from strength to strength and began to see regular runs in the first-team. During the inaugural

season in 1992–93 season, Allen played six times and scored twice, once in a 1–1 draw with

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

in January 1993 and the winner during a 2–1 win against Aston Villa at

Loftus Road Loftus Road is a football stadium in White City, London, England, which is home to Queens Park Rangers. In 1981, it became the first stadium in British professional football to have an artificial pitch of Omniturf installed. This remained in ...

in May 1993. On 20 November 1993, he scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in a 3–0 win against Everton. Allen was eventually placed on the transfer list during the ill-fated 1995–96 season in which Rangers were relegated. In total, Allen scored 27 goals in 81 league games for QPR.

Charlton Athletic

First Division

paid £400,000 for Allen's services in March 1996. He scored six goals in 21 appearances in the league and

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

in his first full season with the club but chances became harder to come by for Allen, as he made only 14 first-team appearances and could net only two goals during the 1997–98 season as Charlton were promoted to the Premier League. He then made only one appearance for the club in the 1998–99 season, and then joined Division Two side

in February 1999. This spelt the end of his time with Charlton, having scored nine goals in 40 league appearances. Recruited by Colchester manager

Mick Wadsworth Michael Wadsworth (born 3 November 1950) is an English football coach and former player. Born in Barnsley his playing career spanned only one season in The Football League with Scunthorpe United, along with spells playing for Gainsborough Tr ...

, Allen made his debut for the U's in a 1–1 home draw with

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

on 27 February 1999, before being replaced by

Steve Forbes Malcolm Stevenson Forbes Jr. (; born July 18, 1947) is an American publishing executive and politician who is the editor-in-chief of ''Forbes'', a business magazine. He is the son of longtime ''Forbes'' publisher Malcolm Forbes and the grandso ...

after 68 minutes. He scored one goal while on loan with the club, a 40th-minute equaliser during a 2–2 draw with

Oldham Athletic Oldham Athletic Association Football Club is a professional football club in Oldham, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. The history of Oldham Athletic be ...

on 9 March. Allen made four appearances in total during his short stay at

Layer Road Layer Road was a Football League stadium in Colchester, England. It was only used for football matches and was the home ground of Colchester United before being replaced by the Colchester Community Stadium. The stadium held spectators and was ...

Grimsby Town

Allen was placed on the transfer list at Charlton and transferred to

in the summer of 1999, who at the time plied their trade in the First Division under

Alan Buckley Alan Peter Buckley (born 20 April 1951) is an English former professional footballer and football manager who now works as a sports co-commentator for BBC Humberside. As a player, he was a forward from 1967 to 1987 for Nottingham Forest, ...

. He scored nine goals in 36 games in all competitions in the 1999–2000 season but found himself limited to just 25 appearances in the 2000–01 season, being limited by injuries and only managing to score six goals. The 2001–02 season saw a return of five goals in 31 games, but his injury record and Grimsby's financial plight saw Allen released at the end of the season. He ended his Grimsby stay with 15 goals in 80 league games.

Peterborough United

Allen joined

on trial in the summer of 2002, where he featured in a friendly against

Rushden & Diamonds Rushden & Diamonds Football Club was an association football club based in Irthlingborough, Northamptonshire, England. Nicknamed "The Diamonds", the club played at Nene Park. The club's main rivals were county neighbours Kettering Town F.C., Ke ...

. However, he initially delayed joining the club and also refused offers from

, Conference promotion hopefuls

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

and Cyprus-based club

APOEL Nicosia APOEL ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a major mult ...

. He then had an unsuccessful trial spell with

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

before signing for Peterborough on 29 August 2002. Allen scored three goals in 11 games for the Posh but Peterborough chairman

Barry Fry Barry Francis Fry (born 7 April 1945) is an English former football player and manager. A winger, Fry was an apprentice at Manchester United in his youth, and had brief spells with Bolton Wanderers, Luton Town and Leyton Orient, before he reti ...

confirmed that his short-term contract would not be renewed when it expired in December 2002. Having been linked with a move to Carlisle United.

Bristol Rovers

signed Allen in November 2002 from Peterborough following the expiry of his short-term contract. He made eight appearances in the league for the club and scored one goal against

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on Ne ...

, as he was released at the end of the 2002–03 season. He also scored once in the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

against

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

Hornchurch

Ambitious Isthmian League club

signed Allen in September 2003 following trials with a number of clubs. He was one of a number of former professional players with Football League experience in a squad that knocked League side Darlington out of the

in 2003. However, with the club facing financial turmoil, Hornchurch began releasing players during the 2003–04 season, with Allen one of the squad members released.

Redbridge

Following his release from Hornchurch, Allen quickly joined Conference South side Ford United, who would later change name to become Redbridge. Having scored on his debut, his stint did not last long, and was subsequently released in July 2004, with club manager Craig Edwards stating that the club would prefer "to go with younger players" for the coming season and that there were financial implications. Allen then joined Billericay Town on trial, scoring in a pre-season friendly against Grays Athletic.

International career

Allen represented

at youth level and earned eight caps at under-21 level, where he scored twice.

Coaching career

After retiring from the game in 2004, Allen became a

PE teacher Physical education, often abbreviated to Phys Ed. or P.E., is a subject taught in schools around the world. It is usually taught during primary and secondary education, and encourages psychomotor learning by using a play and movement explorati ...

and became an academy coach at

, where he is running the under-15 side.

Media career

In addition to his coaching, Allen has worked in the media, providing co-commentary for

Sky Sports Sky Sports is a group of British subscription sports channels operated by the satellite pay television company Sky Group (a division of Comcast), and is the dominant subscription television sports brand in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It ...

Football First ''Football First – Match Choice'' is an interactive television programme on Sky Sports that shows extended highlights of every Premier League match played on the day, except matches shown live on BT Sport BT Sport is a group of pay televis ...

programme and also for radio coverage. Allen is also a regular co-commentator on

BBC London 94.9 BBC Radio London is the BBC's local radio station serving Greater London and its surrounding areas. The station broadcasts across the area and beyond, on the 94.9 FM frequency, DAB, Virgin Media channel 937, Sky channel 0152 (in the Lond ...

, formerly alongside Phil Parry.

Personal life

Allen comes from a famous footballing family. He is the son of former Chelsea, Tottenham and QPR player and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

Les Allen Leslie William Allen (born 4 September 1937) is an English former football player and manager who played as a inside forward. Playing career Allen started his playing career at amateur club Briggs Sports where he helped them to reach the ...

. His brother is former England international Clive Allen and his nephew is former Barnet player Oliver Allen. His uncle, Dennis Allen played over 300 league games for

, and his cousin

Martin Allen Martin James Allen (born 14 August 1965) is an English football manager and former player. He played more than 100 games as a midfielder for both Queens Park Rangers and West Ham United before finishing his playing career with Portsmouth and ...

has managed a number of Football League clubs, alongside representing QPR and

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. He is also related to Charlie Allen, Martin's son, who has played for

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football club based in Nottingham, England. The team participate in the National League, the fifth tier of the English football league system. Founded on the 25 November 1862, it is the ...

and Gillingham. Bradley is also a cousin to

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. He co-founded Microsoft Corporation with childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which ...

, who made appearances for West Ham, Tottenham and

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

amongst others.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Allen, Bradley 1971 births Living people People from Harold Wood English footballers England under-21 international footballers Association football forwards Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Grimsby Town F.C. players Peterborough United F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Hornchurch F.C. players Redbridge F.C. players Premier League players English Football League players Isthmian League players National League (English football) players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff

Bradley Bradley is an English surname derived from a place name meaning "broad wood" or "broad meadow" in Old English. Like many English surnames Bradley can also be used as a given name and as such has become popular. It is also an Anglicisation of t ...

Association football coaches