Paul Anthony Furlong (born 1 October 1968) is an English

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach and former professional player who played a striker. He was appointed joint manager of

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 ...

' U23 team in 2021. Furlong played in the top division of English football for

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

and

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 ...

and in the lower divisions for

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Since 2011, the first te ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

and

Barnet Barnet may refer to: People *Barnet (surname) * Barnet (given name) Places United Kingdom *Chipping Barnet or High Barnet, commonly known as Barnet, one of three focal towns of the borough below. *East Barnet, a district of the borough below; an ...

. He has also played

non-League football Non-League football describes football leagues played outside the top leagues of a country. Usually, it describes leagues which are not fully professional. The term is primarily used for football in England, where it is specifically used to de ...

for

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

Kettering Town Kettering Town Football Club is a football club based in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire, England. They are currently members of and play at Latimer Park in Burton Latimer. Kettering were the first club to wear sponsorship on their shirts in ...

and St Albans City, where he was

player-coach A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

. At representative level, he has six caps for the England semi-professional team.

Playing career

Coventry City

He began his career at non-League level with

Conference A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main p ...

side

in 1986, remaining there until July 1991 when he signed for

Football League First Division The Football League First Division was a division of the Football League in England from 1888 until 2004. It was the top division in the English football league system from the season 1888–89 until 1991–92, a century in which the First ...

side

. He was brought to

Highfield Road Highfield Road was a football stadium in the city of Coventry, England. It was the home ground for Coventry City F.C. for 106 years. History It was built in 1899 in the Hillfields district, close to the city centre, and staged its final game o ...

by the club's player-manager and former

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 ...

defender

Terry Butcher Terry Ian Butcher (born 28 December 1958) is an English football manager and former player. He works as an academy coach for Ipswich Town. During his playing career as a defender, Butcher captained the England national team, winning 77 caps ...

, and when Butcher was sacked in January he remained in favour under new manager

Don Howe Donald Howe (12 October 1935 – 23 December 2015) was an English football player, coach, manager and pundit. As a right back Howe featured for clubs West Bromwich Albion and Arsenal together with the England national football team in his play ...

. Furlong only managed four goals from 37 league games all season, however, and after the season ended he was transferred to

Watford

Furlong was much more successful at Watford in Division One (the new name for the original Second Division after the creation of the

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 Foo ...

), and was voted

Watford Player of the Season Watford Football Club are an English football club, from Watford, Hertfordshire. Founded in 1881 as Watford Rovers, the club has competed in the Football League since 1920 and since the 2015–16 season have competed in the Premier League. ...

in 1993. Although he failed to inspire Watford to a promotion challenge, he established himself as one of the finest strikers in the division at this time, alongside the likes of

Steve Bull Stephen George Bull (born 28 March 1965 in Tipton, Dudley) is an English former professional footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers. He played there from 1986 until his retirement from playing in 19 ...

and

Stan Collymore Stanley Victor Collymore (born 22 January 1971) is an English football pundit, sport strategist, and former player who played as a striker from 1990 to 2001, most notably for Nottingham Forest and later Liverpool, who he joined from the form ...

Chelsea

At the end of the 1993–94 season, he became Chelsea's record signing in a £2.3million deal, and that season he helped them reach the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

semi-finals (losing to

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

by a single goal) as well as finish 11th in the Premier League. However, the arrival of

Ruud Gullit Ruud Gullit (; born Rudi Dil; 1 September 1962) is a Dutch footballer and subsequent manager who played professionally in the 1980s and 1990s as a defender, midfielder or forward. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all t ...

and

Mark Hughes Leslie Mark Hughes (born 1 November 1963) is a Welsh football coach and former player who is the manager of Bradford City. During his playing career he usually operated as a forward or midfielder. He had two spells at Manchester United, and a ...

during the 1995 close season reduced his first team opportunities, and following the arrival of

Gianluca Vialli Gianluca Vialli (; born 9 July 1964) is an Italian former football manager and player who played as a striker. Since retiring, he has gone into management, punditry and worked previously as a commentator for Sky Sport Italia. He is currently ...

a year later he opted to move on. During his time at Chelsea he scored 18 goals in 85 matches in all competitions.

Birmingham City

He became

's record signing in a £1.5 million deal. Although it meant dropping down a division, Furlong knew he would have more chances of first team action in the West Midlands, and was part of an ambitious side managed 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 follo ...

and containing fellow big names including

Steve Bruce Stephen Roger Bruce (born 31 December 1960) is an English professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a centre-back. He most recently managed West Bromwich Albion F.C., West Br ...

, Mike Newell and Gary Ablett. He remained at St Andrew's for six years, scoring 50 goals in 130 Division One games, and having loan spells at

Queen's 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 Roa ...

(twice) and

Queens Park Rangers

He finally left Birmingham in the summer of 2002, the year they reached the Premier League after 16 years outside the top flight, and signed a contract with Queens Park Rangers in Division Two. This was a return to a previous club as Furlong had been a youth team player at QPR at the start of his career. He continued to do well 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 ...

, helping them win promotion in 2004, and by the time he left in 2007, he had played 162 league games and scored 54 goals.

Luton Town

On leaving QPR, the 38-year-old Furlong signed for

who had just been relegated from the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the En ...

. He scored eight goals in 32 games but was unable to prevent the financially troubled side from suffering a second successive relegation.

Southend United

He then signed for

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

side

, but made just four appearances during the first half of the season and was loaned out to

in January 2009. After two goals in January the loan spell was extended until the end of the season. His goal in Barnet's 1–0 win against

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

was his 200th senior goal, and he marked the occasion by laying down his shirt and saluting it.

Barnet

He was released by Southend at the end of the 2008–09 season, and joined Barnet on a one-year deal after an excellent pre-season. This was subsequently extended until the end of the 2009–10 season. On 2 June 2010, Furlong was released by Barnet.

Kettering Town

A few weeks later, he joined

Conference National The National League, known as the Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is the highest level of the National League System and fifth-highest of the overall English football league system. It is the highest league that is semi-profes ...

club

. During the 2010–11 season with Kettering, Furlong scored 5 times in 27 appearances for the club – including a brace in a match against Eastbourne Borough on 22 January 2011 – as they finished 15th in the Conference Premier.

St Albans City

On 10 August 2011, Furlong was confirmed as player/coach at St Albans City. He scored on his debut for St Albans in a

Southern League Premier Division The Southern League is a men's football competition featuring semi-professional clubs from the South and Midlands of England. Together with the Isthmian League and the Northern Premier League it forms levels seven and eight of the English foot ...

game against Cirencester Town.

International career

When at

he was capped six times for the England semi-professional team, scoring once. He was also eligible to play for

Montserrat Montserrat ( ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is part of the Leeward Islands, the northern portion of the Lesser Antilles chain of the West Indies. Montserrat is about long and wide, with r ...

Coaching career

Having already been on Queens Park Rangers' staff part-time, in September 2012 Furlong was appointed assistant youth development coach within the club's academy to work with the players aged 12 to 16. He went on to manage the under-18 team, and in September 2021 became under-23s manager jointly with

Andy Impey Andrew Rodney Impey (born 30 September 1971) is an English football coach and former professional footballer who is an academy coach at Queens Park Rangers. As a player, he was a full-back or winger who notably played in the Premier League for ...

Personal life

Furlong's son Darnell, who plays as a full back, made his professional debut with Queens Park Rangers in 2015.

References

Infobox statistics * Enfield in the Conference, ''excluding'' the 1990–91 Isthmian League season: * From Coventry City to Kettering Town: * St Albans City:

External links

Barnet FC Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Furlong, Paul 1968 births Living people Footballers from Wood Green English footballers England semi-pro international footballers Association football forwards Enfield F.C. players Coventry City F.C. players Watford F.C. players Chelsea F.C. players Birmingham City F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players Southend United F.C. players Barnet F.C. players Kettering Town F.C. players St Albans City F.C. players Isthmian League players National League (English football) players English Football League players Premier League players Queens Park Rangers F.C. non-playing staff Black British sportspeople British people of Montserratian descent