Alan Whittle (born 10 March 1950) is an English retired

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 played as a forward or

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He made a total of 241 Football League appearances for Everton,

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, Orient and AFC Bournemouth, scoring 46 goals. He also spent a season with Iranian side

Persepolis , native_name_lang = , alternate_name = , image = Gate of All Nations, Persepolis.jpg , image_size = , alt = , caption = Ruins of the Gate of All Nations, Persepolis. , map = , map_type ...

where he made 34 appearances and scored 16 goals.

Club career

Whittle was a product of the Everton youth academy and debuted for the first-team in 1967 at the age of 17. In five years at Everton Whittle made 74 appearances scoring 21 goals, but found it difficult to establish himself in the first-team. Whittle's nickname was ''The Hustler'' at Everton, though he campaigned in The Toffees football in the community scheme. The highlight of his time at Everton was being part of the side that won the First Division in the 1969–70 season; making 15 appearances and scoring 11 goals in the process. In December 1972, Whittle was sold to

for a then large fee of £100,000. Whittle spent four years of his career at Palace; however, his stay was dogged by injury and bad form, leading him to fall out of favour with then coach Malcolm Allison, Whittle did make a century of appearances for Palace and was a fan favourite. Palace fans would chant "We want Whittle" and " The Roker roar is no more, Whittle showed them how to score". Whittle spent two one-season spells at Orient scoring six goals in 50 appearances for the club and coming second in the

Anglo-Scottish Cup The Anglo-Scottish Cup was a tournament arranged for teams in the English and Scottish football leagues during the summer for several years during the 1970s. It was created in 1975 as a new incarnation of the Texaco Cup, with a similar format t ...

. Whittle surprised many by spending one season at

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

ian club

Persepolis F.C. Persepolis Football Club ( fa, باشگاه فوتبال پرسپولیس, Bâšgâh-e Futbâl-e Perspolis) is an Iranian professional football club based in Tehran, that competes in the Persian Gulf Pro League. Persepolis was founded in 1 ...

in the 1977–78 season where he competed in the

Takht Jamshid Cup The Takht Jamshid Cup ( fa, جام تخت جمشید, Jâm-e Taxt-e Jamšid) was a national football league based in Iran which lasted from 1973 to 1978. History Before 1970 Before 1970s, the tournament was called the Iranian Championship cup, ...

, however because of the

Iranian Revolution The Iranian Revolution ( fa, انقلاب ایران, Enqelâb-e Irân, ), also known as the Islamic Revolution ( fa, انقلاب اسلامی, Enqelâb-e Eslâmī), was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dyna ...

and collapse of the national league Whittle had no choice but to leave Iran. Whittle was the first English footballer ever to play in the

Iranian football league system The Iranian football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for football clubs in Iran. Structure The current structure has been in place since 2001. The Persian Gulf Pro League (PGL) is the highest level of club football in Iran. ...

. Ultimately, Whittle ended his career at AFC Bournemouth at the age of 30 making just nine appearances for the club. Towards the end of Whittle's career he made a move to Australia, where he played for a year before going to

non-league 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 d ...

side Gravesend & Northfleet in 1982 ending a career for Whittle who as a youngster had much promise but injury and poor form were to block the extent of his success.

International career

In 1972, at the age of 22, he was called up by Sir Alf Ramsey, manager of the

England national football team The England national football team has represented England in international football since the first international match in 1872. It is controlled by The Football Association (FA), the governing body for football in England, which is affilia ...

; however, he did not feature for the side.All Players
englandstats.com

Honours

Everton * Football League: 1969–70 * FA Charity Shield:

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

Personal life

Whittle is the uncle of current Everton player Tom Davies. Now retired, Whittle lives on

The Wirral Wirral (; ), known locally as The Wirral, is a peninsula in North West England. The roughly rectangular peninsula is about long and wide and is bounded by the River Dee to the west (forming the boundary with Wales), the River Mersey to the ...

References

External links

"WE WANT WHITTLE" by John J O'Connor
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whittle, Alan 1950 births Living people English footballers England under-23 international footballers Everton F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Leyton Orient F.C. players Persepolis F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Preston Lions FC players Ebbsfleet United F.C. players English Football League players National Soccer League (Australia) players Footballers from Liverpool Association football midfielders Association football forwards English expatriate footballers English expatriate sportspeople in Iran English expatriate sportspeople in Australia Expatriate footballers in Iran Expatriate soccer players in Australia