When it comes to great goal scoring feats you’d be hard-pressed to eclipse Clive Allen’s achievements in the 1986/87 season; a campaign which saw this natural born marksman find the net an astonishing 49 times in all competitions while leading the line for one of the most exciting Tottenham sides in years.
Allen struck 112 times in 173 games for Spurs during his four years at White Hart Lane but will always be remembered for his exploits as David Pleat's exciting side embarked on a three-pronged domestic assault in the mid-1980s.
Born in Stepney, London on 20, May 1961, Allen came from good footballing stock. His father Les was a member of Tottenham’s Double-winning team of 1961 while his younger brother Bradley and his cousins Martin and Paul also played football at the highest level.
Starting his career at Queens Park Rangers his natural goal-scoring ability was evident from an early age, banging in 32 league goals in 49 appearances, before moving to Arsenal for an eye-watering £1.25m; but things didn’t work out at Highbury and he failed to play a first-team game before heading to Crystal Palace in a move which saw Kenny Sansome go in the other direction.
At Palace Allen once again found his shooting boots and was top scorer in the 1980/81 season with nine goals in the league and 11 in all competitions before once again being signed by QPR where he would score 27 League goals as Rangers won the Second Division Championship in 1983 before finishing fifth in the First Division the following year; a run which saw him earn another big move, this time to Spurs.
In his first season with Tottenham he would score 10 goals in 18 appearances, including two on his debut in a 4-1 away win at Everton, but it would be the 1986/87 season which would turn out to be his greatest in front of goal.
Benefitting from a five-man midfield which included such creative players as Glenn Hoddle, Chris Waddle and Ossie Ardiles Allen would bag 33 league goals as a lone striker on the way to helping the side finish third in Division One.
"It worked perfectly for us,” Allen later recalled. “We had clever players and players of great ability who were able to take on board exactly what he wanted. It worked for that team. David Pleat told the players we would be playing this system and he would take full responsibility for the results.”
And it wasn’t just in the league where Allen was lethal, he would also score three on the way to that season’s FA Cup Final which would see Spurs face Coventry City in the final and after just two minutes of that game at Wembley he would score again in a game his side would eventually lose 3-2.
If that wasn’t enough in that season’s League Cup Allen notched up an impressive 12 goals as Tottenham made it to the semi-final to face bitter rivals Arsenal, who eventually knocked Spurs out after an epic run of games.
Ultimately Allen’s spectacular haul of goals would only lead to him being voted PFA and Football Writers Player of the Year for that season as Spurs finished third in the league and runners-up in the FA Cup but it is still a campaign which is remembered fondly by all Tottenham fans.
Unfortunately for regulars at The Lane Spurs couldn’t build on that fantastic campaign as many of that side departed for pastures new and the team quickly became a shadow of that which had been so effective 12 months earlier.
Allen himself left Tottenham for Bordeaux in 1988 at a time when so much talent in the English game looked to the continent to play at the highest level at a time when English sides were banned from European competitions following the Heysel tragedy of 1985.
Even so, for one memorable season Clive Allen had become one of the most potent goal machines the game had ever seen and his haul of 49 strikes in all competitions during the 1986/87 campaign is a feat which will take some beating.
