ENGLAND STAR WHO PLAY FOR SELANGOR

    

 

         

Anthony Richard "Tony" Cottee born 11 July 1965 in Plaistow, England is a former football player who now works as a television football commentator. During his playing career, he was capped seven times by England, and played for a number of teams including West Ham United, Everton, Leicester City and the Malaysian side Selangor.


while representing england in international matches



Tony Cottee action while playing for Everton

                                                                              Tony Cottee began his career at West Ham, where he made his first team debut in the First Division against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 January 1983, at the age of 17, scoring in the process. He played a total of eight games in the 1982–83 season, scoring five goals. He established himself in the first team during the 1983–84 season, when still only 18, and scored 15 times in the league. He did even better in 1984–85, when he scored 17 First Division goals. By the age of 20, he had already managed an impressive 37 league goals.
He was a prolific goalscorer especially in his West Ham days, where he was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1986, the year where West Ham finished third (their highest league finish to date) and came just four points away from the title. He scored 20 times in the league during that season, though his strike partner Frank McAvennie did even better with 26 league goals. Still, their 46-goal strike partnership was the most prolific in the league that season.


1986–87 saw Cottee score 23 league goals – which would be the highest of his career. However, Frank McAvennie alongside him could only manage seven league goals that season and this contributed to a downturn in West Ham's form as they finished 15th. Cottee managed a further 13 league goals in 1987–88, but McAvennie had been sold to Celtic early in the season and the failure of manager John Lyall to find an adequate replacement contributed to West Ham disappointing in the league again, finishing 16th. By this time, the 23-year-old Cottee had already managed 212 league games and 93 goals for Hammers.
Cottee briefly became the most expensive player to be signed by a British club when on 2 August 1988 he joined Everton in a £2.2 million deal (a fee eclipsed by Ian Rush's return to Liverpool from Juventus later that month).
He made his Everton debut on 27 August 1988, the opening day of the 1988–89 First Division campaign, in a 4–0 home win over Newcastle United in which he scored a hat-trick. He managed a further 10 league goals that season, though Everton were relatively disappointing in the league as they finished eighth – having been a top four club and twice champions in the previous four seasons. However, they did reach the FA Cup final and were paired with neighbours Liverpool at Wembley on 20 May 1989. It was a close contest but in the end Everton lost 3–2 in extra time. Earlier in the season Cottee and his colleagues and been on the receiving end of another Wembley defeat, this time to Nottingham Forest who beat them 4-3 in th final of the Full Members Cup, but Cottee still managed to get on the scoresheet twice.
Cottee spent his first season at Goodison Park playing alongside Graeme Sharp, but for 1989–90 manager Colin Harvey changed the formation to 4–3–3 and brought in Mike Newell as Everton's third striker. The season began very promisingly for Everton, who went top of the league on 21 October and stayed there until mid November, but their title hopes gradually disintegrated and they finished sixth while the title went to Liverpool. Cottee once again managed 13 league goals in a season

1990–91 was arguably Everton's worst season in a decade. Manager Colin Harvey was sacked on 31 October 1990 with the Toffees third from bottom in the First Division, and a week later Howard Kendall(who had guided them to two league titles, an FA Cup and a European Cup Winners' Cup in his first spell from 1981 to 1987) was appointed with Harvey returning as his assistant. Everton's form improved under Kendall and they finished ninth, also reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals and ousting Liverpool in the fifth round. Cottee managed 10 league goals.
1991–92 was a frustrating season for Cottee and his colleagues. By mid November he had new strike partners in Peter Beardsley and Mo Johnston following the sale of both Graeme Sharp and Mike Newell, and while the new look strikeforce was reasonably productive, the rest of the team struggled to match their standards. Cottee was restricted to eight goals from 24 games through injury, and Everton finished mid table once again. It was the first time since his debut season nine years earlier that he had scored less than 10 league goals in a season.




celebrate the goal with his teammates when defeated N. Sembilan while representing Selangor


1992–93 saw Everton participate in the inaugural FA Premier League, and Cottee did better this time, scoring 12 goals. He managed 16 league goals in 1993–94, but it was a disastrous season for Everton who only narrowly avoided relegation just seven years after being league champions. He returned to West Ham United on 7 September 1994 in a part exchange deal for defender David Burrows. He had played 184 league games in six years for the Toffees, scoring 76 goals, but unfortunately had not won any major trophies. His overall career tally for league goals now stood at 169. He remained at Filbert Street until 11 September 2000, by which time he had played a total of 85 league games for the Foxes and scored 27 goals – bringing his total career tally to 209 league goals. In 1999–2000, when in his 35th year, he finally won a major trophy as he helped Leicester defeat Tranmere Rovers 2–1 in the Football League Cup final.
In September 2000, Cottee joined Norwich City as player-coach under recently-appointed manager Bryan Hamilton, however this did not last long as Cottee struggled to meet the demands placed on him, scoring two goals against Blackpool in the League Cup^[7] and Sheffield United in the league.  After being released by Norwich on 31 October 2000, 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 16 March 2001,^[however his replacement, John Still (who left the club just before Cottee's appointment six months earlier), was unable to rescue the team from relegation. However, Cottee did manage an impressive nine goals from 16 Division Three games.
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, a rare achievement last performed by goalkeeper Eric Nixon in 1986–87.
Cottee gained seven England caps, played in the 1989 FA Cup Final for Everton and won the League Cup with Leicester City in 2000.
His final career tally was 579 league games and 226 goals. In all competitions, he managed 712 games and 293 goals. He exceed his ambition to score 200 league goals in his career, but fell just short of his target of 300 goals in all competitions. Still, he was one of the most prolific goalscorers that English football saw during the 1980s and 1990s.
Cottee has admitted to diligently maintaining a scrapbook containing press cuttings of every goal he has scored throughout his playing career.
He is now a commentator with Sky Sports and occasional pundit for Malaysian network Astro, appearing on its 2010 FIFA World Cup and Barclays Premier League studio coverage in Kuala Lumpur



Sources:wikipedia