Martin Allen (footballer)

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Personal information
Martin Allen
Full name	Martin James Allen
Date of birth	August 18, 1965 (1965-08-18) (age 42)
Place of birth	Reading, England
Playing position	Midfielder (retired)
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984–1989 1989–1995 1995–1997 1997–1998	Queens Park Rangers West Ham United Portsmouth Southend United	136 (16) 190 (25) 045 0(4) 005 0(0)
National team
1986–1987	England U21	002 0(0)
Teams managed
2003–2004 2004–2006 2006–2007 2007	Barnet Brentford Milton Keynes Dons Leicester City
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Martin James Allen (born August 18, 1965 in Reading, England) is a former footballer and manager. His most recent role in football was as manager at Leicester City, which he left in August 2007.

1 Playing career
2 Management career
3 Managerial stats
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Playing career

In his playing career he was known as 'Mad Dog', he played for Queens Park Rangers, signing professional in 1983 and spending six years at Loftus Road and played in the 1986 League Cup Final against Oxford United, before a £670,000 move to West Ham United. He played in their promotion teams of 1991 and 1993.

Allen stayed with the Hammers until 1995 when he made a £500,000 switch to Portsmouth after a successful loan spell at Fratton Park. After three frustrating years with Pompey, which took in a brief loan stint at Southend United, he hung up his boots and began a coaching career. He was a combative midfield player.

His cousins, Paul Allen, Bradley Allen and Clive Allen were also footballers, as was his uncle Les Allen. His father Dennis Allen played for Reading as well as Charlton Athletic and Bournemouth and died in 1995 at the age of 56. His first cousin once removed (Clive Allen's son) is called Oliver Allen and currently plays for Stevenage Borough Football Club.

[edit] Management career

[edit] Reading

Allen began his management career as an assistant manager at hometown club Reading, where he joined Alan Pardew when the Royals were in the relegation zone. The team produced championship form in their closing 20 fixtures, winning 12 and drawing 4 to secure a top 10 finish. Two years later they won promotion to Division One.

[edit] Barnet

Allen's first full manager role was at Conference side Barnet, from March 2003 to March 2004. He succeeded from Peter Shreeves, with whom he was assistant manager to from March 2002. Allen built a team from scratch in pre-season of the 2003–04 campaign. The team shot straight to the top end of the table, however Allen left for Brentford with a few weeks of the season remaining in a move that disappointed many Barnet fans. Under the guidance of new manager Paul Fairclough, the Bees made the play-offs but were beaten in the semi-finals by Shrewsbury Town.

[edit] Brentford

Allen had a good run at Brentford, saving the club from relegation from League One in his first season. In the 2004–05 and 2005–06 seasons he took Brentford to the play-offs, but they were eliminated by Sheffield Wednesday and Swansea City respectively. He also took Brentford to the fifth round of the FA Cup in two consecutive years, going out to Southampton in the 2004–05 season, losing 3–1 after a 2–2 draw at St Mary's, and to Charlton Athletic 3–1 in the 2005–06 season. He also was in charge of one of the major giant killings in the fourth round in the 2005–06 season, beating Sunderland 2–1.

At Brentford, he proved to be a very popular manager with the fans and an object of curiosity to opponents and media alike due to his unconventional managerial methods, which seem to have paid off due to the relative success Brentford had under him on a limited budget. For example, he participated in a 25 mile sponsored bike ride on November 2005 to raise funds for Brentford.^[1] In May 2006, Allen announced his resignation as manager of Brentford, citing lack of Board commitment to investing in the team to take it to the next level.^[2]

[edit] Milton Keynes Dons

Allen then dropped down a level to manage League Two team Milton Keynes Dons for the 2006–07 season, a club with heavy financial backing and ambitions from owner Pete Winkelman. Allen took his team to the play-offs, but lost in the semi-finals to Shrewsbury Town.

[edit] Leicester City

In May 2007, Allen became the new manager at Championship side Leicester City,^[3] after Leicester and Milton Keynes Dons had negotiated a compensation package. However, relations with chairman Milan Mandarić quickly deteriorated and his contract was terminated by mutual consent on 29 August 2007 after just four games in charge.^[4] The reason for Allen's departure was never revealed, but many believe it was possibly due to his intervention in chairman Milan Mandarić's attempted signing of Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and Derek Riordan.^[5]^[6]

Since leaving Leicester, Allen declared his interest in managing Swindon Town,^[7] which eventually went to Maurice Malpas.

[edit] Managerial stats

As of 29 August 2007.

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
Team	Nat	From	To	G	W	L	D	Win %
Barnet		March 2003	March 2004
Brentford		18 March 2004	31 May 2006	124	54	34	36	43.54
Milton Keynes Dons		21 June 2006	25 May 2007	55	28	16	11	50.90
Leicester City		25 May 2007	29 August 2007	4	2	1	1	50.00

[edit] References

^ "Manager Allen completes bike ride", BBC Sport, 2005-11-29. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ "Allen resigns from Bees", Sky Sports, 2006-05-30. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ "Allen named new Leicester manager", BBC Sport, 2007-05-25. Retrieved on 2007-05-25.
^ "Allen ends brief Leicester reign", BBC Sport, 2007-08-29. Retrieved on 2007-08-29.
^ Hasselbaink baffled by Foxes snub, BBC Sport 2007-08-14. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
^ Riordan's Leicester hopes fade, BBC Sport 2007-08-20. Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
^ "Allen to apply for Swindon post", BBC Sport, 2007-11-30. Retrieved on 2007-11-30.

[edit] External links

Martin Allen management career stats at Soccerbase
Martin Allen at westhamstats.info

v • d • e Barnet F.C. – Managers

Fry (1986–93) • Stein (1992–93) • Phillips (1993–94) • Clemence (1994–96) • Bullivant (1996–97) • Still (1997–2000) • Cottee (2000–01) • Still (2001–02) • Shreeves (2002–03) • Allen (2003–04) • Fairclough (2004–)

v • d • e

Brentford F.C. – Managers

Lewis (1900–03) • Molyneux (1903–06) • Brown (1906–08) • Halliday (1908–12) • Rhodes (1912–15) • Halliday (1915–21) • Mitchell (1921–22) • Halliday (1924–26) • Curtis (1926–49) • Gibbons (1949–52) • Bain (1952–53) • Lawton (1953) • Dodgin, Snr. (1953–57) • Macdonald (1957–65) • Cavanagh (1965–66) • Gray (1966–67) • Sirrel (1967–69) • Blunstone (1969–73) • Everitt (1973–75) • Docherty (1975–76) • Dodgin, Jnr. (1976–80) • Callaghan (1980–84) • Blunstone (1984) • McLintock (1984–87) • Perryman (1987–90) • Holder (1990–93) • Webb (1993–97) • May (1997) • Adams (1997–98) • Noades (1998–2000) • Lewington (2000–01) • Coppell (2001–02) • Downes (2002–04) • Thompson (2004^c) • Allen (2004–06) • Rosenior (2006) • Fitzgerald (2006–07) • Quin (2007^c) • Butcher (2007) • Scott (2007–)

v • d • e Milton Keynes Dons F.C. – Managers

See Wimbledon F.C. (1889–2004) • Murdoch (2004) • Gilligan (2004) • Wilson (2004–06) • Allen (2006–07) • Ince (2007–)

v • d • e

Leicester City F.C. – Managers

Clark (1896–97) • Johnson (1898–07) • Blessington (1907–09) • Aitken (1909–11) • Bartlett (1912–14) • Hodge (1919–26) • Orr (1926–32) • Hodge (1932–34) • Lochhead (1934–36) • Womack (1936–39) • Bromilow (1939–45) • Mather (1945–46) • Duncan (1946–49) • Bullock (1949–55) • Halliday (1955–58) • Gillies (1959–68) • O'Farrell (1968–71) • Bloomfield (1971–77) • McLintock (1977–78) • Wallace (1978–82) • Milne (1982–86) • Hamilton (1986–87) • Pleat (1987–91) • Little (1991–94) • McGhee (1994–95) • O'Neill (1995–00) • Taylor (2000–01) • Bassett (2001–02) • Adams (2002–04) • Levein (2004–06) • Kelly (2006–07) • Allen (2007) • Megson (2007) • Holloway (2007–08)