Clive Darren Allen is an English former professional footballer who played as a forward for seven different London clubs. Allen had been a prolific striker throughout his career.
He started his career at Queens Park Rangers in the late 1970s, and scored 32 league goals in 49 appearances, before moving to Arsenal.
Arsenal
Allen signed for Arsenal in the summer of 1980 for a fee of £1.25m, but he did not play a single competitive match. He shortly moved on to Crystal Palace in a swap deal with Kenny Sansom.
Crystal Palace
Allen was Palace's top scorer for the 1980–81 season with nine goals in the league and 11 in all competitions, when Palace finished bottom of the First Division.
Return to Queens Park Rangers
QPR, still in the Second Division, were now managed by Terry Venables and in Allen's first season back at the club he scored 13 Second Division goals, though not enough to win promotion. QPR also had their most successful FA Cup run, reaching the FA Cup Final for the first time with Allen scoring the goals in 1–0 victories in both the 6th Round and semi-final. Allen was injured in the final against Tottenham Hotspur and subsequently missed the replay. Over the next two seasons, Allen scored 27 League goals as QPR first won the Second Division Championship in 1982–83 and then finished fifth in the First Division in 1983–84. He moved to Tottenham for a £700,000 fee.
He moved from Spurs to join Bordeaux in March 1988.
Later career
In July 1989 he joined Manchester City, who had just been promoted to the First Division. He scored 10 league goals in his first season, but only four goals in 1990–91. He managed three appearances and scored twice in the league for City the following season, and was transferred to Chelsea in December 1991. He scored seven goals in 16 league games over the next three months with Chelsea before he joined West Ham United in March 1992, scoring once in four league games but was unable to stop them from being relegated. He scored 14 goals in the 1992–93 Division One campaign as West Ham were promoted as runners-up. His goal on the last day of the season, against Cambridge United, secured promotion to the Premier League. He played just seven league games in the 1993–94 in the new Premier League scoring two goals, against Sheffield Wednesday in August 1993. He played his final game for West Ham in March 1994 in a 0-0 FA Cup sixth-round game at Upton Park against Luton Town, coming on as a substitute for Lee Chapman. In January 1994, when Allen was out of favour at West Ham United, Tottenham manager Ossie Ardiles expressed interest in bringing Allen back to White Hart Lane as he looked to spend up to £500,000 on buying a striker to cover for the injured Teddy Sheringham, but the transfer did not happen. Allen opted to drop down a division and join Millwall for a fee of £75,000. He ended his career with three league games for Carlisle United in 1995–96.
International career
In the summer of 1984, Allen was given his first England cap against Brazil. In total he made five appearances for England.
