Andy Todd

Andrew John James Todd (born 21 September 1974) is an English football coach and former player.

As a player he was a centre-back who notably played in the Premier League for Bolton Wanderers, Charlton Athletic and Blackburn Rovers, as well as in the Football League for Middlesbrough, Swindon Town, Grimsby Town, Burnley, Derby County, Northampton Town, Oldham Athletic and Hereford United.

He also had several spells in Australia with Perth Glory and Armadale SC.

Born in Derby, Derbyshire, Todd attended Hermitage Comprehensive School (Chester le Street) playing in the same school football team as Michael Barron, with both players being taken on as youth players at Middlesbrough.

He was initially a trainee at Middlesbrough and made his debut in 1992.

He was loaned to Swindon Town shortly before leaving Boro in August 1995 to join Bolton Wanderers for a transfer fee of £250,000.

Todd scored two goals in total for Bolton over a four-year period, winning the 1996–97 Division One championship in the process.

He left Bolton under a cloud, after allegedly breaking assistant manager Phil Brown's jaw and cheekbone in an incident at a team bonding session.

Todd then moved to Charlton Athletic, another Division One club, and won Division One for a second time.

In Charlton's first season back in the Premiership, Todd scored his first and what turned out to be only Charlton goal against Leicester City in April 2001.

However, a training fracas with a then unnamed player (who was later revealed to be Dean Kiely), meant that he was on a knife-edge at the club.

Initially welcomed back, he was loaned to Grimsby Town in February 2002, who at the time were struggling in Division One.

Todd scored three goals in twelve league games for the Mariners, helping the club keep their place in the division.

In May 2002, Todd left for Blackburn, but found first team opportunities hard to come by.

Soon after breaking into the team in January 2003, he was sent off against Birmingham for kicking Christophe Dugarry in an off the ball incident.

His first Rovers goal was in a 3–2 victory over Leeds United towards the end of that season.

Todd was put on the transfer list in 2003–04 and was loaned to Burnley.

Good performances prompted a recall and Todd was thrust straight back into Rovers' first eleven with the team struggling near the bottom of the league.

Todd won Rovers' player of the year award.

In 2004–05, Todd was handed the Rovers' captaincy by Mark Hughes following the departure of Barry Ferguson to Rangers, a recognition of his continued solid performances.

He once again won the player of the year and then led Rovers to European qualification the following season.

Todd elbowed Robin van Persie in the head, drawing blood, near the end of a 2005 FA Cup Semi Final against Arsenal.

The FA subsequently cleared him of any wrongdoing.

Todd's name came up in the 2006 allegations of corruption in English football.

Then-Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp was secretly filmed discussing the possibility of buying Todd with agent Peter Harrison, which is illegal under FA rules.

However, the programme merely showed Harrison approaching Redknapp and asking direct questions which Redknapp answered.

Redknapp simply stated, "Yeah, I'd have him, I like Toddy, he's a tough bastard."

He had however found first team opportunities hard to come by during the latter stages of the 2006–2007 season, after talks with Todd, Mark Hughes let it be known that he was available for transfer, Derby County, Sunderland, Birmingham City, Wigan Athletic and Portsmouth all expressed an interest.

Todd joined Derby County, a newly promoted Premier League club, for an undisclosed fee believed to be around £750,000 on 7 July 2007.

He scored a late equaliser on his debut against Portsmouth on 11 August 2007.

However, his performance level soon dropped and after making two mistakes in Derby's 4–1 FA Cup defeat to Preston, Derby boss Paul Jewell dropped him.

It was announced on 8 May 2008 that Todd was not in Jewell's plans for his restructuring of the Derby squad following relegation and he would be allowed to leave on a free transfer.

On 24 November 2008, Todd joined Northampton Town of League One on loan until 3 January 2009.

This was the first time Todd had played outside the top two tiers of English football.

On 25 November 2008, Todd made his debut for The Cobblers in 2–1 victory against Leeds United.

However, it was later announced that Todd would not be offered an extension when his contract expired at the end of the 2008–09 season, which saw Todd linked with a possible move to Australia with Sydney FC and Perth Glory.

He returned to Derby County in January 2009, after featuring in seven league games for Northampton.

His first game for Derby after returning from Northampton was the League Cup semi-final first leg against Manchester United, with Todd helping Derby to a 1–0 victory.

Todd also played in the second leg of the semi-final, but could not prevent Derby losing 4–3 on aggregate.

Todd appeared regularly at the end of the season, and his solid performances led to rumours that manager Nigel Clough would offer Todd a new one-year contract.