Micky Quinn

Despite this, Quinn was Portsmouth's top goalscorer with 24 goals in all competitions, as they finished Second Division runners-up and reclaimed their First Division place that they had last held in the late 1950s.

However, Portsmouth were relegated back to the Second Division after just one year, with Quinn scoring 11 goals that season.

Weighing in at around 88 kg, Quinn's goals were celebrated by Portsmouth fans with the song "He's fat, he's round, he's worth a million pound, Micky Quinn, Micky Quinn!"

Michael Quinn (born 2 May 1962) is an English former professional footballer and sports radio presenter for TalkSPORT.

Quinn was born in the Everton area of Liverpool in Lancashire (now Merseyside) in 1962, the oldest of four children born to Michael Quinn and Patricia Silvano.

From the age of five, he lived on the Cantril Farm estate and from that young age he has been a supporter of Liverpool.

He is the grandson of Italian-born boxer Luigi Silvano (known professionally as Lou Sullivan).

Quinn began his career as an apprentice with Derby County signing for the East Midlands club upon leaving school in 1978.

However, Quinn only lasted four months at the Baseball Ground, and returned to his Merseyside home, suffering from homesickness.

As a player he was a centre forward from 1979 until 1996.

He most notably played in the Premier League for Coventry City, although his previous spells with Portsmouth and Newcastle United brought his best goals tally and his most appearances for any one club.

He also played in the Football League for Wigan Athletic, Stockport County, Oldham Athletic, Plymouth Argyle and Watford before finishing his career with a brief spell in Greece with PAOK Thessaloniki, during a career in which he played in 524 league matches and scored 235 league goals.

Eager to turn professional, Quinn joined Wigan Athletic in September 1979 as an apprentice and signed professional forms later in that season, being given his Fourth Division debut by manager Ian McNeill in April 1980, just prior to his 18th birthday.

He went on to score 19 goals in 69 Fourth Division games for Wigan.

After helping Wigan gain promotion to the Third Division in 1982, manager Larry Lloyd considered Quinn too inexperienced for the higher level of league football and was given a free transfer to Stockport County, who were still in the Fourth Division, and it was at Stockport where Quinn established himself as a regular goalscorer.

Now having proven his worth, Quinn attracted the interest of manager Joe Royle at Second Division Oldham Athletic and joined the club for £53,000 in January 1984.

Quinn was at Boundary Park for just over two years and proved himself as a competent goalscorer at the higher level of football.

After scoring 34 goals in 80 Second Division games for Oldham, Quinn joined Portsmouth in March 1986, with manager Alan Ball paying £150,000 for Quinn's services in an attempt to push for promotion to the First Division, but Portsmouth just missed automatic promotion on the final day of the season – just as had happened the previous season.

In April 1986, Quinn was found guilty of drink-driving and received a £100 fine, as well as a one-year driving ban for a similar offence committed in Liverpool during 1985.

Quinn breached the driving ban twice later in 1986, and in January 1987 he was sentenced to 21 days in prison but was freed after serving 14 days.

At the end of Portsmouth's home fixture against West Bromwich Albion on 25 October 1986, Quinn and teammate Paul Wood were both ejected from the ground by police officers after being overheard swearing at a linesman during the second half of the game.

Chief Inspector David Hanna of Hampshire Constabulary said they would have been ejected at half-time if the incident had happened in the first half.

In August 1987, Quinn was fined £5,000 by The Football Association for declaring that he was "the hardest man in football."

Quinn stayed at Fratton Park for the 1988–89 season and scored 20 league goals but Portsmouth finished 20th in the league and their good early season form was perhaps all that saved them from a second successive relegation.

Midway through the season, manager Alan Ball departed Fratton Park and was succeeded by John Gregory.

This transition was largely blamed for Portsmouth's slump in form.

Gregory did appoint Quinn as the new first-team captain and when his contract expired at the end of the season Quinn was offered a new deal but rejected the offer and put in a transfer request, hoping for a transfer to a First Division club.

Newcastle United manager Jim Smith paid £680,000 for Quinn in July 1989, just after their relegation to the Second Division.

Portsmouth manager John Gregory had demanded £1.5 million for Quinn (an exceptionally large sum for a Second Division player at the time), but Smith had offered just £250,000 and the fee was set by a tribunal.

At the time, Quinn was one of the most expensive players ever to be signed by the Magpies.

Other clubs that were interested in signing Quinn at the time included Watford and Manchester City, who had just been promoted to the First Division.

Quinn scored four goals on his debut in a 5–2 home win over Leeds United on 19 August 1989 and finished as the Football League's top goalscorer for the 1989–90 season with 34 league goals.

Quinn managed 39 goals in all competitions that season.

The Magpies were beaten to one of the automatic promotion places by Leeds United and Sheffield United and their promotion hopes were ended when they lost to local rivals Sunderland in the play-offs.

Quinn scored 20 goals for the Magpies the following season but the club's league form slumped and they finished down in tenth position.

Before the season ended Quinn and his teammates had a new manager after Jim Smith resigned and was succeeded by Ossie Ardiles.

Quinn was ruled out of action for three months in October 1991, after he suffered a knee injury and managed just 7 goals in 22 matches.

The 1991–92 season was arguably the worst season in Newcastle United's history as they only narrowly avoided relegation to the third tier of the English league.

Ardiles was sacked on 5 February 1992 and was succeeded by Kevin Keegan but Quinn fell out with Keegan soon afterwards over newspaper speculation that Quinn had condemned the set-up as a "shambles".

When the 1992–93 season started, Quinn was no longer a first-choice player on Tyneside and on 20 November 1992 was sold to Coventry City, whose manager Bobby Gould paid £250,000 for his services, after a bid from Aston Villa who were in the Premier League title race at the time was rejected by the North East England club.