Nathan Blake

Nathan Blake (born 27 January 1972) is a Welsh former professional footballer, pundit and television presenter.

He notably played in the Premier League for Sheffield United, Bolton Wanderers, Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He also played in the Football League for Cardiff City, Leicester City and Leeds United before retiring with non-league side Newport County.

He was capped 30 times by Wales, scoring four goals.

He has previously been capped at U21 and B team level.

He was relegated from the Premier League on a joint record of five occasions (with Hermann Hreiðarsson).

Blake is also one of the most promoted players to the Premier League with three promotions.

Following retirement, Blake has worked for Wales Online reporting on Cardiff City, BBC Wales, BBC 5 Live, and Sky Sports.

Blake was a trainee at Chelsea but was released in 1990, without graduating to the first team.

He quickly rose to being a first team regular in 1990–91 and went on to become a firm favourite with fans.

He helped the club to the Third Division title in 1992–93, scoring 11 times, and made a strong start to life in the third tier the next season, scoring 14 goals in 20 games.

It was during this season that he rose to national prominence when he scored a spectacular goal against Manchester City to send them crashing out of the FA Cup.

This form attracted Premier League Sheffield United to snap him up for £300,000 in February 1994.

In total, he scored 40 goals in 164 appearances for the Welsh side.

Blake scored five goals in the remainder of Sheffield United's top flight campaign, but could not halt relegation.

He then finished as the Blades' top scorer in the next two seasons, but neither season saw the club mount a serious promotion challenge in Division One.

During the 1995–96 season, his goalscoring again won him a move to the Premier League, as he joined Bolton Wanderers in December 1995 in a £1,200,000 deal.

Blake failed to make an immediate impact at Bolton Wanderers and only managed one league goal as they dropped out of the Premier League after a solitary season.

He rediscovered his goalscoring prowess in the 1996–97 season though, as he notched 19 league goals to fire Bolton back to the top flight as champions.

The next season saw his best seasonal tally in the top flight as he bagged 12 goals, however this couldn't prevent yet another relegation for the club after one season.

He started the 1998–99 season brightly, with six goals in the opening 12 games, which won him his third move back to the Premier League with Blackburn Rovers in a £4.25 million deal in October 1998.

History repeated itself though for Blake as he again suffered the drop in a season that saw him manage just three goals.

The striker remained at Ewood Park for two full seasons, the second of which saw him again win promotion, but he managed only nine goals over these seasons.

He started the club's return in the top flight, and scored their opening goal away at Derby County, but was swiftly returned to Division One when he was sold to Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 2001 for an initial £1.5 million fee.

Blake, who had a strained relationship with Blackburn manager Graeme Souness, was offered the chance to stay and fight for a place in the side but decided to accept the transfer.

Blake quickly refound his form at First Division Wolves, scoring on his debut against Stockport County, and ending the season with 11 goals.

However, he missed out on another promotion as the club suffered a late slump to fall into the play-offs where they lost to Norwich City.

The next season saw Blake better his tally, despite suffering a broken foot during a match against Portsmouth in November 2002, as his 12 goals helped the club go one step further as they won the play-offs.

Blake himself scored in the 3–0 final win over his former club Sheffield United, held at the Millennium Stadium in his birth city of Cardiff.

His final crack at the Premier League was hindered by a year of niggling injuries that kept him sidelined for the majority of the games.

He managed just one goal, against Newcastle United, from 13 appearances as the club proved unable to survive.

This relegation gave Blake the unenviable distinction of the player suffering the most Premier League relegations with five different seasons ending in the drop, a record that has since been matched by Hermann Hreiðarsson.

In October 2020 he presented a programme on BBC Wales titled Wales' Black Miners.

Blake was born in Cardiff and grew up nearby on the Ringland estate in Newport, Wales.

Blake was raised by his mother, aunt, and grandmother, and his cousins Matthew Robinson, a Wales rugby union international and Anthony Sullivan, a dual code rugby international.

His uncle Clive Sullivan was a rugby league international.

Blake attended Milton Primary School and Hartridge High School.

He told WalesOnline in 2020 how, despite his upbringing showing "99% of people from the estate [having] no fear", he saw racism "like no other time in my life" at Chelsea.

The club have since been accused of ignoring the racist abuse of coaches Graham Rix and Gwyn Williams.

He moved back to his home-city club Cardiff City after this, where he quickly made his senior debut against Bristol Rovers in March.