Tony Cottee

Antony Richard Cottee (born 11 July 1965) is an English former professional footballer and manager who now works as a television football commentator.

Still, he was one of the most prolific goalscorers that English football saw during the 1980s and 1990s.

As a player, he was a striker from 1982 until 2001, notably playing in the top flight of English football for West Ham United, Everton and Leicester City.

He was capped seven times by England, and played in the Football League for Birmingham City, Norwich City and Millwall.

He also had a spell in Malaysia with Selangor and spent a season as player-manager of Barnet.

He played a total of eight games in the 1982–83 season, scoring five goals.

Born in Forest Gate, London, Cottee began his career at West Ham, where he made his first team debut in the First Division against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 January 1983, at the age of 17, scoring in the process.

He established himself in the first team during the 1983–84 season, when still only 18, and scored 15 times in the league.

He did even better in 1984–85, when he scored 17 First Division goals.

By the age of 20, he had already managed an impressive 37 league goals.

He was a prolific scorer in first spell at West Ham, where he was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1986, the year where West Ham finished third (their highest league finish to date) and came just four points away from the title.

He scored 20 times in the league during that season, though his strike partner Frank McAvennie did even better with 26 league goals.

Still, their 46-goal strike partnership was the most prolific in the league that season.

1986–87 saw Cottee score 22 league goals – which would be the highest of his career.

Cottee managed a further 13 league goals in 1987–88, but McAvennie had been sold to Celtic early in the season and the failure of manager John Lyall to find an adequate replacement contributed to West Ham disappointing in the league again, finishing 16th.

By this time, the 23-year-old Cottee had already managed 212 league games and 92 goals for Hammers.

Cottee briefly became the most expensive player to be signed by a British club when on 2 August 1988 he joined Everton in a £2.2 million deal (a fee eclipsed by Ian Rush's return to Liverpool from Juventus later that month).

He made his Everton debut on 27 August 1988, the opening day of the 1988–89 First Division campaign, in a 4–0 home win over Newcastle United in which he scored a hat-trick.

He managed a further 10 league goals that season, though Everton were relatively disappointing in the league as they finished eighth – having been a top four club and twice champions in the previous four seasons.

He played in Everton's 1989 FA Cup Final defeat to Liverpool, and won the League Cup with Leicester City in 2000.

His final career tally was 579 league games and 226 goals.

In all competitions, he played 712 games and 293 goals.

He exceeded his ambition to score 200 league goals in his career, but fell just short of his target of 300 goals in all competitions.

However, they did reach the FA Cup final and were paired with neighbours Liverpool at Wembley on 20 May 1989.

It was a close contest but in the end Everton lost 3–2 in extra time.

Earlier in the season Cottee and his colleagues and been on the receiving end of another Wembley defeat, this time to Nottingham Forest who beat them 4–3 in the final of the Full Members Cup, but Cottee still managed to get on the scoresheet twice.

Cottee spent his first season at Goodison Park playing alongside Graeme Sharp, but for 1989–90 manager Colin Harvey changed the formation to 4–3–3 and brought in Mike Newell as Everton's third striker.

The season began very promisingly for Everton, who went top of the league on 21 October and stayed there until mid November, but their title hopes gradually disintegrated and they finished sixth while the title went to Liverpool.

Cottee scored 13 league goals that season.

1990–91 was arguably Everton's worst season in a decade.

Manager Colin Harvey was sacked on 31 October 1990 with the Toffees third from bottom in the First Division, and a week later Howard Kendall (who had guided them to two league titles, an FA Cup and a European Cup Winners' Cup in his first spell from 1981 to 1987) was appointed with Harvey returning as his assistant.

Everton's form improved under Kendall and they finished ninth, also reaching the FA Cup quarter-finals and ousting Liverpool in the fifth round after two replays; Cottee was Everton's saviour in the first replay on 21 February as he scored a late equaliser which forced a 4–4 draw in Liverpool's last game before the resignation of manager Kenny Dalglish the following day.

Cottee managed 10 league goals in the 1990–91 season.

1991–92 was a frustrating season for Cottee and Everton.

By mid November he had two new strike partners in Peter Beardsley and Mo Johnston following the sale of both Graeme Sharp and Mike Newell, and while the revamped forward line was reasonably productive, the rest of the team struggled to match their standards.

Cottee was restricted to eight goals from 24 games through injury, and Everton finished mid table once again.

It was the first time since his debut season nine years earlier that he had scored less than 10 league goals in a season.

1992–93 saw Everton participate in the inaugural FA Premier League, and Cottee did better this time, scoring 12 goals.

He managed 16 league goals in 1993–94, but it was a disastrous season for Everton who only narrowly avoided relegation just seven years after being league champions.

However, Frank McAvennie alongside him could only manage seven league goals that season and this contributed to a downturn in West Ham's form as they finished 15th.