Paul Allen 1979 – 1985
If you watch any sort of footage of the 1980 Cup Final you will see a teenage Paul Allen either sobbing with delight at having collected his winner’s medal or being callously hacked to the ground by Arsenal centre half Willie Young while he is bearing down on the Arsenal goal.
With this appearance Allen became the youngest player to appear in an FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium at the tender age of 17 years 256 days, he would play for the Hammers for 6 years before moving to Tottenham Hotspur for £400,000 in the summer of 1985.
It is with Tottenham he is often better remembered, he played nearly 300 League games in an eight-year stint with the club. He played in the 1987 and 1991 Cup Final sides winning the latter and won the clubs player of the year award in the 1992-93 season, his final one with the North London club.
In September 1993 Allen moved from Tottenham to Southampton for £550,000 he stayed just two seasons being loaned out to Stoke City for the second half of the 1994-95 season. Allen moved onto to Swindon Town in 1995 helping the club win the Second division title in 1996.
Allen played a final season with Millwall he eventually retired from the game in 1998 after an 18-year long career.
Allen has since worked for the PFA in numerous roles.
Paul Allen will forever be linked with West Ham because of those scenes in 1980 incredibly the last time the club won a major honour
Martin Allen 1989 – 1995
Signed by Lou Macari from QPR for £670,000 in 1989 Mad Dog as he became known rapidly established himself in the Midfield of the side in the late eighties/early nineties. A whole hearted player Allen was a favourite amongst the crowd for his crunching tackles and endearing character. Allen played 234 League games for the club before moving on to Portsmouth in 1995 for £500,000 following a successful loan spell. By this stage, his career was starting to come to an end and after 3 frustrating years on the south coast followed by a short spell with Southend, Allen retired to pursue a coaching career.
Allen began his coaching career as Assistant Manager at his hometown club Reading with future Hammers boss Alan Pardew helping the club to promotion in his second season. He moved to Barnet to work under Peter Shreeves who he eventually replaced as Manager in 2003. Allen built a strong team who were competing at the top end of the conference but left to join Brentford with only two months of the season remaining. Brentford were fighting relegation to the bottom tier but under Allen’s stewardship, the club avoided relegation.
Over the next two seasons, Allen built a very strong side combining seasoned professionals like John Salako and Andy Myers with promising youngsters such as Stephen Hunt and Michael Turner. Brentford finished 3rd and 4th in two seasons but were eliminated at the semi final stage of the play offs on both occasions. Martin also helped Brentford to the 5th round of the FA Cup losing to Premier League sides on both occasions.
Allen really forged his reputation at Brentford molding a very good team on a tight budget and competing with clubs with much bigger resources on a regular basis.
It was during his time at Griffin Park Allen began to show his now famous eccentricity, his used a variety of unusual motivational techniques to instill team spirit most notably swimming naked in the Solent before an FA Cup tie with Southampton in 2005. Allen eventually resigned from his position in May 2006 citing the board’s lack of investment in the team as his reason for leaving.
From Brentford Allen moved to the MK Dons in the league’s bottom tier again Allen turned around a failing team and helped them to the play offs where they lost in the semi-final to Shrewsbury Town in 2007.
Allen quickly moved onto Championship Leicester City in May 2007 but he was quickly disillusioned with the level of interference from the board and his contract was terminated by mutual consent in August 2007.
Allen then followed in his father’s footsteps in managing Cheltenham Town when he signed a 3 year contract in 2008 but his time with the club was not a happy one, The club were in financial difficulties and Allen was forced to sell many of the clubs best players which led to a run of results that left the Gloucestershire side close to the bottom of the table.
To make matters worse Allen was put on gardening leave following a club investigation an alleged altercation with a nightclub bouncer, despite the police announcing Allen had no case to answer he left the club in 2010.
Allen then returned to Barnet on an 8 game contract until the end of the 2010-2011 season but he left after 3 games to join Notts County who he saved from relegation and the end of the 2010-2011, despite a promising start he was very quickly sacked in February 2012.
He returned to Barnet for a third stint in charge and helped the club avoid relegation at the end of the 2011-2012 season before moving on to Gillingham at the end of his contract.
Allen enjoyed a successful stint with the Kent club guiding them to their best ever start to a League season eventually securing the League Two title in April 2013. Allen also had the honour of being named LMA Manager of the year a reward for his first promotion of his managerial career. Despite this, he was sacked in October 2013 after a slow start in Division 1 following promotion.
Incredibly Allen returned to Barnet for the fourth time helping the club secure promotion from the Conference in 2015, he also helped the club consolidate his League position the following season but he again left Barnet to join Non-League Eastleigh in December 2016 despite Barnet being positioned just outside the play-off places.
Allen was sacked by Eastleigh in February 2017
Martin Allen is clearly a talented manager and has displayed his ability to work within the tightest of budgets which is a tribute to his coaching ability. He does have something of a reputation as an eccentric but he clearly is a very good coach and will no doubt find a club in due course,
He remains very popular with the West Ham fans who always appreciated his tireless work on the pitch
Clive Allen 1992-1994
The oldest of the Allen cousins and the last to sign for the club when he joined from Chelsea in March 1992. A goal scorer of some reputation he played a huge part in helping the club secure promotion in the 1992-1993 season. The prolific striker was in the twilight of his career when he joined West Ham and fell out of favour following promotion to the Premier League eventually moving to Millwall in 1994 and finishing his career with Carlisle a year later.
Having retired from the game Allen made the unusual step of representing the London Monarchs and American Football team for a season before starting a successful punditry career with a number of media outlets.
Allen served on the Tottenham coaching staff under Martin Jol and acted as interim manager for one game following the Dutchman’s sacking in 2007.
Clive Allen was a very talented striker and was very unlucky to play in an era that contained many great goal scorers, he played for both Arsenal (briefly) and Tottenham as well as Chelsea, Millwall and West Ham and it’s a tribute to both his skill and talent that he is remembered fondly by fans of all the clubs he played for.
A very good player who joined the club in the twilight of his career but played a significant part in the promotion season of 1992-1993.