Anthony Richard "Tony" Cottee (born 11 July 1965 in Plaistow) is an English former football player.

Cottee has admitted to diligently maintaining a scrapbook containing press cuttings of every goal he has scored throughout his playing career.^[1]

[edit] Biography

During his career Cottee played for a number of sides, including West Ham United, Everton and Leicester City. He made his West Ham first team debut against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 January 1983, scoring in the process. He was a prolific goalscorer especially in his West Ham days, 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.

Cottee became the most expensive player to be signed by a British club when in 1988 he joined Everton in a £2.2 million deal. He kick-started his Goodison Park career in spectacular fashion as the former Upton Park favourite grabbed a hat-trick in his debut, scoring the first goal within minutes after kick-off in front of the ecstatic home crowd. At Everton, Cottee formed several fertile striking partnerships with the likes of Scottish super-striker Graeme Sharp and after Sharp's departure to Oldham Athletic in 1991, Peter Beardsley (who was signed from Liverpool).

None of those pairings, however, proved as devastating as his legendary partnership with Frank McAvennie at Upton Park. In fact, the McAvennie-Cottee partnership, was arguably one of the hottest striking-forces in the English League during the mid to late 1980s. Cottee remained at Everton until the autumn of 1994, when he returned to West Ham in exchange for defender David Burrows.

He remained at Upton Park for another two years, until 1996, when he was given a free transfer and moved to Selangor of Malaysia, winning the Malaysian FA Cup and the Malaysia Cup. He remained there for only ten months before returning to England with Leicester City in 1997, where he spent three years and won the League Cup in his final full season at Filbert Street.

In September 2000, Cottee joined Norwich City as player-coach under recently-appointed manager Bryan Hamilton^[2], however this did not last long as Cottee struggled to meet the demands placed on him, scoring two goals against Blackpool in the League Cup^[3] and Sheffield United in the league.^[4] After being released by Norwich on 31 October 2000, he took over as player-manager of Barnet, a team closer to his home in London. After winning his first game with the club 7–0, Barnet hit a run of poor form which left them facing relegation from the Football League. Cottee resigned on 16 March 2001^[5], however his replacement, John Still (who had ironically left the club just before Cottee's appointment six months earlier), was unable to rescue the team from relegation.

A week after resigning from Barnet, Cottee signed for Millwall on transfer deadline day. During this remarkable season, which was his last as a player, Cottee played for a different team in each of the top four divisions of English football in the same season, a rare achievement last performed by goalkeeper Eric Nixon in 1986–87.^[6]

Cottee gained seven England caps, played in the 1989 FA Cup Final for Everton and won the League Cup with Leicester City in 2000. He is now a commentator with Sky Sports.

[edit] Honours

Everton

• FA Cup: 1989 (runner-up)

Leicester City

• League Cup: 1999-00

Selangor

• Malaysia Cup: 1997
• Malaysia FA Cup: 1997

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Tony Cottee career stats at Soccerbase
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk