Steve Claridge

Steve Claridge

Personal information
Full name	Stephen Edward Claridge
Date of birth	10 April 1966 (1966-04-10)
Place of birth	Portsmouth, England
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Gosport Borough
Youth career
	Portsmouth
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1983–1984	Fareham Town	13	(2)
1984–1985	Bournemouth	7	(1)
1985–1988	Weymouth	110	(28)
1988	Crystal Palace	0	(0)
1988–1990	Aldershot	62	(19)
1990–1992	Cambridge United	79	(28)
1992	Luton Town	16	(2)
1992–1994	Cambridge United	53	(18)
1994–1996	Birmingham City	88	(35)
1996–1998	Leicester City	63	(17)
1998	→ Portsmouth (loan)	10	(2)
1998	Wolverhampton Wanderers	5	(0)
1998–2001	Portsmouth	104	(34)
2001	→ Millwall (loan)	6	(3)
2001–2003	Millwall	85	(26)
2003–2004	Weymouth	47	(24)
2004	Brighton & Hove Albion	5	(0)
2004–2005	Brentford	4	(0)
2005	→ Wycombe Wanderers (loan)	4	(0)
2005	Wycombe Wanderers	15	(4)
2005	Millwall	0	(0)
2005	Gillingham	1	(0)
2005–2006	Bradford City	26	(5)
2006	→ Walsall (loan)	7	(1)
2006–2007	Bournemouth	1	(0)
2007	Worthing	1	(0)
2007	Harrow Borough	4	(2)
2009	Weymouth	1	(0)
2011–	Gosport Borough	7	(4)
Teams managed
2000–2001	Portsmouth
2003–2004	Weymouth
2005	Millwall
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:32, 25 February 2012 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals).

Stephen Edward Claridge (born 10 April 1966) is an English football player, pundit and coach. He is currently a pundit for BBC Sport football shows including Football Focus and the The Football League Show, whilst also playing as a striker for semi-professional team Gosport Borough.

Claridge's career is known for its longevity and diversity. Born in Portsmouth, he has spent a number of periods with teams from Hampshire and Dorset, having begun his career with non-league Fareham Town in 1983. After failing to gain a permanent contract at local league club A.F.C. Bournemouth, Claridge spent three years at Weymouth, in his longest single spell with any club. From 1988 till 1996 Claridge played for a number of Football League teams, before moving to Leicester City with whom he played in the Premier League and won the 1997 Football League Cup. In 1998 he moved to Portsmouth, where he was also player manager from 2000–2001. After a spell with Millwall, he dropped down to the Southern Premier League to work as player-manager for Weymouth. After this ended in 2004, Claridge played for ten different clubs in a variety of leagues, never spending more than a season with one team. He has played at all levels of English football and has also appeared in 1000 professional or semi-professional football matches.

After formally retiring from football in 2007, Claridge moved into media work for the BBC. His experience of the Football League has been used to position him as an expert at that level, though he works across a variety of different football programmes on the BBC. He has since occasionally played semi-professional football for clubs in the South of England, playing one game for Weymouth in 2009 and signing in 2011 for Gosport Borough.

Early years

Claridge was born in Portsmouth and grew up in Titchfield, a village near Fareham, and attended Brookfield Community School in Sarisbury Green. He was an adopted child.

Claridge initially played for Fareham Town in the Southern League. He got into Football League side Bournemouth, though Claridge again stepped down the leagues after just seven games for Bournemouth to sign for Weymouth.

In October 1988 Claridge moved to Crystal Palace, and spent two days with them before joining Division Four team Aldershot. He spent two years with the club before signing with Cambridge United for £75,000. He moved with Cambridge up into the Second Division (which later became the First Division) and stayed with the club for most of the next four years. His tempestuous relationship with manager John Beck, which was exacerbated by Claridge's gambling problems, eventually led to his being sold to Luton Town for only £120,000 in March 1992. With Luton in financial difficulties however he was sold back to Cambridge, for £190,000, just five months later (Beck having left the club by this time).

In January 1994 Claridge moved to Birmingham City, for £350,000. During 1994, he became the first player since Trevor Francis to score 20 goals in a season. Claridge then was transferred to Leicester City for £1.2 million in March 1996. It was at Leicester that Claridge reached the Premiership, scoring winning goals in both the 1996 play-off final that gave Leicester promotion and the 1997 League Cup final replay. In 1997 his autobiography Tales From The Boot Camps, co-written with Ian Ridley, was first published.

Moves into management

In 1998 Claridge joined hometown club Portsmouth on loan and, following a brief period at Wolverhampton Wanderers, signed for Portsmouth on a permanent basis. From 2000 this was as a player-manager, though Claridge's reign lasted for just twenty-five games before he was demoted. After a period on loan with Millwall, he moved to the London club on a free transfer in 2001. He spent two seasons with Millwall before returning to Weymouth as the club's new player-manager. Weymouth just missed out on promotion to the Football Conference. Following Ian Ridley's resignation as chairman, Claridge also left to return to playing league football.

Later playing career

In his later playing career, chronologically, Claridge played for Brighton and Hove Albion, Brentford, Wycombe Wanderers, Gillingham, Bradford City and Walsall. In the summer of 2005 he was appointed as manager of Millwall, but following board-room changes he was relieved of his duties after just 36 days, before his team had played any competitive matches. His replacement was Colin Lee. The decision to dismiss Claridge was taken by new chairman Theo Paphitis, who stated to the BBC that "we had a strong chance of being relegated under Steve". Millwall were indeed relegated from the Coca-Cola Championship that season.

At the start of the 2006–07 season Claridge didn't have a club. It was reported that Claridge had offered to play without payment in order to achieve the landmark of 1,000 games. Eventually in December 2006 he re-signed on a month-long contract with Bournemouth and his 1,000th first-team match was a 4–0 defeat to Port Vale on 9 December, at age 40.

On 16 January 2007 he signed a contract with Isthmian League Premier Division side Worthing to play in one game only, against AFC Wimbledon. The match ended in a 1–1 draw.

On 30 January 2007 Claridge joined Harrow Borough and scored on his debut in a 4–4 draw against Margate.

In September 2009, Claridge came out of retirement to play unpaid for his former club, the Conference South side Weymouth, who were in severe financial difficulties.

Claridge then came out of retirement once more in October 2011 when he signed for Gosport Borough as player-coach. On 22 October 2011, Claridge scored on his début for Gosport during their FA Trophy game against Southern League side Sholing.

Media

During Claridge's time at Weymouth, he and Ian Ridley, who was club chairman at the time, were two of the subjects of a BBC documentary called Football Stories. It was around the time that he left Weymouth that Claridge began to work in the media, initially for BBC Radio 5 Live. As well as co-commentating for the radio, he also works for the BBC mainly on the The Football League Show,. In this role, he has stated his opposition to the use of goal-line technology. He has also contributed scouting reports to The Guardian.

Driving conviction

On 10 June 2008, Claridge was given a six-month suspended jail sentence for dangerous driving after speeding at 100 mph near Solihull. He already had nine points on his licence.

Honours

Birmingham City

• Second Division: 1995
• Football League Trophy: 1995

Leicester City

• League Cup: 1997
• First Division play-offs: 1996

Managerial record

Years	Club	Pld	W	D	L	Pts/game
2001–2002	Portsmouth	22	5	8	9	1.05
2003–2004	Weymouth	-	-	-	-	-
2005	Millwall	0	0	0	0	n/a

External links

• Steve Claridge career stats at Soccerbase
• Steve Claridge management career stats at Soccerbase

Awards
Preceded by Iwan Roberts	Leicester City Top Goalscorer 1996–97	Succeeded by Emile Heskey Ian Marshall
Preceded by Andy Awford	Portsmouth F.C. Fans' Player of the Year 1998–1999 & 1999–2000	Succeeded by Scott Hiley