Steve Claridge

Steve Claridge

Personal information
Full name	Stephen Edward Claridge
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s)	Striker
Team information
Current team	Harrow Borough

Stephen Edward Claridge (born 10 April 1966) is an English football player, pundit and coach. He plays as a striker. He plays for Harrow Borough football club of the Ryman Premier League, after being released by Bournemouth on January 3 2007. He is notable for having appeared in 1000 professional or semi-professional football matches.

On 10th June Steve Claridge was Jailed on account of drink driving for 6 months.

Early career

Claridge was born in Portsmouth and grew up in Titchfield Common, a village near Portsmouth, and attended Brookfield Community School in Sarisbury Green, Southampton.

Claridge's career is considered typical of that of a "journeyman", in that he has gained experience of all levels of English football and has played for many different clubs.

Having failed to impress in the youth system of Portsmouth, Claridge initially played for Fareham Town in the Southern League. His performances gained the attention of 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, but spent just two days with them before joining Division Four team Aldershot. He spent two years with the club as they struggled to avoid administration (the club folded soon after Claridge left in 1990), 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. However, due to his tempestuous relationship with manager John Beck, which was exacerbated by Claridge's gambling problems, he was sold to Luton Town for only £120,000 in March 1992. However, due to financial difficulties at Luton, he was sold back to Cambridge, for £190,000, just five months later. This was ironically following John Beck leaving the club.

Bigger things and management

In January 1994 Claridge moved to Birmingham City, for £350,000, where he became the first player since Trevor Francis to score 20 goals in a season. This led to a £1.2 million transfer to Leicester City in March 1996. It was at Leicester under Martin O'Neill that Claridge reached the highest level of English football, the Premiership, scoring winning goals in both the 1996 play-off final that gave Leicester promotion and the 1997 League Cup final replay, giving Claridge his only major trophy as a player. In 1997 his autobiography "Tales From The Boot Camps", co-written with Ian Ridley, was first published.

In 1998 Claridge joined Portsmouth on loan and, following a brief period at Wolves, 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 successful 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.

During his time at Weymouth, Claridge and now chairman Ian Ridley were two of the subjects of a BBC documentary called Football Stories. Claridge was initially successful, with Weymouth just missing out on promotion to the Football Conference. However, after Ridley quit as chairman, Claridge also left to return to playing league football. It was around this time that Claridge began to work as a pundit, initially for BBC Radio 5 Live. As well as co-commentating for the radio, he now also works with the BBC's website and occasionally on the BBC's televised football shows.

Club-to-club

Since 2004, Claridge has moved between a number of clubs, rarely staying for more than a few months. Chronologically, he has 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 was fired after just 36 days before playing any competitive matches to be replaced by Colin Lee. The decisions were related to changes in the club's boardroom and was the decision of new chairman Theo Paphitis , who claimed to the BBC that "we had a strong chance of being relegated under Steve". Millwall were relegated from the Coca-Cola Championship that season.

At the start of the 2006–07 season Claridge was without a club. This left him in the position of having played 999 competitive league and cup games overall throughout his career, with reports suggesting that Claridge had offered to play for free in order to achieve a 1000th game. Eventually in December 2006 he re-signed on a month-long contract with Bournemouth and appeared in his 1000th first-team match on December 9 in a 4-0 defeat to Port Vale.

On 16 January 2007 he joined Ryman League Premier Division side Worthing on a one-game only deal in which he played against AFC Wimbledon in a 1-1 draw. On 30 January 2007 he joined Harrow Borough and scored on his club debut in a 4-4 draw against Margate .

Honours

With Leicester City

• 1997 League Cup winner

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

Template:S-awards

External links

• Steve Claridge at Soccerbase
• Steve Claridge management career statistics at Soccerbase