John Aldridge
| John Aldridge | ||
|
||
| Personnel | ||
|---|---|---|
| Surname | John William Aldridge | |
| birthday | September 18, 1958 | |
| place of birth | Liverpool , England | |
| position | striker | |
| Juniors | ||
| Years | station | |
| South Liverpool FC | ||
| Men's | ||
| Years | station | Games (goals) 1 |
| 1979-1984 | Newport County | 170 (69) |
| 1984-1987 | Oxford United | 114 (72) |
| 1987-1989 | Liverpool FC | 83 (50) |
| 1989-1991 | Real Sociedad | 63 (33) |
| 1991-1998 | Tranmere Rovers | 242 (138) |
| National team | ||
| Years | selection | Games (goals) |
| 1986-1997 | Ireland | 69 (19) |
| Stations as a trainer | ||
| Years | station | |
| 1996-2001 | Tranmere Rovers | |
| 1 Only league games are given. | ||
John William Aldridge (born September 18, 1958 in Liverpool ) is a former Anglo-Irish football player and coach . He was an excellent scorer who broke several records and was most famous for his very successful stint with Liverpool in the late 1980s.
Career
It took Aldridge a long time to become known. He first played in the amateur field on Merseyside before signing his first professional contract with Newport County .
In 1984 he moved to Oxford United , which was then in the Third Division (before it was renamed in 1982). He set a new club record for goals scored in one season in the 1984/85 season, when United rose to the First Division (also before they were renamed in 1982). 1986 Oxford missed the Queens Park Rangers in the final of the League Cup at Wembley a 3-0 defeat and thus won the League Cup . This is Oxford's greatest achievement to date.
Aldridge accepted the offer to play for the Irish national football team in 1987, when he had just switched to his youth's favorite club, Liverpool . During the investigation into Aldridge, the Irish Football Association found that Ray Houghton , who played for Oxford at the same time as Aldridge, could also play for Ireland.
Liverpool regular striker Ian Rush wanted to join Juventus at the end of the season , the Reds needed an established and experienced replacement. Aldridge was like Rush, especially in terms of physique. He signed a contract with Liverpool, but remained untitled in his first year with Liverpool, including a lost League Cup final at Wembley against Arsenal, in which Aldridge was not allowed to play.
Before long, concerns that Aldridge would not be able to replace Rush and that the pressure would break apart from the pressure vanished. After Rush's departure, Aldridge scored 26 goals in a terrific season. In each of the first nine games, Aldridge could score a goal. Liverpool lost only twice in the league and were unbeaten in the first 29 games of the season. The championship title in 1988 was won by some margin.
Aldridge scored both goals in the FA Cup semi-finals against Nottingham Forest , including a volley that resulted from an extraordinary move by the team. He was also a sure-fire penalty taker, but shot largely predictably, which meant that he and Liverpool's relationship was disrupted at the end of the season.
Wimbledon goalkeeper Dave Beasant had found through observation that Aldridge shot every penalty into the left corner (as seen from the goalkeeper). Aldridge had shot and hit his penalties there throughout the season. In the FA Cup final at Wembley, Liverpool got a penalty in the middle of the second half after a foul on Aldridge himself. Wimbledon was leading 1-0 at this point.
Aldridge took the penalty as anticipated in Beasant's left goalkeeper corner and Beasant responded and held the ball. This was the first time a goalkeeper could save a penalty in an FA Cup final and, conversely, Aldridge was the first to take a penalty in a final this competition missed. It was also the first penalty Aldridge had missed for Liverpool. A few minutes later he was replaced, Liverpool lost 1-0.
That summer, Aldridge played the qualification for the 1988 European Championship in West Germany and was able to celebrate with the team the first time reaching a finals in Ireland. Ireland beat England 1-0 in the preliminary round and drew 1-1 with the USSR , but did not reach the next round after losing to Holland .
Aldridge struggled to play football on an international level. He was an excellent team player and Ireland coach Jack Charlton was never unhappy with him, but it took Aldridge over 20 caps before he finally scored his first goal for the national team.
The following season was difficult and eventful for Aldridge. Rush could not in Italy settle ( "It's like being in a foreign country" , in German "It is as if you were abroad" was a memorable utterance of the Welsh striker during his time with Juventus) and Liverpool negotiated about him to be brought back cheaply to Anfield Road .
This sparked speculation that Aldridge would become redundant at Liverpool, but Kenny Dalglish , the Reds manager , dispelled those rumors by letting Aldridge and Rush play together (although there were caveats as the two might be too similar to each other) and indeed Aldridge, who was in better shape than Rush, who had problems returning to his family, benefited from this decision.
In the Charity Shield game at Wembley against Wimbledon, which Liverpool won 2-1, Aldridge scored two goals and dedicated the FA Cup win to spirits he wanted to persuade to stay.
Aldridge continued his hit streak, while Rush had to sit on the bench more and more often. When 96 fans were killed in the Hillsborough disaster , Aldridge, a Liverpool native and an active fan of the club from an early age, was deeply moved by the tragedy. He went to every funeral he could appear and publicly pondered whether to stop playing football.
Eventually he returned and scored two goals in the rescheduled semi-finals (again against Nottingham Forest) at Old Trafford in Liverpool's 3-1 win. There was uproar over the third goal, an own goal by Forest defender Brian Laws . Aldridge has been criticized for poking the dismayed player through the hair and laughing in surprise.
Aldridge made his mistake at the Penalty Kick a year later well by the FA Cup in the final against rivals from Merseyside , the Everton met with his first touch. Ironically, it was Rush who finally sealed the victory when he scored twice in stoppage time for Liverpool after coming on for Aldridge, giving them a 3-2 win.
The "double", consisting of a league championship and winning the FA Cup, which Liverpool had already achieved in 1986 but did not work again in Wimbledon in 1988, was possible again with a playoff against Arsenal at Anfield. Aldridge played in the game that would guarantee Liverpool the title if Arsenal didn't win by two goals. After it was 1-0 for Arsenal during regular time, Liverpool had to accept another goal (scored by Michael Thomas ) and could not win the championship. Aldridge threw himself sadly on the pitch when the final whistle sounded and reacted angrily when Arsenal defender and Aldridge's Irish team-mate David O'Leary tried to get him back on his feet.
The following season, Rush had fully arrived at Anfield Road and Liverpool accepted an offer from Spanish club Real Sociedad San Sebastián for Aldridge. Before leaving England, he got the chance to convert a penalty in front of the Kop in Liverpool's record win (9-0 against Crystal Palace ) as a substitute , which he succeeded. After the end of the game, he tossed his shirt and shoes into the crowd and signed with the Spaniards the next day. Aldridge was the first non- Basque player to be signed to Sociedad.
Aldridge was successful at Sociedad and played an important role in Ireland's reaching the quarter-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy . Although he had already scored for Ireland, he failed to score during the tournament. Ireland lost to the hosts in the round of the last eight.
In 1991 he returned to Merseyside and signed a contract with Tranmere Rovers . In the first season he was able to break the club record for the most goals scored within a season with 40 goals. At the 1994 World Cup in the United States , he was able to maintain his place within the Irish national team and was embroiled in one of the country's well-known scandals.
When Ireland were 2-0 down in a group game against Mexico , Charlton Aldridge wanted to come on, but the fourth man didn't react. The coach and players fired tirades of rant that the television viewers could hear at him. Both were punished for it after the game; Aldridge scored a goal when he was finally substituted on, creating an opportunity to turn the game around. However, Ireland lost 2-1.
In 1996, Aldridge joined Tranmere as player and coach, but two years later he gave up playing and focused on management. In the 882 games of his career, he scored 474 goals, a rate that has not been achieved by any goal scorer since the Second World War.
Although Tranmere had some good series and was able to win against supposedly overpowering opponents in the FA Cup (as an example, reaching the league cup final in 2000, which was lost to Leicester City ), the club rose in 2001 to the third division , where Tranmere can be found to this day. Aldridge stepped back.
Today he is the football expert with various media companies, both on Merseyside and nationally, and is back playing football on Liverpool's alumni team.
successes
- English champion: 1988
- FA Cup Winner: 1989
- English league cup winner: 1986
- Charity Shield Winner: 1988, 1989
- Welsh Cup Winner: 1980
Web links
- John Aldridge in the database of weltfussball.de
- Datasheet on LFCHistory.net
- John Aldridge in the soccerbase.com database
- John Aldridge in the soccerbase.com database
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Aldridge, John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Aldridge, John William |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English-Irish football player and coach |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 18, 1958 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Liverpool |