Les Allen

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Les Allen
Personnel
Surname Leslie William Allen
birthday September 4, 1937
place of birth Dagenham ,  England
position Half-striker
Juniors
Years station
Brig Sports
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1954-1959 Chelsea FC 44 (11)
1959-1965 Tottenham Hotspur 119 (47)
1965-1969 Queens Park Rangers 128 (55)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1961 England U-23 1 0(0)
Stations as a trainer
Years station
1968-1971 Queens Park Rangers
Woodford Town
1972-1974 Swindon Town
1 Only league games are given.

Leslie William "Les" Allen (born September 4, 1937 in Dagenham ) is a former English football player and coach . As a striker , he was initially denied a breakthrough at Chelsea before he won the "double" in the English championship and the FA Cup after moving to Tottenham Hotspur in 1961. With the Queens Park Rangers he later rose from the third to the first division, won the League Cup in 1967 and served the club between late 1968 and early 1971 as head coach.

Athletic career

Chelsea FC

Allen initially worked for the amateur club Brigg Sports before joining Chelsea in September 1954 . There he spent a good five years, played 44 league games and scored eleven goals. But he never made his sporting breakthrough and could not contribute anything to winning the English championship in 1955 . As a striker, he was in the pecking order behind more prestigious competitors such as Ron Tindall and Jimmy Greaves and so Chelsea coach Ted Drake let him move on to London first division rivals Tottenham Hotspur in December 1959 . The transfer was realized as an exchange with Tottenham's Johnny Brooks , with the initiative of Drake, who saw in Brooks a much-needed reinforcement in the relegation battle . Tottenham's coach Bill Nicholson accepted a few weeks after Drake's request after examining Allen on Chelsea's reserve team.

Tottenham Hotspur

The newcomer found his place in the "Spurs" on the left half-forward position and he displaced John White on the right side. The deal with Brooks turned out to be very effective. Brooks had been very popular at Tottenham and had some excellence, but on other days the game passed him by. Allen proved to be more consistent and reliable. As a trained center forward he was also more dangerous than Brooks, which in turn eased the pressure on teammates like Bobby Smith and Cliff Jones . After a debut without a goal against Newcastle United (4-0), he scored thirteen goals in the subsequent eight games, five of them in the spectacular 13-2 win against Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup . In the end, he scored fifteen times in the remaining 19 games of the 1959/60 season and thus underpinned the regular place claims. Allen fit well into Nicholson's system and as a somewhat withdrawn striker he was at the same time the ball distributor on the offensive and defensive as part of the first line of defense link in midfield. It was helpful that he showed a high mileage and on the position behind Smith he often made sudden advances of a space available there to utilize either crosses from Jones or Terry Dyson or rebounds from Smith.

In the 1960/61 season, Tottenham won the English championship and cup double . Allen contributed 27 goals; he was the team's second best scorer behind Smith and his goal for the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday sealed the title win. In retrospect, Allen - like teammates like Peter Baker or Ron Henry - was seen as one of the "secret heroes". This was also due to the fact that he seemed a bit insecure compared to some extroverted fellow players. This allegedly had a negative effect on his claims with regard to English national teams. So he came in February 1961 to a mission in the U-23 selection, but it was not enough for more. When Greaves joined Tottenham in November 1961, the experts then expected that Allen would lose his place on the team and Greaves would form the storm duo with Smith. Instead, Allen took on Smith's number 9 jersey, and for the next two years, Allen and Smith competed for a place alongside Greaves. When the Spurs won the FA Cup again in 1962 , Allen was in the first three rounds of the game, but he was no longer included in the last four qualifying games (including the final). The triumph in the European Cup Winners' Cup followed a year later , but here too, everyone was left out in the final. In December 1964, Alan Gilzean , another striker, came to Tottenham and with this change it was clear that Allen's time was finally up. In the summer of 1965, he was able to move to the Queens Park Rangers for a good £ 20,000 .

Queens Park Rangers

In his first year for "QPR" Allen was top scorer in the third division and in the following year, he was promoted to the second division not only as a champion ; in addition came the surprising success in the League Cup including the 3-2 final win against West Bromwich Albion . He harmonized particularly well with Rodney Marsh , who replaced him as the most accurate third division player. The sporting development curve showed a steep upward trend and in the 1967/68 season the Rangers marched through as second division champions in the top English division. After the sudden end of the tenure of successful coach Alec Stock and turbulent times under his successor Tommy Docherty , Allen took over the position of player- coach in December 1968 . He could no longer prevent the direct relegation as bottom of the table . In the Second Division, the team then quartered under Allen in midfield and in January 1971 Allen resigned as a coach. Later, his sons Clive and Bradley and his nephew Martin would also play for QPR. His last known coaching positions were Woodford Town and Swindon Town (1972-74). He was also active as a coach in Greece. He later worked in a civil trade in the motor industry and he settled in Hornchurch in east London .

Title / Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "England - U-23 International Results- Details" (RSSSF)
  2. ↑ "The Double: The Inside Story of Spurs' Triumphant 1960-61 Season" (Google Books)
  3. ^ Bob Goodwin: Tottenham Hotspur - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2007, ISBN 978-1-85983-567-8 , pp. 100 f .
  4. ^ Gordon Macey: Queen's Park Rangers - The Complete Record . Breedon Books, Derby 2009, ISBN 978-1-85983-714-6 , pp. 209, 294 .
personal data
SURNAME Allen, Les
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Allen, Leslie William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English soccer player and coach
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Dagenham , England , UK