STEVE CLARIDGE

'Stephen Edward Claridge' (born 10 April 1966) is an English football player, pundit and coach. He plays as a striker. He is currently now playing 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.

Contents

Early career

Bigger things and management

Club-to-club

Honours

Managerial record

References

External links

Early career

Steve 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", ^[1] 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. After Beck's departure he rejoined Cambridge, for £190,000, just five months later.

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 lead, in March 1996, to a £1.2 million transfer to Leicester City, with whom Claridge reached the highest level of English football, the Premiership. Claridge was with Leicester from 1996-1998, scoring in both the play-off final that gave Leicester promotion and the League Cup final-replay, giving Claridge his only major trophy as a player.
In 1998 Claridge joined Portsmouth on loan and, following a brief period at Wolves (for whom he played only five times), later 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 chairman Ian Ridley were two of the subjects of a BBC documentary called Football Stories. It was also around this time that Claridge began to work as a pundit, initially for BBC Radio 5 Live. As well as the radio, he now also works with the BBC's website and occasionally on the BBC's televised football shows. 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.

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 before playing any competitive matches after just 36 days to be replaced by Colin Lee. The decisions was related to changes in the club's boardroom and was the decision of new chairman Theo Paphitis. Claridge sacked Evening Standard; July 27 2005; at ''findarticles.com''; accessed December 2006
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, ^[2] 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 ^[3] and appeared in his 1000th first-team match on December 9 in a 4-0 defeat to Port Vale.^[4]
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.^[5] On 30 January 2007 he joined Harrow Borough and scored on his club debut in a 4-4 draw against Margate .^[6]

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

References

1. The O'Neill Effect Bevan, Chris; 24 October 2006; BBC Sport; "Journeyman striker Steve Claridge was one of O'Neill's first Leicester signings"
2. Thursday's football gossip BBC Sport, 8 December 2006
3. Claridge ties up Cherries switch BBC Sport, 8 December 2006
4. Bournemouth 0-4 Port Vale BBC Sport, 9 December 2006
5. Football: It's hello and goodbye for Rebel Claridge theargus, 17 January 2007
6. Match report: Harrow 4-4 Margate Harrow Borough F.C. Official Website, 3 February 2007

External links

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