Andy Townsend

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Personal information
Andy Townsend
Full name	Andrew David Townsend
Date of birth	July 23, 1963 (age 43)
Place of birth	Maidstone, Kent, England
Height	5 ft 11 in
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Retired
Youth clubs
1980-1984	Welling United
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1984-1985 1985-1988 1988-1990 1990-1993 1993-1997 1997-1999 1999-2000	Weymouth Southampton Norwich City Chelsea Aston Villa Middlesbrough West Bromwich Albion	83 (5) 71 (8) 110 (12) 135 (8) 77 (3) 17 (0)
National team
1989-1997	Ireland	70 (7)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Andrew David Townsend (born July 23, 1963, Maidstone) was a professional footballer who played in two World Cups for the Republic of Ireland and is now a television pundit.

1 Playing career
2 Honours
3 Charitable activities
4 Football pundit
5 External links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early days

He began his playing career in August 1980 with Welling United in the Athenian League whilst working as a computer operator for Greenwich Borough Council. After making 105 appearances for Welling, he was signed by Weymouth in March 1984 for £13500.

[edit] Southampton

In January 1985, he was signed by Lawrie McMenemy at Southampton for £35,000 and made his professional debut at home to Aston Villa on 20 April 1985 as Southampton qualified for Europe only to be banned in the aftermath of the Heysel Stadium disaster.

Over the next season, he was in and out of the team (now managed by Chris Nicholl) but in a pre-season friendly against his old club Weymouth in August 1986, he broke his leg. He fought his way back to fitness, and rejoined the side in January 1987.

In the 1987-88 season he was a virtual ever-present playing alongside Jimmy Case and Glenn Cockerill in Southampton's midfield. He was a hard-tackling, hard-working Midfielder with an eye for goal. It was a shock, therefore, when Chris Nicholl sold him to Division 1 rivals Norwich City in August 1988 for £300,000.

Although he made a total of 101 appearances (with 5 goals) in his 3 seasons at Southampton, Saints never saw the best of him as he moved on to play for several other top-flight clubs and for the Republic of Ireland.

[edit] Norwich City

Under manager Dave Stringer, he was a member of the Canaries' 1988-89 side which came close to winning the double, finishing 4th in Division 1 after heading the table for long periods and reaching the semi-final of the FA Cup.

He made his debut as a substitute against Middlesbrough on 3 September 1988 before replacing the suspended Trevor Putney for his first full appearance in a 3-1 win over Spurs on 22 October. He retained his place in the Norwich midfield and ended the season with 36 league appearances (5 as substitute) with 5 goals. He also made 6 FA Cup appearances with 2 goals against Port Vale in the Third Round on 7 January 1989.

His contribution to Norwich's successful season saw Andy selected for the Republic of Ireland making his debut against France in February 1989.

Norwich made a handsome profit when they let Andy join Chelsea for £1,200,000 in July 1990 just a month after a successful World Cup in Italy where he played in all 5 of Ireland's matches.

[edit] Chelsea

After making a total of 138 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 12 goals but winning no trophies, he transferred to Aston Villa in July 1993 for the sum of £2,100,000.

[edit] Aston Villa

He finally won some silverware when Villa won the Coca-Cola Cup final against Manchester United in 1994. He captained Villa when they reclaimed the trophy in 1996 with a 3-0 victory over Leeds United.

He was captain of the Republic of Ireland squad for the 1994 World Cup.

In August 1997, he transferred to Bryan Robson's Middlesbrough for £500,000 having made 134 league appearances for the Villains, scoring 8 league goals.

[edit] Middlesbrough

He made 37 appearances in his first season on Teesside scoring twice as Boro won promotion to the Premiership. In the 1998-99 season, he formed a useful partnership with Paul Gascoigne as Middlesbrough finished comfortably in mid-table in their first Premiership season.

In the following season, he found it harder to get in to the first team and in September 1999 he moved on to West Bromwich Albion for £50,000.

[edit] West Bromwich

In his one season at West Bromwich Albion he only made 17 league appearances before a recurrent knee injury forced his retirement in July 2000.

[edit] Honours

With Aston Villa

1994 Coca-Cola Cup
1996 Coca-Cola Cup

With Middlesbrough

1997-98 Division 1 (Level 2) Runners-up
1998 Coca Cola Cup Runners-up

[edit] Charitable activities

He is patron of the George Coller Memorial Fund. [1]

[edit] Football pundit

He was part of "ITV Sport's World Cup Squad" (2006), offering his insight into various 2006 World Cup games, during half-time analyses. Never short of an opinion, he frequently interrupts other guests with a preceding "Yep" or "yes", then explains his own views.

He can currently be seen as part of ITV Sport's live coverage, and reviewing the Football League Championship highlights programme. He also hosts talkSPORT's Weekend Sports Breakfast programme, alongside Mike Parry. Currently he co-hosts the station's drivetime show on Fridays, also alongside Mike Parry. He also hosts ITV1's regional progamme Soccer Night alongside Peter Beagrie.

Townsend was vocal in his opposition to the development of the new Wembley Stadium stressing that the national stadium should be built in the Midlands, where he lives.

[edit] External links

Andy Townsend at the Internet Movie Database
Andy Townsend career stats at Soccerbase
Andy Townsend at itv.com
Andy Townsend at talkSPORT
Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk

	Republic of Ireland squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Bonner \| 2 Morris \| 3 Staunton \| 4 McCarthy \| 5 Moran \| 6 Whelan \| 7 McGrath \| 8 Houghton \| 9 Aldridge \| 10 Cascarino \| 11 Sheedy \| 12 O'Leary \| 13 Townsend \| 14 Hughton \| 15 Slaven \| 16 Sheridan \| 17 Quinn \| 18 Stapleton \| 19 Kelly \| 20 Byrne \| 21 McLoughlin \| 22 Peyton \| Coach: Charlton

	Republic of Ireland squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup
1 Bonner \| 2 Irwin \| 3 Phelan \| 4 Moran \| 5 McGrath \| 6 Keane \| 7 Townsend \| 8 Houghton \| 9 Aldridge \| 10 Sheridan \| 11 Staunton \| 12 G. Kelly \| 13 Kernaghan \| 14 Babb \| 15 Coyne \| 16 Cascarino \| 17 McGoldrick \| 18 Whelan \| 19 McLoughlin \| 20 D. Kelly \| 21 McAteer \| 22 A. Kelly \| Coach: Charlton

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