Iwan Roberts

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Iwan Roberts
Image:Iroberts.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Iwan Wyn Roberts
Date of birth	26 June 1968
Place of birth	Bangor, Wales
Height	6ft 3in / 1.90 m
Playing position	Striker
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988-1990 1990-1993 1993-1996 1996-1997 1997-2004 2004-2006 2005	Watford F.C. Huddersfield Town Leicester City Wolves Norwich City Gillingham Cambridge United	63 (9) 142 (50) 100 (41) 33 (12) 278 (84) 20 (3) 11 (3)
National team2
	Wales	15 (0)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of September 16, 2006. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of September 16, 2006. * Appearances (Goals)

Iwan Wyn Roberts (born 26 June 1968 in Bangor, Wales) is a former professional footballer who played as a striker for a number of English league clubs. He also played international football for Wales, winning 15 caps without scoring.

Contents 1 Early career 2 Norwich City 3 After Norwich 4 After football 5 External links

[edit] Early career

Roberts, a fluent Welsh speaker, played schoolboy football and for Caernarvon Town before beginning his professional career at Watford, who he joined as a trainee in 1985 before signing his first professional contract in 1986. He scored 9 goals in 63 games for the Hornets before moving to Huddersfield Town prior to the start of the 1990-91 season. His form for Huddersfield - where he scored 50 goals in 142 games - got him noticed by other clubs and in November 1993 he was signed by Leicester City, for whom he would score 41 goals in 100 games. His goals and performances for Leicester persuaded Wolves to sign him in the summer of 1996. He spent only one season at Molineux and confirmed in his 2004 autobiography that he did not enjoy his time there and does not have any fondness for the club, due largely to the mentality of many Wolves supporters. He did, however, score a hat-trick for the club in a match against their bitter local rivals West Bromwich Albion and, overall, scored 12 goals in 33 games.

[edit] Norwich City

In July 1997, Norwich City manager Mike Walker paid £850,000 to Wolves to secure the services of Roberts. Roberts spent 7 years at Carrow Road and they were undoubtedly the best seven years of his career. By the time he was released by Norwich in the summer of 2004 he had acquired legendary status among City supporters. His time at the club did not begin happily, however. Throughout the 1997-98 season he struggled for form and fitness and scored just 7 goals in 33 games. Many Norwich supporters questioned Walker's judgement in spending so much money on a player who had thus far delivered very little. Walker left the club shortly before the end of the season and was replaced during the summer by Bruce Rioch.

Roberts worked hard on his fitness and the following season saw him finish as the club's top goalscorer with 23 goals in 51 games. Norwich fans voted him player of the season. In the 1999-00 season he was again top scorer (19 goals in 49 games) and retained the player of the season award. He just missed out on becoming the first player in the club's history to win the award 3 years in a row when Andy Marshall finished narrowly ahead of him in the voting for the 2000-01 season.

During that 1999-00 campaign there was speculation about Roberts's future as his contract was due to expire in the summer of 2000. Shortly after he signed a contract extension in January of that season, Bruce Rioch left the club and was succeeded by Bryan Hamilton. Roberts helped Hamilton make a good start when he scored both goals in a 2-0 win at Portman Road against City's rivals Ipswich Town F.C. on 19 March 2000. However, Roberts and Hamilton did not have a good relationship during the Ulsterman's short spell in charge and after Hamilton left the club during the 2000-01 season, Roberts intimated that if he had known that Hamilton was going to succeed Rioch then he would not have signed his contract extension.

Although Roberts was personally enjoying the most productive spell of his career, his four years so far at Carrow Road had seen the club struggle. They had barely threatened to qualify for the end of season play-offs and in the 2000-01 campaign had struggled against relegation from division one. The 2001-02 season - with new manager Nigel Worthington in his first full season in charge - saw the team fare better and they reached the division one play-off final at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium. Roberts missed much of the second half of the season because of injury, but came off the substitute's bench in the final to give Norwich the lead in the first minute of extra-time with a clinically-taken headed goal. Norwich lost the match in a penalty shoot-out after Birmingham had equalised. Roberts took - and scored - the first penalty of the shoot-out but misses by Phil Mulryne and Daryl Sutch proved costly as Birmingham were promoted to the Premiership.

During the 2002-03 season, in a match against Sheffield Wednesday at Carrow Road, Roberts scored twice to move into third place on the list of Norwich City's all-time leading goalscorers, overtaking Robert Fleck in the process. The season overall, however, was not a happy one for Roberts or Norwich. The Canaries faded after a good start to the season and failed to qualify for the play-offs, while Roberts scored just 7 goals in 47 games leading many supporters to believe that his best days were behind him. The 2003-04 season would be his last at Carrow Road and although he was no longer an automatic selection for the first team he played an important part in one of the club's best-ever seasons. The team won the division one championship in style and were promoted to the premiership. Roberts weighed in with some crucial goals, including the winning goal in a top-of-the-table match against Sheffield United. Roberts revealed in his autobiography that in February of that season he had a cancer scare and had to have a malignant melanoma removed from his arm.

A few days before the club's last home match of that 2003-04 season, Norwich manager Nigel Worthington announced that Roberts would not be offered a new contract when his deal expired that summer. Worthington felt that, following promotion to the Premiership, the club had to look to the future and that Roberts was now surplus to requirements. The Norwich supporters gave him a rapturous reception at his last match for the club at Carrow Road and during the post-match promotion celebrations Roberts wore a T-shirt that bore the legend 'Thanks for 7 great years'. With the championship already won, Worthington restored Roberts to the starting line-up for the last game of the season at Gresty Road against Crewe Alexandra and made him captain for the day. Roberts scored twice as City won 3-1. The first of his goals that day is rated by many Norwich fans as one of the best that he ever scored for the club. Overall, he scored 96 goals in 306 games for Norwich.

[edit] After Norwich

After being released by Norwich, there was much speculation regarding his next career move. He received a number of offers but eventually signed a two year contract with Gillingham where he would be player/coach. It did not prove a good move for Roberts and he had a number of disgreements with the club, particularly after Stan Ternent had succeeded Andy Hessenthaler as manager. In March 2005 he joined Cambridge United on loan until the end of the season. Cambridge were relegated from League Two. In August 2005, Roberts retired from playing after reaching an agreement with Gillingham to pay the final year of his contract.

[edit] After football

Since retiring from playing, Roberts has expressed a desire to continue his coaching career. When Norwich City sacked Steve Foley as first team coach in May 2006 there was speculation among many Norwich supporters that Roberts would be returning to the club as coach, though this did not happen as the club appointed Martin Hunter to the post. He does media work, including Welsh language commentary for Sky Sports and Radio Cymru. Roberts is married with three children.

[edit] External links

• Iwan Roberts career stats at Soccerbase
• Career information at ex-canaries.co.uk