Tony Cottee

Playing career

West Ham United Born in Forest Gate, London, Cottee began his career at West Ham, where he made his first team debut in the First Division against Tottenham Hotspur on 1 January 1983, at the age of 17, scoring in the process. He played a total of eight games in the 1982–83 season, scoring five goals. He established himself in the first team during the 1983–84 season, when still only 18, and scored 15 times in the league. He did even better in 1984–85, when he scored 17 First Division goals. By the age of 20, he had already managed an impressive 37 league goals.

He was a prolific scorer in first spell at West Ham, where he was voted the PFA Young Player of the Year in 1986, the year where West Ham finished third (their highest league finish to date) and came just four points away from the title. He scored 20 times in the league during that season, though his strike partner Frank McAvennie did even better with 26 league goals. Still, their 46-goal strike partnership was the most prolific in the league that season.

1986–87 saw Cottee score 22 league goals – which would be the highest of his career. However, Frank McAvennie alongside him could only manage seven league goals that season and this contributed to a downturn in West Ham's form as they finished 15th. Cottee managed a further 13 league goals in 1987–88, but McAvennie had been sold to Celtic early in the season and the failure of manager John Lyall to find an adequate replacement contributed to West Ham disappointing in the league again, finishing 16th. By this time, the 23-year-old Cottee had already managed 212 league games and 92 goals for Hammers.

Cottee spent his first season at Goodison Park playing alongside Graeme Sharp, but for 1989–90 manager Colin Harvey changed the formation to 4–3–3 and brought in Mike Newell as Everton's third striker. The season began very promisingly for Everton, who went top of the league on 21 October and stayed there until mid November, but their title hopes gradually disintegrated and they finished sixth while the title went to Liverpool. Cottee scored 13 league goals that season. Cottee managed 10 league goals in the 1990–91 season.

1991–92 was another frustrating season for Cottee and Everton, after the upturn in form that had followed Howard Kendall's return as manager. By mid November he had two new strike partners in Peter Beardsley and Mo Johnston following the sale of both Graeme Sharp and Mike Newell, and while the revamped forward line was reasonably productive, the rest of the team struggled to match their standards. Cottee was restricted to eight goals from 24 games through injury, and Everton finished mid table once again. It was the first time since his debut season nine years earlier that he had scored less than 10 league goals in a season.

1992–93 saw Everton participate in the inaugural FA Premier League, and Cottee did better this time, scoring 12 goals.

He managed 16 league goals in 1993–94, including two hat-tricks, adding a further three goals in cup competitions. But the season almost ended in disaster for Everton who only narrowly avoided relegation just seven years after being league champions. Cottee scores Everton's first two hat-tricks in the Premier League, the first being in a 4–2 home win over Sheffield United early in the season, and then in a 6–2 home win over Swindon Town in January.

New manager Mike Walker, who arrived in January 1994, promised an overhaul of the squad and Cottee was soon being linked with a move back to West Ham after six years on Merseyside. During his absence, the Hammers had been relegated and promoted twice, but were now in the Premier League.

Return to West Ham He returned to West Ham United on 7 September 1994 in a part exchange deal for defender David Burrows plus cash. Everton manager Mike Walker had signed Nigerian Daniel Amokachi fresh from World Cup duty and financed the move by selling Cottee, much to Everton fans' disapproval. He had played 184 league games in six years for the Toffees, scoring 76 goals, but had not won any major trophies, and Everton had never finished higher than sixth during his time there. His overall career tally for league goals now stood at 164. In August 1997, he signed for Leicester City for £500,000 where he was presented with his first chance of European football at the age of 32 as Leicester had an ultimately short lived campaign in that season's UEFA Cup. He managed 19 league games and scored four goals as the Foxes finished 10th, and one of those goals came in a shock 1–0 win over title chasing Manchester United at Old Trafford on 31 January 1998. He also had a loan spell at Birmingham City in Division One that season, and in his first taste of second-tier football managed to score one goal. In the semi-final of the 1998–99 Football League Cup against Sunderland Cottee scored three goals across the two legs (two in the first and one in the second) to help Leicester win 3–2 on aggregate. However they lost the final to Tottenham Hotspur.

In 1999–2000, aged 34, he finally won a major trophy in England as he helped Leicester defeat Tranmere Rovers 2–1 in the Football League Cup final. That season he scored 13 league goals, which remained the most Premier League goals scored by a Leicester player in a single season until the 2015–16 season, when Jamie Vardy surpassed his total. He remained at Filbert Street until 11 September 2000, by which time he had played a total of 85 league games for the Foxes and scored 27 goals. This brought his total career tally to 214 goals in the English top division, making him the 17th highest goal scorer in the history of English top flight football.

Later career In September 2000, Cottee joined Norwich City as player-coach under recently appointed manager Bryan Hamilton, however this did not last long as Cottee struggled to meet the demands placed on him, scoring two goals against Blackpool in the League Cup and Sheffield United in the league.

A week after resigning from Barnet, Cottee signed for Millwall on transfer deadline day. During this season, which was his last as a player, Cottee played for a different team in each of the top four divisions of English football in the same season, a rare achievement last performed by goalkeeper Eric Nixon in 1986–87.

Management career After being released by Norwich on 31 October 2000, he took over as player-manager of Barnet, a team closer to his home in London. After winning his first game with the club 7–0 vs Blackpool, Barnet hit a run of poor form which left them facing relegation from the Football League. Cottee resigned on 16 March 2001, however his replacement, John Still (who left the club just before Cottee's appointment six months earlier), was unable to rescue the team from relegation. However, Cottee did manage an impressive nine goals from 16 Division Three games.

International career Cottee made his debut for England against Sweden on 10 September 1986 as a substitute and went on to win 7 caps, starting once against Scotland at Hampden Park in the 1989 Rous Cup in a 2–0 win.

Personal life Cottee has stated that he diligently maintains a scrapbook containing press cuttings of every goal he scored throughout his playing career.

Media career He is currently a commentator with Sky Sports and occasional pundit for Malaysian network Astro, appearing on its 2010 World Cup and Premier League studio coverage in Kuala Lumpur.

Film career Cottee made a cameo appearance in the 2018 action film, Final Score in which he was murdered on live television.

Career statistics

Honours Everton FA Cup runner-up: 1988–89 Full Members Cup runner-up: 1990–91

Selangor Malaysia FA Cup: 1997

Leicester City Football League Cup: 1999–2000; runner-up: 1998–99

England Rous Cup: 1989

Individual PFA Young Player of the Year: 1985–86