Ronnie Allen

Football manager infobox
playername = Ronnie Allen


fullname = Ronald Allen
nickname =
dateofbirth = 15 January 1929
cityofbirth = Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent
countryofbirth = England
dateofdeath = death date and age|2001|6|9|1929|1|15|df=y
cityofdeath = Great Wyrley
countryofdeath = England
position = Centre-forward
youthyears = 1941–1946
youthclubs =
years = 1946–1950
1950–1961
1961–1965
clubs = Port Vale
West Bromwich Albion
Crystal Palace
Career
caps(goals) = 123 0(34) 415 (208) 100 0(34) 638 (276)
nationalyears = 1953–1954
1954
nationalteam = England
England B
nationalcaps(goals) = 005 00(2)
002 00(0)
manageryears = 1966–1968 1969–1971 1972–1973 1973 1977 1980 1981–1982
managerclubs = Wolverhampton Wanderers Athletic Bilbao Sporting Lisbon Walsall West Bromwich Albion Panathinaikos FC West Bromwich Albion

Ronald "Ronnie" Allen (15 January 1929 – 9 June 2001) was an English football player and manager.

Club career

Youth teams

Born in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, Allen attended Hanley High School. Despite playing for the school rugby team, his preferred sport was football, and he turned out for his local Boys' Brigade team and later, Wellington Scouts. He then moved on to Northwood Mission where he played at outside-right, alongside Bill McGarry and Basil Hayward, who would later become his team-mates at Port Vale. Allen scored 57 goals for the Mission in the 1943–44 season. [Matthews (2005) p7]

Port Vale

Allen signed amateur forms with Port Vale in December 1944. He made his full debut on 2 April 1945 in a 2–2 draw against Wrexham in the Football League North, playing at outside-right and laying on one of Vale's goals. He scored his first goal for the club in a 4–3 win against Norwich City in August 1945, and in March 1946 signed as a part-time professional, for which he received a £10 signing-on fee. The 1946-47 season was the first full season of competitive football in England following the end of the Second World War; Allen made his Football League debut on 7 September 1946 in a 2–1 defeat to Exeter City. Due to his national service commitments, he only made 18 appearances during that season, scoring five goals.

Allen joined the Royal Air Force early in 1947 and represented their football team on several occasions. He was demobbed on 1 June 1949. [Matthews (2005) pp7–10]

West Bromwich Albion

Allen was transferred to West Bromwich Albion on 2 March 1950 for £20,000, a club record fee for Albion at the time. [cite book
last = Matthews
first = Tony
coauthors=Mackenzie, Colin
title = Albion! A Complete Record of West Bromwich Albion 1879–1987
publisher = Breedon Books
date = 1987
pages = p294
isbn = 0-907969-23-2] He scored on his debut two days later to secure a 1–1 draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers in a Division One match. The attendance of 60,945 remains a record for a league game at The Hawthorns. Though only 5 foot 8 inch (1.73 m) and barely 11 stone (70 kg), he emerged as a talented striker, helping to define the modern role of target man.

Allen scored twice in Albion's FA Cup victory of 1954. He was First Division top scorer in 1954-55 with 27 goals. [cite web | title=English League Leading Goalscorers 1889-2007 | url=http://www.rsssf.com/tablese/engtops.html | publisher=RSSSF | date=2007-06-14 | accessdate=2007-09-02]

Crystal Palace

After 458 games and 234 goals with West Brom, he moved to Crystal Palace F.C. in 1961.

International career

Allen made his England debut at the age of 23, in a 3–0 friendly win against Switzerland in Zurich on 28 May 1952.cite web
url=http://www.englandstats.com/playerreport.php?pid=14
title=Ronnie Allen - England stats
publisher=englandstats.com
accessdate=2008-04-27] cite web
url=http://www.englandstats.com/matchreport.php?mid=272
title=Switzerland 0 - England 3
publisher=englandstats.com
accessdate=2008-04-27] He had to wait almost two years for his second cap, which came against Scotland on 3 April 1954, the same day that his club West Bromwich Albion were playing rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers in a vital Division One match. Allen scored with a header in the second half to help England beat the Scots 4–2 in the match at Hampden Park, and also had another headed goal disallowed.Matthews (2005) p58] He was included in England's initial squad for the 1954 World Cup, but did not make the final travelling party.Matthews (2005) p22] He nevertheless earned three further caps, the last of which was against West Germany on 1 December 1954. Allen scored from six yards out in a 3–1 Wembley win against the World champions. On his lack of England caps, Allen himself said, "No two people see the game the same way and everyone is entitled to his own judgement". [Matthews (2005) p50]

In addition to scoring two goals in five full internationals, he also appeared twice for the England B team; both matches took place in 1954.cite web
last=Courtney
first=Barrie
date=2004-03-21
url=http://www.rsssf.com/tablese/eng-b-intres-det.html
title=England - International Results B-Team - Details
publisher=RSSSF
accessdate=2008-04-27] He also scored twice for England B when they beat a Sheffield XI 5–4 in October 1957, although this match is not included in the England B records compiled by rsssf. Allen travelled with England to the 1958 and 1982 World Cups as the team's official interpreter.

Management career

In March 1965 Allen joined Wolverhampton Wanderers as senior coach, working under manager Andy Beattie. Following Beattie's departure, Allen replaced him as manager in September 1965. He was sacked by Wolves in November 1968. [Matthews (2005) p37–38] He took up the post of manager at Athletic Bilbao on 1 March 1969, leading Bilbao to victory in the Copa del Rey in 1969 and a La Liga runners-up spot in 1969–70. He remained at the club until November 1971. [Matthews (2005) p38–40]

*Sporting Clube de Portugal, (1972 - 1973);
*Walsall F.C., (1973 - 1977);
*West Bromwich Albion, (1977);
*Saudi Arabia national football team, (1977 - ??);
*Panathinaikos, (1980);
*West Bromwich Albion, (1981 - 1982).

On his return to the Hawthorns as manager, he succeeded Ron Atkinson - who had just moved to Manchester United. Two of Albion's finest players, Remi Moses and Bryan Robson, soon joined Atkinson at Old Trafford and this had a negative effect on Albion's previously good league fortunes. Albion did well in the cup competitions, reaching the semi finals of both the F.A Cup and the League Cup, although they suffered an early exit from the UEFA Cup. But Allen was unable to put together a good run of form in the First Division and Albion only stayed up after winning their final game of the season. He quit after just one season and was never employed as a manager again.

Death and legacy

Ronnie Allen died in June 2001. West Bromwich Albion's pre-season friendly against Athletic Bilbao later that summer was designated as the "Ronnie Allen Memorial Match", in recognition of his contribution to both clubs. A minute's silence was held before kick-off and proceeds from the match donated to the Alzheimer's Society. [cite news
date=2001-08-01
url=http://www.wba.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/0,,10366~79298,00.html
title=Thanks for the memory
publisher=West Bromwich Albion F.C.
accessdate=2008-05-20] In 2004 Allen was named as one of West Bromwich Albion's 16 greatest players, in a poll organised as part of the club's 125th anniversary celebrations. [cite news
date=2004-08-04
url=http://www.wba.premiumtv.co.uk/page/News/0,,10366~547701,00.html
title=The wraps come off 125th anniversary mural
publisher=West Bromwich Albion F.C.
accessdate=2008-04-17]

Bibliography

*Allen, R (1955) "It's goals that count" ( [http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac/wzgw?id=6406810&f=u&esn=F&rsn=2&rn=1 COPAC record] )
*cite book
last = Matthews
first = Tony
title = The Complete Footballer: The Ronnie Allen Story
publisher = Tony Matthews
year = 2005

Notes

External links

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4202296-103684,00.html Obituary from "The Guardian"]
* [http://www.englandstats.com/playerreport.php?pid=14 Englandstats.com profile]

Persondata
NAME= Allen, Ronnie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Allen, Ronald
SHORT DESCRIPTION=English football player and manager
DATE OF BIRTH=15 January 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH=Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent, England
DATE OF DEATH=9 June 2001
PLACE OF DEATH=Great Wyrley, England