11-12-08: What Is My Name?

• A professional footballer, I was born in London one spring in the early 1960s.
• Through a turbulent childhood I showed early promise as a boxer.
• I made my professional football debut in the late 1970s for an east-coast club.
• I spent three seasons there with my great form leading to a highly-publicised transfer to a midlands club.

• I wasn't as successful at my second club, not helped by a frosty relationship with my new manager.
• I moved on again after only one season, despite starting most games for the club in that time.
• My third club saw a revival in my playing fortunes making 60+ appearances over two and a half seasons.
• But then a move to the south coast saw my fortunes sour as a knee injury threatened to end my career.

• My knee recovered and I made several unsuccessful attempts to revive my career but I became a bit of a journeyman.
• I eventually played for almost twenty different clubs in six different countries in my professional career, two as player-coach.
• Three of those countries were England, Sweden and the US.
  
• I enjoyed a slight reprieve in the early nineties when, after trialing with several clubs, I played two seasons for a Devonshire side.
• My time there was overshadowed by off-field shenanigans including a supposed affair with a local actress.

• My brother was also an elite sportsman.
• My international career promised much but never delivered a senior cap.
• I officially retired in the late nineties after 300+ games and promptly took a coaching job overseas.
• I returned to England under a cloud only a year later and things just got worse for me.
• Although I never reached my undoubted potential and my career ended without much fanfare I have been hailed as a trailblazer by some.

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