 Townsend in 2020 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Andrew David Townsend[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1963-07-23)23 July 1963 (age 62)[1] | ||
| Place of birth | Maidstone,[1] England | ||
| Height | 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)[2] | ||
| Position | Midfielder | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Welling United | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1980–1984 | Welling United | 105 | (n/a) |
| 1984–1985 | Weymouth | 40 | (16) |
| 1985–1988 | Southampton | 83 | (5) |
| 1988–1990 | Norwich City | 71 | (8) |
| 1990–1993 | Chelsea | 110 | (12) |
| 1993–1997 | Aston Villa | 134 | (8) |
| 1997–1999 | Middlesbrough | 77 | (3) |
| 1999–2000 | West Bromwich Albion | 18 | (0) |
| Total | 638 | (52) | |
| International career | |||
| 1994 | Republic of Ireland B | 1 | (0) |
| 1989–1997 | Republic of Ireland | 70 | (7) |
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Andrew David Townsend (born 23 July 1963) is a former professionalfootballer and sports co-commentator forPremier League Productions andCBS Sports.
As a player he was amidfielder who notably played in thePremier League forChelsea,Aston Villa andMiddlesbrough. He also played in theFootball League forSouthampton,Norwich City andWest Bromwich Albion. Prior to his professional career he had spent four years in Non-League withWelling United. Despite being born in England, Townsend played inWorld Cups for theRepublic of Ireland national team, making 70 appearances and scoring seven goals.
Following retirement, Townsend moved into sports commentary and wasITV Sport's co-commentator for all of their major coverage of games until 2015. He has also commentated forBT Sport,Talksport andBBC Radio 5 Live.
Townsend was born inMaidstone,Kent, but grew up inBexley, where he attended Upton Primary School inBexleyheath, followed byBexleyheath School. He is the son of former Charlton Athletic and Crystal Palace footballerDon Townsend.[3]
He began his playing career in August 1980 withWelling United in theAthenian League, while working as an ICL computer operator forGreenwich Borough Council in south-east London.[4] After making 105 appearances for Welling, he was signed byWeymouth in March 1984 for £13,500.[5]
In January 1985, he was signed byLawrie McMenemy atSouthampton for £35,000[4] and made his professional debut at home toAston Villa on 20 April 1985 as Southampton qualified for Europe, only to be banned in the aftermath of theHeysel Stadium disaster.[5]
Over the next season, he was in and out of the team (then managed byChris Nicholl) but broke his leg in a pre-seasonfriendly against his old club Weymouth in August 1986.[4] He fought his way back to fitness and rejoined the side the following January.
In the1987–88 he was a virtual ever-present, playing alongsideJimmy Case andGlenn Cockerill in the Southampton midfield. He was a hard-tackling, hard-workingmidfielder with an eye for goal. It was a shock, therefore, when Nicholl sold him toFirst Division rivalsNorwich City in August 1988, for a fee of £300,000.[4]
He made his debut as asubstitute againstMiddlesbrough on 3 September 1988, before replacing the suspendedTrevor Putney for his first full appearance in a 3–1 win overSpurs on 22 October.[5] He retained his place in the Norwich midfield and ended the season with 36 league appearances (5 as substitute) with five goals.[5] He also made six FA Cup appearances with two goals againstPort Vale in the Third Round on 7 January 1989. Under managerDave Stringer, he was a member of theCanaries'1988–89 side that finished fourth in the top flight andreached thesemi-finals of theFA Cup. At the season's end, Townsend was shortlisted for thePFA Players' Player of the Year award, which was won byMark Hughes.
Norwich made a handsome profit when they let Townsend joinChelsea for £1,200,000 in July 1990.[5]
After making a total of 138 appearances for Chelsea, scoring 12 goals but winning no trophies (they never finished higher than 11th in the league while he was there), he transferred toAston Villa in July 1993 for £2.1million.[5]
He finally won some silverware when Villa won the1994League Cup, beatingManchester United 3–1. Hecaptained Villa when they reclaimed the trophy in1996 with a 3–0 victory overLeeds United.
In August 1997, just after the start of the1997–98 season, he transferred toBryan Robson'sMiddlesbrough for £500,000 having made 134 league appearances forthe Villans, scoring eight league goals.[5]
He made 37 appearances in his first season onTeesside, scoring twice asBoro' wonpromotion to thePremier League. In the1998–99 season, he formed a useful partnership withPaul Gascoigne as Middlesbrough finished comfortably in mid-table in their first season back in the Premier League.[5]
In the following season, he found it harder to get into the first team and on 17 September 1999 he moved down a division toWest Bromwich Albion for £50,000. Townsend's high wage demands prevented a move back to Norwich or a loan spell with non-leagueBoston United.[5]
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, after a season in which Albion narrowly avoided relegation to Division Two.[6]
"I was very flattered by Albion's offer. I thought long and hard about it but I just felt that if I am going to go down the road of management I am going to have to do things my own way."
— Townsend rejects Albion managerGary Megson's offer of a coaching role at the club.[6]
On 21 April 2016, Townsend joinedBolton Wanderers as a consultant.[7]
His contribution to Norwich's successful season saw Townsend selected for theRepublic of Ireland, making his debut againstFrance in February 1989. He qualified for Ireland due to his Irish family heritage, with a grandmother who came fromKerry.[8]
He played in the next year'sWorld Cup, in Italy, where he played in all five of Ireland's matches. They reached the quarter-finals, the country's strongest ever campaign. The Irish drew their three group matches – againstEngland,Egypt and theNetherlands. Scoring apenalty in the shoot-out withRomania, his country were eventually sunk by aSalvatore Schillaci goal forthe hosts. They had conceded just three goals in those five games. They had scored just two goals in those five games.
He was captain of the Ireland squad for the1994 World Cup. All four teams ofGroup E finished on four points, they got their revenge on the Italians, but were defeated byMexico and drew withNorway. Ireland lost 2–0 to the Dutch at theCitrus Bowl in the knock-out stage.[9]
On 22 March 2015, Townsend was inducted into theFAI Hall of Fame.[10]
Townsend's most prominent role was as part ofITV Sport's liveChampions League,FA Cup andEngland internationals coverage. He took over fromRon Atkinson as the channel's lead co-commentator, forming a long-running partnership with main commentatorClive Tyldesley, as well as appearing as a studio pundit. He co-hostedtalkSPORT'sWeekend Sports Breakfast on Sundays withMike Parry, and hosted the station's drive-time show on Fridays. He also hosted the mid morning discussion on talkSPORT from 10 am to 1 pm from Monday to Friday, having replacedJon Gaunt, who was sacked for calling a guest aNazi.[11] He left the station because he no longer wanted to commute from his Midlands home to the London studio. He also hosted ITV1's regional programmeSoccer Night, alongsidePeter Beagrie. Between 2001 and 2004, Townsend was part of ITV's coverage of the Premier League after they won the rights from the BBC to show top flight football on Saturday evening. In January 2015 ITV confirmed that Townsend, along with presenterAdrian Chiles, would not be retained by the broadcaster after the expiry of his contract in the summer of 2015, with the channel having lost Champions League broadcasting rights.[12]
After leaving ITV in 2015 he joinedBT Sport as a co-commentator for their coverage of thePremier League,FA Cup,UEFA Champions League andUEFA Europa League. He made his co-commentating debut on 15 February 2015, co-commentating onArsenal vsMiddlesbrough in the FA Cup fifth round alongsideIan Darke.
He has also presentedBBC Radio 5 Live and written columns for theDaily Mail. He has also been the commentator on severalEA football games withClive Tyldesley including2006 FIFA World Cup,UEFA Champions League 2006-2007,UEFA Euro 2008,2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa,UEFA Euro 2012,2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil and most recentlyFIFA 12 to this gameFIFA 17.
He is the son of formerCharlton Athletic andCrystal Palace defenderDon Townsend.[13]
Townsend was a consultant for Harlequin Property, where he helps set up football schools at theirCaribbean resorts.[14] The company's proposed investment intoPort Vale had set in motion plans for him to become a football advisor at the club,[15] though nothing was to come of these talks.
He is patron of the George Coller Memorial Fund. He ran in theGreat North Run in 2007, finishing in a time of 2 hours and 20 minutes.[16]
Aston Villa
Middlesbrough
Individual
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Aston Villa captain 1995 – 1997 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Middlesbrough captain 1998 – 1999 | Succeeded by |
Republic of Ireland squads | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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