 Nevin in 2017 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin[1] | ||
| Date of birth | (1963-09-06)6 September 1963 (age 62)[2] | ||
| Place of birth | Glasgow,[1] Scotland | ||
| Height | 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[3] | ||
| Position | Winger | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1981–1983 | Clyde | 73 | (17) |
| 1983–1988 | Chelsea | 193 | (36) |
| 1988–1992 | Everton | 109 | (16) |
| 1992–1997 | Tranmere Rovers | 193 | (30) |
| 1997–1998 | Kilmarnock | 34 | (6) |
| 1998–2000 | Motherwell | 58 | (2) |
| Total | 660 | (107) | |
| International career | |||
| 1982 | Scotland U18 | ||
| 1983 | Scotland U20 | ||
| 1984–1985 | Scotland U21[4] | 5 | (1) |
| 1986–1996 | Scotland | 28 | (5) |
| 1987–1996 | Scotland B[5] | 4 | (0) |
| 1990[6] | SFA (SFL centenary) | 1 | (0) |
Medal record | |||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Patrick Kevin Francis Michael Nevin (born 6 September 1963) is a Scottish former professionalfootballer who played as awinger. In a twenty-year career, he appeared forClyde,Chelsea,Everton,Tranmere Rovers,Kilmarnock andMotherwell.[7] He won 28 caps forScotland, scattered across a ten-year international career, and was selected for theUEFA Euro 1992 finals squad.[7] Since retiring as a player, Nevin has worked as a chief executive of Motherwell and as a football writer and broadcaster.
Nevin trained withCeltic as a youngster, but was rejected for being too small.[8] He was signed byClyde in 1981. In his first season, the club were promoted asScottish Second Division champions; Nevin scored 14 goals in 30 starts and was votedSPFA Second Division Player of the Year. He scored six goals in 44 starts in his second season with the club.
He was inducted into the inauguralClyde FC Hall of Fame in 2011.[9]
Nevin arrived atStamford Bridge in mid-1983 for £95,000, in a team managed byJohn Neal. Nevin's skill and pace made him a pivotal player at Chelsea and he very soon became a firm favourite with the fans. In1983–84, he scored 14 goals, created numerous others for the likes ofKerry Dixon andDavid Speedie and put in some dazzling performances[citation needed] – during a 4–0 win overNewcastle United, he tormented the opposition defence, leaving five defenders trailing in his wake – as Chelsea won promotion asSecond Division champions. In the same season he was voted Chelsea's player of the year.
Chelsea finished a respectable sixth in theFirst Division and reached theLeague Cup semi-final in1984–85. Nevin set up three goals in the quarter-final againstSheffield Wednesday as Chelsea came back from 3–0 down to draw 4–4, and he set up the winning goal scored byDavid Speedie in the replay. The club were in the title race for much of the1985–86 season, with Nevin scoring a late equaliser against Liverpool atAnfield and a crucial header againstWest Ham United to seal a 2–1 win. A late collapse saw Chelsea finish sixth after being in the title race for most of the season.
The club's performances dropped and they finished 14th in 1986–87, though Nevin was again voted Chelsea player of the year. They were relegated a year later.
Chelsea were relegated in 1988 and Nevin was sold toEverton. He scored 20 goals in 138 appearances for the club, but struggled to re-capture his previous form with managerColin Harvey adopting a far more rigid system. He helped the side reach theFA Cup final in 1989, scoring the winner againstNorwich City in the semi-final, but they lost 3–2 in the final to arch-rivalsLiverpool.
Howard Kendall returned to the club as manager in November 1990; he and Nevin openly disagreed with each other, which reduced Nevin's playing opportunities, as did the arrival of new wingersRobert Warzycha andMark Ward.
Nevin was unfortunate to arrive at Everton just after one of the finest spells in their history, when they had collected two league titles, anFA Cup and theEuropean Cup Winners' Cup. In contrast, Nevin's four seasons at the club saw a runners-up medal in theFA Cup (1989) being the closest he came to being part of a trophy winning side, and they never finished higher than sixth in the league (1990).
Nevin spent time on loan with fellowMerseyside clubTranmere Rovers, then in the second tier ofEnglish football, before signing permanently in 1992. The club competed in the Division One play-offs in three consecutive seasons (1992–93, 1993–94 and 1994–95) but on each occasion they were eliminated in the semi-final.
In 1997, Nevin returned to Scotland and played forKilmarnock and laterMotherwell before retiring in 2000.
In 1982 while playing for Clyde, Nevin travelled to Finland to play for theScotland U18 team at theUEFA European Youth Championship and was named player of the tournament after helping Scotland win it. The following year, he starred for theScotland U20 team that reached the quarter-finals of theFIFA World Youth Championship.
Nevin won 28caps for theScottish national side, making his debut againstRomania in 1986. He scored five goals in a ten-year international career and played atEuro 92, but was not selected in the final squads for the1986 or1990World Cups. He made his final appearance for Scotland in 1996 but did not appear at theEuro 96 finals.
After retiring as a player, Nevin became chief executive of Motherwell. He resigned in April 2002, after Motherwell chairman John Boyle put the club into administration due to financial problems.[10]
He works as a football pundit on television and radio.[7] Nevin co-wrote a book,In Ma Head, Son, with psychologist Dr George Sik. It explores Nevin's worries, motivation and troubles during the 1996–97 season atTranmere Rovers as he neared the end of his playing career.
He has an artsdegree fromGlasgow Caledonian University. His interest in literature, the arts, and his musical taste distinguishes him from many of his peers. He preferredThe Fall andJoy Division toPhil Collins orLionel Richie. He was interviewed by music magazineNME and was a guest music presenter onRadio City during his Everton and Tranmere career.
At the secondBowlie Weekender, hosted byATP he played a DJ set,[11] playingBelle & Sebastian,Orange Juice and "My New House" byThe Fall while wearing aThe Pains of Being Pure at Heart T-shirt. The following day he slipped an indiepop reference onto 5 Live while talking about the Man Utd vs Arsenal match.[12] He has also appeared as a guest DJ at Scared To Dance[13] andHow Does It Feel To Be Loved?, which are both indiepop club nights in London.[14] He makes a guest appearance on the 1986 Ted Chippington / Vindaloo Summer Special (with Robert Lloyd & The Nightingales and Fuzzbox) video of "Rockin With Rita".[15]
In 2010, Nevin signed as a non-playing substitute for new clubChester after Colin Murray of BBC Radio 5 live offered the new club £2,000 if they named Nevin andPerry Groves as unused substitutes at every game in the 2010–11 season. This was live on 'Kicking off with Colin Murray', a show Nevin has appeared on every week since the start of the 2009–10 season.[16]
Nevin grew up supportingCeltic.[8] He switched his support toHibernian after feeling that his boyhood club had become a large corporate organisation and theCeltic Park stadium no longer felt like home.[17] Another reason was Celtic fans chantingIRA songs.[18] He also supports his former club Chelsea, and writes a weekly column for the Chelsea website.[19] Nevin lives inDuns, a small town in the Scottish Borders with his wife and two children.[20] His daughter, also a keen sports player, was a Scottish champion inbadminton.[20][21] He received an honorary degree fromAbertay University in 2012.[22] Nevin's wife is the cousin of the retired English footballerTerry Butcher.[23] Nevin has written and released two memoirs,The Accidental Footballer: A Memoir andFootball and How to Survive It in 2021 and 2023, respectively.[24][25]
| National team | Year | Apps | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland[26] | 1986 | 3 | 0 |
| 1987 | 3 | 0 | |
| 1989 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1990 | 2 | 0 | |
| 1991 | 1 | 0 | |
| 1992 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1993 | 5 | 3 | |
| 1994 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1995 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1996 | 1 | 0 | |
| Total | 28 | 5 | |
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 17 May 1992 | Mile High Stadium,Denver, United States |  United States | 1–0 | 1–0 | Friendly |
| 2 | 17 February 1993 | Ibrox Stadium,Glasgow, Scotland |  Malta | 3–0 | 3–0 | 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 3 | 2 June 1993 | Pittodrie Stadium,Aberdeen, Scotland |  Estonia | 2–0 | 3–1 | 1994 FIFA World Cup qualification |
| 4 | 3–1 | |||||
| 5 | 15 November 1995 | Hampden Park,Glasgow, Scotland |  San Marino | 4–0 | 5–0 | UEFA Euro 1996 qualification |
Clyde
Chelsea
Everton
Kilmarnock
Scotland U18
Scotland
Individual
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| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
