 Mullery (centre) in December 1964, prior to making his debut forEngland | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Alan Patrick Mullery | ||
| Date of birth | (1941-11-23)23 November 1941 (age 83) | ||
| Place of birth | Notting Hill,London, England | ||
| Position(s) | Midfielder | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1958–1964 | Fulham | 199 | (13) |
| 1964–1972 | Tottenham Hotspur | 312 | (25) |
| 1972–1976 | Fulham | 165 | (24) |
| 1976 | Durban City | ||
| Total | 677 | (62) | |
| International career | |||
| 1964–1971 | England | 35 | (1) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1976–1981 | Brighton & Hove Albion | ||
| 1981–1982 | Charlton Athletic | ||
| 1982–1984 | Crystal Palace | ||
| 1984 | Queens Park Rangers | ||
| 1986–1987 | Brighton & Hove Albion | ||
| 1990–1993 | ATM FA | ||
| 1996–1997 | Barnet | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Alan Patrick MulleryMBE (born 23 November 1941) is an English formerfootballer and manager. After enjoying a successful career withFulham,Tottenham Hotspur, and theEngland national team in the 1960s and 1970s, he became a manager working with several clubs. He is now employed as a televisionpundit. He is also known for being the first ever England player to be sent off in an international match.
Mullery was a passing and defensive midfielder forFulham (1958–1964, 1972–1976),Tottenham Hotspur (1964–1972) andEngland (1964–1971). He appeared in 364 games for Fulham (scored 37 goals), 312 for Tottenham Hotspur (scored 25 goals), and 35 for England (scored 1 goal).
Mullery was a key player for the Spurs teams that won theFA Cup in 1967, and skippering them to victory in the1971 Football League Cup Final and the1972 UEFA Cup Final. In the '72 UEFA Cup Final, his header in the 2nd leg was the decisive goal in a 3–2 aggregate victory overWolverhampton Wanderers. Mullery was also in theFulham team that lost the1975 FA Cup Final toWest Ham United.
Mullery was not included inEngland's squad for the1966 FIFA World Cup but was selected to play inUEFA Euro 1968. In the game againstYugoslavia, Mullery committed a foul againstDobrivoje Trivić, and became the first England player to be sent off in a full international match.[1] He was an integral member of England's1970 World Cup squad, playing in all the side's games in what proved a bitterly disappointing campaign. England, the defending champions, lost 3–2 toWest Germany in the quarter-finals, having been up 2–0 in the second half. In that game Mullery scored England's first goal, the only time he tallied for his country.
Playing primarily as a deep midfielder, Mullery did not get many goals. Two he did score (the 1970 World Cup strike against West Germany; a 1973–74 volley from outside the penalty area against Leicester City, voted the BBC's goal of the season) are well known and still talked about decades later.[citation needed]
Mullery wasBrighton & Hove Albion manager between 1976 and 1981, and took the club from the third tier to the top flight of English football. When Mullery was appointed manager of Brighton's biggest rivalsCrystal Palace in 1982, it prompted anger and a short-lived boycott from some of the Palace fans.[2]
Mullery becameQPR manager in 1984 and guided the club to a 7–0 aggregate win overKR Reykjavik in the 1st round of the 1984–85 UEFA Cup, but he was then involved in an extraordinary 2nd round UEFA Cup tie againstFK Partizan. In the first leg, which was played at Highbury because of UEFA's ban on the artificial plastic pitch atLoftus Road, QPR beat Partizan 6–2, despite being 2–1 behind at one stage and down to ten men after QPR defenderWarren Neill was sent off.[3] In the second leg, Partizan won 4–0 in Belgrade to win the tie on away goals. Partizan's victory was only the second time in the history of European competition where a team has overturned a four-goal first-leg deficit.[4]
Mullery's QPR side were also involved in an extraordinary home league match in September 1984 against Newcastle United. At half-time Newcastle were 4–0 up after a hat-trick fromChris Waddle. But QPR came back after the break to draw the match 5–5.[5] Mullery was sacked after six months in charge at Loftus Road just hours after QPR had beatenStoke. In 1985, Mullery said that his time at QPR "turned me into a monster". He suggested that the players couldn't overcome their disappointment thatTerry Venables had left the club. Mullery blamed what he called "the moaning, groaning bunch of players who treated me, themselves and their profession with contempt" for killing his love of football.[6]
After leaving QPR, Mullery stayed out of football management for 18 months until the summer of 1986, when he took over for a second spell as manager of Brighton. He lasted seven months before being sacked in January 1987. Mullery said of his sacking by Brighton: "You love the game, then it kicks you in the guts."[7]
In the early 1990s, Mullery coachedATM FA in theMalaysian Premier League.[8] He later servedBarnet as Director of Football during 1996–1997.
Mullery had a brief stint as manager at Sussex non-league sideSouthwick F.C.[9] He has worked for a number of years as a pundit forSky Sports, and in September 2005 also briefly took a role with Conference club Crawley Town as a 'football consultant'.[10]
After leaving QPR, Mullery entered into a deep depression, worsened by an unsuccessful business venture; he converted toChristianity, though his financial and emotional troubles continued until he began working in the media in the mid-1990s.[11]
Mullery was appointed Member of theOrder of the British Empire (MBE) in the1976 New Year Honours.[12]
Mullery stated back in 1972 that he was aConservative.[13]
Tottenham Hotspur
Fulham
England squads | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
