Steve Claridge

[Guy]

3 hours ago, EastAnglianFox said:

Scored so many big goals

 

Was at the Valley for a night game when we were outsiders for the playoffs, he could barely move for 90 minutes but scored an absolute beauty from nowhere.

 

Swear he only touched the ball about 5 times that night 😂

He had a thyroid problem for the initial period he signed for us IIRC, which was diagnosed in time before he suddenly came a saint in that Charlton away game! 

[Vlad the Fox]

2 hours ago, pazzerfox said:

He said it himself, in an interview after the match.  He clearly didn't "shin it", but he did say it.  Probably to try and get the interview done as quick as possible.

I know, he said in an interview once that he wished he never said it as everyone thinks he flunked it but he was caught up in the moment. He probably couldn’t feel his feet anyway.

[Muzzy Elliot]

6 hours ago, jayfox26 said:

Didn't realise we paid £1.2m for him. Must have been a fair chunk of money for us back then. 

 

6 hours ago, CosbehFox said:

Particularly given a large chunk of goals for Birmingham were in the third tier. 

Sounds like a PSR fiddle to me. 

[Fox92]

Scorer of two of the biggest goals in the clubs history, Claridge is a legend and people often overlook him when mentioning players. 

[Blueman1967]

A hero of the Martin O'Neill era, and those two goals cemented in the club history

[trabuch]

Very happy memories of super Steve.

[ParkerPen]

On 03/03/2025 at 21:42, Electric Yetis said:

Him, Izzet, Lennon and Kåmark all signing within a few months of each other. Good season for signings. 

Scott Taylor was great before the injuries and Julian Watts did a job too.

 

and they would all play for todays team ! at least Watts could head a ball !

[SK3Blue]

On 03/03/2025 at 23:51, Guy said:

He had a thyroid problem for the initial period he signed for us IIRC, which was diagnosed in time before he suddenly came a saint in that Charlton away game! 

I may be wrong but I think he was feeling unwell with it over in the Madrid UEFA cup game, the heat impacted on him. Think he was subbed quite early on. 

[Stadt]

Too young to have watched him play but you could see his affection for the club on the football league show. Him and Manish were a great foil for each other.

[cambridgefox]

Saw him play at Cambridge quite a lot.Was a hero there.

He had a book that I read years ago.If I remember correctly he used to turn up to training at Cambridge, under John Beck with wads of notes in his tracksuit pockets and rush to the bookies straight after.

[murphy]

Loved Claridge and loved that team.  My favourite ever era.  A team of rag tag journeymen moulded into a well oiled machine.  Unlike today - a team of rag tag journeymen moulded into a team of rag tag journeymen.

 

[filthyfox]

On 03/03/2025 at 20:30, jayfox26 said:

Didn't realise we paid £1.2m for him. Must have been a fair chunk of money for us back then. 

£2m was the record when we signed Guunnlaauuggssoonn, same again for Sinclair so 1.2 was, indeed quite large.

[Nick]

Always remember him on the pitch with his socks round his ankles like scruffy terrier!

[rugbyblue]

On 03/03/2025 at 22:23, Free Falling Foxes said:

That winner against Palace was weird. Like so many others have said, there seemed to be a delay in realising it was a goal. Almost like reality had stood still or you couldn't quite believe what had just happened.

I think with Kalac coming on and expecting the ref to blow, I think we had 'checked-out' and resigned to penalties.

 

This thread has made me re-watch the goal on youtube.  I had forgotten about the awful forward roll celebration.....😂😂😂  Legend 

[Footballwipe]

Don't forget we'd sold off Corica and Joachim for healthy fees around the time we signed Claridge, so with him and Lennon coming in as permanent players we had the money covered even if it was a high fee. I guess it highlighted the faith management had in MON to get the players he needed.

 

Also, can we talk about his goal against Man Utd in the Coca-Cola? That flick from Heskey and finish from Stevie. Lord almighty if that was scored in this media landscape you'd be seeing it for weeks.

 

I guess Cottee & Fenton coming in didn't help things, but his ending here just seemed to peter out quite quickly? Without having to read all the Fox Fanzines again can anyone remember whether it was just him falling down the pecking order, or was it something else that led to his departure?

[Lako42]

Tales from the boot camps worth a read 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Boot-Camps-Steve-Claridge/dp/0575402687#customerReviews

Edited 5 March by Lako42

[SpacedX]

He had been very frustrated at Birmingham City under Barry Fry. When we signed him he was recovering from a thyroid problem, but vowed to make a significant impact when he was fit. He absolutely delivered on that pledge.

[Durnerz]

10 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

Tales from the boot camps worth a read 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Boot-Camps-Steve-Claridge/dp/0575402687#customerReviews

Superb book, he had quite a life. I loved the anecdote about Barry Fry chucking a cup of tea over a hard man centre back for him to lick his lips and go “Baz, you know I don’t take sugar.” 😂

[CrazyKopCorner]

On 03/03/2025 at 20:26, Aus Fox said:

Time for some positivity and happiness, I just read on the Facebook Steve Clarridge made his debut on this day in 1996.

A 1.2 million quid signing from Birmingham.

Never really gets his name mentioned when we talk about legends of the club, but two of the most important and memorable goals in our history.

First, this could be the winner from Clarridge… Wembley fell silent for what felt like an eternity, as we got over the shock of Martin bringing Kalac on…

Then pure euphoria… on a level I don’t know if I had seen before or since, it was mayhem.

The return to the Premier League and what we thought at the time was the start of our golden era.

The. The cup final replay at Hillsbourgh, in extra time and he’s done it again! We’ve got our hands on silverware and we back into Europe!!

What a legend he turned out to be…

 

 

Apparently he couldn't feel his feet for the first few months with us. 

 

I always rated him and couldn't believe Birmingham sold him to us. 

 

Definitely a legend with those 2 strikes and a playing that always gave 100%. 

 

I also think he scored against us for Millwall and didn't celebrate which has been extremely rare where we're concerned. 

 

[CrazyKopCorner]

45 minutes ago, murphy said:

Loved Claridge and loved that team.  My favourite ever era.  A team of rag tag journeymen moulded into a well oiled machine.  Unlike today - a team of rag tag journeymen moulded into a team of rag tag journeymen.

 

They described themselves as the best pub team. 

 

You knew you'd get effort from that team and a fair bit of quality too - The grinders thing was totally over played with Muzzy, Lennon and Emile we had real quality in the middle and going forward.  

 

We were only really exposed against real quality which was the odd Man U game an games against the Arse 

[old koppite]

Loved it first time I heard his song sung with Lestah accents! 

[murphy]

9 minutes ago, CrazyKopCorner said:

They described themselves as the best pub team. 

 

You knew you'd get effort from that team and a fair bit of quality too - The grinders thing was totally over played with Muzzy, Lennon and Emile we had real quality in the middle and going forward.  

 

We were only really exposed against real quality which was the odd Man U game an games against the Arse 

I thought the 'grinders' thing was Brian Little?

[CrazyKopCorner]

16 minutes ago, murphy said:

I thought the 'grinders' thing was Brian Little?

No it was around the time we got to the League Cup final in 2000 - I think it was John Gregory who was very disparaging about us - we had a number of injuries I think Matt Elliot had to go up front and we beat them 1-0 over 2 leagues - said we didn't get over our half way line in the 1st game at Villa. 

 

O'Neil had been playing up to the label for much of that season but I could tell it irked him 

 

[CrazyKopCorner]

25 minutes ago, old koppite said:

Loved it first time I heard his song sung with Lestah accents! 

Super Stevie Claridge .......... and he bloody well was 

[murphy]

2 minutes ago, CrazyKopCorner said:

No it was around the time we got to the League Cup final in 2000 - I think it was John Gregory who was very disparaging about us - we had a number of injuries I think Matt Elliot had to go up front and we beat them 1-0 over 2 leagues - said we didn't get over our half way line in the 1st game at Villa. 

 

O'Neil had been playing up to the label for much of that season but I could tell it irked him 

 

I remember that game very well.  We won the Filbert St leg 1-0 but we peppered them and it should have been more.  After every attack came the ironic chants of "boring, boring Leicester"