Robbie Blake
Encyclopedia : R : RO : ROB : Robbie Blake
Robbie Blake (born 4 March 1976 in Middlesbrough) is an English professional footballer currently playing for Leeds United in the Football League Championship. He plays as a striker. His previous clubs include Birmingham City, Burnley, Bradford City and Darlington.
A tricky player with good ball control and quick feet, and most importantly for a striker, a prolific goal scorer, he had two long periods at Bradford City, and Burnley. Whilst many of his appearances at Bradford came from the substitutes bench, his time at Burnley saw him become a certain starter and, during his final season, captain.
A £300,000 move from Darlington to Bradford eventually culminated in promotion to the English Premiership, after he scored the winning goal in the final game against Wolves of the 1998/99 season to see City up as league runners-up. His time in the top flight was not a happy one however, and he was loaned out to Championship side (at the time) Nottingham Forest following fallings-out with then-manager Paul Jewell. When Bradford were relegated after 2 seasons, and after Jewell had left the club, he began to show his eye for goal in the lower league and, with Bradford in financial trouble following mis-management by then-chairman Geoffrey Richmond, a £1 million bid was accepted from Burnley.
Following a poor start due to a hernia, Blake started to score goals at the beginning of the 2002/03 season, but the Burnley team that had narrowly missed out on goal difference to Norwich City by one goal the previous season were not the same force this time around. An aging defence and eccentric goalkeeping displays saw them limp home in 16th, with such losses as 6-5, 7-4 and 7-2 to Grimsby Town, Watford, and Sheffield Wednesday respectively.
Following the sale of previous top scorer Gareth Taylor, Blake became the new hero of the fans with 22 goals in all competitions the following season, but a re-built squad again finished in a desultory 18th place. The summer departure of manager Stan Ternent may have alerted other teams to his presence, and when he began the next season in excellent form, scoring 13 goals in 28 appearances, he was subject to multiple rejected bids around the £600,000-£800,000 mark at Christmas 2004 from Wigan Athletic. Blake came out into the media to state his desire to talk to Athletic. This stunned Burnley fans, especially after new manager Steve Cotterill had joked he would, "lock Blake in the boot of his car," to keep him at Turf Moor. When an acceptable £1.2 million bid was received from Birmingham City, Blake left to pursue his Premiership dream. The arrival of Walter Pandiani around the same time curtailed his appearances, and in total, he played only 11 games, scoring twice, before a summer move to Leeds in 2005 for a figure believed to be in the region of £800,000.
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.