There are a number of football families, from twin brothers playing on either flank for Manchester United like Fabio and Rafael, to a father and son who are both managers of professional league clubs - Sir Alex and Darren Ferguson. Brothers Rio and Anton Ferdinand boast former England striker Les Ferdinand as a cousin and who can forget Gary and Phil Neville?

However, there is one family that boasts a huge football dynasty and that is the Allen family, who have 3 generations of professional footballers to their name which expands for nearly fifty years!

Let’s start with the eldest of the Allen family, with Les and Dennis Allen. Les Allen was an amateur footballer from East London before being signed by Chelsea in 1954, where he started to make a name for himself as a centre-forward. By 1959 he moved onto Tottenham Hotspur and was a member of Spurs’ double winning side of the 1960-1961 season and scored 47 goals in 119 appearances over several years. He formed a lethal partnership with up front for Tottenham with Bobby Smith but was eventually replaced by the arrival of Jimmy Greaves.

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Les moved on to his third London club with Third Division side Queens Park Rangers in 1965 and went onto win the Third Division title in 1967 as well as the League Cup in a 3-2 victory over First Division West Bromwich Albion at Wembley. Les became player-manager a year later, guiding Rangers into the top flight for the first time in their history but they were relegated after one season and he left the club in 1971.

He went onto manage Swindon Town for two seasons in the Seventies but was unsuccessful and also spent time managing in Greece with Salonika. His ties with Tottenham Hotspur and Queens Park Rangers were later renewed by sons, Clive and Bradley. Les, now 73, is a model manufacturer and has homes with his wife in Essex and Cyprus.

Les’ younger brother Dennis Allen did not enjoy as much success in football but still played at a competitive level. Starting off at Charlton Athletic in 1957 to 1961 before moving onto Reading where he enjoyed a 9 year spell playing 336 games and scoring 85 goals as a Inside Forward.

After the long spell for the Royals, he went onto play for Bournemouth and Belgian side Oostende. Sadly, Dennis passed away in August 1995 (aged 56) but his legacy is lived on with son Martin.

Whilst there are no immediate records of Les and Dennis’ brother Ron Allen playing professional football, his son Paul also joined his cousins as successful pro footballers.

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Starting with the 2^nd generation of Allen’s and with the oldest is Clive, son of Les. He started his career at Queens Park Rangers where his dad had legendary status and scored a hat-trick on his debut in 1978 at the age of 17 in a 5-1 win over Coventry City. The promising striker failed to keep the R’s up and the side was relegated but Allen stayed and after an impressive amount of goals, he was sold to Arsenal for a fee reported to be just over £1 million in 1980.

Clive did not play a competitive game for the Gunners, and was sold to Crystal Palace in a swap for Kenny Sansom in a bizarre deal. Allen only spent one season in South London and moved back to Rangers after Palace were relegated. Under Terry Venables, Allen enjoyed a more successful spell at Loftus Road winning promotion back to the top flight and appearing in a FA Cup final but losing in a replay with Tottenham Hotspur.

Clive later moved to Spurs where he enjoyed the biggest success of his career, scoring 112 goals in 173 games, most notably scoring 49 during the 1986-87 season which beat Jimmy Greaves' record at the club, and has only been beaten in the top flight of English football by Andy Cole and Alan Shearer.

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He went on to play in France for Bordeaux in the late Eighties before coming back to England with Manchester City and eventually London with Chelsea and West Ham in the Nineties. Despite being a prolific goal scorer, Clive was only capped 5 times for England under Bobby Robson and failed to score.

Since hanging up his boots, Clive has done various punditry work on television whilst also being on the coaching staff at Tottenham Hotspur. His son, Oliver Allen, had an impressive youth career at Birmingham City before moving onto Barnet in 2007 scoring 4 in 14 appearances but was later released. He went onto to play for Stevenage Borough, Thurrock and Billericay Town but had unsuccessful spells due to a persistent knee injury that forced him to retire.

Clive’s younger brother, Bradley also started his career at Queens Park Rangers and started to feature in the first team more regularly during the club's successful spell at the start of the English Premier League. Most notably, Bradley scored a hat-trick at Everton during the 1993-1994 season but injuries prevented him from becoming a regular goal scorer and first choice striker.

Eventually he was sold to Charlton Athletic (who his Uncle, Dennis played for) but could not establish himself as a first team striker. Eventually Bradley moved on to Grimsby Town scoring 20 goals in 92 appearances for the club but his time was hampered with injuries. He now works with Tottenham Hotspur’s youth teams as a coach.

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Their cousin, Martin Allen (son of Dennis, nephew of Les, are you keeping up?) also started his career at Queens Park Rangers making his debut in 1984 and played in their League Cup final defeat by Oxford United in 1986. He was sold to West Ham United in 1989 after a dispute between Rangers manager Trevor Francis, who had fined Martin for missing an important game because he went to his wife’s side to see the birth of his first child (Did Trevor not know how important this family is?)

At the Hammers, Martin enjoyed his most successful playing career and was part of their promotion in 1991 and 1993 before moving onto Portsmouth in 1995 and finishing his playing days at Southend United.

Martin was nicknamed ‘Mad Dog’ because of his combative style of play in the middle of midfield as well as his antics off the pitch. Today he is more known as a manager who uses an unorthodox approach.

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During a spell managing Brentford, he jumped into the River Tees, to inspire his squad before an FA Cup tie (in January!) and ended up doing the same at Southampton in the next round.

At his first spell at Barnet, he made the first team train in London’s Hyde Park, whilst also making them stay at his house where they took part in challenges that saw rewards of a bed for the night or punishment of the floor.

He has also managed Milton Keynes Dons, Leicester City and Cheltenham Town (who is father, Dennis was player-manager for).

Martin Allen has recently been appointed manager at Barnet in League Two in a bid to keep the North London club in the football league as the side are currently 2^nd from bottom.

His son, Charlie Allen was on the books at Dagenham and Redbridge but has recently moved to Billericay Town (where his cousin, Oliver played, son of Clive).

Another interesting fact about Martin Allen was his manager at West Ham, Harry Redknapp, who was coached as a kid in the 1950’s by Martin’s father, Dennis. Now, Harry is in charge of Clive and Bradley Allen at Spurs.

The final Allen in the 2^nd generation family is Paul, but he didn’t start his career at QPR liks his cousins. He started at West Ham United in the late seventies and became the youngest player (at the time) to play in the League Cup final at 17 years of age in 1980 against Arsenal.

After 152 appearances for the Hammers, Allen moved to Tottenham Hotspur in 1985 where he joined his cousin Clive. Paul enjoyed the best of his career at Spurs and became a cult hero at White Hart Lane, making well over 300 appearances with 23 goals.

Towards the end of his career, he moved onto Southampton in the mid-nineties playing competitive Premier League football before moving onto Swindon Town, Bristol City and eventually ending his career at Millwall in 1998 before working for the PFA after hanging up his boots.

That concludes the famous football family of the Allen’s. A little confused? Most probably but fascinated...most definitely!

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