When Clive Allen scored 49 goals in a season for Spurs (but won nothing)

A s Erling Haaland threatens to break every goalscoring record that exists, a few questions hang in the air. Will he beat the 34-goal record in the Premier League, which was set by Andy Cole in 1994 and matched by Alan Shearer a year later? Will he surpass Dixie Dean’s mark of 60 league goals from the 1927-28 season? Is he a robot?

Surely even Haaland cannot break Dean’s record, but it would not be a surprise if he exceeds the mark set by Clive Allen, who scored 49 goals for Tottenham as they chased a domestic treble under David Pleat in the 1986-87 season. No one has matched Allen’s tally since – which he set without playing in Europe – but it was a bittersweet campaign for the Spurs striker.

“Clive Allen. Would you believe it?” John Motson’s words at the start of the 1987 FA Cup final could possibly have been applied to Allen’s season as a whole. There was no doubting his poaching abilities, but he had never come close to scoring 49 goals in 54 games. Allen had been on a tour of the London clubs before he signed for Spurs in 1984. After two spells at QPR, a stint at Palace and a short stay at Arsenal (where he never played a competitive match), he followed in the footsteps of his dad Les, who won the double with Tottenham in 1960-61.

Allen scored twice on his debut for Spurs in August, but his first two years at the club were blighted by injuries. The arrival of Pleat as manager in 1986 coincided with a reversal in Allen’s fortunes. His hat-trick in a 3-0 win against Aston Villa on the opening day of the 1986-97 season was a sign of things to come. “That’s Clive – a goal poacher,” said Spurs goalkeeper Ray Clemence. “When he gets one, his confidence flies and he’s immediately chasing more.”

By the time Allen hit a