Stephen Edward Claridge (born 10 April 1966) is an English football pundit, coach and former professional player who is currently the manager of Fleetlands. He was a pundit for BBC Sport football shows including Football Focus and The Football League Show, until 2014 when he became both manager and a director at newly formed Salisbury.
Claridge's career was known for its longevity and diversity. Born in Portsmouth, he has spent a number of periods with teams from Hampshire and Dorset, having begun his career with non-league Fareham Town in 1983. After failing to gain a permanent contract at local league club AFC Bournemouth, Claridge spent three years at Weymouth, in his longest single spell with any club. From 1988 till 1996 Claridge played for a number of Football League teams, before moving to Leicester City with whom he played in the Premier League and won the 1997 Football League Cup. In 1998, he moved to Portsmouth, where he was also player manager from 2000 to 2001. After a spell with Millwall, he dropped down to the Southern Premier League to work as player-manager for Weymouth. After this ended in 2004, Claridge played for ten different clubs in a variety of leagues, never spending more than a season with one team. He has played at all levels of English football and has also appeared in 1000 professional or semi-professional football matches.
After formally retiring from football in 2007, Claridge moved into media work for the BBC. His experience of the Football League has been used to position him as an expert at that level, though he works across a variety of different football programmes on the BBC. After retirement he occasionally played semi-professional football for clubs in south England, most recently in 2017 for Salisbury.
Early years
Claridge was born in Portsmouth and grew up in Titchfield, a village near Fareham, and attended Brookfield Community School in Sarisbury Green. He was an adopted child.
Claridge initially played for Fareham Town in the Southern League. He got into Football League side AFC Bournemouth, though Claridge again stepped down the leagues after just seven games for Bournemouth to sign for Weymouth.
In October 1988 Claridge moved to Crystal Palace for a brief period before opting to join Fourth Division team Aldershot for the 1988–89 season. He spent two years with the club before signing with Cambridge United for £75,000. He moved with Cambridge up into the Second Division and stayed with the club for most of the next four years. His tempestuous relationship with manager John Beck, which was exacerbated by Claridge's gambling problems, eventually led to his being sold to Luton Town for only £120,000 in March 1992. With Luton in financial difficulties however he was sold back to Cambridge, for a club record £195,000 just five months later (Beck having left the club by this time).
In January 1994 Claridge moved to Birmingham City for £350,000. the following season, he became the first player since Trevor Francis to score 20 goals in a season for Birmingham, a performance that earned him the club's Player of the Year award. Claridge was transferred to Leicester City for £1.2 million in March 1996. It was with Leicester that Claridge reached the Premiership, scoring winning goals in both the 1996 play-off final that gave Leicester promotion and in the 1997 League Cup final replay. In 1997 his autobiography Tales From The Boot Camps, co-written with Ian Ridley, was first published.
Moves into management
In 1998 Claridge joined hometown club Portsmouth on loan and, following a brief period at Wolverhampton Wanderers, signed for Portsmouth on a permanent basis. From 2000 this was as player-manager, though Claridge's reign lasted for just 25 games before he was demoted. After a period on loan with Millwall, he moved to the London club on a free transfer in 2001. He spent two seasons with Millwall before returning to Weymouth as the club's new player-manager. Weymouth just missed out on promotion to the Football Conference. Following Ian Ridley's resignation as chairman, Claridge also left to return to league football.