With just over a month to go until the Premier League season begins, Total Football’s Simon Wright will be looking back at the players, teams and goals that have lit up the 20 years of what is widely regarded as the world's greatest league.
First up is a look at former Manchester United striker Teddy Sheringham.
Name: Teddy Sheringham
Clubs he played for in the Premier League: Nottingham Forest (1992), Tottenham Hotspur (1992-1997), Manchester United (1997-2001), Tottenham Hotspur (2001-2003), Portsmouth (2003-2004), West Ham United (2004-2007)
Honours: Golden Boot winner 1992-93, Premiership champion with Manchester United 1998-99, 1999-00, 2000-01, PFA Players Player of the Year 2001, Football Writers Award 2001
PL Appearances: 418
PL Goals: 147
Teddy Sheringham might have won the treble with Manchester United in 1999 but he graced several Premier League clubs and his career might be remembered more for being part of broadcasting history.
On the opening weekend of the new league in August 1992, Sheringham scored the only goal for Nottingham Forest in a 1-0 success over Liverpool at the City Ground. Not only was it his only strike in the league for Forest, it was the first Premier League goal televised live on Sky Sports.
A week later, he was sold to Tottenham for £2.1 million and whilst Forest sadly slid out of the division in Brian Clough’s final swansong, Sheringham went onto score 21 more times in North London and end up as the inaugural winner of the Golden Boot for the FA Premier League.
Fourteen more strikes followed in 1993-94 but injury restricted his appearances all season and Tottenham only narrowly avoided relegation under the flamboyant Ossie Ardiles.
Ardiles then partnered Sheringham with German World Cup winner Jurgen Klinsmann for the following campaign. Their partnership was hugely successful, with Teddy bagging another 18 goals.
Big shoes to fill
By 1997, Spurs remained slumped in their usual mediocre position and Sheringham moved to Manchester United as a replacement for the retired Eric Cantona.
They were big shoes to fill and when a penalty struck the post on his debut for the Red Devils, ironically at White Hart Lane, it looked like he might struggle at his new club.
First team opportunities were limited for most of his United career and he famously fell out with Andy Cole, with the pair refusing to talk to one another during Teddy’s time at Old Trafford.
Despite only two league goals in 1999, Sheringham ended up with his first Premier League title and then made significant contributions with goals in the FA Cup and Champions League final wins. Having not won anything major in his career before 1998-99, Sheringham had now won the entire spectrum of top trophies.
In 2000-01, Sheringham displaced Dwight Yorke and became a regular first-team player, producing some of the best form of his career. He scored 15 goals and won both the PFA Player of the Year and the Football Writers awards as United strolled to a third successive title.
A return to Tottenham followed in the summer of 2001 on a free transfer, where he spent another two seasons at White Hart Lane under Glenn Hoddle’s management.
Experienced campaigner
In a book called Glory, Goals and Greed published last year, the striker voiced his disapproval of the manager’s personality; “I was a London boy and there wasn’t as much football on TV then, so I went to watch Hoddle. He was the graceful player I wanted to see. As a man, though, what a disappointment. Such arrogance and what a show-off.”
One year followed at Portsmouth and he became the oldest player to score a hat-trick in the Premier League with an early season treble against Bolton. He helped keep Portsmouth up in their debut season but was released and joined West Ham in the summer of 2004.
Following one year in the Championship, Teddy stayed with West Ham when they got promoted back to the Premier League and remained with the Hammers until 2007, becoming the oldest outfield player in the history of the division at 40 years, 139 days when West Ham played Charlton on the opening day of the 2006-07 campaign.
After one season at Colchester United, Sheringham retired from professional football in 2008, aged 42. Since retirement, he has become a noticeable figure on the world poker tour, playing in many competitions.
Teddy Sheringham will go down as a Premier League icon with Manchester United and Tottenham fans, but it was his brief impact with Nottingham Forest on the opening weekend in 1992 that the league might remember him most for.
NEXT TIME IN PREMIER LEAGUE PLAYER ICONS: A goalkeeper who has made many saves and daft mistakes in his time, David James.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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