Name Neil Heaney Role Footballer | Height 1.75 m Years Team | |
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Full name Neil Andrew Joseph Heaney Date of birth (1971-11-03) 3 November 1971 (age 44) | ||
Playing position | ||
Destination banter neil heaney 15th july 2014
Neil Andrew Heaney (born 3 November 1971) is an English former footballer who played as a winger for a number of British clubs including Arsenal, Southampton, Manchester City and Dundee United.
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Career
Heaney started out playing on his native Teesside before being signed by London club Arsenal on schoolboy forms in January 1987. He was part of the side that won the FA Youth Cup in 1987–88 and turned professional in 1989. After spells on loan at Hartlepool United and Cambridge United, he made his Arsenal début as a substitute against Sheffield United on 18 April 1992. A winger with considerable pace, he was on the fringes of the Arsenal first team over the next two seasons, before being suddenly sold by George Graham to Southampton for £300,000 in March 1994. He made nine senior appearances for Arsenal in total, failing to score.
He became Alan Ball's third signing for the Saints (just before the transfer deadline) and scored his first goal against Newcastle United on 22 March 1995. Saints had failed to win a game since before Christmas and had dropped into 20th place, just above the relegation zone. Heaney came on as a substitute with Saints 1–0 down, and with four minutes left he prodded home a loose ball after a save by Pavel Srníček from Gordon Watson's header. Watson and Neil Shipperley completed the scoring to see Saints run out unlikely 3–1 winners. Saints then managed to climb up the table to finish in 10th place. According to Holley & Chalk, Heaney "had the ability and pace to turn matches, but could frustrate with a tendency to run up blind alleys."
Heaney made 61 league appearances for Southampton in two and a half seasons (scoring five goals), before being sold for £500,000 to Frank Clark's Manchester City in November 1996. Heaney went on to start only sixteen matches during his two-and-a-half years with City, having a loan period at Charlton Athletic in 1997–98, being part of the side that won promotion to the Premier League, playing in their dramatic win over Sunderland in the play-off final, winning 7–6 on penalties after a 4–4 draw. He eventually left Maine Road in August 1999, to link up at the Ashton Gate Stadium with Bristol City. Heaney then joined Darlington, before going on to feature for Dundee United where he was described by chairman Jim McLean as a "bad" signing and Plymouth Argyle. Heaney went on to eventually retire in December 2002 due to injury.
After football
After retiring, Heaney left football and became CEO of Judicare, an English firm of Solicitors that deals with international legal issues and is known particularly for recovering monies invested into problematic property abroad, based partly on his own problems investing in Spanish property.