Liverpool, Blackburn & Later Career
Speedie joined Liverpool in January 1991 and became Kenny Dalglish's last signing before his resignation on 22 February 1991. Dalglish had been interested in signing Speedie four years earlier when he was still at Chelsea.
He scored on his Liverpool debut at Old Trafford then scored twice in the Merseyside Derby in the next league game, and by the end of the season had scored six goals for the Reds - all in the league.
However, his Liverpool career was short and when Graeme Souness took over as manager he was sold that summer to Blackburn Rovers, where Dalglish returned to management soon afterwards.
On the final day of the 1991-92 season, he scored a hat-trick in a win which relegated Plymouth Argyle but most significantly fired Rovers into the play-offs and would be a major step towards a new era for the club, beginning with a playoff final victory which took them into the new FA Premier League, which they won three years later. However, Speedie was not to be part of Blackburn's Premier League adventures. He was sold to Southampton for £400,000, ironically replacing Alan Shearer who switched to Blackburn for a £3.6million national record fee, joining the Saints at the same time as his old Chelsea strike partner Kerry Dixon.
He made just seven appearances (scoring twice) for the Saints in the 1992-93 league campaign, having unsuccessful loan spells with Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion before another loan deal in early March took him to Division One promotion contenders West Ham United. His four goals in 11 league games helped the Hammers secure automatic promotion to the Premier League as Division One runners-up.
However, he was not offered a permanent contract with the East London club. Instead, he accepted on offer from Brian Little to sign for Division One promotion hopefuls Leicester City. He would score 12 goals in 37 league games for the East Midlands side in 1993-94 as they qualified for the playoffs and sealed promotion to the Premier League by defeating local rivals Derby County 2-1 in the playoff final at Wembley Stadium. However, he missed this game through suspension and retired later in the year due to injury, having never featured in the Premier League for the Foxes.
Read more about this topic: David Speedie
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