Robert James Blake (born 4 March 1976) is an English former professional footballer and current coach at Bognor Regis Town. He began his career as a striker but was increasingly used as midfielder in the latter part of his career. He began his professional career with Darlington in 1994 and went on to make more than 500 appearances in the Football League and Premier League playing for Bradford City, Nottingham Forest, Burnley, Birmingham City, Leeds United, Bolton Wanderers and Doncaster Rovers. Blake was the subject of many transfers throughout his career, with career total transfer fees reaching £3.6 million. Playing career Darlington Born in Middlesbrough, England, Blake began his professional football career at Division Three side Darlington in the 1994–95 season after signing on from the youth academy. He spent the first few seasons of his career playing at Feethams, and also was loaned out to Waterford United during the 1995–96 season, making some 68 league appearances and scoring 21 goals before the club received an offer, from then Division One side, Bradford City in March 1997. Bradford made a £300,000 offer for the player which Darlington accepted. Bradford City Blake quickly settled into the Bradford side and he scored eight goals in his first full season, first under Chris Kamara and then Paul Jewell. He was sent off in the final game of the 1997–98 season against Portsmouth meaning he was suspended for the start of the following season. But he forced his way back into the team and scored in his first game back in a 2–2 draw with Sheffield United. He and new signing Lee Mills forged a lethal partnership in attack sharing 40 goals. Blake scored 16 goals as City won promotion to the Premiership. Blake scored the winning goal in the final game against Wolverhampton Wanderers of the 1998–99 season to see his side finish the season as league runners-up. However the following season was harder for Blake and he struggled to make an impact in the Premiership, starting just 15 games for Bradford, with a further 12 played as a substitute. The next season at Valley Parade began much differently for Blake after being sent on loan to Division One side Nottingham Forest for two months, scoring once against Barnsley. Following his 2-month loan spell at Forest he returned to Bradford where he finished the season with four goals from his 14 starts in