Alan John Connell (born 5 February 1983) is an English former professional footballer and current youth team coach at AFC Bournemouth.

Born in Enfield,[1] Connell was a trainee at Tottenham Hotspur as a youngster but soon transferred to George Burley's Ipswich Town in 2001.

Alan was handed his professional debut by Sean O'Driscoll on 13 August 2002 in the club's 0–0 home draw with Kidderminster Harriers.

[2] He would go on to score 7 goals in 14 games before he suffered a cruciate ligament injury in October 2002 in a match against Leyton Orient which ruled him out for the remainder of his first season.

By the end of the season Bournemouth had earned promotion from Division Three via a play-off final victory over Lincoln City at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

He moved to Torquay United in the summer of 2005 for a fee of £5,000, making his debut in the 0–0 draw against Notts County on the opening day of the 2005–06 season.

By the end of the season Torquay had narrowly avoided relegation from the Football League and Connell would eventually leave the club after making 26 appearances in all competitions, scoring 7 goals.

[6] In the summer of 2006 he signed for newly promoted Conference National play-off champions Hereford United in July 2006.

After initially being restricted to substitute appearances, Connell broke into the starting eleven and went on to become the top goalscorer at the club, despite not always playing in his favoured role as a striker.

[10] Connell went on to score 14 goals in his opening 19 appearances for The Mariners doubling the total of the previous season's top goalscorer Peter Sweeney and doing so in little over two months into the season, prompting club chairman John Fenty to state in a fans forum that the club would be aiming to keep Connell and not cash in on the forward in the January transfer window.

[19] He made his home debut on 25 August, coming on as a substitute for Nahki Wells during a 5–1 win against AFC Wimbledon.

[21] Connell was released at the end of the season and joined Dagenham & Redbridge on trial, scoring on his debut in a friendly against Bromley.