Robert Fitzgerald Earle MBE (born 27 January 1965) is a former football player and current television commentator.
An attacking midfielder, he played 578 league games in senior club football, scoring 136 goals.
An attacking midfielder, Earle was a junior player at Stoke City whilst he attended Longton High School.
[5] Earle made his Port Vale debut under John McGrath in a 1–0 defeat by Swindon Town at the County Ground on 28 August 1982.
[7] He finished the 1982–83 campaign with one goal in nine appearances, as the "Valiants" won promotion out of the Fourth Division.
He made 13 appearances in 1983–84; John Rudge replaced McGrath as manager in December, but could not stop the club from sliding straight back out of the Third Division.
Earle made 142 consecutive appearances between September 1984 and January 1987, the run coming to an end due to a groin strain.
[8] A regular in the 1988–89 season, Rudge claimed that Earle and Ray Walker was one of the best-ever midfield partnerships at the Vale.
[9] He scored both goals past Bristol Rovers in the two-legged 1989 play-off final that took Vale through to the Second Division.
[1] After the match Earle wept in the tunnel, such was his emotions to have taken his local team to victory in the play-off final.
He scored 12 goals in 52 games in 1989–90, including one in a 1–1 draw with Stoke City at the Victoria Ground on 23 September.
He played alongside cult figures such as Aidan Newhouse, John Fashanu, Vinnie Jones, Lawrie Sanchez, Jason Euell, Dean Holdsworth, Marcus Gayle, Andy Clarke and Efan Ekoku.
After injury limited him to nine goalless appearances in 1994–95 (when Wimbledon still finished ninth), he regained his fitness for the following season.
The "Dons" then struggled under new manager Egil Olsen, and were relegated on the final day of the 1999–2000 season after losing 2–0 to Southampton at The Dell.
[14] During a reserve team game for Wimbledon in 2000, Earle sustained a heavy blow to the stomach and became seriously ill with a ruptured pancreas.
In nine years as a Wimbledon player, he made 244 league appearances for the South London club, scoring 59 goals.
[21] He played in all three of the Group H games, as Jamaica lost 5–0 to Argentina at Parc des Princes and beat Japan 2–1 at Stade de Gerland.
In June 2010, he had his £150,000 a year contract with ITV cancelled for giving away World Cup tickets for the Netherlands v Denmark match.