Early career Saunders was born in
Swansea He began the
1988–89 season still in the Second Division, with manager Lawrenson and chairman
Kevin Maxwell agreeing that they would only sell Saunders if Oxford failed to win promotion at the end of the season. However, he was sold to Derby County for £1 million on 28 October 1988, prompting Lawrenson to resign in protest over Saunders' sale.
Derby County Saunders made his Derby County debut on 29 October 1988 against
Wimbledon in a First Division fixture at the
Baseball Ground in which he scored twice. In his first season at his new club he scored 14 goals in 30 games to help
Derby finish fifth in the 1988–89 First Division table – their highest finish since they finished fourth in 1976 – but they were unable to compete in the
UEFA Cup due to the ban on English teams in European competition following the
Heysel Disaster of 1985. He added 11 league goals to his name in the
1989–90, but Derby slumped to 16th place. During the
1990–91 season he netted 17 league goals but Derby still went down in bottom place with just five league wins all season. Their relegation made a transfer for Saunders inevitable, and Everton were favourites to sign him, and there were also approaches from
Aston Villa's new manager
Ron Atkinson, and
Nottingham Forest's
Brian Clough. Saunders ended up at Liverpool, who paid a then English record fee of £2.9 million for Saunders on 19 July 1991 to make him
Ian Rush's new strike-partner as he revamped the Anfield squad, with strikers
David Speedie and
Peter Beardsley both being sold that summer.
Liverpool In
1991–92, Saunders partnered Rush – who was also his strike partner for
Wales – in attack, backed by young
Steve McManaman which saw the club win the
FA Cup for the fifth time in its history in manager
Graeme Souness' first full season in charge. Saunders scored 23 goals in all competitions, though just 10 of these were the league where the club only managed a sixth-place finish – one of their lowest positions since their current top flight tenure began in 1962. He became the first Liverpool player to score four goals in a European fixture when he did so during a 6–1 home win over
Kuusysi Lahti in the
UEFA Cup first round first leg on 18 September 1991 that was their first European fixture after their six-year ban. He also scored twice against
FC Tirol in the third round first leg and a hat-trick in the return game. Saunders finished as the club's top scorer for the
1991–92 season.
Aston Villa On 10 September 1992, Saunders became
Aston Villa's record signing in a £2.5 million deal that reunited him with former Liverpool players
Steve Staunton and
Ray Houghton at
Villa Park. He managed six goals in his first four league games including two on his home debut against the club who had sold him; he also scored the winning goal at
Anfield later in the season. Here, he developed a strong partnership with
Dalian Atkinson until the latter suffered an injury midway through the season. Linking up with
Dwight Yorke, Saunders continued scoring as Villa challenged for
the inaugural Premier League title but the team ultimately finished runners-up behind
Manchester United. He ended the campaign with 16 goals in total with 12 in the league, one being a 35-yard strike against
Ipswich. Saunders and Villa found goals harder to come by in the league in
the following season and he only managed 10, three coming from hat-trick scored against
Swindon. He did however manage six more in cup competitions, with his goals against
Birmingham City and
Tranmere helping Aston Villa reach the
1994 League Cup Final where they beat Manchester United 3–1, as Saunders scored twice to end Villa's 12-year wait for a major trophy. Despite his best goalscoring season for the club with 17 goals, the
1994–95 season saw Villa finish only one place short of relegation – two years after they had come one place short of the league title. At one stage during the campaign Saunders recorded a run of seven goals in six games, including braces against
Wimbledon in a 7–1 victory, and
Sheffield Wednesday. His final Villa goal came against
Leicester City and despite not scoring in his final twelve appearances for the club he was named the Supporters' Player of the Year.
Galatasaray Saunders was sold to Turkish club
Galatasaray on 1 July 1995 for £2.35 million, where he reunited with his former Liverpool manager
Graeme Souness. In fact, according to
Shelley Webb's book ''Footballers' Wives Tell Their Tales'', the first Saunders' wife Helen knew of the move was when she went to Turkey with him one weekend, to find that by Monday he had signed for the
Istanbul club and this was her new home. In the 1996
Turkish Cup final, Saunders scored the only goal of the first-leg before scoring an equalising goal in extra-time of the away leg against rivals
Fenerbahçe to win the cup for Gala.
Later career Saunders spent one season at Galatasaray, before he returned to the Premier League with
Nottingham Forest in 1996 for £1.5m. His only season at the
City Ground was a disappointment with a shortage of goals which contributed to Forest's relegation before joining
Sheffield United in
Division One. Whilst at Sheffield United he is remembered for an ingenious passage of play which resulted in a cheeky goal for his team. In a game against Port Vale, Saunders chased a long ball down with Vale keeper
Paul Musselwhite, Musselwhite won the race and knocked the ball out for a throw in, only for Saunders to quickly pick it up, throw it onto the keeper's backside, and then proceed to curl the rebound into the goal from 25 yards. He remained at Bradford for two years until the end of the
2000–01 season, when Bradford were relegated from the Premier League. It was the eighth time in his career that Saunders had been involved with a club during a season of relegation. ==International career==