Attacking midfielder Alan Gow almost joined Norwich in the summer of 2008. He spent time in Norwich awaiting the final nod from previous manager Glenn Roeder before packing his bags and heading home.

Bryan Gunn revealed "He didn't turn it down. His part of the deal was all agreed - I'll let you decide what the other reasons were for it not happening.Alan had a good look around, I looked after him for a day. He has seen the facilities, he has seen the stadium, agreed his terms. They have been on the radar for a while."

Gow instead joined Blackpool on loan making 17 appearances for City's Championship rivals and scoring five times. He almost joined Wolves in January 2009 but failed a medical.

Gow began his career with his hometown team of Clydebank where he had progressed from the youth team. After 7 appearances, he joined Airdrie United in August 2002 for whom he would go on to make 84 appearances, scoring 25 times. He helped them to the Scottish Second Division Championship in 2004.

Gow joined Falkirk in June 2005, following their promotion to the Scottish Premier League from the Scottish First Division in the 2004–05 season, on a two year contract. His performances in the 2006–07 season led to interest from the Old Firm clubs, Hibernian, Aberdeen and Wolverhampton Wanderers who had a bid turned down for Gow.

After 81 games for Falkirk, he signed a pre-contract agreement with Rangers on 26th January 2007. Gow made his Rangers debut in a post-season friendly match against Major League Soccer club Los Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles, United States, coming on as a half time substitute for Nacho Novo. His first competitive match was four months later, on 26th September 2007, when he played in a League Cup match against East Fife. However he hasn't played any league matches for Rangers.

In the summer of 2008, he was offered as a part-exchange to Burnley in exchange for Kyle Lafferty but Gow reected the move to Turf Moor.

On 30th January 2007, Alex McLeish named Gow in the Scotland B team to play Finland B at Rugby Park, Kilmarnock on 7th February 2007. Gow came on as a substitute in the 61st minute and scored three minutes later as the teams drew 2–2.

He joined the Canaries on loan from Rangers and Gow made his Norwich City debut as a substitute in the 3-3 draw at Wolves on 3rd February 2009. He made 13 appearances, playing well and winning Man of the Match awards but it was not enough to save City from relegation.

After protracted negotiations over personal terms, Alan signed for Plymouth on 14th August 2009 after Argyle had a £200,000 bid accepted by Rangers. By January 2010, he was being linked with a return to Scotland with Hibs linked with his signing.

Gow returned to his homeland two hours before the close of the January 2010 transfer window to sign for Hibernian on loan from Plymouth. He had made just 10 appearances for the Pilgrims since signing for them from Rangers last summer. He made 8 appearances for Hibs.

Gow departed Plymouth on 9th July 2010 and has been linked with a return to Scotland. After reports linking him with St Mirren and Kilmarnock, he undertook a medical with Swindon Town at the end of August 2010 only to dispute the terms of the contract offer. He returned to Scotland signing for Motherwell on 2nd September 2010

After scoring twice in 17 games for Motherwell, Gow left Motherwell in January 2011 and signed for Notts County on 14th January 2011 making his debut the following day against Southampton. He was released at the end of the 2010/11 season

Alan signed for Indian I-league runners up East Bengal in August 2011 after a successful trial. Gow's move to the Red and Gold outfit, as for now, is provisional and will only go through as soon as some visa issues are concluded

Released by East Bengal in early 2012, Alan trained with Aberdeen before signing for Exeter on 22nd March 2012 until the end of the 2011/12 season. However his arrival was not enough to prevent Exeter being relegated to League Two on 28th April 2012.

Gow was loaned by Exeter City to Bristol Rovers on 7th February 2014with Rovers' Eliot Richards heading the other way. Gow was made available for loan as a cost-cutting exercise and made his debut for Rovers against Bristol Rovers on 8th February 2014. He had scored seven goals in 27 appearances for Exeter during the 2013/14 season.

Gow was released by Exeter at the end of the 2013/14 season

At the beginning of February 2015, Gow trained with Hamilton Academicals. He then trialled with St Mirren playing in a friendly against New York City. He signed for St Mirren on 20th February 2015 until the end of the 2014/15 season.

After two seasons out of senior football, Gow signed for Scottish League Two side Queen of the South in December 2018 having spent time on trial in October 2018 with their league rivals Stirling Albion.

On 25th August 2020 Gow returned to Falkirk as their new Head of Football Operations. His immediate task is supporting co-managers David McCracken and Lee Miller gain promotion to the Scottish Championship but will head up a new five year strategic football plan that will incorporate the re-establishment of a youth development programme. Chairman Gary Deans hope his "contacts and experience of scouting and performance analysis" will help return them to the top flight. He left this role on 2nd November 2020. Falkirk later appointed Gary Holt to the role of Sporting Director.

In July 2022, he returned to another of his former clubs in Airdrieonians and was appointed manager of the newly reformed academy team