Jamie Clapham

Jamie Clapham
Personnel
Surname	James Richard Clapham
birthday	7th December 1975
place of birth	Lincoln ,  England
position	Full-back (left)
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1994-1998	Tottenham Hotspur	1 (0)
1997	→  Leyton Orient  (loan)	6 (0)
1998	→  Bristol Rovers  (loan)	5 (0)
1998	→  Ipswich Town  (loan)	12 (0)
1998-2003	Ipswich Town	195 (8)
2003-2006	Birmingham City	84 (1)
2006-2008	Wolverhampton Wanderers	26 (0)
2007	→  Leeds United  (loan)	13 (0)
2008	Leicester City	11 (0)
2008-2010	Notts County	70 (3)
2010-2011	Lincoln City	25 (1)
2011	Kettering Town	3 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

James Richard "Jamie" Clapham (born December 7, 1975 in Lincoln ) is a former English football player . The left full-back was active for many years in the Premier League at Ipswich Town and later for Birmingham City .

Athletic career

Born in Lincolnshire , Clapham comes from a footballing family. Both his father Graham and grandfather Bert Wilkinson had played in the English professional leagues. He himself began his professional career in London at Tottenham Hotspur , where he was used in only one league game in the Premier League . This took place on May 11, 1997 against Coventry City and ended in a 1: 2 defeat. Previously, he had already gained experience at two clubs during one-month loan periods in lower profile leagues. This included from the end of January 1997 a short engagement in the fourth division at Leyton Orient and from the end of March 1997 five championship games for the third division Bristol Rovers .

Also in the 1997/98 season little changed in his status and in January 1998 the management of the "Spurs" decided to borrow again. The addressee was now the second division Ipswich Town and after the two-month deadline the "Tractor Boys" were convinced of the performances shown. Clapham moved for a transfer fee of 300,000 pounds the club and was in the following almost five years a fixture in the defense network of the club, which in 2000 succeeded in promotion to the top English division. A year earlier he had been voted the club's best player of the past season and the left-back set offensive accents, especially with his free kicks with his left foot. In addition to 207 league games and eight goals, he was also used in the UEFA Cup , where he played twelve games in the two consecutive rounds 2001/02 and 2002/03 . Since the club had to pursue a tough austerity course in bankruptcy proceedings after relegation from the Premier League in 2002, Clapham was also on the sales list and so the club accepted the transfer offer of the first division side Birmingham City in the amount of 1.3 million pounds in January 2003 .

Clapham immediately asserted itself in the new environment in Birmingham and gained a regular place until an injury in December 2003 threw him back and in February 2004 he suffered from shingles . After his return, he stayed in the club's squad, but faced increasing competition in the person of Stan Lazaridis and Julian Gray in the following two years in his position . He made a total of 84 league games for the "Blues" and scored his only goal on December 28, 2005 against Manchester United (2-2). Another club change was approaching and after an audition for Sheffield United in July 2006 and the alleged interest of his ex-club from Ipswich, Clapham decided in August 2006 to sign a two-year contract with the second division promotion candidate Wolverhampton Wanderers .

With the "Wolves" Clapham played 26 second division games in the 2006/07 season. He could not convince his coach Mick McCarthy to continue the cooperation and so the defender found himself on the transfer list after only one year. However, since no buyer was found, the club loaned him to the third-tier Football League One at Leeds United for three months in August 2007 . After his return to Wolverhampton, the path to the first team was denied him and on January 31, 2008 with the second division competitor Leicester City found a buyer for the free transfer available player. Clapham played eleven league games in the ending 2007/08 season, but then received no new contract with the "Foxes" in May 2008.

In search of a new club, Clapham first tried West Bromwich Albion , where Tony Mowbray was his former sponsor from Ipswich coach. But there was just as little agreement there as a short time later at Southend United . He then trained for two weeks at Notts County , signed a short-term contract there in September 2008 and received another extension from the fourth division team in January 2009 until the end of the 2009/10 season.

In July 2010 he signed a new contract with league rivals Lincoln City for a year. The last station of his playing career was the fifth division Kettering Town , in which he played three games on a non-contract basis in the early stages of the 2011/12 season before leaving the club in September 2011.

Web links

• Jamie Clapham in the soccerbase.com database
• Profile at Notts County

Individual evidence

1. ^ "Clapham shows talent does stay in the family" (The Independent)
2. ↑ "Leeds United former player defender Jamie Clapham" ( Memento of the original from May 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (leedsutd365.co.uk)  
3. ↑ "Clapham Makes It 7" ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Leicester City FC)  
4. ^ "Southend end interest in Clapham" (BBC Sport)
5. ^ "Magpies sign free agent Clapham" (BBC Sport)
6. ↑ "Duo Sign One Year Deals" ( Memento of the original from April 4, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Lincoln City FC)  
7. ↑ "Kettering Town boss wants hard working Moses Ashikodi" (BBC Sport)