Player Profile: Alec Chamberlain, Watford FC, Vicarage Road, Watford Hertfordshire England

Alec Francis Roy Chamberlain (born June 20, 1964) is a former English goalkeeper currently employed by Watford as the club's goalkeeping coach. He made 788 league appearances during his 25-year playing career, the final 11 years and 247 appearances of which were with Watford.

Career

Chamberlain started his career at Ipswich as a trainee, but didn't make a single appearance for the club, moving to Colchester in 1982. He spent 5 years at Layer Road before joining Everton for £80,000. However, the then 23-year old was unable to displace established Everton goalkeeper Neville Southall, and his only appearances in the 1987-88 season were during a loan spell at Tranmere. Chamberlain signed for Luton Town in the summer of 1988 whilst living in Northampton, where he ousted Les Sealey after Sealey had a poor game in the League Cup Final against Nottingham Forest. Chamberlain became first choice goalkeeper and was player of the season twice.

Signing for Sunderland in 1993, he was part of the team that was promoted in 1995-96, though for four months of the season he was not first choice goalkeeper as Sunderland had taken Shay Given on loan from Blackburn Rovers in his place.

Towards the end of the 1994-95 season, he was loaned to Liverpool as understudy to David James after previous deputy Michael Stensgaard suffered an off-the-field injury, and despite never playing a game for the Anfield side he collected a Football League Cup winner's medal as he was a non-playing substitute in the final.

Despite this, in the summer of 1996 he was allowed to join recently relegated Watford, who paid £40,000 for him. He started off unable to get in the team, but finally played when first-choice goalkeeper Kevin Miller was sold to Crystal Palace for £1,000,000 in 1997. Now the first-choice goalkeeper, he was part of the Division Two Championship winning side in 1997-98 and was instrumental in Watford's promotion to the Premier League in 1999. In the playoff semi-final second leg against Birmingham City, his save denied Birmingham a winning goal, and won the match for Watford with a penalty shootout save in sudden-death. He appeared at Wembley when Watford beat Bolton Wanderers 2-0 in the Play-Off final. he currently plays for During the Premiership campaign, Chamberlain started off with an injury, and had to wait six games before he could play again. On Watford's relegation to Division One in 2001 the club signed Tottenham goalkeeper Espen Baardsen and the two players competed for the starting position through the 2001-02 season. When Gianluca Vialli arrived as Watford manager in the summer of 2002 he selected Baardsen as his first choice, but Chamberlain returned to the side after a poor run of form and kept his place.

Under Ray Lewington, he was first-choice for the whole of the 2002-03 season. In 2003-04 he started as first-choice, but lost his place to Lenny Pidgeley for several months, before regaining his place towards the end of the campaign. Chamberlain took the job of goalkeeping coach in the autumn of 2004.

Chamberlain was given a testimonial by Watford. With Chamberlain in goal Watford lost to Premiership side Charlton Athletic 2-1. Various events were run throughout the season to celebrate Chamberlain's 10 years at the club.

On 20 July 2006 he signed a new one year contract keeping him as player at Vicarage Road until summer 2007 making him, at 42, the oldest Premier League player for 2006-07 season. On 13 May 2007, Chamberlain came on as a substitute to become one of the oldest Premier League players ever. On 19 May 2007 it was announced that Chamberlain would be retiring from playing and would concentrate on his coaching role at the club.