Jobson: Richard Ian (Richard)

1995-1998 (Player Details)

Central Defender

Born: Holderness: 09-05-1963

Debut: v Chelsea (h): 18-11-1995

6’1” 13st 5lb (1995)

Although a native of the Hull region, he was brought up in the Derby area and after trials as a fifteen year-old at Birmingham City, he played part-time with Burton Albion, while studying for a Civil Engineering degree at Nottingham University. When Watford came in with a £22,000 offer for former English Universities’ player Jobson, in November 1982, he cut short his studies to become a professional footballer and helped them to runners-up spot behind Liverpool in his first full season. After not being assured of a first-team spot at Vicarage Road, a £40,000 transfer saw him join his native Hull in February 1985 and he amassed two hundred and fifty-five appearances, and scored eighteen times, for the Tigers, helping them to promotion from Division Three. A £460,000 move to Oldham Athletic, where he gained a Second Division Championship medal in 1991, saw him make another two hundred and twenty-five appearances and score eleven goals. The England Manager Graham Taylor, the man who had sold him at Watford, had called him up for the full England squad for the European Championship qualifier against Norway and although he never won a full cap, he made a couple of starts for England “B”. In November 1995, he signed for Leeds United for £1million, and managed only a dozen appearances before injury ruled him out for the rest of the season. Howard Wilkinson had tried to sign the England “B” defender fourteen months earlier, but the deal had fallen through because the player had an ankle problem, but after proving his fitness by playing regularly for Oldham Leeds finally went ahead. His career at Leeds was ruined by injury and after going on loan to Southend United in January 1998, where he scored once in eight games, he was allowed to go to Manchester City on a free-transfer in October 1998, where he stayed for over two seasons scoring four times in fifty-seven games. He was almost an ever-present and he was a determining influence in City’s promotion campaign of 1999-2000. City Manager Joe Royle deemed the thirty-seven year-old Jobson too old for the EPL and he joined Tranmere Rovers in December 2000, after he had had two games for Watford in a loan spell in November 2000. He made twenty-two appearances for them before he left in September 2001 for Rochdale. He scored three times in sixty-two games before retiring in June 2003, one of the oldest professionals in England, aged almost forty. Since retiring as a player, Jobson returned to football as a PFA executive.