Les Chapman

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Les Chapman
Personal information
Full name	Leslie Chapman
Date of birth	27 September 1948 (1948-09-27) (age 60)
Place of birth	Royton, Lancashire, England
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Playing position	Midfielder
Senior career1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1966–1969 1969–1974 1974–1978 1978 1979 1979–1982 1983–1984 1985 1986–1987	Oldham Athletic Huddersfield Town Oldham Athletic San Jose Earthquakes Stockport County Bradford City Rochdale Stockport County Preston North End	076 0(9) 134 0(8) 187 (11) 020 0(0) 032 0(1) 139 0(3) 088 0(0) 038 0(3) 053 0(1)
Teams managed
1985–1986 1990–1992	Stockport County Preston North End
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Leslie "Les" Chapman (born 27 September 1948) is a former football player and manager who played in the English football league. Chapman was a midfielder who made 747 league appearances in a career that spanned 22 seasons.

From an early stage, it was not clear how Chapman would go on to have such a long career in football as he himself admits: "I never had a great desire to be a professional footballer, it simply landed at my feet."^{[citation needed]}

Contents 1 Playing career 1.1 Early years 1.2 Back at Oldham 1.3 Later years 2 Management career 3 External links

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early years

Chapman was raised in Royton^{[citation needed]} and as a youngster played for Chadderton Boys before going on to play for Huddersfield Town's youth team during his schooldays.

Les didn't turn professional straight away and actually spent the first months of his working life as a trainee accountant with Middleton Council before being recommended to Latics.^{[citation needed]}

He began his 1st spell with Oldham Athletic making his 1st team debut as an 18 year old against Bristol Rovers in February 1967 but went back to Huddersfield Town in September 1969.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Back at Oldham

In December 1974, he returned to Oldham Athletic, now in Division Four. He stayed at the club for the next four and a half years, during which it climbed back up to the 2nd division, the equivalent of today's Championship. Chapman missed only five games during that time and his came as a surprise to many when he left at the end of the 1978–79 season.

In total, he made 263 league appearances for Oldham Athletic and scored 20 times.

[edit] Later years

Upon leaving Oldham, Chapman spent the summer of 1979 playing in the NAFL for San Jose Earthquakes before returning to England and to Stockport County. After one season at Edgeley Park though Chapman left to sign for Bradford City. Les spent four seasons at Valley Parade making 139 league appearances before leaving on a free transfer for Rochdale where he would spend two seasons, playing nearly 100 games for the Spotland side.

[edit] Management career

In July 1985 he became player-manager of Stockport County but moved on a year later to become player-assistant manager alongside John McGrath at Preston North End. This despite similar interest from Frank Worthington at Tranmere Rovers. In 1990, he took over the managership of the club himself but was later sacked in October 1992. He became reserve team coach at Manchester City in January 1993 but was replaced by Kevin Bond in July 1996 since then he has been City's kit man.

Les' daughter, Tiffany Chapman is an actress, most famous for her role as Rachel Jordache in the soap opera Brookside, which she played from 1993 until the show ended in 2003. She also released a fitness video and appeared in Celebrity Wrestling.

[edit] External links

• Les Chapman management career stats at Soccerbase

v • d • e Stockport County F.C. – Managers Stewart (1894–1911) · Lewis (1911–14) · Ashworth (1914–19) · Williams (1919–24) · Scotchbrook (1924–26) · Hyde (1926–31) · Wilson (1932–33) · Westgarth (1934–36) · Kelly (1936–38) · Hunt (1939) · Marshall (1939–49) · Beattie (1949–52) · Duckworth (1952–56) · Moir (1956–60) · Flewin (1960–63) · Porteous (1963–65) · Quigley (1965–66) · Meadows (1966–69) · Galbraith (1969–70) · Woods (1970–71) · Doyle (1972–74) · Meadows (1974–75) · Hopkinson (1975) · Chapman (1975–76) · Quigley (1976–77) · Thompson (1977–78) · Summerbee (1978–79) · McGuigan (1979–82) · Webster (1982–85) · Murphy (1985) · Chapman (1985–86) · Melia (1986) · Murphy (1986–87) · Hartford (1987–89) · Bergara (1989–95) · Jones (1995–97) · Megson (1997–99) · Kilner (1999–2001) · Madden (2001) · Palmer (2001–03) · Hollins (2003) · McIlroy (2003–04) · Lillis (2004) · Turner (2004–05) · Gannon (2005–09)

v • d • e Preston North End F.C. – Managers Parker (1906–15) · Hayes (1919–23) · Lawrence (1923–25) · Richards (1925–27) · Gibson (1927–31) · Hayes (1931–32) · Muirhead (1936–37) · Scott (1949–53) · Symon (1953–54) · Hill (1954–56) · Britton (1956–61) · Milne (1961–68) · Seith (1968–70) · Ball (1970–73) · Charlton (1973–75) · Catterick (1975–77) · Stiles (1977–81) · Docherty (1981) · Kelly (1981) · Lee (1981–83) · Kelly (1983–85) · Booth (1985–86) · Kidd (1986) · McGrath (1986–90) · Chapman (1990–92) · Beck (1992–94) · Peters (1994–98) · Moyes (1998–2002) · O'Hanlon (2002) · Brown (2002–04) · Davies (2004–06) · Simpson (2006–07) · Irvine (2007–)