Mervyn Richard Day (born 26 June 1955) is an English former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played in the

Football League The English Football League (EFL) is a league of professional football clubs from England and Wales. Founded in 1888 as the Football League, the league is the oldest such competition in the world. It was the top-level football league in Engla ...

as a

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

Orient The Orient is a term for the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of ''Occident'', the Western World. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the c ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

Sheffield United Sheffield United Football Club is a professional football club in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, which compete in the . They are nicknamed "the Blades" due to Sheffield's history of cutlery production. The team have played home games at ...

and

Carlisle United Carlisle United Football Club ( , ) is a professional association football club based in Carlisle, Cumbria, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They have played their home games at Brunton Par ...

. He later managed Carlisle United. He was formerly chief scout at Leeds United.

Early life

Day was educated at Kings Road Primary School, attended also by another famous West Ham player,

Geoff Hurst Sir Geoffrey Charles Hurst (born 8 December 1941) is an English former professional footballer. A striker, he became the first man to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final when England recorded a 4–2 victory over West Germany at Wembley St ...

, and

King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford King Edward VI Grammar School, or KEGS, is a British grammar school with academy status located in the city of Chelmsford, Essex, England. It takes pupils between the ages of 11 and 18, ie. school years 7 to 13. For years 7 to 11 the school is b ...

Playing career

Day represented

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Schools at all levels and was picked for the England Schools squad six times, though he did not play. At aged 15

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional association football, football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English footba ...

and

sent scouts to watch Day.

Ron Greenwood Ronald Greenwood CBE (11 November 1921 – 9 February 2006) was an English football player and manager, best known for being manager of the English national football team from 1977 until 1982, as well as being manager of West Ham United for 13 ...

's West Ham United signed Day on a youth contract in July 1971. In February 1973, he signed a professional contract with West Ham and on 29 August 1973, he made his debut in a draw against Ipswich Town. Day became the first team

soon after. In 1975, aged 19, he became the youngest goalkeeper ever to appear in an FA Cup Final in their victory over

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandsworth ...

. He received the

PFA Young Player of the Year The Professional Footballers' Association Young Player of the Year (often called the PFA Young Player of the Year, or simply the Young Player of the Year) is an annual award given to the young player who is adjudged to have been the best of the s ...

Award that same season, the only goalkeeper to have won the award. He was tipped as the next great England goalkeeper. In 1976, he appeared in the

Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

Final which West Ham lost 4–2 to

Anderlecht Anderlecht (, ) is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, and Saint-Gilles, as well as the ...

at a sold out

Heysel Stadium The King Baudouin Stadium (french: Stade Roi Baudouin , nl, Koning Boudewijnstadion ) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. Located in the Heysel district of the City of Brussels, it was built to embellish the Heysel Plateau in v ...

. However, a loss of form and injuries saw him drop out of the side, and Phil Parkes' performances were good enough to keep Day out when he regained fitness. In July 1979, he moved to

for £100,000, where he replaced

John Jackson John or Johnny Jackson may refer to: Entertainment Art * John Baptist Jackson (1701–1780), British artist * John Jackson (painter) (1778–1831), British painter * John Jackson (engraver) (1801–1848), English wood engraver * John Richardson ...

. When Eddie Gray, then manager of

, signed him in 1985, he proved to be an excellent buy and was a key figure in

Billy Bremner William John Bremner (9 December 1942 – 7 December 1997) was a Scottish professional footballer and manager. Regarded as one of the game's great midfielders, he combined precision passing skills with tenacious tackling and physical stam ...

's side in the 1987 run to the FA Cup semi-final and League play-offs. He remained first choice keeper for Howard Wilkinson, and picked up a Division 2 winners medal as promotion was finally achieved in 1990. With the re-signing of John Lukic, Day was relegated to the reserves and bench, and only made five more appearances for the first team, although he remained loyal to the club for three more seasons until he finally left

Elland Road Elland Road is a football stadium in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, which has been the home of Premier League club Leeds United since the club's formation in 1919. The stadium is the 14th largest football stadium in England. The g ...

in 1993 after eight years. His final club was

Managerial and coaching career

After retiring, Day was manager of

and led them to promotion into Division Two and a

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

win in 1997, but left shortly after due to a falling out with the chairman,

Michael Knighton Michael Knighton (born 4 October 1951) is an English businessman, best known for his involvement in Manchester United and Carlisle United football clubs. Knighton first came to prominence in 1989 for his aborted £20 million bid to buy Manc ...

, who replaced Day as manager. He was first team coach to

Alan Curbishley Llewellyn Charles "Alan" Curbishley (born 8 November 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He played as a midfielder for West Ham United, Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Charlton Athletic and Brighton & Hove Albion and has worke ...

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

for many years before he and Curbishley both left the club at the end of the 2005–06 season. On 13 December 2006, he was again named as Curbishley's number two after the former was unveiled as the new West Ham manager but left the club at the same time as Curbishley in September 2008. On 20 July 2010, he rejoined Leeds United as chief scout to work alongside technical director Gwyn Williams. He left the position as chief scout at Leeds in March 2012 and worked as a co-commentator on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's coverage of the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. In November 2012, Day was appointed Scouting and Talent Identification Manager at

Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

. On 2 July 2014, was appointed head of recruitment at

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

. On 30 June 2015, Day left his post as head of recruitment at

after a year in the job.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Day, Mervyn 1955 births Living people Sportspeople from Chelmsford People educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford English footballers England under-23 international footballers English football managers Association football goalkeepers Leyton Orient F.C. players Aston Villa F.C. players Leeds United F.C. players Luton Town F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Sheffield United F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. players Carlisle United F.C. managers Premier League players English Football League players English Football League managers Charlton Athletic F.C. non-playing staff West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Leeds United F.C. non-playing staff Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. non-playing staff West Bromwich Albion F.C. non-playing staff Association football goalkeeping coaches FA Cup Final players Association football scouts Association football coaches