James Edward Neighbour (15 November 1950 – 11 April 2009) was a professional footballer who played for

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

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club (also known as The Canaries or The Yellows) is an English professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk. The club competes in the EFL Championship following their relegation from the Premier League in the 20 ...

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 ...

and the

Seattle Sounders Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

Football career

Neighbour joined Spurs as an apprentice in November 1968. He made his senior debut against Stoke City at

White Hart Lane White Hart Lane was a football stadium in Tottenham, North London and the home of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club from 1899 to 2017. Its capacity varied over the years; when changed to all-seater it had a capacity of 36,284 before demolition. ...

in October 1970. A traditional

right winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who had the ability to beat defenders, he played on 156 occasions including 22 as substitute and scoring 11 goals in all competitions between 1970–76. The highlight of Neighbour's career at the club was the winning of a League Cup medal in the

1971 Football League Cup Final The 1971 Football League Cup Final took place in February 1971 at Wembley Stadium. It was the eleventh Football League Cup final and the fifth to be played at Wembley. It was contested between Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Foo ...

. He transferred to Norwich City in September 1976 for a £75,000 fee and went on to play 106 matches including two as sub and netting five goals for the Carrow Road club between 1976–1979. West Ham United paid £150,000 for his services in September 1979, where he featured in 97 games in all competitions, scoring six times. Despite not being part of West Ham's victorious 1980 FA Cup Final squad he did contribute four appearances during the cup run. Neighbour was involved in a loan deal which took him to Bournemouth in January 1983, where he played a further six matches. At the end of the 1984–85 season, he played two games for Isthmian League side Cheshunt, but declined to appear for them the following season.

Management and coaching career

After retiring from competitive football, Neighbour joined

Enfield Enfield may refer to: Places Australia * Enfield, New South Wales * Enfield, South Australia ** Electoral district of Enfield, a state electoral district in South Australia, corresponding to the suburb ** Enfield High School (South Australia) ...

as coach under manager Eddie McCluskey, which culminated in the club winning the FA Trophy in 1988. He moved on to West Ham United to become their Youth Development Officer, before acting as

Doncaster Rovers Doncaster Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The team compete in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club play their home games at ...

assistant manager. Neighbour spent a further two years as manager of St Albans City. He later became a coach of the Tottenham Hotspur's Under 17s team at the Spurs Academy.

Death

Jimmy Neighbour died on Saturday 11 April 2009 from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...

whilst at home in

Woodford Green Woodford Green is an area of Woodford in north-east London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge. It adjoins Buckhurst Hill to the north, Woodford Bridge to the east, South Woodford to the south, and Chingford to the west. Epping F ...

, London. He had been recovering at home after a

hip replacement Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the hip joint is replaced by a prosthetic implant, that is, a hip prosthesis. Hip replacement surgery can be performed as a total replacement or a hemi (half) replacement. Such joint replacement o ...

operation.

Honours

Tottenham Hotspur *

: Winner

References

External links

Fact filePen- picture and photo of JimmyWest Ham statsThe East Anglia derby
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neighbour, Jimmy 1950 births 2009 deaths Footballers from Chingford English men's footballers English Football League players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players AFC Bournemouth players Seattle Sounders (1974–1983) players Cheshunt F.C. players St Albans City F.C. managers North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Men's association football wingers English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States English expatriate men's footballers Association football coaches West Ham United F.C. non-playing staff Doncaster Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff English football managers