John Frederick Moncur (born 22 September 1966) is an English football chairman and 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 ...

. As a player, he was a

midfielder 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 ...

notably playing top flight football 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 ...

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

and

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 ...

, with appearances for both the Robins and the Hammers coming in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

. He also played in the

English 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 Engl ...

for

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 ...

Cambridge United Cambridge United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Cambridge, England. They compete in EFL League one , the 3rd tier of the English football league system. The club is based at the Abbey Stadium on Ne ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council. Portsmouth is the most dens ...

, Brentford and

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 ...

. Following retirement, he became chairman of non-league side Grays Athletic, whilst at the club he hired

Julian Dicks Julian Andrew Dicks (born 8 August 1968) is an English football coach and former footballer who is assistant manager of EFL Championship side Watford. Playing from 1985 until 2002, he was a defender, notably in the Premier League for West ...

as manager and

Peter Shreeves Peter Shreeves (born 30 November 1940) is a Welsh former football player, manager and coach. Career Shreeves was born in Neath in South Wales where his mother had been evacuated to during the early stages of World War II, but was brought up i ...

as director of football.

Career

After playing in Tottenham's reserve side and having been loaned to several clubs,

manager

Glenn Hoddle Glenn Hoddle (born 27 October 1957) is an English former football player and manager. He currently works as a television pundit and commentator for ITV Sport and BT Sport. He played as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, Monaco, Chelsea and ...

signed Moncur for £80,000 fee, towards the end of the 1991/92 season.

Swindon Town

He made his debut as a substitute in a 1–0 win over

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

on 4 August 1992, his full debut coming four days later, in a 1–1 draw at

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

. Moncur started the following season in the side, but injury spoiled most of the season; he made only fourteen appearances in the league, three of which were as a substitute. Returning to fitness before the play-off campaign started he rejoined the squad in place of

Micky Hazard Michael Hazard (born 5 February 1960) is an English football coach and former professional footballer. He played as a central midfielder notably in the top flight for Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. He also played in the Football League for ...

. Moncur played in the three play-off games — scoring a goal in the second leg of the semi-final at

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club is a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ado ...

, which helped assure Swindon's place at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

in the 1993 Football League First Division play-off Final. Moncur was almost ever-present in Swindon's

campaign, missing just one game. He scored Swindon's first ever goal in the top flight, a 25-yard free-kick in an opening day 3–1 defeat at

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 ...

. In a notorious incident, Manchester United's

Eric Cantona Eric Daniel Pierre Cantona (; ; born 24 May 1966) is a French actor, director, producer, and former professional footballer. Often regarded as one of the greatest players of his generation, Cantona is credited as having made Manchester United a d ...

became frustrated when Moncur held him back after losing the ball, and stamped on Moncur's chest, an offence for which Cantona received a

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or d ...

. At the end of the season, with Swindon relegated, Moncur signed for West Ham for £1 million in June 1994.

West Ham United

Moncur joined West Ham United in the summer of 1994 to bolster their midfield. Originally regarded as a classy midfield playmaker with a good passing ability, similar in style to ''Hammers teammate Ian Bishop but with a combative style that often saw him in the referees' notebook. Moncur's first goal for West Ham came in a 2–1 away victory over London rivals

Chelsea Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to: Places Australia * Chelsea, Victoria Canada * Chelsea, Nova Scotia * Chelsea, Quebec United Kingdom * Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames ** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...

on 2 October 1994. He ended his first season with three goals in 35 appearances. He was often a substitute for West Ham, particularly in his later career and was used sparing and strategically for the Hammers. Injuries further limited his appearances. Despite this, he became something of a cult figure at Upton Park due to his committed attitude and occasional flash of brilliance as well as reports of his humorous off-field antics. An indication of his popularity came in a fiery London derby against his former club Tottenham Hotspur on 24 April 1999 when he was sent off for two bookable offences, the latter a bad foul, and clenched his fists in defiance to the travelling West Ham supporters. West Ham eventually won the match 2–1. He was dismissed three times during his West Ham career. Another memorable moment occurred when Moncur scored during West Ham's 5–4 victory over

Bradford City Bradford City Association Football Club is an English professional football club in Bradford, West Yorkshire. The team competes in League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system and are currently managed by Mark Hughes. ...

in 2000 at Upton Park when Moncur scored with a rising drive from outside the penalty area, falling over as he did so. He then ran over to the West Ham fans and took his shirt off in celebration. When the celebrations died down, Moncur was unable to put his shirt back on and was seen running up the pitch with his shirt still only partially on and was, therefore, out of position as Bradford hit another goal immediately from the restart. This goal was his last for West Ham. Moncur's last appearance came in a 3–1 defeat against Arsenal on 19 January 2003 away at

Highbury Highbury is a district in North London and part of the London Borough of Islington in Greater London that was owned by Ranulf brother of Ilger and included all the areas north and east of Canonbury and Holloway Roads. The manor house was sit ...

. West Ham were relegated at the end of the season and Moncur retired from football after having played in the Premiership for 10 consecutive seasons.

Personal life

Moncur is a devout Christian having turned to religion during his footballing career in order to help him deal with his

anger Anger, also known as wrath or rage, is an intense emotional state involving a strong uncomfortable and non-cooperative response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat. A person experiencing anger will often experience physical effects, su ...

. He has two sons who are also footballers;

George George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...

currently plays for

Leyton Orient Leyton Orient Football Club is a professional football club based in Leyton, East London, England, who compete in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are the second oldest football club in London to play at a profession ...

, and Freddy plays for Bowers & Pitsea, both as midfielders. In 2009 he became chairman of non-league side Grays Athletic, whilst at the club he hired

as manager and

as director of football. He now works for a specialist recruitment company in the oil and gas industry.

Honours

;Swindon Town * First Division play-offs:

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

;West Ham * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

References

External links

*
The Wonderful World of West Ham United statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moncur, John 1966 births Living people Footballers from Stepney English men's footballers Premier League players Tottenham Hotspur F.C. players Doncaster Rovers F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Portsmouth F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players West Ham United F.C. players Grays Athletic F.C. chairmen English Christians English Football League players Men's association football midfielders