Mustapha Carayol
Carayol should have been so much better for us. We snatched him from Torquay in what I seem to recall was controversial circumstances after he fell out with their manager Paul Buckle, He signing went to a tribunal as he was under the age of 24 and, in flashes, he looked class. he only hit three goals though and for all his promise, he couldn’t keep us in the Football League. Not only that, but his contract cost us a small fortune and he activated a release clause upon relegation, moving to Bristol Rovers. Like many of the players on the list, he is still playing, but unlike the others he is doing so at a decent level. He had six years in the Championship with the likes of Middlesbrough, Forest, Leeds and Ipswich before moving abroad. He left Adana Demirspor in October and has been a free agent for little under a month now.
Scott Kerr
Scott Kerr was in his final season with City, a sad end to a decent career in which he played under Keith alexander after moving here from Scarborough. He played for us up until January, before being farmed out on loan to York by Tilson. Of course, we released him and he joined York, whom he then helped to promotion from the Blue Square Premier the following season, you know, the one where we barely scraped survival. He later turned out for Grimsby too, and now works as an insurance agent.
Luke Howell
Howell joined on loan from MK Dons, making eight appearances before the switch became permanent. He left upon relegation, choosing to stay in the Football League with Dagenham rather than drop out with us. He spent several years with the Daggers in League Two, briefly moving to Boreham Wood before returning to Dagenham for the 2016/17 season. appeared against us for both, later playing for Aldershot and most recently, Hemel Hempstead.
Albert Jarrett
Jarrett scored for City just over a decade ago, a late free-kick against Nuneaton sparing our blushes as we limped through the FA Cup first round. It was his only goal for the club after joining that summer, even though he played a majority of both Chris Sutton’s tenure and the first half of Steve Tilson’s spell in charge. He often lacked consistency and composure and rapidly fell out of favour with Tilson in early 2011. He was loaned out to Aldershot, but returned and had his contract was cancelled by mutual consent. He had some time with Dulwich Hamlet and was last heard of in March 2016 when he left Champion Hill
Jamie Clapham
Clapham is one of the few Lincoln-born players to make a success of his career in the Premier League. As a youngster, he somehow found his way to Tottenham instead of our own youth set up. In March 1998, he cost Ipswich £300,000 and after five good years at Portman Road, Birmingham decided to outlay £1.3m for him. It’s fair to say Clapham was a decent player.
By the time he finally returned to his hometown club he had obviously played his best football, and he came in at a time of absolute carnage and disarray. Chris Sutton brought him in and then left, and Steve Tilson took up the reigns. Mix this with a battle against injury you’d expect any 35-year-old pro to have, and you get a potential for a disaster of a stay.
He appeared 25 times for City, and after leaving had a month or two with Kettering in the Blue Square Premier. His last game for them, ironically, came as they won 2-0 at Sincil Bank. He’s since moved into coaching and was assistant to Paul Heckingbottom at both Barnsley and Leeds.