Carlisle goes Claret

By TheLongside.co.uk
August 16 2007

Preston born defender, Clarke Carlisle has joined the Clarets in a deal worth £200,000 from Watford. He is set to replace the role Wayne Thomas had in midfield and with one player in, one player out, the Clarets have still made a nice profit today of £1 Million.

The twenty-seven year old who started his career at Blackpool has CarlisleWatford_160807_a penned a three year deal and could start on Saturday in a Clarets defence different to that which started the season only last Saturday.

After his time at Blackpool, he became part of the QPR side which gained promotion to the Championship before joining Leeds United in 2004.

He then moved onto Watford where he helped them gain promotion but during last season he struggled to get into their Premiership side and ended up on a loan spell with struggling Luton.

Steve Cotterill told the official website:

"I agreed a fee of £200,000 with Aidy Boothroyd the day of the Grimsby game, spoke to Clarke on Wednesday and now I am delighted to have him on board.
"Clarke will train with his new team mates on Friday and hopefully there will not be too much disruption."
"He is a big, strong lad who is athletic and a good leader. He is also a charming, sensible young man who is 27 years of age, which keeps the age of the squad down.
"He has always been a bit of a pain whenever we have had to play against him and from what I have seen I don't have any doubts that he will be a good acquisition to our squad once he has settled in."

The former England under 21 international will wear the number five shirt for the Clarets.