Graham Alexander

Graham Alexander (born 10 October 1971) is a professional football coach and former player who manages Bradford City.

In a lengthy playing career, Alexander represented Scunthorpe United, Luton Town, Preston North End and Burnley.

He also made 40 international appearances for Scotland.

For most of his career, Alexander played as a specialist at right-back, but was also deployed in defensive midfield early on in his career with Scunthorpe.

He is the fourth oldest player to score in Premier League history.

He was also a penalty kick specialist.

Alexander began his career in the late 1980s as a youth player with Scunthorpe United.

He made his first-team debut on 27 April 1991, coming on as a substitute for Mark Hine, and signed his first professional contract the same year.

In 1991–92, he established himself as a member of Scunthorpe's first team, usually playing at right back.

Alexander made over 200 appearances at Scunthorpe before moving to Luton Town for a transfer fee of £100,000.

He went on to make a similar number of appearances with Luton in his four years with the club.

In 1999 two clubs were vying for his signature; Burnley and Preston North End.

Both clubs made offers for the player but Alexander opted for a move to Preston.

He became a first team regular at Deepdale, eventually club captain and an established set-piece taker, particularly in penalties.

Alexander stayed remarkably fit during his career, hardly ever suffering a major injury.

However, during the 2000–01 season, he missed several weeks of the season after breaking his rib in an away match against Wolverhampton Wanderers.

He was also in the PFA's Championship Team of the Season for 2004–05

During his eight years at Preston, Alexander made exactly 400 appearances for the club, with his 400th and final match coming against Colchester United on 25 August 2007.

During the summer of 2007 a number of clubs were linked with him including Crystal Palace who had a £50,000 bid turned down by Preston, who said: "He is club captain and a vital member of this squad and certainly not a player we will allow to leave."

On 29 August 2007, he made a surprise move to local rivals Burnley almost nine years after they had originally tried to sign him.

The reasons cited for his departure were that Preston would not extend his contract by another year, so when offered a two-year contract by Burnley the player accepted and made a £200,000 move to Turf Moor.

Preston chairman Derek Shaw did not want to lose the player and said:

We don't particularly want to sell Graham but he has the comfort of a two-year contract at Burnley whereas he only has one year here at Deepdale.

We quite possibly would have renewed Graham's contract, he's a fit man.

The £200,000 transfer money was made up of £100,000 payable in 2007 and the final £100,000 payable in the summer of 2008.

In Burnley's promotion season in 2008–09 Alexander at the age of 37 played in all 61 league and cup games ending with the 1–0 play-off final victory over Sheffield United at Wembley which took Burnley back to the top flight of English football for the first time in 33 years.

On 29 June 2009, Alexander signed a new one-year contract at Burnley, and on 15 August he became the oldest player to make a Premier League debut.

On 19 September, he scored his first Premier League goal, a penalty, in a 3–1 win at home to Sunderland.

On 31 October 2009, He scored both goals in a 2–0 home win against Hull City.

A week later he then scored the first for Burnley, from the spot, at Manchester City in a thrilling 3–3 draw.

On 10 April 2010, Alexander again scored twice against Hull City – both penalties – in a 4–1 win to take his tally for the season to eight, seven of which were penalties.

On 16 April 2011, in Burnley's win over Swansea City in a Championship match, Alexander became only the second outfield player in English football history to have made 1,000 professional appearances, after Tony Ford.

He is third on the list of footballers in England by number of league appearances.

Alexander was appointed manager of Fleetwood Town in December 2012.

He won the 2013–14 League Two play-offs and promotion to League One, but was sacked by Fleetwood in September 2015.

On 16 December, he scored his 100th league goal.

He scored an equaliser against Arsenal, sending Gunners 'keeper Manuel Almunia the wrong way.

He then managed Scunthorpe United for two years before being appointed manager of newly promoted National League club Salford City on 14 May 2018.

Alexander guided Salford to promotion in his first season, but was sacked in October 2020.

He then had 18 months as manager of Scottish club Motherwell.