Jonathan
Douglas
Jonathan Douglas (born 22 November 1981 in Monaghan) is an Irish
football player who currently plays for Swindon Town. Douglas made
his debut in the League of Ireland for Monaghan United aged 16. He
is primarily a defensive midfielder but has also played as an
attacking central midfielder, right midfield, left midfield and
right back in his career.
He first joined Blackburn Rovers
after having been a trialist at Celtic and made his debut against
West Ham United in the Worthington Cup on October 31, 2000. A
cruciate ligament injury in 2001 hampered his progress, and he was
out for many months, managing to make it back in early 2002.
In March 2003, he was loaned to Chesterfield for six weeks, in which
time he played seven matches and scored once against Blackpool.
Ironically Blackpool were his next loan destination, joining them
for three months, where he made a significant impact, playing in 16
league games and scoring three goals.
Despite being a tenacious central midfield, whose strengths focussed
on energy and aggression rather than technical skill, Blackpool
manager, Steve McMahon used the on-loan Douglas as an emergency left
midfielder. This unexpected role was to prove a stroke of luck for
Douglas. Not soon afterwards, Graeme Souness, manager of Blackburn
Rovers, found his side struggling near the bottom of the Premier
League and missing a left midfielder due to injuries and inadequate
transfer dealings.
Jonathan Douglas was recalled by Rovers
and promoted straight into the much re-jigged Rovers side, which
adopted very defensive tactics to grind out results. The unheralded
collaboration of Jonathan Douglas, Martin Andresen, Jonathan Stead,
Lorenzo Amoruso and others, eventually proved successful in eking
out results to guarantee Rovers safety in the Premier League.
Douglas first Blackburn goal, a spectacular volley, came during this
time, in a 4–3 victory over Fulham.
Douglas had shown his
potential as a utility squad player for Blackburn and Rovers awarded
him a three-year contract.
However, manager Souness departed
to Newcastle United and under new boss, Mark Hughes, Douglas soon
fell down the pecking order and moved out on loan to Gillingham of
the Championship, along with Rovers' youngster, Jay McEveley.
Douglas was a regular in the side that so narrowly got relegated.
However, he had once again impressed with his tenacious work-rate.
On 19 August 2005, he joined Leeds United on a season-long loan.
He impressed in the early half of the season, making over 40
appearances for the club and scoring five goals in the process as
Leeds reached the Championship playoff final but ended up losing 3-0
in the final against Watford. These performances impressed former
manager Kevin Blackwell enough to make the move permanent, and on
August 31, 2006, Douglas moved to Leeds permanently for an
undisclosed fee, signing a three-year deal with the club. Douglas'
performances impressed new manager Dennis Wise and kept him in the
Leeds starting lineup. Douglas' only goal for the club that season
came in the 2-1 victory against Coventry City.
After Leeds'
captain, Kevin Nicholls requested a transfer to Luton Town, Douglas
was made captain by Wise. He had played numerous matches as Leeds
captain previously due to injuries to Nicholls, Shaun Derry and Gary
Kelly. Douglas was forced to sit out the rest of the season when he
received his 15th yellow card in the defeat at Colchester United.
Leeds' relegation that season saw many Leeds fans believing that
Douglas would leave the club; it was reported that Douglas had a
training ground bust up with Wise. However, despite being stripped
of the club captaincy, Douglas has been playing regularly in the
Leeds first team in the 2007-08 season. Despite rumours of a
transfer to Burnley, Douglas stayed at Elland Road. On the 28th
October 2007 Leeds defeated Millwall 4-2 with Douglas grabbing his
second brace for the Yorkshire club in his two years at the club. A
serious leg injury late on at Walsall ruled Douglas out for much of
the remainder of 2007–08, an injury which coincided with Leeds' dip
in form after their astonishing start to life in League 1, as Leeds
struggled to replace the running power and positional sense of the
injured Irishman.
He returned to the squad on 22 March,
playing the last ten minutes of the match against Walsall, a match
Leeds won 2–0. Leeds reached the playoff final against Doncaster
Rovers but lost the game 1-0. After Leeds' failure to win promotion
to the Championship, Douglas was again linked with a move to
Burnley. He scored the first goal in Leeds' 4–0 romping of Crystal
Palace in the second round of the Carling Cup and again in the 5–2
league defeat of Crewe Alexandra. Douglas' played in a more
unfamiliar position of right back as Leeds reached the playoffs
again, only to be knocked out the competition when they lost 2-1 on
aggregate to Millwall.
On 21 May 2009 it was reported that
Leeds would be offering him a new deal. However the following day it
was reported by official club text that Douglas, along with
goalkeeper David Lucas, had been released from the club. This seemed
to be down to a difference of opinion between club and player of the
valuation of his services.
On 10 July 2009, he signed for
Swindon Town after being released from Leeds United. On 10 October
2009, Douglas was given a straight red card in a match against
Millwall. Swindon felt the decision was unfair and prepared an
appeal against the automatic three match ban for the dismissal. On
14 October the appeal was rejected and an extra one match ban added
taking Douglas' suspension to four matches. This incited chairman
Andrew Fitton to launch a scathing attack on The FA and its justice
system. Douglas missed a home match with Hartlepool United, two away
trips to Norwich City and Tranmere Rovers and the visit of
Conference South side Woking in the FA Cup First Round. Douglas was
part of the Swindon side which reached the League 1 playoffs. They
won their playoff semi final after beating Charlton Athletic on
penalties but were defeated by one goal to nil in the final at
Wembley by Millwall. Jonathan was later awarded both the Club's
Player of the year award and the Club's Player's Player of the year
award for the season 2009/2010.
Douglas has earned international caps for the Republic of Ireland,
the first against Poland on April 28, 2004. Having already featured
in a number of friendlies, Douglas made his competitive debut for
Ireland in the European Championship Qualifier against the Czech
Republic on 11 October 2006, starting in central midfield alongside
Lee Carsley. He also came on as a substitute in Ireland's next
qualifier against San Marino. He was a regular choice in Steve
Staunton's Republic of Ireland squad.
Any contributions to this item will be
gratefully accepted
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