Michael Cheetham is an English retired

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 ...

most notable for his time 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 N ...

in the early 1990s.

Career

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 professio ...

manager

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswi ...

paid to buy him out of the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

to enable him to start his football career at

Portman Road Portman Road is a football stadium in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, which has been the home ground of Ipswich Town F.C. since 1884. The stadium has also hosted many England youth international matches, and one senior England friendly internation ...

where he went on to make 4 appearances. After a loan spell at

in 1989, he signed permanently at The

Abbey Stadium Abbey Stadium is a football stadium in Cambridge, England. It has been the home ground of Cambridge United F.C. since 1932, and currently has a maximum capacity of 8,127 spectators. Cambridge Regional College F.C., Cambridge United's feeder cl ...

for a fee of £50,000 in 1990 and went on to be a permanent fixture in the side that gained successive promotions to the old Division Two under controversial manager John Beck. Winger Cheetham played a total of 132 games for the club, scoring 22 goals before joining Chesterfield on a free transfer in 1994. After just 5 appearances at Saltergate, Cheetham moved back to

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

with

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its earl ...

where he ended his league career by playing a further 37 games, scoring 3 goals. After dropping out of professional football he had spells at Cambridge City, Sudbury Town and AFC Sudbury where he had a spell as coach.

Honours

Club

;

Football League Third Division The Football League Third Division was the third tier of the English football league system in 1920–21 and again from 1958 until 1992. When the FA Premier League was formed, the division become the fourth tier level. In 2004, following th ...

Winner (1): 1990–91 *

Football League Fourth Division The Football League Fourth Division was the fourth-highest division in the English football league system from the 1958–59 season until the creation of the Premier League prior to the 1992–93 season. Whilst the division disappeared in name i ...

Playoff Winner (1): 1989–90

References

External links

*
Profile
AFC Sudbury English footballers Basingstoke Town F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Cambridge United F.C. players Chesterfield F.C. players Colchester United F.C. players Sudbury Town F.C. players Cambridge City F.C. players A.F.C. Sudbury players A.F.C. Sudbury non-playing staff Living people 1967 births English Football League players Association football midfielders {{England-footy-midfielder-1960s-stub