Stephen Leonard Palmer (born 31 March 1968) is an English former professional footballer who was previously the academy recruitment manager of Watford . He played as a defender from 1989 until 2006, notably in the Premier League for Ipswich Town , before later going on to Watford , Queens Park Rangers and Milton Keynes Dons . Married with 3 daughters. Palmer attended Dorothy Stringer High School , Brighton, [ 2 ] and Christ's College, Cambridge , and is the only professional footballer of the modern era to be educated at Cambridge University, obtaining a degree in software engineering in 1989. [ 3 ] Whilst studying he played for Cambridge University A.F.C. In April 1987 he played a single first-class cricket match for a Cambridge University side also containing future England captain Mike Atherton . [ 4 ] Facing Lancashire , Palmer dismissed former England player Graeme Fowler lbw for 49. [ 4 ] He went on to score 18 with the bat, before being bowled by Paul Allott . [ 4 ] He turned professional with Ipswich Town in 1989 and spent six years at the club before making a £135,000 move to Watford . Palmer established himself as a first team regular during another near six-year spell at Vicarage Road and his departure on a free transfer in July 2001 caused some consternation amongst the club's supporters. [ 5 ] Whilst at the club he broke Villa player, John Gregory 's record by wearing every numbered shirt from 1 to 14 in the 1997–98 season. [ 6 ] Placed in goal for the kick-off of the season's final home match versus AFC Bournemouth , he swapped shirts with goalkeeper Alec Chamberlain early in the game. He completed the set by wearing Jason Lee 's number 9 shirt in the final match away at Fulham – in which Watford won the Division 2 title. Watford secured back-to-back promotion the following season, with Palmer voted Player of the Season . Palmer signed for Queens Park Rangers in July 2001 and made his debut in August of that year in a 1–0 win against Stoke City . He was captain and ever present in what was QPR's first season in the third tier since 1966–67 . In total Palmer made 95 league appearances for QPR, scoring 5 goals. After leaving QPR in 2004 Palmer signed for Milton Keynes Dons , playing for the club for two seasons, scoring once against Blackpool. [ 7 ] Coaching career He retired from football in October 2005 and took up a position as Tottenham Hotspur 's Academy Performance Manager a month later. [ 8 ] In December 2011 Palmer returned to Watford as Academy Recruitment Manager, [ 9 ] leaving again in June 2012 to work with the Premier League setting up a performance tracking system for the Elite Player Performance Plan (EPPP). [ 10 ] ↑ Rollin, Glenda; Rollin, Jack, eds. (1999). Rothmans Football Yearbook 1999–2000 . London: Headline. p. 530. ISBN 978-0-7472-2166-1 . ↑ Davidson, Max (9 June 2009). "State vs independent schools: Brighton, East Sussex" . The Telegraph . ↑ "One of an endangered species?" . Christ's College, Cambridge. Archived from the original on 16 March 2012. 1 2 3 Cambridge University v Lancashire , CricketArchive ↑ Gone but not Forgotten: Steve Palmer ↑ Knowledge – do Woking have the best Wembley record ever? guardian.co.uk ↑ "Milton Keynes Dons 3–1 Blackpool" . BBC . 28 December 2004 . Retrieved 12 April 2010 . ↑ PALMER'S BEEN THERE tottenhamhotspur.com, Accessed 6 November 2006 ↑ THE PROFESSOR REJOINS WATFORD Watford Observer, Accessed 11 December 2011 ↑ Steve Palmer leaving Watford's Academy for Premier League role Watford Observer, Accessed 17 August 2012 Steve Palmer at Soccerbase Palmer at CricketArchive 1972 – 73: Rankin 1973 – 74: Jennings 1974 – 75: Rankin 1975 – 76: Jenkins 1976 – 77: Mercer 1977 – 78: Garner 1978 – 79: Jenkins 1979 – 80: Bolton 1980 – 81: Sims 1981 – 82: L. Taylor 1982 – 83: Rostron 1983 – 84: Rostron 1984 – 85: McClelland 1985 – 86: Coton 1986 – 87: Coton 1987 – 88: McClelland 1988 – 89: Hodges 1989 – 90: Coton 1990 – 91: James 1991 – 92: Gibbs 1992 – 93: Furlong 1993 – 94: Porter 1994 – 95: Miller 1995 – 96: Mooney 1996 – 97: Miller

1997 – 98: Chamberlain 1998 – 99: Palmer 1999 – 2000: Page 2000 – 01: Mooney 2001 – 02: Chamberlain 2002 – 03: Gayle 2003 – 04: Mahon 2004 – 05: Helguson 2005 – 06: King 2006 – 07: Foster 2007 – 08: Smith 2008 – 09: Smith 2009 – 10: Cleverley 2010 – 11: Graham 2011 – 12: Mariappa 2012 – 13: Abdi 2013 – 14: Deeney 2014 – 15: Deeney 2015 – 16: Gomes 2016 – 17: Prödl 2017 – 18: Doucouré 2018 – 19: Capoue 2021–22: Kamara 2022–23: João Pedro 2025–26: Pollock Footballers from Brighton English men's footballers Men's association football defenders Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Cambridge University A.F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Watford F.C. players Milton Keynes Dons F.C. players Premier League players English cricketers Tottenham Hotspur F.C. non-playing staff Watford F.C. non-playing staff 20th-century English sportsmen Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use British English from July 2017 All Wikipedia articles written in British English Use dmy dates from January 2024