[3] Aged 16 he joined The Sun in the mail room, before being offered a role on the sports desk, despite never attaining any formal journalistic qualifications.
He attended Brampton Manor Comprehensive School in East London and joined News International in 1986.
[6] Clayton contributed to the Debrett's 500 list in 2014 and 2015[7] and was on the judging panel for the 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
[9] He has appeared on various television programmes including Sky Sports' Soccer Saturday, Hold the Back Page, Dream Team and BBC's pilot episode of Match of the Day Two.
In radio broadcasting he has presented numerous programmes for talkSPORT, including the Sunday Breakfast show with former Republic of Ireland striker Tony Cascarino and ex-Chelsea captain Andy Townsend.