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Altrincham entrepreneur Neil Clough wows Lord Sugar and bags semi-final slot on BBC1’s The Apprentice

By Andrew Locke

An Altrincham businessman has impressed Lord Sugar enough to earn a place in The Apprentice semi-final.

Neil Clough, 32, a former semi-professional football player, is currently regional manager of Goals Soccer Centre and most recently, one of the final five candidates in the ninth series of The Apprentice.

He has been a confident candidate throughout the process, but has also proven to be good at delivering speeches as well as making sales.

Neil tweeted to his 7000 followers: “BOOM into the final five, interviews next arrrrgh!!! [sic] Thanks again for all your support.”

Despite losing yesterday’s task of using £150 to set up a market stall and re-invest profits, Neil managed to perform well racking up £470 worth of sales – surpassing the targets that his teammates met.

He survived a gruelling meeting with Lord Sugar in the boardroom, passing through relatively unscathed from the business magnate’s criticism of the team performance.

Neil now faces four of Lord Sugar’s top advisors in challenging interviews in the hope of getting one step closer to the grand prize of a £250,000 investment and a top business partner.

Now safe for another week Neil confidently told other candidates to ‘bring it on’ at the end of last night’s episode.

A special episode of the show titled The Apprentice – The Final Five will be broadcast on BBC1 on Monday July 8 at 9pm which will include highlights of Neil’s time in the competition.

The semi-final of The Apprentice will be aired on Wednesday July 10 on BBC1 at 9pm.

Picture courtesy of Neil Clough via Twitter, with thanks.

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