When Christer Warren represented Dorset Schools v Gloucestershire, he caught the eye of Lindsay Parsons, Cheltenham Town’s Youth Development Officer. He was soon at Whaddon Road, being nursed through Cheltenham’s YTS ranks by Parsons. By 1993-94, Christer was a first-team regular for a Cheltenham side that was making a habit of finishing runners-up in the Southern League. Playing in wide midfield, mainly on the left, and getting among the goals, that season and the next, he began to attract the attention of League clubs.

He was due to attend a trial at second-tier Derby, when Alan Ball whisked him off to the Premiership, for a fee of £40,000 that would rise, with add-ons, to £63,000.The fee was a record for Cheltenham, but a modest gamble for Southampton. 

After nine first-team appearances – mostly coming on as sub – and twice being loaned out during his two full seasons at The Dell, Christer dropped down two divisions to Bournemouth, with Southampton recouping £50,000 of Ball’s punt. After 100-odd games at that level, he moved up a tier to QPR, but they were promptly relegated. After spasmodic appearances for them at left-back in 2001-02, he had a couple of games for Bristol Rovers before going non-league, in Hampshire and then Dorset, while working for Snows, an industrial stationery company in Southampton. His venture into management at Wimborne was short-lived and he reverted to playing – in lower-division football, in western France, before returning to Christchurch and then Verwood.