ONE-TIME Manchester United youth Nehemiah Oriola has been earning rave reviews with Brighton’s under 21s in the season just ending.
The diminutive teenager has got well into double figures scoring for Albion’s second string and earlier in the season made his first team debut.
Oriola was a constant threat in the under 21s’ Premier League 2 play-off final win over his old club at the Amex last Saturday (16 May). Tyler Silsby’s 57th minute goal secured the trophy for the Albion.
Oriola was only 13 when he moved from West Ham to the north west and after three years with Man Utd he switched to the Seagulls in 2023.
After selection as a non-playing sub for first team games at home to Newcastle and away to Manchester United, Oriola went on to make his debut as a late sub for Georginio Rutter when Albion beat Leeds United 3-0 at the Amex on 1 November 2025.
His Albion under 21s coach, Shannon Ruth, said at the time: “He’s a player that possesses a real threat, but he’s also a wonderful team player.
“He’s dangerous in wide areas, he’s dangerous one v one, he can create, he can score, but he’s also got some wonderful teammate traits, where he’ll defend for the team when he has to.
“That gives him a really good chance because he’s an all-rounder, high-level offensively but really reliable defensively.”
In the under 21s 4 May Premier League 2 3-0 win over West Ham, reporter Nick Szczepanik declared: “Oriola was unplayable down the left” and purred: “Oriola was looking the player most likely to open up the visitors’ defence”.
Going for the spectacular
The youngster was given his first team breakthrough at a time when Karou Mitoma and Brajan Gruda were struggling with injuries.
Head coach Fabian Hurzeler told Sussex World Oriola was an “unbelievable talent”, explaining: “That’s what we saw so far, that’s why he was in the squad, because he deserved it.
“He’s part of the first-team environment, he’s doing really well in training, he shows some really good things.
“It’s important for him to adapt to the intensity, but he seems to do it quite smoothly.
“He’s a very good left-footed player, he’s very good one-against-one, he shows good reactions when he loses the ball. We’re very pleased.”
Oriola netted a brace (one a penalty) in a 2-1 under 21s win away to Wolves on 16 February and a month later again scored twice when the side hammered Everton 5-0 in Lancing.
He was also on the scoresheet in a 2-2 draw at Newcastle on 27 February and a 2-0 win at Burnley on 16 March. Those goals led to him being shortlisted for the Premier League 2 player of the month award and The Argus interviewed him in early April 2025.
“The first team are all nice people, they bring you into the group,” he said. “I learned a lot from it and then coming back down to the 21s, it’s trying to just implement that and I feel like I’m developing and improving every day.”
The youngster enjoyed the challenge of taking on the likes of Joel Veltman and Ferdi Kadioglu, telling reporter Brian Owen: “It just feels like it’s a good full-back to go up against, professional, so it’s a good test for me.
“I like the challenge whoever I go against in training, which again helps me develop and improve.”
He added: “Going up against them, they are aggressive and they are smart because they played the game at the highest level. That just allows me to develop and say I could do this better now, or now I’m going to do this.”
Hurzeler, who appreciates the youngster’s ability to play on either wing, told Sussex World: “He’s left-footed, but he can also play on the left wing, he’s quite flexible. He’s very good in coming out of tight and narrow space and good in decision-making.
“There are a lot of things he can improve, but I think it’s very important to not focus too much on the weaknesses he has.
“It’s really important to focus on the strength a player has. To give him an understanding of what he needs to do to play for us.”
Hurzeler added: “It’s about him, I said it to him. It’s about how hard he works, it’s about how humble he stays. What does it mean for him to be in the first-team environment?
“Is it like, all right, I’m satisfied now, or is it more like extra motivation to do more, to invest more, to sacrifice more, to make the next step?
“We support and try to give advice, but it’s a decision every player has to make on their own.”
A regular for United’s under 16s
Born on 11 June 2007, Oriola was on West Ham’s books at a tender age but switched to Manchester United in August 2020.
He featured for United’s under 16s and when still only 15 played once for the under 18s as a substitute in a win over Derby County.
He joined Brighton’s academy in September 2023 and his progress was rewarded with a first professional contract in the summer of 2025.
In a January 2026 article for The Athletic, Hurzeler told reporter Andy Naylor how the ball was in the player’s court with regards the next steps.
“It can go this path or that path, the path for a great career, (or) the path where they might end as a great talent, but not (have) a great career. And this decision we can’t do for them. That’s a decision the players have to do on their own.”
Recognising that road ahead, Oriola told Brian Owen: “Mentality is a big thing, a lot of hard work. Not dwelling on the past and just having the momentum to keep going. And just trying to have that personality; if the team needs someone or if the team needs something, trying to step up.”
LEFT-SIDED midfielder Ian Westlake almost pushed a buoyant Albion into the third-tier play-offs when on loan from Leeds United.
He scored twice in 11 games for Dean Wilkins’ Seagulls in the spring of 2008 but Albion missed out, finishing the season in seventh place, seven points adrift of the play-off places. Westlake’s parent club came fifth (having been deducted 15 points for failing to comply with insolvency rules) and lost 1-0 to Doncaster Rovers in the play-off final.
His Albion goals came in away wins at Luton Town (2-1) and Bristol Rovers (2-0) and Wilkins was full of praise for his contribution, telling the Argus: “He has got good energy and quality on the ball and we have got a good character as well.”
Westlake celebrates with Albion fans at Kenilworth Road
After extending his loan beyond the initial month, the manager added: “He has brought balance to the side by being left-footed but he has also brought his enthusiasm and personality as well.”
The player himself said: “I am contracted to Leeds but now I am a Brighton player and everything is about Brighton for me and that is what I am concentrating on.
“The team have done really well in the month I’ve been here, so it’s nice to be a part of the next one.
“It has been really enjoyable. I want to play, so I am a lot happier at the moment and the boys have made me feel really welcome.”
Swindon Town’s Peter Brezovan blocks this Ian Westlake shot
In a matchday programme interview, Westlake declared: “I really like it down here and I grew up on the coast (he was born in Clacton-on-Sea), so it is nice to get back by the sea.
“If I am here winning games and pushing for the play-offs I would love to stay.”
Westlake was among familiar faces at the Withdean because former Ipswich Town teammate Nicky Forster was among the goals up front and close friend Matt Richards was in defence.
“It’s nice to be in a team with some guys I know and some new guys who are friendly and wanting to win games,” he said.
Westlake’s family were prominent in water sports and, as well as being a talented swimmer, he represented England Schools at water polo.
However, football won out and he joined the Ipswich school of excellence in the early 1990s, signing associated schoolboy forms with Town in September 1998. He progressed to join their academy in 2000 and signed a two-year scholarship.
Tractor Boy Westlake
He signed his first professional contract in the summer of 2002, shortly after George Burley’s side dropped from the Premier League to the Championship, and he has since spoken about how that relegation helped launch his career.
“I might never have played professional football had it not been for relegation,” Westlake reflected in a March 2109 interview with the Colchester Daily Gazette. “Administration meant the club were forced to sell players and that opened the door for people like myself, Darren Bent and Darren Ambrose.
“It gave us our chance and, as odd as it sounds, I personally feel I owe my career to relegation.”
Westlake made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat against Gillingham in October 2002 but spent most of the rest of that season in the reserves. In the first half of the 2003-04 season, he was more often than not a sub but he cemented a starting place from January through to the end of that campaign and was voted Player of the Year.
He was twice a Championship play-off semi-finals loser playing for Joe Royle’s Ipswich against West Ham, in 2004 and 2005, when Bobby Zamora was among the goals for the Hammers.
“Overall, though, I’ve got great memories and was lucky to be part of Royle’s side,” Westlake told the Gazette’s Matt Plummer. “We were so attacking and always tried to outscore sides.
“It was a great way to play football and it’s not something I experienced anywhere else in my career.
“At other clubs we were endlessly drilled on defending and being solid but it was more fun at Ipswich. As players, our freedom levels were through the roof and it makes me smile just thinking about it.
“Don’t get me wrong – we trained hard and were super-fit. But it was all about attacking and in Darren Bent and Shefki Kuqi we had two of the top scorers in the Championship.
“Jim Magilton was so creative in midfield and then players like myself and Tommy Miller had legs and could get from box to box. It was a great team to be part of.”
Westlake racked up 100 appearances (+ 25 as a sub) for the Tractor Boys before joining Leeds in August 2006 for a fee of £400,000 + former Albion left-back Dan Harding in part exchange.
Ian Westake played under Gus Poyet at Leeds United
Westlake made 21 starts + eight appearances off the bench playing alongside the likes of Shaun Derry, Kevin Nicholls and Jonathan Douglas but a groin injury sidelined him for a while and Leeds, by then with Dennis Wise in charge, assisted by Gus Poyet, were relegated to the third tier.
Even so, Westlake enjoyed being coached by Poyet, as he told Andy Naylor shortly after the Uruguayan was appointed Albion manager in November 2009. “Everyone liked him at Leeds,” he said. “He is one of those people that you want to play for.
“Gus did nearly all of the coaching at Leeds so I would imagine he will be quite a hands-on manager. It was always enjoyable. They were good sessions, hard work but fun.”
Although Westlake was a regular in the first half of the 2007-08 season, he found himself on the outside looking in when Gary McAllister replaced Wise in the dugout, and the move to the Albion got him back playing first team football.
As it turned out, any hopes that the move might have been made permanent were quashed by the elbowing of Wilkins as manager in favour of the returning Micky Adams, who had other – ultimately unsuccessful – options to try.
Westlake was loaned out again in the 2008-09 season, linking up with Cheltenham Town. When the Robins entertained the Seagulls in January 2009, as sure as eggs is eggs, Westlake opened the scoring for the home side. However, Albion turned round a 2-0 deficit to salvage a point with a Forster goal and an injury-time equaliser by Adam Hinshelwood.
Westlake at Cheltenham in a midfield tussle with Albion’s Tommy Fraser
Westlake made the move to Cheltenham permanent that month but the same financial problems that led to Lloyd Owusu being freed to join Russell Slade’s Albion rescue mission that spring saw Westlake join Oldham Athletic on loan until the end of the season.
He joined Wycombe Wanderers on a two-year contract in July 2009 but injuries curtailed his appearances to just eight starts and two games off the bench, and he eventually needed surgery on an ankle.
In 2011 he moved to Canada to play for Montreal Impact, scoring twice in 13 games for the NASL side. Future Leeds boss Jesse Marsch said on signing him: “Ian’s soccer qualities and competitive nature make him a very good fit for our team moving forward. I know Ian will come into work every day and give everything he has. He is a real competitor and an excellent player on the field.”
Ian Westlake in action for Montreal Impact
They re-signed him as they prepared to switch to Major League Soccer but he was released in February 2012 after a new ‘six foreigners only’ ruling came into force.
Disillusioned with football, Westlake returned to Suffolk and started his own lettings and property development business although 18 months later he pulled his boots back on to play non-league for Needham Market, of the Ryman League North.
In an interview with Mike Bacon of the East Anglian Daily Times in June 2013, he said: “I moved to various clubs after Leeds, but it seemed every time I went somewhere within a few months a new manager came in.
“Invariably, you are regarded as ‘a previous boss’ man’, and the new manager moves you on.
“It doesn’t matter what you do, new managers want their own men in. Quite honestly there is only so much of that you can take.
“When the new MLS ruling about six foreigners came into force and the manager at Montreal released me, that was it for me to be honest.”
But he got back in the groove with Needham Market and made 77 appearances across two seasons, even though he was dogged by knee and hamstring problems at times.
A matchday pundit at Portman Road
He hung up his boots at the end of the 2014-15 season, when the side won the Ryman Division One North title, and he subsequently returned to Portman Road as a matchday pundit for the club’s TV coverage of games alongside lead commentator Glenn Wheeler.
In that 2019 Gazette interview, Westlake said: “I don’t really miss football, to be honest. I’ve managed to fill the void with a million other things, including playing table tennis.
“I have my own lettings company and project manage new builds across Ipswich. I always wanted to get out and do other things.
“I had coaching opportunities but never saw myself in that world. It was weird sitting exams again and felt like going back to school but it was satisfying learning something new.
“I’m putting everything into my work and thankfully it’s going very well, but I’ll always be thankful for my years as a professional footballer. They were great memories.”
CHRIS IWELUMO was a promotion-winner with Brighton and Wolves, helping the Seagulls to third tier play-off final success in 2004 and scoring 14 league goals when the Molineux side won the Championship in 2009.
They were two of five promotions he was part of in a remarkable 18-year, 18-club career.
I was at Saltergate on 16 March 2004 when the 6’3” Scot rifled home a 30-yard shot on his debut to extend Albion’s lead to 2-0 over Chesterfield, adding to Guy Butters’ 49th-minute opener.
Iwelumo scores from distance on his Albion debut away to Chesterfield
He’d arrived on loan from Stoke City to replace Leicester loanee Trevor Benjamin, who manager Mark McGhee had hoped to keep until the end of the season, but the terms of his deal didn’t extend to the play-offs.
After that great start against the Spireites, Iwelumo was also on target in home wins over his future employer Colchester United (2-1) and Hartlepool United (2-0) and he got the opener in a 2-0 win at Wrexham.
When Albion did indeed reach the play-offs, it was Danny Coles’ foul on Iwelumo as he charged into the penalty area at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, that earned the penalty from which Leon Knight scored the only goal of the final.
Released by Stoke at the end of the season, his four goals in 13 games for the Seagulls resulted in the offer of a two-year contract to stay in Sussex, but the deal was never signed.
“I loved it there, I absolutely loved it,” Iwelumo told Spencer Vignes, in a matchday programme interview. “I think everyone knew I loved it there and maybe that was used against me contract-wise.
“I was devastated at the time because the whole club was perfect for me,” he said.
The sticking point was Iwelumo’s request for relocation expenses; house prices in Sussex being a lot higher than in the Potteries. Manager McGhee was holidaying in America and not contactable, and, during the impasse, German side Alemannia Aachen steamed in and offered the Scotsman the chance to play UEFA Cup football, which he snapped up.
That adventure didn’t last long, though, and he was back in England lining up for League One Colchester for the 2005-06 season and he top-scored with 19 goals as they were promoted in second place behind Southend United. At the higher level, he bagged 18 before moving on and spending a season at Charlton Athletic, where he scored 10 in a mid-table finish.
Happy days at Colchester United
He remained in the Championship when, as he was about to turn 30, he moved on to Wolves under Mick McCarthy. On signing him, McCarthy said: “I’m delighted. He adds a physical presence and he’s scored goals. His experience will help. He’s a good character and while it’s nice to have youth and desire it’s important to have that experience.”
Iwelumo certainly repaid that faith quickly, scoring 15 goals in his first 16 games. He scored twice on his full debut in the League Cup against Accrington Stanley and twice more on his first league start against Sheffield Wednesday four days later.
But it was a September 2008 game against Preston in which he scored a hat-trick – an overhead kick, a close-range finish and a penalty – but was also sent off that was his favourite Wolves memory.
Enjoying his time with Wolves
The dismissal came after a clash with Sean St Ledger, who he shared an agent with at the time, and even though St Ledger joined him in the ref’s room after the game to say it was all accidental, Iwelumo was banned for three games.
Within a month, an unbelievable miss after he’d gone on a substitute to make his Scotland international debut in a World Cup qualifier on 11 October 2008, went down in footballing history. The Daily Record reported: “On his debut in a 0-0 draw v Norway at Hampden, he missed from two yards out. Manager George Burley turned away in disbelief.”
A reflective Iwelumo told the Terrace Scottish Football podcast years later: “That miss against Norway was a low which ultimately, I like to think, represented a bump in the road of an otherwise successful journey through professional football lasting over two decades.”
Back at Wolves, he only added four more goals after his early season burst and a medial ligament injury curtailed his involvement as the Black Country side went up to the Premier League as champions.
His Premier League appearances for Wolves only amounted to 15 because his start was delayed after breaking his metatarsal on a pre-season tour of Australia, plus competition arrived in the shape of Kevin Doyle, a club record signing.
He had a loan spell at Bristol City looking for game time after another spell out injured, and in June 2010 he was on the move again.
Iwelumo has been asked several times about how things subsequently panned out and in one interview he admitted: “I always go through life saying not to have regrets – only regret the things you don’t do – but my own regret in football is that I left Wolves.”
He was faced with the dilemma of only occasional involvement at Premier League Wolves or a regular playing slot on a three-year contract at then-Championship Burnley under Brian Laws.
On target for Burnley
“The regret is whether I should have stayed and fought for my place at Wolves,” he told Paul Berry, of the Express and Star in April 2022. “Maybe it would have been different, but at the same time I had a family to support and had been offered three years at a good club on the same money as the year I had remaining at Wolves, in a league where I knew I could still do well.
“I loved my time at Wolves though, and the group of players and staff at that time were unbelievable.”
Born in Coatbridge, Scotland, on 1 August 1978 of a Nigerian father and Scottish mother, Iwelumo joined St Mirren as a youngster, and worked his way through the youth ranks before heading to Denmark and spending two years at Aarhus Fremad.
It was from there that he joined Stoke in 2000. His four-year stay on their books was the longest spell at any of his clubs, although he had three loan spells away, as well as his stint at Brighton he’d previously been to York City and Cheltenham Town.
Proud Preston must have had nightmares facing Iwelumo because after he’d got that Wolves hat-trick against them, he repeated the feat for Burnley in a 4-3 Lancashire derby win in 2010.
A change in management at Turf Moor brought his time there to a premature end; new boss Eddie Howe preferred Martin Paterson and Charlie Austin when they were fit. Next stop for Iwelumo was Watford, managed at the time by subsequent Burnley boss Sean Dyche.
Leaner times at Watford
By then he was 32 and in his first season he played 39 games but managed only three goals, enduring a five-month barren spell in front of goal. The following season he played just eight times for the Hornets and was sent on loan to two League One sides, Notts County and Oldham Athletic, only managing one goal in a total of 14 games at that level.
At Oldham, Iwelumo found himself playing under a manager – and a former Bristol City teammate – who was three years younger. Lee Johnson, at 31, had become the youngest permanent manager in English football in 2013 when he was appointed by the League One Latics.
“Chris actually wanted the job as well when I went to Oldham, so we were having discussions about the job and the club,” Johnson told The Athletic. “One of my first conversations with Chris — remembering he was my friend and helped me get the job — was literally to say: ‘Listen mate, I think your legs have gone, I’m not going to play you’.
“He was saying, ‘This guy has got a bit of b******s to tell me that’. I asked him to effectively be one of my assistants, still come on, still make a difference. He did that fantastically well. That was important. I had to get him onside.”
On his release from Watford, he once again linked up with Brian Laws, who in the 2013-14 season was managing League Two Scunthorpe United. Iwelumo scored twice in 14 games for the Iron in the first half of that season, and looked back on that time in an interview with scunthorpe-united.co.uk, describing how that spell had him making a five-hour round trip from his Midlands home each day.
“There was a lot of things going on at that time, personally as well. I was going through a divorce and that took priority over football to be honest. Understandably, it wasn’t a successful time, or a great time in my career. I was just disappointed that Scunthorpe fans didn’t see the Chris Iwelumo that a lot of other clubs saw. The divorce lasted for about two years and I retired two months after that. “
His last two clubs were Scottish Premiership St Johnstone, where he played eight matches, and English Conference Premier Chester, where he turned out 10 times.
It was some career for a player who’d had an operation at 18 and been told he’d only play football until he was 26 or 27. “I retired when I was 36, but when I signed my contract with Charlton turning 29, I knew I was on borrowed time,” he said. “I had ten operations on my knee in total, and I knew any years beyond that was a blessing.”
Football supporters hadn’t seen or heard the last of him either because he has become a regular pundit on televised football and a familiar voice on talkSPORT.
He earned a Professional Sports Writing and Broadcasting degreeat Staffordshire University, set up a property company with a close friend, worked on a weekly podcast with Wolves and also worked with Stoke City.
“It’s been hard, but it’s been great,” he said. “I’m still a little bit envious of those guys who go into jobs and work 9-5 because they know what they’re doing every day. The property portfolio gives me a lot of free time to do what I want to do, including the media stuff. It’s very different week-to-week.”
THE KIWI who Brighton & Hove Albion nurtured as a teenager went on to find his goalscoring feet in the Premier League although a big money move to Newcastle United didn’t quite pan out as he wanted.
Chris Wood found his chances limited on Tyneside after the Toon took him from Burnley for £25m in January 2022.
More than a decade earlier, while on loan from parent club West Bromwich Albion, Wood proved a handful for League One defences playing alongside Glenn Murray and Ashley Barnes as Brighton topped the division.
Wood uses his height to Albion’s advantage
The young New Zealander played 31 matches (24 starts + seven as a sub) and scored nine goals as the Seagulls, under Gus Poyet, won promotion from the third tier.
The contribution he made then was covered in my August 2021 blog post and over several years since he has gone on to play for various clubs and often managed to score against the Seagulls.
Young Wood netting penalties for Brighton against Rochdale (left) and Tranmere
He netted twice against the Seagulls in December 2012, when on loan at Millwall, and Poyet sang his praises to the media, declaring: “He is the kind of player we would like to bring in. He’s only 21 and I feel he will be a top, top player.
“When he was with us on loan, he was a baby but now he is maturing. He’s a man now. He’s clinical and brave and we have played a part in helping him on his way.”
Wood celebrates another Brighton goal
Born in Auckland on 7 December 1991, Wood played for New Zealand youth team Onehunga Sports then Cambridge (2003-06), Hamilton Wanderers (2007) and Waikato (2007-08) before moving to the UK at 17, starting out at West Bromwich Albion when Tony Mowbray was boss.
The Birmingham Mail discovered it was Wood’s English mother, Julie, who made sure it was football and not rugby that Wood took up.
“Football was always my passion,” he told the newspaper. “People tried to get me to play rugby because of my size but my mum wouldn’t let me. She was worried I would get hurt.
“I was about 13 or 14 when I decided I wanted to make football my career. I thought ‘this is what I want to do for the rest of my life’. “
Roger Wilkinson, who had become a coach at West Brom, coached him for two years in New Zealand and set up a trial for him.
“I came over and they liked what they saw and offered me the scholarship,” said Wood.
Brighton were the second of six clubs he joined on loan while under contract to the Baggies. He’d been at Barnsley in 2010 and after leaving the Seagulls he had spells at Birmingham City, Bristol City, Millwall and Leicester City, who signed him on a permanent basis in 2013.
Apart from a handful of Premier League outings for Leicester, Wood had seven seasons playing Championship football, including a loan spell at Ipswich and two seasons at Leeds.
It was only when he switched to Burnley for a then record fee said to be £15m that he became a Premier League regular, scoring an impressive 53 goals in 165 appearances for the Clarets.
With top scorer Callum Wilson ruled out for eight weeks with a calf injury in January 2022, Newcastle triggered a release clause in 30-year-old Wood’s contract and paid out £25m to take him to the north east.
It was considered a masterstroke by Eddie Howe because the move helped to blunt relegation rival Burnley’s striking options and, sure enough, Newcastle finished 11th and the Clarets were relegated.
Wood made 15 starts for Toon plus two as a sub in that period but the following season only started four games and had to be content with involvement from the bench on 14 occasions with the fit-again Wilson and Alexander Isak ahead of him in the pecking order.
Wood takes instructions from Eddie Howe before going on as a sub for Newcastle
Even so, the player told chroniclelive.co.uk: “I’m at a club with a great squad and a great team. You are always going to have competition at a big club and that’s exactly what we’ve got.
“We have some great strikers here. I’ve just got to keep trying to push and work hard and see if I can break my way into the team. I know I also have to take my chance when it comes my way.”
Interviewed in December 2022 by Lee Ryder, Wood told chroniclelive.co.uk: “I still believe I have a big part to play here. I have not shown my best football here yet but hopefully I can do that given the chance.
“If not, I am here to support the club and push them in the right direction. I am committed here and want to be here. Whatever capacity it is, I want to be here and help the manager.
“If it’s five minutes and seeing a game out, I am here to do it, work hard and press. If it’s starting the game, scoring goals and working hard, I’m here to do that. My future is definitely here.”
But before January was out, with the promise of more game time, he switched to Nottingham Forest, on loan initially and then permanently. In a February 2025 article in FourFourTwo magazine, he said: “It all came around very quickly.
“Forest needed a striker and I wasn’t playing at Newcastle; Alexander Isak is a brilliant player and he was coming into his own, showing his quality. You could see it when he arrived. I spoke to Eddie and he said, ‘At the moment, it seems you’re going to be third choice.’
“I thanked him for being honest and open. I said ‘I’ve received this opportunity – would it be possible?’ He said, ‘If that’s what you want to do, we can work it out.’ I really appreciated his honesty.”
Wood also told Sky Sports: “I could see the project that Newcastle were trying to build. It was an opportunity to elevate my game and potentially take me to the next step if I went in there and scored goals and done well.
“It didn’t work out perfectly, but it worked out well. We stayed up, done extremely well and then we got Champions League the next year. I’m happy to be a part of that and the rebuild of Newcastle, and where they have gone on to is fantastic.”
Rather like he’d done against Brighton, Wood returned to haunt Newcastle on Boxing Day 2023 when he scored a hat-trick for Forest at St James’ Park in a 3-1 win.
Wood was Forest’s main goal threat in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons but that firepower has been missed in 2025-26 with him spending six months of the season out of action with a knee injury that required surgery.
Ashley Barnes and Chris Wood celebrate Brighton’s promotion from League One
LEVI COLWILL had a turbulent beginning to his season-long loan at Brighton but emerged grateful for the experience which developed his undoubted talent as a ball-playing defender.
After only one training session with his Albion teammates, the Chelsea loanee was sent on as a sub in the dying minutes of the 2022-23 season opening day 2-1 win against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
“It was a surreal experience,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting to come on because I had just arrived, I wouldn’t have put me on if I was the manager!”
That manager was Graham Potter of who Colwill said: “Graham has watched me play, so he knows what I am about. I have watched Brighton quite a few times so I know how they like to approach games. I understand the football.
“It suits me and compliments how I play. The gaffer said to me ‘Come in and play your own game and you’ll be fine’. I trust him and that’s a big reason why I came here.”
Colwill picks up his Albion shirt
However, within a few short weeks, there was a new man calling the shots and the young defender initially found it difficult to work with him.
Colwill admitted in one interview: “We didn’t get on at first. He broke me, broke my character. But then he built me up again and he’s like a father figure to me now. He’s amazing.”
In an interview with Andy Naylor of The Athletic, he explained: “It’s been tough because he (De Zerbi) plays a lot different to what I’ve been used to. But he’s a great manager, the way he plays will help everyone in the team look so good. I’m happy to play under him.
“As a centre-half, he expects a lot more from you, taking time on the ball, finding the right pass, being in control of the game. It’s a lot different, for example, to when Graham was here. It’s more pass, pass. But you’ve got to learn. It’s only going to help me when I’m older.”
After making his first Premier League start in a home defeat to Aston Villa, Colwill confessed:
“It’s been tough so far, but I’ve enjoyed every minute. The tough aspect has been learning new playing styles, a new manager coming in, things like that. But it’s going to help me in the future so I can’t complain.
“Once you get your head around how the new manager wants to play, it helps you understand why he does it and how it works. You’ve got to respect it.”
Colwill was also grateful to skipper Lewis Dunk, saying in a matchday programme interview: “Dunky guides me every day and he’s always giving me advice, both on and off the pitch. His presence alone helps me so much, playing alongside him.”
He added: “In games you get to see just how good he is and all the attributes he has. He should have definitely played for England a few more times because he’s a great player.”
After making 17 starts and five sub appearances as Albion finished in their highest-ever sixth spot in the Premier League, Colwill reflected in a BBC Sport interview: “It was an amazing year. I learnt so much as a player, a man.
“It was tough for me every single day but I I’m so happy for everything I went through. Ups and downs, I’ve learnt so much as a person and a player and I’m just grateful for that opportunity.”
He said playing under De Zerbi was different to most other managers he’d played under.
“It was perfect for me because you’re on the ball,” he explained. “As a defender, you start the attack and that’s what I want to be seen as and I really enjoyed it.
“He definitely gives you confidence all the time. He’s always telling you how good a player you are, but when you step on that pitch you’re just like everyone else, no matter how good you are.
“He’s there to make you work, for that hour or two hours you are on the pitch. You’re there to work and learn. He wants the best. He’s a perfectionist and I think that’s why Brighton did so well last season.”
De Zerbi was a great admirer of the England under 21 international, explaining: “Levi is a left-footer and it is an important quality for us because with Levi we can find different line passes, different solutions in the build-up, in the last 40 metres.”
Sadly, Albion’s qualification for European football wasn’t enough to tempt Colwill to stay and he returned to Chelsea and signed a new six-year contract. Before long, he followed up his Euro Under 21 Championship success with young England that summer with a full England cap, making his debut in a friendly against Australia that October.
Two months later, Colwill scored his first Chelsea goal …against Brighton! Although Conor Gallagher saw red that day, the 10-man home side held out to win 3-2 at Stamford Bridge. Albion’s two goals came from players who also went on to wear Chelsea blue: Facundo Buonanotte and Joao Pedro!
Born in Southampton on 26 February 2003, by his own admission in a July 2025 interview with The Athletic, he said: “Football is all I know. I grew up as an underprivileged kid.”
It has prompted him to put money into Southern League Premier South side Sholing FC, who he used to watch as a youngster. “I came to Sholing FC games and enjoyed them,” he told Simon Johnson. “It made me happy and made me want to become a footballer.
Interviewed at a pre-season game between Sholing and a team of Chelsea youngsters, he said: “It’s not just about Sholing FC. I want to help as many underprivileged kids as possible.
“If I can help bring a load of kids to come down to an event like this, to enjoy being here, to fall in love with the game, that can change their lives. They can perhaps do something else rather than being on the streets. That’s the main reason.”
He continued: “I also did something when I was on holiday in Trinidad. I organised a training session out there with some kids who were all from my grandma’s local area.
“My nan flew out with me. A few hundred people turned up. We bought the goals and so on out of my back pocket, just to give them something else to enjoy. Doing this drives me. I want to leave a legacy and have people be proud of me.”
The eight-year-old Colwill was playing for Sunday team City Central FC alongside Jamal Musiala (now at Bayern Munich) when the pair were picked up by Chelsea. “He was definitely one of my best friends,” Colwill told goal.com. “We went up together for our Chelsea trial. We have just done everything together.
“We keep in touch still now and he is a good mate. It is amazing to see what he has achieved so far.”
Colwill worked his way through the different age groups at Chelsea and signed his first professional contract aged 17. He spent the 2021-22 season on loan to Huddersfield Town in the Championship and was unlucky enough to score an own goal – the only goal of the game – as the Terriers lost to Nottingham Forest in the play-off final at Wembley.
Having played 75 Premier League games for Chelsea and helped them qualify for the 2025-26 Champions League, he played in the FIFA Club World Cup in America in the summer of 2025 when Chelsea beat PSG 3-0 in the final.
But the following month, his knee gave way towards the end of Chelsea’s first pre-season training session at Cobham and a scan confirmed he had torn his anterior cruciate ligament, which ruled him out for seven months of the 2025-26 season. At the time of writing, although he had resumed training, no date had been set for him to return to first team action.
Writing about the setback for The Athletic, Liam Twomey said: “Colwill’s unflappable assurance was critical to the team’s success in playing out from the back through intense pressure.
“Put together, it is a rare, coveted skill set for a centre-back, which is why Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion tried hard to prise Colwill away from Stamford Bridge in the weeks before he signed a new long-term contract in the summer of 2023.
“It is also why Chelsea rebuffed all advances and always insisted they considered him untouchable, as he has been ever since.”
GERRY ARMSTRONG was a raw youngster not long over from Ireland when he was part of a Spurs team relegated from the top division.
“We were playing poorly. People kept telling us we were too good to go down but what a load of rubbish that was. You don’t want to believe that sort of nonsense,” Armstrong told Neale Harvey in a tottenhamhotspur.com interview.
“We started thinking they were right but you had to earn the right to stay up and we lost too many games, simple as that.”
It was 49 years ago when Armstrong suffered that fate, and Spurs bounced straight back courtesy of a mightily convenient last day 0-0 draw at second-placed Southampton (Brighton finished on the same number of points but were edged into fourth spot on goal difference).
Eight years later, Armstrong, fresh from playing for Northern Ireland at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, joined Brighton during Alan Mullery’s unhappy second spell in charge, and endured a turbulent season.
He went 17 games before scoring, joined Millwall on loan when Mullery was unceremoniously shown the door in January 1987, and was then recalled by new manager Barry Lloyd for the final eight games of the season. He only managed one goal (in a home 1-1 draw with Plymouth) to add to the three he scored earlier in the season, and he experienced relegation again, this time from second to third tier, as Albion finished bottom of the league.
Like Spurs, Albion bounced straight back up but by then Armstrong’s involvement was as a perennial substitute (in the days of two subs). In 1987-88, with Kevin Bremner and Garry Nelson on fire up front, he started one League Cup game early in the season and was a sub on no fewer than 25 occasions, only getting off the bench 11 times.
Albion’s Armstrong gets stuck in at Chesterfield, one of his former clubs
He scored twice, once on the last day of August, when he scored away at Northampton after going on as a sub for John Crumplin and, six months later, he went on for the injured Kevan Brown and netted the only goal of the game in extra time as Albion beat Hereford United in an away Sherpa Van Trophy tie.
Chances of a starting berth in the 1988-89 season were limited because Bremner, Nelson and Paul Wood were regulars, but Armstrong managed four starts and went on three of the seven times he was a sub.
He was eventually appointed reserve team player-coach but his time with the club ended ignominiously. Playing for the reserves in a Sussex Senior Cup tie at Southwick in January 1989, he was shown a red card and, as he walked off, he took exception to a comment from a supporter, jumped into the crowd and headbutted the person concerned.
Armstrong left the club a fortnight after the altercation but the matter ended up in court and the footballer received a conditional discharge.
It wasn’t the first time the red mist had descended, though, as Armstrong explained in an interview with Lionel Birnie for watfordlegends.com. He originally played Gaelic football for St John’s GAC and the Antrim senior team.
“I only started playing soccer at 17. I’d played Gaelic football and hurling. I got suspended for an altercation in Gaelic,” he said. “It’s an amazing game but fights used to break out all over the pitch. It was fun, I loved it but it was a very confrontational game.
“There was an incident where I broke a guy’s jaw in several places and got suspended. I didn’t mean to break it but I caught him one.”
It was while he was suspended from playing Gaelic football that he was picked up by Bangor and in no time at all he found trouble in football too.
“I made my debut for Bangor, came on as a sub with 20 minutes to go, got sent off with 10 minutes to go for whacking the centre- half,” Armstrong told Birnie. “I went past him and put the ball in the net to make it 2-1 and he said, ‘Next time you do that I’m going to do you.’
“When he said he was going to do me, I decided to do him first and I whacked him. The manager, Bertie Neill, gave me a bollocking. He chewed a couple of strips off me and I learned that soccer wasn’t a fighting game.”
It was another three years before he signed for Spurs and, by his own admission, “a load of clubs came to watch me but no one took me on because I was very inconsistent, still learning about the game, really didn’t get to grips with the offside”.
The Gaelic game helped him build stamina and strength and soccer made him sharper. After Bangor won some trophies, Spurs invited him for a week’s trial and he told Harvey: “I thought I did okay but I heard nothing for weeks.
“Arsenal were trying to sign me but, out of the blue, Terry (Neill) came over (in November 1975) and signed me on a one-year contract, with a one-year option. It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.
“I was overawed. I’d never been to London before, so it was like ‘Paddy’ coming to the big city and being lost. But all the lads were great and there were a lot of Irish boys, like Chris McGrath, Noel Brotherston and, of course, the legendary Pat Jennings.”
Armstrong was a late starter at 21 but he lapped it all up, enjoying training and working on his ball skills in the gym in the afternoons with Peter Shreeves. After six months, he broke into the first team.
Armstrong in Spurs action against Nottingham Forest’s John McGovern
He made his debut on the opening day of the 1976-77 season, in a 3-1 defeat at Ipswich and lost his place after only three matches. He was restored to the first team in February for the final 18 games but Spurs slid all the way to relegation.
Armstrong reckoned with hindsight that it was a five-week pre-season tour that took its toll on the squad. They travelled to Canada, USA, Hawaii, Fiji, New Zealand, Australia and India and, he said: “When I got back, I was absolutely knackered. But we only had 10-12 days to recuperate before pre-season began.”
After Neill left for Arsenal, his replacement, Keith Burkinshaw, often played Armstrong as a central defender having liked what he saw in a pre-season game.
Armstrong told Birnie: “He wanted me to play there because I was quick, strong, good in the air. It was nice in one sense but I didn’t want to play at centre half, I wanted to be up front where the action is.” Even so, he also played at right-back, in midfield and wide on the right.
Brighton fans of a certain vintage remember all too painfully how Spurs managed to gain promotion on the last day of the season.
Armstrong recalled: “We nearly lost it three games from the end when we lost 3-2 at home to Sunderland after I made a mistake playing at centre-half. But then we beat Hull and went to Southampton needing a point.
“It was tense, obviously, but they needed a point as well and it was one of those games where nobody really tried to push on because of the fear factor. We got our point and went off to Cornwall for four days to celebrate!”
For a while, Armstrong and Chris Jones were a forward pairing for Spurs but he admitted that neither of them scored enough goals and the beginning of the end for both of them came when Tottenham bought Steve Archibald for a million and Garth Crooks for £650,000.
Armstrong dropped down a division to join Watford in November 1980 for a £250,000 fee – at the time, a record sale for Spurs, and a record buy for the Hornets. He signed in the same week that Graham Taylor also signed Armstrong’s fellow countryman Pat Rice from Arsenal.
He was part of their promotion-winning squad of 1981-82 and said: “Graham Taylor taught me so much about movement and he took my level of fitness up another notch.
“I was fit and strong but I hadn’t tapped into all my resources. The two years at Watford prior are one of the reasons I had such a good World Cup [in 1982].”
Indeed, it was his winning goal for Northern Ireland against Spain at the 1982 World Cup that he is most remembered for and Armstrong later told The Argus: “If I had to pick one moment in football to relive again it would be that. It would be the highpoint of any player’s career to perform in the World Cup finals. But to score the winning goal against the home nation would be a dream. It was for me.”
In an interview with Andrew French of the Watford Observer, he recalled: “The goal came early in the second half. I was playing as a right-sided midfield player, and I won the ball off the Spanish left-back Gordillo.
“I went on a run for about 60 yards, went past a couple of players – I remember Xavi Alonso’s father, Joaquin, tried to clip my heels – but I then played the ball out wide to Billy Hamilton and kept my run going.
“Billy put in a great cross which the keeper, Luis Arconada, came for and palmed straight out to me. I was about 12 yards out and I just got my head and my knee over the ball and hammered it as hard as I could, and it hit the back of the net.
“It was actually a funny one as the ground went silent because the Spaniards weren’t going to celebrate, and the South American referee had been so poor and given us nothing. I was worried and I remember thinking ‘why isn’t anybody cheering?’
“But then I saw Norman Whiteside and Sammy McIlroy throwing their hands in the air, and then I looked at the ref and he was pointing to the centre. Once I knew he’d given the goal, that’s when the celebrations started.”
Armstrong had already netted in a 1-1 draw with Honduras and in the next round he scored in Ireland’s 4-1 defeat against France (pictured above); those goals were enough to earn him a golden boot (right) for best British Player of the Tournament.
On his return to the UK, he was back in the top flight but was sidelined for several weeks with a broken ankle sustained when he fell awkwardly in a reserves match. Towards the end of the season, Real Mallorca bid £200,000 for him and he spent two seasons playing in the Spanish league.
Armstrong told Birnie: “I didn’t want to leave. It was a case of Mallorca coming in. It was 200 grand so the club would get almost all their money back on me after three years, which was not a bad deal at all.
“When you go to talk to them and see the money they are going to offer and you realise the tax situation is very different there suddenly it is very attractive. You realise you can make in two years at Mallorca what you could make in six or seven years at Watford or any other English club.
“There was a challenge in Spain, playing in a different country, learning a different language and it did appeal to me in ways other than the money. I was 30, 31, so I thought I’d give it a go because I knew the opportunity would probably not come up again.”
The experience served him well because after his playing days were over he was a TV co-commentator on Spanish football.
In that respect, Armstrong’s typically Irish gift of the gab long made him an ideal pundit for broadcasters and a journalist’s dream interviewee: tales from his playing days have filled plenty of columns and air time over a good many years, and in 2021 Curtis Sport published his autobiography, Gerry Armstrong: My Story, My Journey.
Born in the County Tyrone village of Fintona on 23 May 1954, Armstrong was a teenager in Belfast at the height of Northern Ireland’s sectarian and political conflict. “There were bombs going off, paramilitaries burning buses and it was a horrific time,” he said.
“At times it felt as if you were living in a movie set, but it was real life. The book isn’t just about the highs, it also paints a picture of what it was like growing up back then.”
Armstrong won 63 caps for Northern Ireland and scored 12 goals, making his debut in 1977 at the age of 22 alongside George Best and Pat Jennings in a 5-0 friendly defeat to West Germany in Cologne.
His first two international goals were scored in a 3-0 World Cup qualifying win over Belgium at Windsor Park seven months later.
Without a doubt, though, 1982 was when he was at the pinnacle of his career. While he’ll forever be remembered for the winner against Spain, he also fondly remembered scoring against Portugal and Israel in qualifying.
“We had to beat Portugal at Windsor Park and we only got one chance that night. Terry Cochrane crossed and I managed to head it into the roof of the night,” he said.
“That win set us up and it then came down to the last game at home to Israel which we had to win to reach Spain. I managed to score the winner and the noise was unbelievable.
“There were 43,500 people inside Windsor. It was only supposed to hold 40,000, so I don’t know how everyone got in. But that’s one of a lot of very special memories.”
By the time of the 1986 World Cup, Armstrong had been in a bit of limbo. He’d returned to the UK the previous August and signed for West Brom on a free transfer but he struggled with travelling to and from London to train and play, didn’t see eye to eye with manager Ron Saunders, and picked up some injuries.
It was former Spurs teammate John Duncan who rode to his rescue. Duncan was in charge of Division Three Chesterfield and he took Armstrong on loan and then signed him permanently, giving him a dozen games, which were enough to put him in contention to be selected by Northern Ireland for the upcoming World Cup in Mexico.
Billy Bingham’s side didn’t make it past the group stage (drawing 1-1 with Algeria; losing 2-1 to Spain and 3-0 to Brazil) and Armstrong only saw action as a 71st minute sub in the Brazil game. Albion winger Steve Penney started the first two matches and was subbed off in each.
It was while Armstrong was away with the Irish squad that Mullery made contact with an offer for the following season.
Although Brighton was the last professional English club Armstrong played for, he lived in the area for several years afterwards. His second wife, Caron, came from Brighton and although his final games as a player were at Glenavon, back in Ireland, he spent some time as a player-coach at Crawley Town, who were in the Beazer Homes League at the time.
In November 1991, he became manager of Worthing and led them to a promotion before being appointed assistant manager of Northern Ireland by his former teammate Bryan Hamilton. He reprised that role for two years under Lawrie Sanchez between 2004 and 2006.
PINT-SIZED Scouser Eric Potts went from a flying owl to a soaring seagull back in the 1970s.
Ginger-headed Potts caught the eye in more ways than one and, after he’d put in a man-of-the-match performance for Sheffield Wednesday against Brighton, he earned a £14,000 move to the Goldstone Ground.
He joined Alan Mullery’s newly-promoted Seagulls in the summer of 1977 but after three months lost his starting berth to Tony Towner and went on to earn the reputation of a goalscoring supersub during his one season with the Albion.
Potts (12) wheels away after his late goal v Sunderland
In one game at home to Sunderland, he went on for left-back Gary Williams with Albion trailing 1-0 and hit two goals in the last two minutes to turn the match in Brighton’s favour.
Potts moved back to his native north west, initially to Preston, before becoming a Third Division promotion winner with Burnley.
In 1977, though, football magazine Shoot! hailed Potts’ “astute” signing for the Albion in glowing terms, saying: “Potts’ will-of-the-wisp skill has electrified many crowds and will quickly win over Brighton supporters.
“An exciting individualist, his darting runs and ninety-minute wholeheartedness will undoubtedly set the terraces buzzing at his new club just as he did many times in the seven years he was with Wednesday.”
Potts had impressed when Wednesday visited the Goldstone for the last game of the season on 3 May 1977 when a crowd of 30,756 saw Albion edge a cracking match 3-2 to clinch promotion from Division 3. The next month, he was making the journey for a longer stay.
“When I met Alan Mullery and the chairman and vice-chairman of the club in June their attitude to the game was impressive enough for me to want to sign for them…they didn’t have to ‘sell; the potential of the club to me,” Potts told the magazine.
“I have played against Brighton twice and they seem to have the right blend of players. The motivation from Mullery makes their chances of success that much greater and I know I can do a good job for them.”
Somewhat ironically in view of how the season panned out, Potts declared: “I want to go places…not sit on the substitutes’ bench like I did eight times in the Third Division last season. The First is my aim and that’s the reason I’m delighted to be joining Brighton.”
Potts’ popularity at Hillsborough saw him become the first Wednesday player to be named Player of the Year twice (1974-75 and 1975-76) and the move to Brighton took him back to the second tier, a level at which he’d played under two different Owls managers, Derek Dooley and former Albion player Steve Burtenshaw.
The season began well enough for him as he lined up in the no. 7 shirt for the first 21 matches of the season. But home-grown winger Towner came back into contention in November and took over the shirt, meaning Potts had to resort to that familiar place on the bench.
He had only five more starts in the rest of the season, but, in the days of only one sub, went on 15 times between December and April and scored goals in three of them (including that double against the Black Cats).
As the history books have recorded, Albion narrowly missed out on a second successive promotion in 1978 and Potts’ short stay in the south was over. Brighton returned a decent return on their investment by selling the winger to Preston North End for £37,000.
Potts spent two seasons at Deepdale under former England World Cup winner Nobby Stiles but he switched to Lancashire rivals Burnley, then in Division Three, for £20,000.
He was a regular in Brian Miller’s side throughout the 1980-81 season, featuring in 37 games plus one as a sub, and chipping in with five goals, as the Clarets finished in eighth spot.
The team improved markedly the following campaign to earn promotion as champions but Potts had lost his place as a starter to an emerging future England international, Trevor Steven.
Nevertheless, his 21 appearances plus eight as a sub were enough to earn him a championship medal which he was presented with ahead of a pre-season friendly the next season after he’d already moved on again, this time to Bury, where he ended his career.
Born in Liverpool on 16 March 1950, part of Potts’ schooldays were spent at Anfield Comprehensive School, a stone’s throw from the home of Liverpool FC.
But it was at Blackpool FC where he began his football journey, starting out as an amateur.
When he wasn’t offered pro terms, he went into non-league football with New Brighton and Oswestry Town. His form at Oswestry attracted Wednesday who bought him for £5,000.
He made his debut for Wednesday in October 1970 but didn’t establish himself in the first team until towards the end of the 1972-73 season.
By the time he left for Brighton, he had scored 21 goals in 159 appearances for the Owls.
Potts returned to the non-league scene after he left Bury, turning out for Witton Albion and Clitheroe, and, after he’d hung up his boots, earned a living as a taxi driver.
Both his sons followed in his footballing footsteps: eldest Colin was initially with Preston but played all his first team football in non-league.
The youngest, Michael, started as a schoolboy with Manchester United, before moving on to become a member of the Blackburn Rovers team that reached the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup in 2008-09.
Released in 2011, he signed for York City in the summer of that year at the age of 19 and on the opening day of the 2012-13 season, as a substitute, he made his Football League debut for York in a 3-1 home defeat against Wycombe. He subsequently played for various non-league sides.
Potts looks on as Peter Ward challengesPotts wins a tussle with Kenny Sansom at Crystal Palace
IT’S HARDLY surprising that there are numerous tales to tell from Jimmy Case’s illustrious football career, many of which he told in his autobiography, Hard Case.
Following on from my recent blog post about the all-important blockbuster winner he scored at Anfield for Brighton in the fifth round of the 1983 FA Cup, let’s look in more detail at the impact of his arrival in Sussex in the summer of 1981. It was momentous in many respects.
And, if you’ll indulge me in the parallel that gives this blog its very name, Case’s move from Liverpool to Brighton bore a remarkable similarity to Adam Lallana’s 2020 move in the same direction in terms of the Seagulls capturing an influential trophy-winner whose experience took them to a new level.
Case scored 46 goals in 269 appearances across six years at Liverpool and left with four League title winners’ medals, three European Cup winners’ medals plus one each for winning the UEFA Cup, European Super Cup and the League Cup.
This 2021 article highlights the impressive array of medals Case collected in his career
Lallana scored 22 in 178 matches and collected one League title medal, and others for winning the Champions League, European Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup. Unlike Case, Lallana also won 34 England caps.
In the season following Case’s signing, Brighton finished in a highest-ever 13th place in the top division under Mike Bailey in 1982, a feat only bettered by the ninth-place finish under Graham Potter 40 years later and even better sixth spot under Roberto De Zerbi in 2023.
I first wrote about Case’s time with Brighton in a 2017 blog post but his story is well worthy of re-telling, particularly with updates from more recent interviews he’s given.
Back in 1981, as Spencer Vignes said in a matchday programme article, perhaps with a little journalistic licence: “When 27-year-old Jimmy swapped Anfield for the Goldstone, the effect on Sussex was seismic. For here was a Liverpool legend, famous for his ferocious shot and no-nonsense approach to the game.”
Listing those medals he’d won, Vignes continued: “The fact that this man wanted to play for the Albion blew the fans away.”
The truth was that Case didn’t really want to leave Liverpool but some of his off-field antics involving drink had not gone down well with the Anfield management and Sammy Lee was emerging as his replacement.
“There was something of a drinking culture at Liverpool in those days,” Case admitted in an interview with lfchistory.net. “Ray Kennedy and me were usually at the heart of it, along with Terry McDermott, Phil Thompson, Emlyn (Hughes) and Smithy (Tommy Smith) – everyone, really.
“The coaches knew all about the drinking – it went on at all the clubs – and my thinking was that because we trained all week, played a hard game on a Saturday, to go out and have a few drinks afterwards was something we had earned. In my view, we were just letting our hair down a bit, but the club in those days didn’t like that type of thing. I wasn’t looking to leave at all but suppose they must have thought I was a bit of a bad lad.”
Case nets for Liverpool in a European tie
Lee was in the starting line-up for the 1981 European Cup Final win over Real Madrid in Paris and Case had only been involved as a late substitute for Kenny Dalglish.
He could tell he was being edged out when firstly it was suggested he might like to talk to ex-Red John Toshack, who was in charge of Swansea, and then he became aware that Liverpool wanted to sign Albion’s Mark Lawrenson.
“That’s where I got asked to make weight, but I didn’t know it was a makeweight at the time,” he told lfchistory.net. “I didn’t want to go anyway, to be honest, but when you’re asked twice, ‘Do you want to speak to another team?’, it’s another thing. Even though Sammy Lee is a really good friend of mine, I reckon I would have given a good go for the position, put it that way.”
Albion in the meantime had been struggling amongst the elite for two seasons and crowds at the Goldstone had begun to shrink; chairman Mike Bamber was looking for ways to make up the shortfall in income.
Manager Alan Mullery, who’d steered Brighton from the Third Division to the First, had two dilemmas to resolve. He’d made his own arrangement for Lawrenson to move to Man Utd not knowing of Bamber’s plan to sell Lawrenson to Liverpool. Bamber also wanted Mullery to sack his backroom staff as a cost-cutting measure.
It was all too much for Mullery and he quit the club in protest. Ironically, he swapped places with Mike Bailey, who’d just steered Charlton Athletic to promotion from the Third Division to the Second.
So, one of Bailey’s first missions was to welcome Case to the Goldstone and the Scouser admitted to Vignes he “didn’t really want to go to a big club again” and “fancied something different”.
If he felt he had a point prove to Liverpool, he certainly went about it in the right way, scoring in his first appearance against his old club the following October in a 3-3 draw at the Goldstone Ground and then helping the Albion to a 1-0 victory in the Anfield return six months later.
Teammate Gerry Ryan told Vignes: “When he came to Brighton, everyone was amazed. He was an enforcer in the old type of way. He would protect us. If anyone got hit bad then he would seek retribution. But he was also a great footballer.
“Every game Jimmy played, he played to a high standard. He also gave the team an aura. When you saw his name on the team sheet it stood out. It meant something.”
There was a significant ‘changing of the guard’ on his arrival: quite apart from the new manager and loss of the influential Lawrenson, skipper Brian Horton left too along with long-serving Peter O’Sullivan and utility man John Gregory.
But the arrival of tenacious Eire international midfielder Tony Grealish from Luton, experienced Don Shanks, who’d been part of a decent top division QPR squad, and Steve Gatting, who’d played 76 games for Arsenal meant there was no shortage of experience in their place.
Northern Irish international Sammy Nelson moved from Arsenal to take over the left-back spot from Gary Williams and Bailey declared: “The signing of Sammy Nelson has now given me the sort of squad I feel we need to compete with the best in the division.”
Commanding centre half Steve Foster took over as captain from Horton and the emerging Gary Stevens was a young talent who could fill any position in defence. Up front, Mullery signing Michael Robinson was a willing workhorse of a centre-forward who, on Brighton’s relegation in 1983, was sold to Liverpool.
Anyone who had the privilege to watch Case in his prime could testify that thunderbolt strikes from distance were his trademark and one of the best I ever saw was in the 1983 FA Cup semi-final at Highbury when Case smashed it in from 30 yards to give Brighton the lead against Sheffield Wednesday.
Case gets stuck in during a Merseyside derby match
He’d previously scored memorable goals in that trophy-laden career at Liverpool, notably in 1977 scoring one of the great FA Cup final goals, chesting down Joey Jones’s pass on the edge of the box before swivelling to rifle home an equaliser into the top corner against Manchester United, and a left-footed lash in a 1978 European Cup semi-final fightback against Borussia Moenchengladbach at Anfield.
Fascinating, then, to learn that Case had that hard shot from distance at an early age. “Even when I was eight-years-old I was asked to take the goal-kicks because nobody could kick it that far,” he told lfchistory.net.
After the disappointment of relegation from the top flight in 1983, Case remained while others were sold straight away, and some of the new arrivals were grateful for his steadying influence.
Centre-back Eric Young, for example, told the matchday programme: “All the lads were great but Jimmy Case really helped me to settle down. Jimmy is very subtle. He’ll just say a few words to you and it makes all the difference. I appreciated that in those early days.”
With much the same sentiment as Gerry Ryan, Young’s fellow central defender Gary O’Reilly was also a huge Case fan. But Chris Cattlin was obviously under instruction to balance the books and after Foster was sold to Aston Villa, Case was next out the door, along the coast to Southampton. O’Reilly couldn’t believe it.
“We sold Jimmy Case in the March and I nearly took the door off the hinges in Cattlin’s office,” he recalled in a matchday programme article. “I asked him what the hell he was doing selling Jimmy! Were we serious about getting promoted? Were we serious about getting into the play-offs?
“Jimmy went to Southampton and they had success with him in their team in the First Division. It was no surprise. How many European Cup medals does Jimmy have that say ‘winner’? That’s what Jimmy brought to the team here and he was a massive loss when he went.”
Indeed, if it was suspected Case wasn’t the force he once was, because he was 31 when he joined Saints, he ended up hardly missing a game for them, and captained the side, for six seasons.
Cattlin was certainly playing his cards close to his chest as to why Case was sold, and in his matchday programme notes he only obliquely referred to the reason, saying: “Salaries and bonuses of individual players are confidential and obviously I cannot disclose details, but the moves I have made I am certain are right.” And he added: “I can’t explain all the matters that have been considered.”
It wasn’t the last Albion fans would see of Case in their colours, of course, because he returned to the Goldstone Ground aged 39 in December 1993 in the twilight of his playing days, appointed a player-coach under Liam Brady when off-field issues hung gloomily over the club.
On Case’s return to the Albion, he teamed up with other old heads in Colin Pates and Steve Foster
Nevertheless, as a mark of the esteem in which Case was held, a testimonial game for him took place at the Goldstone on 17 October 1994 and it had to be delayed 10 minutes because so many people wanted to get in to pay tribute. The capacity of the grand old ground was much reduced by then but still 15,645 packed in to see Case’s old club Liverpool do him the honour of providing the opposition.
Albion featured Matt Le Tissier in their line-up and even Ryan and Brady made substitute appearances as Liverpool edged it 2-1. An emotional Case said afterwards: “I can’t thank the supporters enough. This was the only game I’ve ever been nervous about. I’ve never really asked for anything from the game, I just wanted everyone to enjoy it.
“It’s all been quite embarrassing really. I like to go to parties, I just don’t like them being my own.”
His last competitive start as an Albion player was in a 2-0 home win over Stockport County on 2 January 1995, and manager Brady said in his programme notes that the player “has an Achilles injury which he will never completely overcome”.
The following season, he twice went on as a sub, and was a non-playing sub on another occasion, but when he went on for Stuart Tuck in a 2-0 Hallowe’en home defeat to Swansea City, that was his last as a player.
Sadly, his last days at the club, having reluctantly taken over the managerial reins from Brady, were tarnished by relegation to the basement division and when Albion’s very existence in the league was under threat, he was replaced by Steve Gritt, who, only by the skin of his teeth, managed to keep Albion up.
PROLIFIC goalscorer Neil Martin was once considered to be one of the finest headers of a ball in football.
A Scottish international who was among an elite group to net 100 goals in both the Scottish and English leagues, Martin scored 46 of them in 99 top flight appearances for Sunderland.
It was 50 seasons ago that he arrived at Brighton towards the end of his career, almost at the same time as Peter Ward(right, above) was starting his. In fact, for a few weeks they shared a club-owned house overlooking the sea (until they each found their own homes) and Martin gave the youngster a lift into training.
Ironically, although Martin scored on his Albion debut and netted nine goals in 18 starts (plus five sub appearances), it was his departure from the club after only eight months that led to Ward’s introduction to first team football.
The previous season, Martin had scored the first goal of Brian Clough’s reign as Nottingham Forest manager, the only goal of the game in a FA Cup third round replay win against Spurs at White Hart Lane in January 1975.
The Scot had been at Forest for four years by then and, as if to prove there’s no sentiment in football, he was given a free transfer at the end of the season. That’s when Clough’s former managerial partner, Peter Taylor, picked him up for Brighton.
After a lacklustre first season in sole charge of the Albion (Clough had quit Brighton for his ill-fated 44 days at Leeds), Taylor brought in some experienced old heads to bolster a tilt at promotion with the signings of 34-year-old Martin, Phil Beal (30) and Joe Kinnear (28) from Spurs.
It was Albion’s 75th anniversary season and the popular blue and white striped shirts were reinstated as the first-choice kit having been dropped the previous season for all white with blue cuffs and collar.
Martin played up front with Fred Binney and the pair were on the scoresheet in the opening day 3-0 home win over Rotherham United (his former Coventry teammate Ernie Machin got the other).
Martin scored twice in his third match, a 3-3 draw at Sheffield Wednesday, but the impatient Taylor soon chose to give Binney a new partner in on-loan Barry Butlin.
Restored to the side after Butlin’s return to parent club Forest, Martin made 11 successive starts and scored six times. But his brace in a 4-2 home win over Hereford United on 6 December 1975 were his last goals for the club.
Taylor seized an opportunity to sign Aston Villa’s out-of-favour Sammy Morgan (who he’d previously tried to sign when he was assistant manager at Derby) and Martin swiftly found himself on the outside looking in.
He only made one more start, replacing the injured Morgan, in a 1-0 win over promotion rivals Millwall at the start of February 1976 and he was then transfer-listed following a disagreement with Taylor when subbed off in a reserve game a week later, and was even banned from the ground by the disciplinarian boss. At the time, he had only just bought a house in Seaford.
The first team squad vacancy meant Ward was moved up the pecking order of strikers and he made his debut in a Goldstone friendly against Ipswich Town (Albion won 3-1, Ian Mellor got two, Andy Rollings the other). The following month, Martin moved to Crystal Palace where he scored just the once in nine appearances.
By then 35, he took a similar journey to lots of other English and Scottish players in their 30s edging towards the end of their careers by going to play in the North American Soccer League (NASL).
He played in the same San Antonio Thunder team as former England captain Bobby Moore, ex-Arsenal and Wolves left-back Bob McNab and former Sunderland teammate Harry Hood, and scored five goals in 19 games for the Texas-based club.
It wasn’t Martin’s first involvement in the NASL though because, in the summer of 1967, he was part of a Sunderland contingent who played as Vancouver Royal Canadians. The 16-man squad also included goalkeeper Derek Forster, who also later played for Brighton.
Born in Tranent, just east of Edinburgh, on 20 October 1940, Martin started out with Tranent Juniors and looked back on his career in a 2020 interview with Ninian Cassidy for Alive & Kicking,published on Facebook.
After leaving school, he began working at the local coal pit but he got his break into professional football with Alloa Athletic.
He described having to make a circuitous near 50-mile bus journey from his home in Tranent to make his debut for Alloa. Hungry after the long journey, he downed pie, beans and chips for lunch before going out and scoring in his first game for the Wasps.
He was still self-training at the local dog track twice a week before meeting up with his teammates to play on a Saturday but after scoring 25 league and cup goals in his first season (1960-61), he earned a move to Queen of the South.
Still remembered fondly as a legend of the club, former teammate Iain McChesney said of Martin: “Neil was a big gem. It didn’t matter what you did to him, he never got involved. He got kicked stupid but still, he picked himself up and got on with the game and scored goals. I remember him saying to me, ‘That’s the best thing you can do, that’s the best reply of the lot, stick the ball in the net and they can’t do anything about it’.”
When Queen of the South were promoted back to the top division as Division 2 runners up in 1961-62, Martin scored 30 league and cup goals. Fan chat group contributor Ronnie Rae said: “Brilliant player. He had a fantastic partnership with Ernie Hannigan playing for Queen of the South, his heading ability was outstanding. We had a great team back in the day.”
In 1963, he got the chance to move for a £7,500 transfer fee to Hibernian, the club he’d supported as a boy, and the following year the legendary Jock Stein, who he later said had the biggest influence on his career, took over as manager. Martin netted 29 league and cup goals for Hibs in the 1964-65 season.
Supporter Andy Szafer remembered Hibs beating Falkirk 6-0 in 1964 when Martin scored four: “I’ve still to come across anyone who could head a ball like Neil,” he said. “No one comes close…maybe Ronaldo, but Neil tops that list for me.”
During that time, he played and scored for a Scottish League representative side against an English League XI in a 2-2 draw at Roker Park. The following year, in October 1965, that became his home ground when he switched from Edinburgh for a £45,000 fee.
By then, he’d collected two of his three full Scottish international caps. He partnered the legendary Denis Law up front in World Cup qualifiers against Poland (1-1) and Finland (2-1) within four days of each other in May 1965.
In the month after his move to Sunderland, he played alongside Tottenham’s Alan Gilzean in a 1-0 win over Italy in front of 100,000 at Hampden Park.
The blog Roker Report noted that he joined Sunderland in the same season as fellow Scot Jim Baxter who grabbed most of the headlines (not always for the right reasons). “Martin was a coup that we never quite realised,” it said. “Martin was a battler and shied away from no one at a time when every team had cloggers, enforcers and hard men.
“He scored all sorts of goals, though was a danger in the air and in the box from corners and free kicks.”
One particular man-of-the-match performance by Martin came when he scored twice in a 3-2 defeat to high-flying Manchester United at Roker Park on 11 December 1965. This was a Man Utd side with George Best – who scored twice – Denis Law and Bobby Charlton in their line-up.
Roker Report recalled: “On five minutes, Neil Martin beat (Nobby) Stiles to the ball and holding off the challenge of another defender he blasted a left-foot shot from the edge of the box that beat (Pat) Dunne all-ends-up. What a cracking goal this was and Roker Park was bouncing in acknowledgement.
“On seventy-five minutes came probably the best goal of the game. George Herd was strong in the tackle and came through two challenges before sending a glorious cross to Neil Martin standing approximately ten yards out. He towered above his marker and powered a header past a stranded Pat Dunne to lift the net and light a touch paper for the last fifteen minutes.”
After Martin’s 26 goals in 1966-67, no other Sunderland player managed 20-plus in a season for 11 years!
A personal highlight for the player at the end of that season was playing in a combined Newcastle-Sunderland XI alongside Jackie Milburn in the Newcastle legend’s testimonial game against an international XI that included Hungarian and Real Madrid ‘master’ Ferenc Puskas and the World Cup winning brothers (Milburn’s first cousins once removed) Jack and Bobby Charlton.
The blog author noted that when he was sold in 1968 for twice the amount Sunderland paid for him, it might have been regarded as good business but it seemed “short-sighted and an opportunity missed. Neil Martin would always make my top 10 Sunderland strikers.”
Fan chat group contributor Ronnie Scott added: “Great player for Sunderland; had tremendous heading ability. Always remember a bullet header he scored against the Mags (Newcastle) at St James’ in a 3-0 win…absolute quality…and yes l think he was underrated!”
That move in February 1968 was to Coventry City and, in his chat with Ninian Cassidy, he admitted he was “tapped up” by the Sky Blues, taking a ‘phone call about his willingness to make a move while he was in a hotel about to play an away game at Sheffield Wednesday.
Noel Cantwell, who had taken over from Jimmy Hill as manager five months earlier, added Martin to a line-up that already included his former Queen of the South teammate Ernie Hannigan on the wing. Indeed, occasionally he was able to field an all-Scottish front five (the others were Gerry Baker, Willie Carr and Ian Gibson).
Martin certainly answered Cantwell’s need for more goals, netting a hat-trick in only his second game, a 3–0 home victory over Sheffield Wednesday. All three came in 36 first half minutes (a third-minute penalty, 32 and 39). He could have had four but missed a second penalty Coventry were awarded.
When City played in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970, Martin scored the winner in a famous 2-1 victory over Bayern Munich at Highfield Road (unfortunately they’d lost the away leg 6-1).
Over his three years with the Sky Blues, he captained the side for a while and scored 45 goals in 122 first team games.
It was something of a surprise when he moved to Nottingham Forest, under Matt Gillies, in the spring of 1971 but he helped the struggling side stay up. Martin was 30 by then and when Forest were relegated at the end of the following season, it marked the end of his days playing top flight football.
In the 1974-75 season, Martin’s two goals in a 3-2 win over Sheffield Wednesday meant he passed the landmark of scoring 100 goals in English league football as well as in Scotland and he finished the season with 12 goals. He left the City Ground having scored 28 goals in 119 matches.
Martin’s final playing days were in the Republic of Ireland, with Dublin-based St Patrick’s Athletic, interestingly being given a lifeline by another former international striker who’d played for Brighton, Barry Bridges.
Recounting old times in a 2020 interview
In total, Martin played 248 club games in Scotland netting 161 times, he scored 135 goals in 401 appearances for English clubs and six times in 30 appearances abroad.
After hanging up his boots, Martin spent time as a youth coach at Walsall when Dave Mackay was the manager and the pair later spent 10 years together in Kuwait and Dubai (they won six league titles with Al-Arabi in Kuwait). He also had a difficult spell as joint manager of Walsall with Alan Buckley in the 1981-82 season.
After leaving football, he ran two pubs in Birmingham before retiring back to Tranent.
In 2012 he was in the news when he nearly lost the sight in his left eye through retinal vein occlusion (RVO) – a blockage in a vein which can cause blindness. A drug treatment – new at the time – saved the sight. Martin had initially thought the blurred vision he was suffering was cataracts.
BEN WHITE must be one of the best and most successful examples of the way present-day Brighton have evolved.
Picked up for nothing as a teenager after being discarded by Southampton, White’s development was carefully managed in house and on loan at different levels before he broke into the first team, became one of an elite few Albion players to play for England, and was then sold to Arsenal for £50million.
Critics will, of course, say if such talent had been retained the club might now have been punching even higher in the football pyramid.
But, as that veteran Albion watcher Andy Naylor reminded us recently, “hopes and dreams are different from expectations”.
Denied the level of financial clout of, say, nine or 10 clubs in the same division, Albion, as Naylor says “will always be fighting to defy the odds.”
The sale of White was great business for the club – and it didn’t harm their progress. As one who loves a parallel, the season after Mark Lawrenson was sold to Liverpool in 1981, Brighton went on to achieve their highest ever finish (13th) in the top division.
Screenshot
Forty years later, the same – in fact, even better – outcome followed White’s transfer to the Gunners; Albion finished in a highest ever place of ninth under Graham Potter.
And, as if to rub it in, White was in the Arsenal side that lost 2-1 at home to the Seagulls on 9 April 2022 (Enock Mwepu and future Gunner Leandro Trossard the Brighton goalscorers). It was Brighton’s first win in eight games and the win helped to dent Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four finish.
Born in Poole, Dorset, on 8 October 1997, White was in and out of hospital during early childhood owing to an immune disorder that left him with regular bouts of appendicitis, according to an April 2024 Daily Mail article by Sami Mokbel.
He eventually had his appendix removed aged seven but it didn’t stand in the way of his love of playing football from a young age.
“My parents (Barry and Carole) aren’t football fans at all, so they didn’t push me into it,” he told arsenal.com. “But they saw how much I loved it, and they did everything they could to help me.
“I don’t know how I got into it really in the first place, probably just through being with mates, playing in the park or the garden. I can’t remember why, I don’t think there was a particular moment that set me off in football, but I remember loving it from the first time I ever kicked a ball.”
He enjoyed other sports too – tennis, hockey and cricket – but it was his football ability that saw him picked up by Southampton’s academy at the age of eight. He played in age group teams through to the age of 16 as a midfielder, but Saints didn’t offer him a scholarship because of concerns over his lack of strength.
Others obviously saw something, though, because he had trials at Leicester and Bristol City before opting to join Brighton.
“It’s not nice hearing that someone doesn’t want you, but you’ve got to believe in yourself and remember it’s only someone’s opinion that may be right, or may be wrong,” he said.
Albion’s then head of academy player recruitment Mark Anderson spotted White during a trial at the David Beckham Soccer Dome in Greenwich. He played a game on trial against Brentford, and was then taken on, playing as a central defender, on youth terms working under academy boss John Morling and under-23s coach Simon Rusk.
Interviewed by The Athletic in November 2020, Morling explained how White’s pathway to Brighton’s first team was carefully planned and nurtured from the moment the club decided to give him a chance.
“He was technically good, passed the ball well,” said Morling. “He was a good, athletic shape. You knew he had a lot more development from a physical perspective.
“He had growing issues at one point. He was out for a long time. When people grow, they can have problems in their heels, knees or back. He had some back issues.”
White featured regularly for Brighton’s under-18s and under-23s under Rusk, and Morling pointed out: “He was a good learner, a nice personality, a way about him. He worked hard, did lots of extras in his under-18 year, under-23 year. He’d be very modest, but he’d be honest in his opinion of how he played if he didn’t play well. That’s how he is.”
Morling added: “His make-up, personality and modesty comes from his parents and his upbringing. That’s how he is and that is a big positive for young players to learn from.
“You’ve not made it until you’ve made it and the really top players always strive for more on the pitch. They always want to be better and, in their eyes, they’ve never made it. Ben shows that.”
At Brighton, he certainly had a shining example to look up to and he admitted how Lewis Dunk took him under his wing. “When I started at Brighton my goal was to play alongside him,” he said. “He was there from a young age as well, he was just a normal guy, English as well, down to earth, same position and we got on well.
“From him it was more a case of watching what he did every day. He was an example for me to follow. He was someone you look up to and see him training every day. I knew I needed to be at that level.”
Lewis Dunk provided a great example for Whiteto follow
White was still only 18 when Chris Hughton gave him his first team debut in the League Cup in August 2016, a 4-0 home win over Colchester United, and he played in the next round, a 4-2 win over Oxford United. He was also an unused sub for league games.
“He is the type of boy you can’t dislike,” Hughton told Mail Sport. “The type of boy you want to see do well. A quiet lad. Very unassuming.”
Hughton said there was never a question mark about his ability, only what would be his best position – centre-back, right-back or defensive midfield. “Because he was a ball player we knew he would be capable of playing in other positions. At the time we didn’t feel he was a domineering centre-back.”
When he looked back on his first team bow, White said in a matchday programme interview: “There weren’t many people who could play because of the injuries at centre-half but I was still surprised (to be chosen) and hopefully I took my chance to impress.
“I learned a lot about concentration; you can’t afford to switch off in the first team because you’ll get punished otherwise.
“I’ve tried to take that back into the under-23s and hopefully I can implement that with them now. Learning off players like Dunky was great, they’re really good people to learn from.”
White had begun to be involved in the first team that pre-season, joining the squad for training in Tenerife and featuring in friendlies against Crawley Town, Fulham and Lazio.
Ahead of him in his position at the time were Dunk, Shane Duffy, Connor Goldson and Uwe Hunemeier, so it was always going to be a gradual transition to the senior group.
“Obviously I’d love to get involved with the first team again, as that gave me a taste of what I want to do on a regular basis,” he said.
But there were three loans – in League Two, League One and the Championship – before he became a first team regular.
Gaining experience with Newport County
First stop was South Wales, and Morling recalled how Albion gave Newport County specific instructions as to how they could improve him: he needed to work on his aerial ability and show more personality in and around training.
Brighton-born managerial veteran Lennie Lawrence was supporting team manager Mike Flynn and Morling observed: “He did really well. They really liked him and they played a big part in his development, no question.”
White played 51 games across four competitions, which included memorable tests in the FA Cup when the League Two side beat Leeds 2-1 at home in round three (it avenged a 5-1 defeat in the League Cup earlier in the season when White’s ability to carry the ball out from defence caught the eye of Leeds’ then sporting director, Victor Orta).
Leeds tried to persuade White to move to Elland Road that January but he decided to stay put and once again impressed when the Welsh side held Spurs to a 1-1 draw (Harry Kane equalised with eight minutes to go) in the fourth round before losing the replay 2-0 at Wembley (Spurs’ temporary home ground at the time).
Flynn later reflected: “I knew he was going to be a bright star just by watching him day-in, day-out. When he goes and puts in the performances he did against the likes of Leeds and Tottenham, then you start realising how good he can be.
“He was outstanding. I described him as a Rolls Royce. He moved as eloquently as a footballer can. He was quicker than he looks, he read the game exceptionally well for somebody of that age, and he was a great lad all-round. His attitude was first class.
“For me, my biggest concern was whether he could handle the physicality of League Two. But he played against the ex-Brighton captain Adam El-Abd [when Newport faced Wycombe Wanderers] and there was a 50:50 in the corner. Ben’s gone straight through him, come out with the ball and hit a 60-yard diag.”
Somewhat presciently, Flynn added: “I think he’ll play at the top level and I think he’ll represent England.”
The player’s agent, Alex Levack told The Athletic: “Going out on loan to Newport, that was the time when he pretty much turned from boy, or young man, to a proper man; players fighting for win bonuses, it was the real world, but he seems to transition easily, doesn’t get ruffled, kind of like he is on the pitch. He takes everything on board, sometimes doesn’t say much, but he understands it. He’s smarter than he might make out.”
White’s impressive season for County earned him the South Wales Argus Player of the Year Award and, on his return to Brighton, he signed a contract extension. With Goldson and Hunemeier having moved on, White had some involvement with Albion’s first team squad in the first half of the 2018-19 season although Leon Balogun was back-up to Dunk and Duffy and the youngster had only one unused sub appearance (away to Burnley).
Morling had worked in Peterborough United’s academy before joining Brighton, and Rusk had played for Posh, so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising that White’s next step was to Cambridgeshire in January 2019, where the ebullient former manager Barry Fry was director of football.
White made 15 appearances in League One for Peterborough, initially under Steve Evans and then Darren Ferguson, as they just missed out on the play-offs by a single point and one place, but Fry said: “He was magnificent, different class.
“He was far better than our standard when he played for us. Very cool, a lovely lad off the pitch, a diamond, very dedicated, great in the community but, most of all, a proper player.”
Those experiences certainly had an impact on White, who said: “Playing for points in the lower leagues and winning games is an amazing feeling, simply because the boys don’t get paid as much, so the three points and a bonus is really important to them. The players really put a shift in as a result.
“It was a good learning experience because I came up against all different kinds of strikers, with different qualities, and I had to battle and fight, which I wouldn’t say is my strongest attribute.
“I enjoyed the experience; it was very different to anything I’d been used to, but I found that as I went up the divisions it suited my game more. Saying that, the further up you go you’re going to get punished if you make a mistake.”
White playing for Leeds up against one-time Albion loanee Izzy Brown
Leeds’ Orta was determined to take White to Elland Road and, with Pontus Jansson having moved on to Brentford, quirky team boss Marcelo Bielsa gave his blessing to the youngster joining on a season-long loan in July 2019.
White played all 46 games as Leeds won the Championship title and he said later of Bielsa: “I learned so much from him; his coaching was all about details, the minor things like how the ball spins when you pass it, how you’re passing it, why you’re passing it. I learnt a great deal from him.”
Leeds teammate Luke Ayling was suitably impressed by the loanee, saying: “Top, top quality. He showed mental strength to come in here as a lad that nobody knew about and step into Pontus’ shoes and hit the ground running. A real, real quality player with a strong mentality. The sky’s the limit for him.”
The Yorkshire Evening Post was similarly impressed, naming him their Player of the Season and reporter Lee Sobot declaring: “White has the world at his feet and the centre-back has shown skills not befitting a typical centre-back during his forays forward and the occasional stint in the holding midfield role.”
Fellow Leeds writer Graham Smyth said: “He handled the division’s physicality, its relentless fixture schedule and the weighty expectation that is sewn into the fabric of a Leeds United shirt. He wore it brilliantly.”
Leeds were determined to land White permanently and put in three significant bids, one believed to be of £25million, all of which Brighton rejected. His agent told The Athletic: “They (Brighton) said he was coming back here to play. A lot of clubs would say that and maybe not follow through with it. But the manager said it, Dan Ashworth (technical director) said it, the chairman (Tony Bloom) said it, and it’s been proven correct.”
With his feet firmly ensconced as part of Albion’s first team set-up, White said: “The way the boys train and how they’re living, everything about them is at the next level. The training has been great. I’m continuing to learn under the gaffer (Potter) here and it’s great to have Dunky as my captain as well.
White blocks a Phil Foden shot
“He’s phenomenal, isn’t he? He’s done it at every level and has continued to progress and be the star man every season. He’s pure quality to train alongside. He rarely has a poor session and you can see the difference in him compared to when I was last here. He’s grown up a lot, taken charge of everyone and looks like a real captain.”
From a fans’ perspective, it was just a pity that the majority of White’s Albion matches were played behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic.
In a March 2021 interview with Sky Sports, Potter said: “He’s got a lot of attributes that I think are really exciting for us. As a modern centre-back, he’s got a lot of things that are really interesting.”
Such was his form across 39 league and cup games that he was named Seagulls’ Player of the Season, and on 2 June 2021, White made his England debut, going on as a 71st minute sub for Jack Grealish in England’s 1-0 pre-European Championship Finals warm-up friendly win against Austria at The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough. He became only the fifth Brighton player to play for England.
Four days later, he added his second cap when he started for England at the same stadium in a 1-0 win over Romania. On two other occasions that month, he was twice an unused sub (v Croatia and the Czech Republic at Wembley).
That recognition inevitably had big clubs circling: Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool enquired about his availability, but it was Arsenal who were prepared to meet Albion’s £50million asking price.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “Ben was a top target for us and it’s great that we’ve completed his signing. Ben has been educated with two very good clubs, Brighton and Leeds, in recent seasons.
“He has benefitted well from two very good coaching set-ups and has shown with both Brighton and on loan with Leeds what a strong talent he is.
“Ben is an intelligent defender who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet and his style fits perfectly with us. And of course, he is still young, so his age and profile fits with what we are building here. We are all looking forward to Ben being central to our future long-term plans.”
A sanguine Potter told Sky Sports: “It’s part of the process for us growing as a club and a team.
“Obviously Ben played a lot of minutes for us last year and was a key player but the finances involved meant it was a really good option for us as a club to improve, to keep growing, and we need to then use the money wisely to develop the team further.
“I’m happy for Ben, of course, happy for the club. I’m proud of everybody in the academy and everybody that has helped his journey outside of Brighton, because he’s had some loan opportunities as well which have developed him. It’s a great story for us.”
White on his England debut
White won two more England caps in March 2022, playing in a 2-1 win over Switzerland at Wembley and featuring in the first half of a 3-0 win over Cote d’Ivoire.
What happened subsequently to his international career has been written and spoken about on multiple occasions, much of it from unattributed sources, while the player himself has always maintained a dignified silence.
Suffice to say here, he was an unused sub for two games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and left the squad early for personal reasons which certain sources say related to a falling-out with Gareth Southgate’s no.2, Steve Holland (although Southgate denied it).
It’s apparent reading various articles about White that he’s one of those players (Bobby Zamora was another) who switch right off from football after they’ve stopped training or playing.
In an Arsenal matchday programme, White said: “My profession just happens to also be a lot of people’s hobby. They look forward to every Saturday to watch the game and that’s great. But for me it’s about being on the pitches every day, trying to constantly be the best you can be. That’s the bit I really love.
“I never used to watch football much anyway. If it was on when I was a kid, after five minutes I’d get bored of it and go outside to play football. I didn’t really watch it, I’d much rather do it. Even now, I don’t watch football really.
“I watch my own clips and my own footage to help me improve but I wouldn’t watch a game for fun.”
White explained: “When I come into the training ground, it’s all about football – 100 per cent focus. Then when I leave, I switch off from it. I know some players are just about football 24/7 but for me, I wouldn’t be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to give everything if I did that.
“I think it’s a good balance for me to switch off and leave it at the training ground.”
Now in his fifth season with the Gunners, he made 134 league and cup appearances in his first three seasons, but a knee injury limited his involvement to 26 matches in 2024-25 and he’s made only a handful of starts in 2025-26 with Riccardo Calafiori or Jurrien Timber often ahead of him in the right-back berth.
Nonetheless, when Arteta was questioned about White at the turn of the year, he said: “I’ve said it many times about how I feel about Ben and not [just] what he’s done in the last few weeks, but what he’s done for us in the last few years.
“He’s shown that in various contexts that he’s a player that’s going to give absolutely everything for the team, that he’s always there, he’s someone you can count on in any circumstances.”
In parallel lines 