Tigana ‘disciple’ Paul Nevin the respected analytical coach

PAUL NEVIN didn’t rise to great heights as a player but he became “one of the most respected and most widely experienced coaches in the country”.

He was a Premier League coach at Brighton and West Ham, not to mention being part of Gareth Southgate’s coaching team for England.

They were just three of a broad variety of coaching jobs he has filled in different corners of the world – and, interestingly, Jean Tigana, one of the top French footballers of his generation, influenced Nevin the most (more of which, later).

All a far cry for a lad born in Lewisham, south east London, on 23 June 1969 who had a humble playing career that began at Division Two Shrewsbury Town and later involved short spells at Carlisle United and Yeovil Town.

He was a former teammate of Albion’s head of football David Weir for three years when both played for the University of Evansville’s Purple Aces team in Missouri, America.

Having taken his A-levels while playing for Shrewsbury reserves, Nevin wanted a back-up career in case football didn’t work out and he took a scholarship to gain a bachelor’s degree in communications while playing for the American college team.

After gaining his degree, he returned to the UK and spent the 1991-92 season with Fourth Division Carlisle before moving south to join then Conference side Yeovil. He was there for two years but suffered a bad back injury that forced him to retire from playing when still only 24.

Nevin picked up the story in an interview with the Albion matchday programme. “While I was playing at Yeovil, I also volunteered at a children’s home and as a result I was soon offered a job as a social worker in Wandsworth, south London.”

He later explained: “That gave me the opportunity to develop a lot of skills that transcend into coaching – counselling skills, working with young people, trying to build self-esteem and motivation – which I can take into a sporting arena.”

He kept in touch with football, though, by working part-time for Fulham’s Centre of Excellence.

It was during the period when since-disgraced Mohamed Al Fayed took over Fulham, sacked Micky Adams and appointed Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan.

In the shake-up, Nevin worked his way up the academy system, eventually becoming youth team coach and then reserve team manager working alongside Chris Coleman. Within a year he had become full-time and by 2000 was working under Fulham boss Tigana.

“He had a major influence on my coaching career and my philosophy towards football,” said Nevin.

“The methodology of training, his highly technical approach, working with sports scientist and nutritionists, it was all new in this country and made a big impression on me.”

Together with Christian Damiano, the pair’s methods had been nurtured at the French national academy in Clairefontaine and had a profound effect on Nevin.

“We had a core of good young players coming through the club, the likes of Liam Rosenior, Zat Knight, Sean Davies, Zesh Rehman and Mark Hudson, who all went on the have successful careers in the game.”

In 2006, by which time he already held the Uefa Pro Licence as a coach, he moved with his wife and two children to Auckland to become manager of the New Zealand Knights, who played in the Australian A League.

That lasted a year before he moved to the Middle East and spent five years as football performance manager at the Aspire Academy in Qatar working with young players and coaches.

Chris Hughton brought him back to the UK to become first team coach at Norwich City when they were in the Premier League in the 2013-14 season.

*Nevin was reunited with Chris Hughton at Brighton h*aving worked with him at Norwich.

From Carrow Road, he then worked as head of coaching for the Premier League, a role that saw him run a diploma course to develop coaches with great potential as well as acting as a sounding board for coaches working in Premier League academies.

Nevin was reunited with Hughton at Brighton just ahead of the club’s debut season in the Premier League, replacing Simon Rusk who had stepped up temporarily from being under 21 coach when Nathan Jones left to become manager of Luton Town.

Hughton said: “Paul is an excellent coach and a good appointment for the club. I’m delighted he is on board and looking forward to working with him again.”

Asked whether his lack of high level playing experience was a hindrance to working as a Premier League coach, Nevin replied: “Coaching and playing are very different things. While I might not have played Premier League football, I am a real student of the game and have worked alongside some great coaches and managers. I have developed a healthy understanding of top-level football from a coaching perspective.”

When Lewis Dunk made his England debut in a 3-0 friendly win over USA at Wembley in October, 2018, Nevin was part of the coaching team supporting Gareth Southgate as part of an initiative to place black, Asian and minority ethnic coaches in all England squads. Formally known as the Elite Coach Placement programme, it was a key strand of the FA’s Pursuit of Progress strategy, designed to increase diversity in coaching roles.

However, Nevin and Southgate were already known to each other. At Fulham, he was assistant academy manager to former Crystal Palace boss Alan Smith, who had managed Southgate at Selhurst. Nevin got to know Southgate through Smith.

“I was a little unsure as to what the setup would be like, but to get the opportunity to work with Gareth Southgate, Steve Holland (the assistant manager) and the rest of the senior men’s setup was something I couldn’t turn down,” Nevin told the FA’s in-house media.

“The biggest challenge I found was that, if working inside a club, you get to work with the players and other coaches on ideas each day. You start preparing for a match at the weekend at the beginning of the week, with days to get the clarity of message through.

“But on the international stage, there’s a finite amount of time to get critical information across and to develop strong harmony across the squad. It’s a challenge that makes you acutely aware that every moment during an international camp counts.”

It wasn’t the first time that Nevin had worked for the FA, though. When he was head of coaching at the Premier League, between August 2014 and April 2016, he coached England’s under-16s who at the time included Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho.

Nevin, by then 49, said: “When I got the call, I was absolutely delighted and feel it’s a very privileged position. First and foremost, I’m very thankful to Gareth and The FA for the opportunity.”

*Albion happy to see Nevin develop with England*

He appreciated Brighton giving him the time to do something which was a development opportunity and added: “This is a chance to work with the best players in the country. Obviously, I see them week-to-week in the Premier League but working with them en-masse in a squad setting is going to be immense.

“Having had a brief experience of working at international youth development levels, it’s a chance to see the final product that’s coming through the system while working alongside the top coaches in the country.

“Being a part of that environment at the highest level of international football and looking at how they work and function will have the biggest impact on me. I previously had a spell working in coach development at the Premier League so I’m aware of the need to give opportunities to the quality BAME coaches out there.”

Nevin parted company with the Seagulls when Hughton was relieved of his duties at the end of the 2018-19 season but he wasn’t away from football’s top table for long because in February 2020 he joined West Ham along with former Hammers captain Kevin Nolan to work with David Moyes and his assistant Alan Irvine.

In October 2022, Malik Ouzia in The Standard wrote: “Nevin is one of the most respected and most widely experienced coaches in the country, a key lieutenant under David Moyes, as well as Gareth Southgate at England.”

According to Roshane Thomas, writing for The Athletic in December 2022, Nevin’s role at West Ham was to focus on creation and delivery in attacking set-plays and analysing opponents’ set-plays.

“I’m fluent in analysis tools so I can do my own analysis, I have done that for 20-odd years,” Nevin explained in an interview with premierleague.com.

The Hammers achieved European qualification in each of Nevin’s three seasons with them and he left shortly after they won the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy. Manager Moyes said: “Paul has played an important role for us during his time here and I would like to thank him for all his support and hard work during his time at West Ham United.
“He is highly ambitious as a coach and is keen to test himself in a new environment and we wish him well in doing so.”

Nevin said: “I’ll always look back on my time and the opportunity I had to work at West Ham with great fondness.

“In the three and a half years, we enjoyed a period of great success in West Ham’s history, culminating in the Europa Conference League win last season, which gives the club a fantastic opportunity and platform to go on to even greater levels in the future.”

From West Ham, he moved to French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, where he worked as first-team coach under Patrick Vieira, who was appointed head coach by the club’s new owners, BlueCo, who also own Chelsea. Nevin didn’t stay on when Vieira left after one season to be replaced by former Albion player Liam Rosenior.

*Last minute instructions for Cole Palmer at the 2024 Euros*

Nevin had rejoined the senior England men’s team coaching staff in August 2021 and was part of Southgate’s support team through to the 2024 Euros in Germany. In August 2024, he took charge of England’s Elite League Squad on an interim basis when Ben Futcher stepped up to Under-21s manager following Lee Carsley’s temporary rise to take the full England team.

When asked whether he held ambitions to become a manager in his own right, Nevin told The Standard: “I owe it to myself and the people I’ve worked with.

“If the right opportunity came at the right time, then I need to give it a go because maybe with that nudge at the door, if I’m successful, it can allow me to bring others in and give others opportunities.”

Expanding on his experience in that premierleague.com interview, he said:“I’ve worked with young people outside of football, within social work, trying to study languages as well. When I’ve worked with French players and Spanish players – and I’m not saying I’m fluent by any means – but just a little bit of connection there, those little things help.

“I’ve worked in this game around the globe as well, so it’s not like I’ve just been at domestic level. I was a manager in the Australian League, I’ve worked in Qatar with the junior national teams. It’s just getting that variety and taking opportunities when they come.

“It may not necessarily be the thing you want at that particular moment, but if it opens an opportunity to show what you can do and to learn, then I think it’s always worth grasping that.”

And on a philosophical note about the art of coaching, he said: “A coach, first and foremost, has to have the knowledge and credibility to deliver, but you’re dealing with human beings.

“A lot of people can have the knowledge, but it’s about transmitting that, making the players feel valued and being able to develop relationships which help them reach their fullest potential.

“It’s probably that aspect, really getting into the human being that drives the performance, which is my strongest.”

Nevin returned to club football in January 2025 when he was appointed as one of two assistant managers to Mark Robins at Stoke City. He stood down from his role as interim England under-20s manager, where he was undefeated in six matches, to take the job.

The Withdean visitors’ teenage winger went on to great things

MY FIRST memory of watching James Milner play was at Withdean Stadium when he was on loan to Swindon Town from Leeds United.

Even then, as a seventeen-year-old, he had something about him – but I certainly didn’t imagine I would be watching him playing in the Premier League and Europe for Brighton 20 years later!

*Young Milner tackles Brighton’s Kerry Mayo*

That League One game on 6 September 2003 finished 2-2. Sam Parkin scored twice for Town and Albion’s goals came from Gary Hart and a penalty from on-loan Darius Henderson.

The Albion matchday programme subsequently recorded: “Kerry Mayo had a fine match, mainly subduing the impressive teenager James Milner.” (although, as the picture suggests, he wasn’t afraid to launch himself into a tackle).

Swindon’s manager Andy King had persuaded his old Everton teammate, Peter Reid (in charge of Leeds at the time) to loan Milner to the Robins for a month. In just six matches, the young winger scored twice.

“The boy is a terrific talent and everyone has been able to see the skills he has and I have no doubt he will go on to perform in the Premiership,” King told Sky Sports.

Milner already had two goals to his name for his parent club having scored twice in the Premier League in 2002-03 while still only 16.

On Boxing Day 2002, ten days short of his 17^th birthday, he became the youngest player to score in the elite division, with a goal in a 2–1 win at Sunderland (the record had been set a couple of months earlier by Wayne Rooney for Everton and was subsequently taken by James Vaughan, also for the Toffees).

Milner had gone on as a 36^th-minute sub for Alan Smith, a player he had admired when a boy growing up in Leeds. Terry Venables, Leeds manager at the time, said: “It’s not just a case of him simply coming through and helping out because every day he is getting better and better.”

Milner scored again three days later after going on as a 31^st minute sub for Harry Kewell as Leeds beat Chelsea 2-0 at Elland Road.

“Picking up Mark Viduka’s pass in first-half injury time, Milner beat his man before thumping a right-foot shot low into the net with Blues keeper Ed de Goey powerless to stop him,” said the BBC report of the match.

“I am very pleased with him,” said Venables. “He is growing in this group and he has taken advantage of every day’s training to show what he can do.

“He has two good feet, he is courageous and everyone likes him a lot. He also is not only a nice, solid, good, well-mannered boy, he is a very talented player.

“It’s early days for the boy. At the moment he has not achieved anything and he is the first to admit that.

“But I think a lot of people are confident about his development. We have just got to take it easy.”

Wind on the clock more than two decades and Albion are now enjoying the benefit of Milner’s vast experience gained winning trophies galore for two of the country’s top clubs and playing for his country.

Born in Wortley, Leeds, on 4 January 1986, Milner broke through with Leeds United before joining Newcastle United at 18 and having loan and permanent spells at Aston Villa.

Milner went on to make more than 200 league and cup appearances for Manchester City and more than 300 for Liverpool as well as earning 61 full England caps and a record 46 at under 21 level.

Against Wolves on 22 January 2024, 38-year-old Milner overtook Ryan Giggs to go second outright on the Premier League’s all-time appearance list when he played in his 633rd top-flight match, 20 short of record holder Gareth Barry.

“I’ve had some luck,” Milner told TNT Sports. “I’ve worked hard and you have to enjoy it to put the work in every day. I’ve hopefully got a few more games in me.”

Milner’s free transfer move to Liverpool from Manchester City in the summer of 2015 proved an inspiration that brought him even more medals than he had won with the Sky Blues.

Over eight seasons, he made 332 appearances, scored 26 goals and lifted seven trophies along the way.

“He’s a role model,” said manager Jürgen Klopp. “Nothing we have achieved in the last few years would have happened without James Milner, it’s as easy as that.

“Whether he was on the pitch or not, he’s set standards in a way not a lot of people can set standards, and it educated all of us.”

In a heartfelt tribute to the player, Klopp added: “From the first moment for me, he was a super-important player reference point.

“When you have a meeting and you look at Millie’s eyes and he’s not shaking his head, you know you’re on the right way. Nothing would have happened here without Millie because he kept it always going.

“From the player who was super-angry when he didn’t play, to the player when he did play, the way he pushed the whole dressing room before a game is absolutely second to none.”

For his part, Milner enjoyed a good relationship with Klopp, apart from once during a half-time flashpoint when the manager lost it, as Milner revealed to The High Performance Podcast.

“We had one moment where he was sharing his thoughts and I was sharing mine and I remember him smashing his hands on down the table and shouting, ‘Will you shut the f**k up!’ But Jurgen was brilliant, we had a great relationship and we were great off the pitch.”

It was Klopp’s predecessor, Brendan Rodgers, who persuaded Milner to make the journey along the M62, and he said at the time he signed him: “He had won the Premier League, he had won cups. His whole ambition was to win the Champions League and he felt that he would have a better opportunity to win it at Liverpool.”

Rodgers revealed that when Liverpool were trying to persuade him to sign, his wife Charlotte spent time chatting to Mrs Milner while he spent time with her husband!

“His actual football talent has probably gone under the radar because he’s played around some outstanding talents, but this is a guy who works tirelessly at his game,” said Rodgers.

“He’s in here at 7.45am making sure he’s prepared for his training, getting all of his food supplements and getting everything correct before training – he’s in two-and-a-half hours before he trains and then does his work, gives his maximum.

“He prepares himself like an elite player should. He’s also got big character and a big mentality.”

Rodgers was effusive in his praise of the new signing even before a ball had been kicked in anger after he scored the winner in a 2-1 pre-season victory over Brisbane Roar. Playing in the central role he preferred, he also provided a pass for Adam Lallana’s 27th-minute equaliser.

*Former Liverpool teammates Adam Lallana and James Milner reunited at Brighton*

“James Milner is a class act,” he told reporters. “We had to work very hard to get him in but I think we’ll see over the course of the season how important he is for us.

“He’s a wonderful personality and a top class footballer. When you see him play in his favourite position, you see all these qualities come out.”

*Milner in action for Liverpool against Brighton during a lockdown match*

Rodgers departed Anfield not long after Milner’s arrival but the player grew in stature under Klopp and, although it wasn’t his favourite position, he spent much of 2016-17, filling in at left-back.

That season he made 40 appearances – 36 in the Premier League – as Liverpool qualified for the Champions League. They made it all the way to the final, only to lose to Real Madrid in Kyiv. But they made amends the following season and returned from Madrid with Liverpool’s sixth European Cup.

Milner went on as a second-half substitute in the Estadio Metropolitano in the 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur. “It will be nice going to Melwood seeing No.6 there,” he said. “Liverpool has a great history and when I signed for the club, I was desperate to add trophies as this club expects to win trophies and it has an amazing history – but we want to create our own history.”

Not only did they add the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, Milner made 22 appearances as Liverpool clinched the Premier League title in 2019-20 with 99 points.

In 2021-22, Milner scored the first in Liverpool’s 11-10 penalty shoot-out win in Liverpool’s Carabao Cup defeat of Chelsea at Wembley, having gone on as an 80^th minute sub, and he repeated the feat (as a 74^th-minute sub) when the teams were also goalless at the end of the Emirates FA Cup final three months later. Liverpool won that 6-5 on penalties.

In his final season at Anfield, Milner featured 43 times and moved up to third spot on the Premier League’s all-time appearances list.

“I’m Leeds through and through and always have been and always will be – but I never probably thought that another club would get into me as much as Liverpool has,” said Milner.

The player he followed from Anfield to the Amex, Lallana, told the BBC exactly what Milner brings to a squad, especially in setting an example to younger players.

“He helps the management team in so many ways with the experience he’s built up,” said Lallana. “He knows what it takes to win. He knows what sacrifices need to be made.

“I’m not sure how he got the boring James Milner label, but he couldn’t be further away from that. He’s one of the loudest in the dressing room for sure. Full of life. Full of banter. But he’s definitely old school.”

Lallana added: “Those basics are always there and they’ll never change. I think that’s what’s made him who he is and given him his success. Those values that he’ll always live by. He taught me how to be a better professional and a better role model.”

It all began at Westbrook Lane Primary School in Horsforth and the secondary Horsforth School. He played local amateur football with Rawdon whose coach Graeme Coulson had first noticed Milner as a nine-year-old.

“I first came across him when I was refereeing a junior match involving Westbrook under nines at Horsforth,” Coulson told the Craven Herald and Pioneer. “He was so outstanding then that I asked some of the Horsforth parents who he was.

“I noted his name and it was one not to be forgotten. He was an outstanding talent scoring lots of goals but he was also very strong.”

Horsforth School spokeswoman Fran Morris said: “He was a first class student and he did really well at his GCSEs (he got eleven).

“He was very sporty at school and he won the PE prize which was handed out just before we broke up.

“He was the most wonderful young man and he was very popular, so we wish him all the best in his career. I am very sure he will do well and we are all proud of him at the school.”

Let alone his football ability, the young Milner also played cricket for Yorkshire Schools and excelled as an athlete: he was Leeds Schools’ cross-country champion for three successive years and district 100 metres champion for successive years.

Milner was a season ticket holder at Elland Road along with his parents Peter and Lesley before becoming a ball boy. He joined the Leeds United Academy after being spotted playing for Westbrook in Horsforth.

The sporty youngster was forced to decide between cricket and football, explaining in one interview: “I played for Yorkshire at the ages of 10 and 11 as a wicketkeeper-batsman. It was something I enjoyed but you get to a stage where you have to make a choice.

“I stopped playing cricket at 16 when I moved full time to the Leeds United Academy. They couldn’t take the risk of me getting injured, having my foot broken by a yorker or something like that.

“A couple of months later I made my Leeds debut. I still can’t take the risk for the same reason, but as soon as I retire from football, I’ll look forward to taking up cricket again.”

He completed his formal education at sports college Boston Spa School, which works in partnership with Leeds United, and, as soon as he left school, he was taken on as a trainee.

As he worked his way through United’s youth ranks, he also played for England at under-15 and under-17 levels.

*Milner in action for the Albion against Everton at Goodison Park*

Zamora’s wait for England while dad’s Trinidad came knocking

TEN DAYS after Barry Fry’s prediction about Bobby Zamora playing for England, he made his debut for the country’s under 21 side.

It was 16 April 2002 and the Brighton striker went on as a sub for Leeds’ Alan Smith in a 1-0 friendly defeat v Portugal at Stoke’s Britannia Stadium. Paul Konchesky, a fellow graduate of the East London boys’ team Senrab, was left-back that day.

While plenty of observers expected Zamora eventually to step up to the full England side, he had to wait until he was 30 to make his first (and only) start at that level, and not before being wooed to switch allegiance and play for Trinidad and Tobago.

That happened in 2005, when the Caribbean country’s Dutch coach, Leo Beenhakker, wanted him to play in a World Cup qualifier against Guatemala. Zamora told the News of the World: “Trinidad is my dad’s country and to play in the finals would be a dream but West Ham are more important.

“I am only thinking about the club at the moment and do not want to be distracted from that. The club mean everything to me and if I can help us have a good season that is all that matters.”

After an injury-hit 2007-08 season, though, West Ham sold him to Fulham in the summer of 2008. The following year it was reported Zamora and his old Senrab teammate Jloyd Samuel had both obtained Trinidad & Tobago passports in time to play in a 2010 World Cup qualifier.

Injury prevented Zamora from getting involved but Samuel did play twice for the Soca Warriors even though he had won seven England under 21 caps. (Samuel tragically died in a road accident aged 37 in 2018).

Zamora top-scored with 19 goals in Fulham’s memorable 2009-10 season under Roy Hodgson. The south London side finished 12^th in the Premier League and made it through to the final of the Europa League (the first season of the revamped competition previously known as the UEFA Cup).

Zamora had been a fitness doubt before the game against Athletico Madrid in the People’s Park Stadium in Hamburg and he had to give way to Clint Dempsey 10 minutes into the second half.

The game went into extra time with the score 1-1 after 90 minutes and agonisingly Fulham succumbed to an extra time winner scored by Diego Forlan. Sergio Aguero, later of Man City fame, beat defender Aaron Hughes and crossed for Forlan to flick the ball home four minutes from the end.

Nevertheless, Zamora’s goalscoring form had caught the attention of England manager Fabio Capello and his deputy Franco Baldini who were keen to call him up for the 2010 World Cup.

Sadly, those hopes were dashed by an achilles injury, and Zamora conceded: “I told Fabio that I was struggling and I knew that, had I gone, I wouldn’t have done myself or England justice.”

The player told The Independent: “It’s been an up and down season because it’s been so good on the pitch and I’ve scored some important goals. To now pick up this injury has kicked me in the teeth.

“It’s come during the last couple of weeks and when there was the possibility of going to the World Cup with England. That’s football, it’s a cruel game.”

He added: “The World Cup’s a massive tournament. It’s not about myself, it’s about England.

“Capello wished me all the best, hoped that I get fit and would be available next season.”

True to his word, Zamora was one of five uncapped players included in Capello’s squad immediately after the disappointment in South Africa.

One of the first people to contact him was former West Ham teammate, Teddy Sheringham, who he said he learnt so much from. “I got a long text message from Teddy. He said I might be nervous beforehand but that I deserved this opportunity, and he said once I’d taken part in my first training session, I would realise that I deserved to be there. He was spot on; after that I did not look out of place and I embraced being part of the squad.”

The call up came in something of a crazy week for Zamora because only days earlier his wife gave birth to twin girls, Gisele and Siena.

“The twins were born last Monday, they came out (of hospital) on Friday, then I had a match on Saturday, was back home for one day and then I was away with England, so I have not seen them as much as I wanted to, but I am sure I will find some time when I get back home,” he said.

“The twins are a massive part of my life now, and with getting the call-up to play for your country is a massive honour. I am lost for words. I am extremely proud to be called up to play for my country.”

Capello sent him on as a second half substitute for Frank Lampard to play up front alongside Wayne Rooney in England’s 2-1 friendly win over Hungary at Wembley on 11 August 2010.

Having made that breakthrough, the day after he signed a new four-year contract with Fulham he agonisingly suffered another setback when he broke a leg (above) and sustained ankle ligament damage during a 2-1 win over Wolves. He was sidelined for five months.

Capello didn’t consign him to history, though, and called him up again in May 2011 (his teammate David Stockdale was in the same squad) to face Switzerland in a Euro 2012 qualifier. But neither were involved in the disappointing 2-2 Wembley draw.

His first start for England finally came six months later in a 1-0 home win over Sweden, the first time in 43 years that England had beaten the Scandinavian country. Zamora’s close friend (and another former Senrab graduate) John Terry was England captain and joining the striker in making first starts were right-back Kyle Walker and Everton’s Jack Rodwell.

Richard Williams in The Guardian clearly felt sorry for the debutant centre forward, though, writing: “Poor Bobby Zamora. Offered the opportunity to score England’s 2,000th goal on Tuesday night, a perennially unfortunate footballer was forced instead to stand and watch as Stewart Downing’s cross glanced off the side of Gareth Barry’s head and then off Daniel Majstorovic’s forehead before evading Andreas Isaksson’s dive as it looped inside the post for the most anticlimactic of own goals.”

Reporting on the narrow victory over the Swedes, Williams added: “Whichever side the ball went, Zamora made sure he was available. A double exchange of passes with Walcott in the 17th minute put Zamora in on goal, but after Isaksson blocked his first effort the follow-up was poked past the post from five yards.

“Any centre forward will ultimately be judged by the goals he scores rather than his total of assists, and Zamora spurned a wonderful chance in the 65th minute when Downing scampered down the left once more before pulling the ball back at precisely the right pace and angle for the striker to meet it with a first‑time connection. Jonas Olsson, however, flew in to deflect the shot for a corner.”

Zamora was subbed off in the 70^th minute to be replaced by Darren Bent and the Guardian sports writer concluded: “England – and Zamora in particular – really should have inflicted greater punishment on such humdrum opposition.”

Bent had also replaced Zamora in his first start for England under 21s. That came in February 2003 in a 1-0 defeat to Italy in Carrara.

A month before his move to Spurs, he also started England’s 3-2 friendly win over Serbia and Montenegro at Hull’s Kingston Communications Stadium, on that occasion being replaced by Darren Ambrose. (His future Fulham and Albion teammate Steve Sidwell was in midfield that day).

Eight days later, in a UEFA under 21 championship preliminary match, he went on as a sub for Shola Ameobi as England beat Slovakia at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland.

*Zamora showed England quality at an early age*

After that under 21s debut against Portugal, he was selected in the squad for the UEFA under 21 championship finals in Switzerland. On 20 May 2002, David Platt sent him on as a sub for Gareth Barry in a 2-1 defeat to Italy in Basle.

Two days later, in the third group match, again a sub, he replaced Jermain Defoe as England lost 3-1 to Portugal and were eliminated from the competition.

On two other occasions Zamora was an unused sub but he didn’t add to his six caps. And, after

Capello quit the England job in February 2012, Zamora didn’t play for the full England side again.

• Ahead of Albion’s new year clash with West Ham, find out why Zamora’s move to the Boleyn Ground was so ideal in the next instalment.

Early promise faded for teenage Geordie debutant McGarrigle

A GRADUATE of the famous Tyneside boys club that spawned the likes of Alan Shearer and Peter Beardsley escaped the clutches of Newcastle United to play for Brighton instead.

After progressing through the ranks at Wallsend Boys Club, Newcastle-born Kevin McGarrigle and two teammates – Ian Thompson and Nicky Henderson – were snapped up by Brighton’s scouting network in the north-east.

Thompson wasn’t taken on and, although Henderson was, he returned home to play for Gateshead in the GM Conference. But McGarrigle stayed on and won a place in Albion’s first team at the tender age of 17, doing enough to earn a three-year contract.

Against a backdrop of turmoil off the pitch, with the club run by a hated regime, McGarrigle played 34 games plus 11 as a substitute under three different managers, mostly as a centre back.

He made his debut in the final game of the 1993-94 season (replacing the injured Steve Foster) when Liam Brady was in charge and cemented a regular place in the starting line-up for the final third of the 1994-95 season.

McGarrigle was drafted in to play alongside Foster, with Paul McCarthy on the other side, as Brady sought to bring a run of three defeats to an end.

“Although it can look like five at the back at times, it does give the chance for the flank players (Peter) Smith and (Ian) Chapman to get much more forward,” the manager explained in his programme notes.

“It has suited Foster at the centre at the back organising McCarthy and McGarrigle in front of him. All in all I think it has worked very well and it is something that I am very pleased about because the players have managed to cope.”

McGarrigle played 16 games on the trot in which Albion posted six wins, seven draws and only three defeats to finish in mid table.

Brady also gave the young defender a special mention in his programme notes at the beginning of the 1995-96 season, pointing out: “I have been telling you that we have some very good talent among the younger element at the club.

“Kevin McGarrigle is doing very well. He has had to come into the middle of the park and do a job. He is there because of the injuries we have had, and he has done well.”

Although he played in the opening two games of the following season, his involvement in the side which was eventually relegated from the third tier under Jimmy Case was more often than not only from the bench.

One of those appearances, when he replaced an injured Smith in a midweek away game at Wycombe Wanderers (on 6 March), saw him score his one and only goal for the Seagulls to bring an eight-game winless run to an end.

Relegation-haunted Albion inflicted a fifth defeat in six games on Alan Smith’s Chairboys. Midfielder Jeff Minton put the Albion ahead on 55 minutes.

McGarrigle scored with what Claire Nash of the Bucks Free Press described as an “excellent” goal. “McGarrigle perfectly timed a run from midfield to meet a left-wing cross from Craig Maskell on 80 minutes,” she wrote.

Case’s preference had been to go with just two centre backs, initially with Foster alongside McCarthy, then, when age caught up with Foster, trying another former England international, Russell Osman, before introducing Ross Johnson alongside the young Irish defender.

Although McGarrigle was assistant Junior Seagull president in the 1996-97 season (Peter Smith was president), his playing time was even more reduced under Case’s successor, Steve Gritt, and he made only a handful of starts.

Gritt went for more experienced heads, like Mark Morris and Gary Hobson.

Nevertheless, the matchday programme showed he wasn’t forgotten, when, for the Wigan Athletic home game on 12 April 1997, it devoted a page photo feature of him in action.

But the following month he wasn’t given a new contract by Gritt, and he made his way back to the north-east. Initially he linked up with Spennymoor United. Before the year was out, though, he switched to Blyth Spartans and was soon involved in a much publicised and televised FA Cup first round match away to Blackpool.

The tie was a magnet for the media because it pitched the 1953 FA Cup winners against a non-league side renowned for past cup exploits and, on this occasion, Blyth’s player-manager was veteran goalkeeper John Burridge, for whom Blackpool was one of his early former clubs.

The occasion, which saw the Tangerines edge it 4-3, was described in detail in this Blyth Spirit blog, which bemoaned a foul on McGarrigle not given which led to a Blackpool goal.

The following season McGarrigle switched to Tow Law Town, turning out for them for three years before moving on again, to Crook Town. His last club was Albany Northern League side Chester-le-Street Town.

Born on 9 April 1977 to Carol, who worked at a local dairy, and Ken, a self-employed gardener, McGarrigle spent his first and middle school years at Wallsend’s Stephenson Memorial School and then moved on to Longbenton High School.

He confessed in a matchday programme article that he wasn’t particularly interested in football up to the age of 12. That all changed when his school pal, John McDonald, took him along to Wallsend Boys Club when he was 13.

The club manager, Kevin Bell, quickly recognised his talent and put him in the XI who competed in the National Association of Boys’ Clubs League on Tyneside.

Steve Bruce, later Toon manager, of course, was said to be McGarrigle’s idol and he too had gone through the Wallsend production line.

The programme reported that McGarrigle was invited for trials at several clubs: he went to Everton, Ipswich Town and Bradford City, while Blackpool, Wimbledon and Charlton Athletic all offered him a YTS place.

But Albion’s north-east scout Steve Burnip won the day and Ted Streeter who ran the youth team at the time persuaded him to sign for Brighton.

One of Guardiola’s first City signings never played for the club

AARON MOOY spent a year as a Manchester City player without playing a game for the club and left Brighton only seven months into a three-and-a-half-year contract.

Such is the at-times puzzling nature of moves in the modern game where multiple club ownership is a factor and players have release clauses inserted into contracts before they’ve set foot onto the field for their new club.

Having starred for City’s sister club Melbourne City in his native Australia, Mooy switched to the rather better-known City Football Group operation – Manchester City FC – in June 2016, signing a three-year deal with the English Premier League side.

His arrival coincided with Pep Guardiola taking over the reins at the Etihad and was one of the first moves between the various clubs bought by the Abu Dhabi-owned City Football Group.

Brian Marwood, managing director of City Football Services, said at the time: “Aaron is an extremely talented player who possesses the attributes we hope to foster and encourage within the City Football Group.

“With the unique model CFG provides, Aaron’s move to Manchester allows us to further expose him to a high standard of opportunities to ensure his professional growth.”

However, just six days later, Mooy was sent on loan to Championship side Huddersfield Town, where he ended up spending three seasons.

He was their player of the year as he helped them to win promotion from the Championship via the play-offs in 2017, he signed permanently for Town and then featured in their two seasons back in the Premier League.

But when they were relegated from the elite in 2019, he didn’t fancy dropping back down and seized the opportunity provided by Brighton to remain in the top division. Town neatly got him to pen a new three-year deal before allowing him to join the Seagulls on loan.

Huddersfield head coach Jan Siewert said: “Aaron was adamant that he wanted to test himself again in the Premier League when Brighton’s interest came in, and we didn’t want an issue where we had a disillusioned player on the pitch in the final year of his contract.”

However, after he’d made 15 appearances (plus three off the bench) in the first half of Graham Potter’s first season in charge, the 29-year-old was signed on a permanent basis on 24 January 2020 on “undisclosed terms”.

“He’s been an important player for us and will have a key part to play going forward,” said Potter. “We knew what Aaron would bring, and he’s proved to be an excellent addition to our squad and a great professional both on and off the pitch.”

Mooy’s deal with Brighton was not due to expire until June 2023 but, sensing one day he might have the opportunity to make big money in China, his contract at both Huddersfield and Brighton contained a clause allowing him to be released if a Chinese club offered to pay £4m – which, in the summer of 2020, Shanghai Port FC were willing to do.

Maybe the player also sensed the arrival at Brighton of Adam Lallana, together with the emergence of Alexis Mac Allister, might mean reduced playing time in the Premiership. However, perhaps the lure of being paid £60,000 a week to play the game he’s loved since a boy back home watching David Beckham on the TV might just have swayed it.

The shaven-headed Mooy had often stood out when playing for Huddersfield against Brighton and their fans were full of admiration for him. David Wood on Twitter said: “It was an absolute privilege to watch Aaron Mooy wear the blue and white of Huddersfield Town. A true class act.” Graeme Rayner added: “Without doubt the best player I’ve seen in a Town shirt. He was immense for us. He gave us some great memories, and was a model pro.”

Seagulls supporters took to him quickly too. ‘Farehamseagull’ on North Stand Chat declared: “Mooy is a wonderful player for us. We’ve been crying out for a player like him for years. His ability on the ball and appreciation of space is second to none. You can just always rely on him to make the right decision with the ball; that is a talent only truly gifted players who can see the game two, three moves ahead have.”

Mooy certainly shone in games against Spurs and Arsenal but possibly his best performance in a Brighton shirt came in the 28 December 2019 home game against Bournemouth when his 79^th minute goal completed a 2-0 win for the Seagulls.

*Mooy produced a headline*–*grabbing performance against Bournemouth*

Newspaper headlines hailed the Australian’s contribution to the win and Sky Sports commentator Alan Smith capped the lot in analysing Mooy’s goal. “What a way to settle it,” he said. “Shades of Dennis Bergkamp here, the way he took it on his chest and chipped it in.

“A quite brilliant goal from a really talented player. Great awareness and look at that finish. Bergkamp would’ve been proud.”

Mooy was born in Sydney on 15 September 1990. His German father walked out when he was a toddler and his Dutch mother, Sam, brought him up using her maiden surname. Mooy has said his earliest football memories were of playing for Carlingford Redbacks who were coached by his stepdad, Alan Todd.

His early life, as chronicled by Hale Hendrix on lifeblogger.com, was pretty much football obsessed and he went to the same high school, Westfield Sports High, as Albion goalkeeper Mat Ryan (who was in the year below). Former Leeds and Liverpool player Harry Kewell also went to Westfield.

Mooy played for Sydney-based Hajduk Wanderers and the former National Soccer League team Northern Spirit FC, as well as enhancing his potential at the New South Wales Institute of Sport, based at Sydney Olympic Park, an organisation which nurtures the country’s high performing sports people.

But he was spotted playing for his school as a 14-year-old by Bolton Wanderers’ former head of youth Chris Sulley and he was invited to the UK with his family for an assessment.

“It was a big decision to move to England but I knew it was a great opportunity,” Mooy told the Bolton News.

A serious knee injury threatened to halt his progress but Wanderers’ youth team coaches were convinced they had an outstanding prospect who was eager to earn a professional contract.

In his third season as a scholar, he managed to get some minutes in Alan Cork’s reserve team, and he said: “It’s a big year for me and I have got to show the coaches what I have got, so when I got injured, I knew I had to get back as quickly as possible.

“My rehabilitation involved lots of weight sessions and time on the bike, but I am feeling much sharper now.”

Unfortunately for Mooy, the club’s then-manager, Gary Megson, thought it unlikely he would develop into first-team material – a decision which baffled former Wanderers youth team coach, Peter Farrell.

“I couldn’t believe they released him,” Farrell told Bolton News reporter Marc Iles. “I always thought he was going to make it as a footballer but, as with anything, it’s all about opportunity.

“If Big Sam would have been in charge, or Phil Brown would have taken over I think he would still be there now. They valued that type of player and built their team around him.

“For me, Aaron had it all – he could go with his left foot, his right foot, he was physically strong on the ball and I don’t think he has changed at all from what I saw of him playing for Huddersfield.”

He added: “People thought he was maybe a bit lazy. You’ll never see him tackle. You need players around him to do that. But he reminds me a bit of Zidane – he’s even got the bald head.

“He isn’t as good a player, of course, but he has that grace about the way he plays. He’s a lovely balanced player but he wasn’t Gary Megson’s type of player, and that was the end of it.”

Six months after he left Bolton, Mooy surprisingly turned up in the unlikely surroundings of Paisley, Scotland, for a two-year stint at Scottish Premier League St Mirren (where former Albion midfielder Steven Thomson was at the other end of his career).

“It was a big decision to leave Bolton,” he told The Daily Record at the time. “But I wanted to try to get some first-team action and I’m doing that so I’m happy.

“Some people were a little surprised, but it didn’t bother me. I just thought I wasn’t really going to get much of a chance at Bolton. At St Mirren, I knew I was going to get some decent game time.”

Mooy later told The Scottish Sun: “St Mirren was the start for me. It was the first time I had really experienced proper football. I always remember how much I learned there. I was in the reserves at Bolton, but St Mirren was the first club I was at where winning and collecting points mattered hugely and I had to buy into that mentality.”

Mooy featured in 18 matches for Danny Lennon’s side in the 2010-11 season but he suffered a stress fracture in his back during pre-season and he managed only 12 appearances in 2011-12 and was released on a free transfer at the end of it.

At that point he decided to return to Australia and he joined Western Sydney Wanderers on a two-year deal. Mooy’s story was told excellently by Paul Doyle in The Guardian in a November 2017 article. He wrote:“Although he did well at Western Sydney, even there he was not a guaranteed starter, having to compete with two other players for a deep midfield spot as the team’s playmaking rights were entrusted to Shinji Ono, the former Japan international and 2002 Asian player of the year who would end his career in Australia.”

At the end of his contract, Mooy moved on to Melbourne City where he had an impressive 2015-16 campaign in which he was named Australian Players’ Player of the Year after scoring 17 goals from midfield and setting an A-League assist record.

Although Man City sent him to Huddersfield on loan, news of his strong performances hadn’t escaped Guardiola’s attention, as he noted in media interviews before Town took on City in the FA Cup in January 2017. “Aaron Mooy is playing amazing this season and we are glad at that,” Guardiola said. “It is not easy coming from Australia and going to the Championship and play as good as he is.

“We are going to consider what will happen at the end of the season but it’s good.”

Mooy responded to Guardiola’s praise, telling Huddersfield’s official website: “It’s obviously excellent and I’m very humbled and all that sort of stuff.

“It’s great to know he’s watching me and has his eye on how I’m doing, that’s great.

“They come to watch the games and stay in contact and hopefully they like what they see,” he said.

The Manchester Evening News even ran a story about Mooy headlined ‘The midfielder who could save Pep Guardiola and Man City a fortune this summer’.

However, at the end of June 2017, with Huddersfield preparing for their return to the Premier League, Mooy made the switch from City permanent for a club record fee of £8m.

Boss David Wagner told BBC Radio Leeds: “He was one of our key targets because he was the heart of our team last season.

“When we had the chance to get him permanently, we all agreed that we needed to get it done as quickly as we could.”

Chairman Dean Hoyle added: “Aaron made it very clear to us last season that he wanted to play in the Premier League this season and, if we were there, he would want to do that with us.

“I think we had a duty to try to make that happen for him because he made a huge contribution last season. He was a true terrier for us.”

Mooy drew praise for his role in Wagner’s gegenpressing style of play – bringing an energy and creative use of the ball in a slightly deep-lying midfield role – and Doyle observed in his Guardian article: “Strong on the ball, genuinely two-footed and blessed with vision and precision, he is the conduit of most Terriers attacks and never shirks defensive duties in a team that made more tackles than any other Premier League side during the first 12 matches of the season.”

Through his parents, Mooy could have played internationally for Germany or the Netherlands but he opted to play for the country where he was born and has played at several age group levels for the Australian national side. He made his full debut in 2012, scoring in a 9-0 win over Guam, and has since won more than 40 caps.

After Mooy played well for Australia at the 2018 World Cup, there was speculation City might activate a £20m buy-back clause but this was an unfounded rumour and reporter Stuart Brennan said in the Manchester Evening News: “Mooy has been playing well but has not done enough to suggest he could handle the rarefied atmosphere of Pep Guardiola’s midfield.”

City’s loss was Huddersfield and Brighton’s gain, but amongst the reasons suggested for his sudden departure after only a season with the Seagulls was Shanghai taking advantage of an overseas players loophole which allows Australian players to be counted as Asian.

Mooy certainly hit the ground running in China, scoring within 25 minutes of making his debut on his 30^th birthday. He came off the bench in Shanghai’s 2-1 win against Wuhan Zall, scoring the winner after fellow Premier League export Marko Arnautovic had scored Shanghai’s first.

Mooy scored with a delightful one-two down the flank and easy chip over the onrushing keeper.

“I have only just arrived so my physical condition is not what it could be,” Mooy told Chinese television after the game.

“The coach asked me before kick-off if I could play some part in the game and of course I was happy to do so.”

Mooy’s career has certainly been of interest to a number of football observers around the world and Marco Jackson chipped in on onsideview.com, discussing the rationale behind his move to China.

Mooy’s recent playing time has been non-existent because the Chinese Super League is having a three-and-a-half month break to enable the national side to prepare for World Cup qualifiers. The West Australian reported on 4 October 2021 how Mooy had returned to Scotland to be with his family while keeping fit working on a programme devised by Socceroos strength and conditioning coach Andrew Clark.

John Humphrey – unsung hero of 1997 great escape

ONE OF the unsung heroes of Albion’s last-gasp survival feat in 1997 knew a thing or two about playing for clubs in precarious circumstances.

John Humphrey’s first club was Wolverhampton Wanderers during a bleak period in their history: they dropped into the basement division under the controversial ownership of the Bhatti brothers.

The right-back later played ‘home’ games for Charlton Athletic at Selhurst Park and Upton Park when the football authorities deemed The Valley unfit to stage matches.

And he ended his professional playing days turning out for Brighton in ‘home’ games at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium (as pictured above).

Humphrey came to Brighton’s rescue in the autumn of his career.

With Albion’s very existence under threat as 1996 turned to 1997, Albion handed the managerial reins to Steve Gritt, and former Charlton teammate Humphrey was his first signing: a free transfer from Gillingham, who were playing in the division above.

Humphrey was 36 at the time with nearly 650 professional matches behind him, including a good many in the top-flight with Wolves, Charlton and Crystal Palace. Indeed, he was Charlton’s player of the year in 1988, 1989 and 1990.

After four matches on the bench, Humphrey replaced Peter Smith at right back and played in Albion’s last 11 games of that 1996-97 season, only ending up on the losing side three times. wearebrighton.com said his impact made him “a seriously underrated piece of the Great Escape jigsaw”.

“Steve wanted me because I was experienced, could get the players organised and was able to talk them through matches,” Humphrey told the Argus. “He knew I was steady, reliable and dependable, that nine games out of ten I’d play pretty well and that I would give 100 per cent.

“It was a lot of pressure but I’d been through a few promotions (three) and relegations (six) with Wolves, Charlton and Crystal Palace.” He continued: “The stressful situations I had gone through with those other clubs had given me experience of how to try and keep a season alive.

“I could do a job for Brighton and I felt I did that and the team turned out to be good enough to hang on. It was one of the biggest achievements of my career.”

Humphrey remembered the pressure going into the Hereford match was “horrible” because of the media focus but he added: “It might have been going out of the frying pan of Gillingham into the fire at Albion but I’m glad I made the jump.”

Unfortunately, then chief executive David Bellotti tried to renege on a deal Gritt had agreed verbally with Humphrey that he’d get a new one-year contract if Albion stayed up.

“When I was told I was being released, I thought it was a pretty poor show. But Steve, to his credit, then fought my corner and I stayed on.”

With the Goldstone sold, and Albion forced to play ‘home’ games at Gillingham, Humphrey retained his place in the side and played in 13 matches but, along with other senior players, such as Craig Maskell, Paul McDonald, Denny Mundee and Ian Baird, he was let go to save money on wages.

Humphrey accepted the package he was offered, called time on his long professional career, and dropped into the non-league scene, playing initially for Chesham, then Carshalton, Dulwich Hamlet and Walton and Hersham.

He got a break into a new career as a teacher at Whitgift School in Croydon courtesy of former Albion defender, Colin Pates, who’d played with Humphrey at Charlton.

“I knew Colin from Charlton when we roomed together,” Humphrey told the Argus. “I was aware he was at the school and he said he needed help for after-school sessions and asked me to come along. So I did and the football took off at the school and I got involved in other sports like rugby and basketball and got a full-time job there.”

After leaving Whitgift School, Humphrey became head of football at Highgate School in north London.

Born in Paddington, west London on 31 January 1961, Humphrey was picked up by Wolves after he played against their junior team for a North London club called Bourne Hall.

He recounted how events unfolded in an interview with wolvesheroes.com: initially signing schoolboy forms, then progressing to coaching in school holidays, before earning an apprenticeship.

He signed as a professional in 1979 and made his first-team debut in the old top- flight in a 3-0 Easter Monday win at Southampton in 1980. His second game ended in a 3-0 defeat to Brighton.

They came under John Barnwell and, by the time Humphrey left the club in 1985, he’d served under three other managers; the last being former Manchester United boss Tommy Docherty.

Although the side was relegated in 1981-82, Humphrey embarked on what was a 78-game unbroken spell in the side. He was ever-present when they were promoted in 1982-83.

“I loved my time at Wolves,” he told wolvesheroes.com. “I only left because we went down again in 1984-85 and I didn’t fancy playing in the Third Division. Charlton came in for me and they took John Pender from Wolves a few weeks later as well.”

Wolves under the Bhatti brothers were in freefall and a lack of investment in the side saw them suffer three consecutive relegations – in 1984, 1985 and 1986 – ending up in the old Fourth Division for the first time in the club’s history.

Humphrey joined an Addicks side newly-promoted to the elite and, although Lennie Lawrence’s side often struggled to retain their status, they remained in the top-flight until 1990, and many supporters thought the right-back was good enough for international selection.

On charltonlife.com in September 2012, Queensland Addick recalled his impressive level of fitness, and said: “The number of times he ran the right wing at great pace during a game was quite incredible.”

By the time he left Charlton in August 1990, he’d played 231 games and it was said his £400,000 transfer to top-flight Crystal Palace was linked to the fact that at the time Charlton were playing home matches at Selhurst Park.

In a five-year stay at Selhurst, Humphrey played 192 games (plus 10 as sub). Known principally for his defending, Humphrey was delighted to mark his 150^th appearance for Palace with a 35-yard equaliser for the Eagles against his old club, Wolves, in a 1993 1-1 home draw.

Between December 1993 and May 1994, while Palace were winning promotion from the second tier under Alan Smith, Humphrey was out on a six-month loan at Reading, playing nine games for Mark McGhee’s Second Division side.

He then returned to second-tier Charlton on a free transfer for the 1995-96 season, playing in 36 matches, after Alan Curbishley had taken sole charge.

Next stop was Gillingham, for the first part of the 1996-97 season, but he confessed he didn’t see eye to eye with manager Tony Pulis, so he was happy to answer the call from Gritt to aid basement Brighton’s cause.

Boyhood Brighton fan Simon Rodger’s 11 seasons at Palace

S Rodger v Ivor Ingimarsson SHOREHAM-born Simon Rodger was a boyhood Brighton fan but spent the bulk of his professional playing career with arch rivals Crystal Palace.

It was only at the end of his career he finally got the chance to play for the Seagulls having been rescued from football’s scrapheap by the man who had given him his chance with Palace.

Rodger in fact was on Albion’s books as a youngster and a report appeared in a matchday programme when, as a 14-year-old, he won a Soccer Skills competition run by Bobby Charlton Schools in association with The Trustee Savings Bank.

“Simon has been training with our own youngsters for two years but he is a guest today at Manchester United, where he will be seeing the match between United and Ipswich at Old Trafford,” the programme reported.

young Rodger He didn’t progress through the levels at Brighton, though, and instead joined non-league Bognor Regis Town as an apprentice in 1989. Palace manager Alan Smith snapped him up from there for £1,000 in 1990.

It was Smith’s successor in the managerial chair, Steve Coppell, who gave Rodger his first team debut in 1993 away to Sheffield Wednesday. Although that game ended in a 4-1 defeat, Rodger was part of the side who went on to secure the Division One title in 1994.

Gordon Law on holmesdale.net summed up his Palace contribution thus: “His workrate, professionalism and unsung, gritty, performances in the midfield engine room contributed to Palace’s success in the 1990s. He was never one of the club’s high earners and missed out on lucrative signing-on fees to stay in SE25.”

He did leave Selhurst Park temporarily in the mid 90s, though, having fallen out with Coppell’s successor, Dave Bassett. He went on loan to Manchester City for three months in 1996 and to Stoke for a month in 1997.

When Coppell returned to Palace, so did Rodger and was part of the 1997 promotion-winning squad.

His Palace career came to an end after 11 seasons and 328 games – all in the top two divisions – when manager Trevor Francis released him aged 31 in 2002.

It was a worrying time for a lot of players because the collapse of ITV Digital meant football finance was in a state of flux and clubs didn’t have the money to retain large squads.

Rodger had earned decent money from football and also had the financial cushion of being married to QVC TV presenter Alison Young, but she talked about her husband’s concerns in an interview with football reporter Matt Hughes.

After Brighton’s disastrous run of 11 defeats under Martin Hinshelwood during the early part of the 2002-03 season, ex-Palace boss Coppell was brought in by Dick Knight and Rodger, together with Dean Blackwell from Wimbledon, were among his first recruits to try to salvage the season.

He came off the bench in Coppell’s second game in charge, when Albion were thumped 5-0 at Selhurst Park, but the following week he scored on his home debut against Bradford City on 2 November 2002, a volley which wearebrighton.com described as the best goal of the season.

Later the same month he scored again, along with on-loan Steve Sidwell, away at Preston North End, as the Seagulls clawed back to draw 2-2 having gone 2-0 down.

Rodger talked about the shock of his Palace departure in an interview with The Guardian in January 2003, but said: “I’m just grateful to be back in professional football with Brighton, doing something that I love.”

Rodger had become a regular in the side but, despite a sterling effort in the latter part of the season, relegation was confirmed following a 2-2 draw away to Grimsby Town.

The defensive midfielder began the following season in the third tier but the league cup tie away to Middlesbrough at the Riverside in September 2003 was the last of his 38 games for Brighton.

He was stretchered off early in the second half following a tackle by current England manager Gareth Southgate and never recovered sufficiently to resume his professional career.

Albion physio Malcolm Stuart said Rodger couldn’t have worked harder to try to return to his previous level of fitness. However, he explained that the player had developed a rare growth on a skin graft called Cyclops Legion and, although it had been cut away, it returned. Stuart said it wasn’t felt fair to put him through a fourth operation.

Captain Danny Cullip told the matchday programme: “We’ve seen Simon working in the gym to get back, and he’s been working his socks off. We’re gutted for him after he fought hard to get back; he’s a very good footballer and a really nice lad.”

After his playing days ended, Rodger became a private hire chauffeur.

Screen Shot 2018-03-08 at 08.45.12

Main picture (top) shows Rodger putting in a slide tackle on Ivar Ingimarsson, who later joined Albion on loan from Wolves. Also (above), from the Argus, after scoring away at Preston.

Winger Neil Smillie was a Wembley winner eventually

NS v MU Wemb

AN UNSUNG hero of Brighton’s 1983 FA Cup Final side, winger Neil Smillie, had the distinction of being the first ever apprentice the legendary Malcolm Allison signed for Crystal Palace.

Big Mal had enjoyed league and FA Cup success at Manchester City as Joe Mercer’s sidekick but he swept into Palace in the early 70s as a boss in his own right, courting publicity with his flamboyant fedora hat and giant cigar.

Smillie admitted: “I was going to West Ham but Allison persuaded me to take a look at Palace.

“The place was so alive and vibrant under him that I went there instead.”

Born in Barnsley on 19 July 1958, Neil followed in the footsteps of his dad, Ron, a former professional who played for Barnsley and Lincoln.

After joining Palace in 1974, Smillie turned professional a year later and was on Palace’s books for seven years, although he had three loan spells away from Selhurst.

In 1977, he went briefly to Brentford, who he ultimately would have a long association with later in his career.

Smillie Memphis The following two years, he went to play in America for Memphis Rogues (pictured left) where his teammates were players from the English game winding down their careers: the likes of former Albion players Tony Burns and Phil Beal, ex-Chelsea, Leicester and Palace striker Alan Birchenall and former Chelsea winger Charlie Cooke; the side being managed by former Chelsea defender Eddie McCreadie.

At the end of the 1981-82 season, Smillie was denied a pay rise by Palace so he decided to quit and wrote letters to clubs in the top two divisions in England asking for a job!

Brighton had managed to offload the troublesome Mickey Thomas to Stoke City so had a need for a left winger. They were the first to come up with an offer, and with full back Gary Williams surplus to requirements since the arrival of experienced defender Sammy Nelson, Brighton offered him in exchange for Smillie.

The bubble-haired winger gratefully accepted the switch to the Seagulls. While he made the starting line-up for the opening game of the new season, a heavy (5-0) defeat away at West Brom in the next game then saw him dropped and sidelined for months.

It was only once ultra-cautious manager Mike Bailey had left that Smillie got back in contention, and only then – in January 1983 – through someone else’s misfortune.

He said: “I was out in the cold and only got my break when Giles Stille was injured during the Cup game against Newcastle United.”

Smillie seized his opportunity and remained in the side for the rest of the season, culminating in the two Wembley FA Cup Final matches against Manchester United.

Back in the second tier following Brighton’s relegation, Smillie played 28 games plus once as a sub but following new manager Chris Cattlin’s signing of Northern Irish winger Steve Penney, there was competition in the wide areas.

Throughout the 1984-85 campaign, Smillie was more often than not a substitute rather than a starter. He did manage a seven-game run of appearances in the late autumn and began the final three games of the season, but the last game, a 1-0 home win over Sheffield United, proved to be his farewell.

Smillie revealed in a 2003 interview with Spencer Vignes that he’d discovered Manchester City had been keen to take him on loan but Cattlin hadn’t sanctioned it, even though he wasn’t selecting him.

“Chris had turned them down, saying I was a good player and he needed me. Yet he wasn’t even playing me! I just couldn’t believe he’d done it,” he said. Although he and his family were settled in Sussex, he realised he had to move.

Several eyebrows were raised when Cattlin managed to secure a £100,000 fee from Watford for Smillie’s services in the summer of 1985. The winger joined Graham Taylor’s beaten FA Cup finalists but he failed to establish himself in the side and made just 16 first team appearances in a season with the Hornets.

In the summer of 1986, he moved on to Reading for two years and, in 1988, after his disappointment with Brighton, Smillie was finally a winner at Wembley, scoring and setting up two goals as Reading beat Luton 4-1 in the Simod Cup Final.

The Hatters were led by former Albion captain Steve Foster and another of Smillie’s former teammates, Danny Wilson, was in their midfield. Mick Harford scored the opening goal for Luton, but Smillie’s pass allowed Michael Gilkes to bundle home an equaliser.

Smillie then won a spot kick converted by Stuart Beavon, and, in the second half, Mick Tait swept home another Smillie assist. Smillie then rounded off a great afternoon by scoring himself. It was hailed as one of the best days in Reading’s history, witnessed by over 45,000 loyal Royals fans.

Nevertheless, Smillie didn’t hang around and instead joined Brentford, where his former Palace teammate Phil Holder was assisting the manager at the time, Steve Perryman. NS Bees

Nick Bruzon interviewed Smillie in depth for a Where are they now? feature on the Brentford FC website in July 2010.

“Representing Brentford over three different decades, initially on loan in 1977 and then for five years from 1988 to 1993, Neil Smillie combined raw pace with ceaseless energy to make him one of the most popular players to patrol the New Road touchline,” said Bruzon. “Whilst with Brentford he experienced promotion, relegation and play off heartbreak, scoring 18 goals in 185 games.”

Smillie said: “I’ve got to say, the five years I spent at Brentford (and I was 30 when I signed) I thoroughly enjoyed.

“I’d reached a point in my career where I felt comfortable in terms of what I could give on the pitch. I’d always been a hard worker and I got the feeling that the supporters appreciated someone who worked hard.”

In the 1992-93 season, he played alongside Chris Hughton, who, like Smillie, was winding down his playing career.

“I loved taking people on and I loved getting crosses in for people to score so that just seemed to fit in nicely at the time with the team that we had,” he said. “I played my part as well as others who played theirs in getting the ball to me. We all did our bit and for me it was a great part of my career.”

On leaving Brentford, Smillie became a player-coach at Gillingham when his old Palace teammate Mike Flanagan was the manager. When Flanagan was sacked, Smillie took over the managerial reigns on a caretaker basis while the club tried to stabilise during financial troubles.

Smillie told Bruzon: “We were in a fairly precarious position and ended up in a decent position. So there was some enjoyment to it but the situation at a club without any money and struggling was difficult.”

Some names familiar to Brighton fans were at Gillingham at the time. Smillie played up front with Nicky Forster. Paul Watson was in defence and Richard Carpenter in midfield.

His three-month reign came to an end when Gillingham appointed Tony Pulis as the new manager and former Palace manager Alan Smith took Smillie to Wycombe Wanderers to look after their youth team.

When Smith left, Smillie was caretaker manager until former Albion full back John Gregory got the managerial post. Smillie then became Gregory’s successor in the hot seat for a year.

When the inevitable sack came, Smillie stepped outside of day to day running of football to become sports marketing manager for Nike in the UK. His role was to identify emerging talent for Nike to associate themselves with, and, as a result he stayed in touch with the game.

Among the players he signed to Nike were Theo Walcott, Darren Bent, Gabby Agbonlahor, James Milner, Tom Huddlestone, Danny Welbeck and Johnny Evans.

Pictures show (top) Smillie in action on the cover of the Albion programme; walking his dog; in Match magazine, on the cover of Shoot! being tackled by Liverpool’s Sammy Lee; a Simod Cup winner with Reading.

Twelve goals in 26 games for Scottish striker Alan Young

GARY LINEKER’S former strike partner at Leicester City had a good goals to appearances ratio for Brighton & Hove Albion.

Sadly, Scotsman Alan Young only managed 26 appearances in his one season (1983-84) with the Albion, although his 12 goals meant he finished second top goalscorer behind Terry Connor.

His brief Brighton career got off to a great start with a memorable debut goal, an overhead kick to net against Chelsea at the Goldstone. Young twice scored braces for the Seagulls but his season was injury-hit and, with manager Chris Cattlin bringing in his old pal Frank Worthington for the 1984-85 season, Young was sold to Notts County.

In more recent times, Young courted controversy as a radio pundit sharing his opinions about Leicester, and in 2014 BBC Radio Leicester dropped him from his role supporting commentator Ian Stringer.

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Back in September 2013, Young was berated online for his criticism of winger Anthony Knockaert. Foxello, on ja606.co.uk, wrote: “If there’s one thing that annoys me more than just about anything else at this football club, it is that grumpy, nasty egotist Alan Young and his never-ending agenda against certain members of the football club.”

The correspondent bemoaned: “Knocky is now the butt of every joke, and the object of every jibe Young throws out…. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want us to have skilful players who occasionally misplace a pass due to their advanced vision, and just have hoofers and cloggers like in his day.”

So let’s take a look back at ‘his day’. Born in Kirkcaldy on 26 October 1955, Young was football-daft and showed sufficient promise to earn Scottish schoolboy international honours.

His boyhood favourite team was Raith Rovers, whose star player at the time was Ian Porterfield, who famously scored the winning goal when Second Division Sunderland beat Leeds in the 1973 FA Cup Final.

Surprisingly overlooked by Scottish professional clubs, Young also experienced early disappointment in England when Nottingham Forest rejected him. “Nottingham Forert didn’t want me and I left there thinking I was no good,” he told Shoot! magazine.

Nonetheless, when he was playing as an unattached player for Scotland Schoolboys against England at Old Trafford, Oldham Athletic scout Colin McDonald, a former Burnley and England international goalkeeper, noted his promise and persuaded the young forward to head south of the border to begin his professional career.

In five years at Boundary Park he scored 30 goals in 122 games, and, to a large extent, learned his trade from old pro Andy Lochhead, a prolific goalscorer in his day for Burnley, Leicester and Aston Villa.

In the 1978-79 season, Young netted a hat-trick against Leicester which caught the eye of fellow Scot and former Rangers boss, Jock Wallace, who had taken over at Filbert Street and was building a team with his fellow countrymen at its core.

When Young joined Leicester, and played alongside his boyhood pal Martin Henderson, it began a love affair with Leicester that endures to this day.

In three years at Leicester, Young scored 26 times in 104 games, eventually forming a partnership with the emerging Lineker. TV’s favourite football frontman was generous enough to pen the foreword to Young’s 2013 autobiography, Youn9y (written in conjunction with Simon Kimber and published by the historypress.co.uk) and said of him: “He was an old-fashioned, aggressive centre forward. He possessed, though, a delicate touch and finesse that belied his big target man status – the perfect partner for a nippy little goalhanger trying to make a name for himself.”

Screenshot — *Leicester strike partner for Gary Lineker*

Young scored on his full debut for City in a league cup game v Rotherham and followed it up with two on his league debut at home to Watford.

The only time Young was sent off while playing for Leicester was, ironically, at the Goldstone Ground in 1981, at Easter, which was the second of four games at the end of the season that Albion won to stay in the top division.

Young was dismissed for two bookable offences, the first for clattering into goalkeeper Graham Moseley and the other a clash with Steve Foster, although, in his autobiography, he says Foster play-acted a knee injury, which the referee bought. Foster even teased him about it when he joined the Seagulls two years later. In that Easter 1981 fixture, Young’s teammate Kevin McDonald was also sent off, Brighton won 2-1 – and Leicester ended up being relegated together with Norwich and bottom-placed Crystal Palace.

Back in the old Second Division, Young did his cartilage in a game on QPR’s plastic pitch which he says was the beginning of the end of his career, because his knee was never the same afterwards (years later he had a knee replacement).

He also had the disappointment of losing to Spurs in the 1982 FA Cup semi final, although he maintains if a certain Chris Hughton had been sent off for two fouls on Lineker, it might all have been a different story.

Before the next season kicked off, Jock Wallace, the manager he idolised, decided to move back to Scotland to manage Motherwell and his successor at Filbert Street, Gordon Milne, swiftly chose to pair the emerging Alan Smith up front with Lineker, signalling the exit for Young.

Managerial upheaval was to become a familiar cause of Young’s departures in the years that followed, too. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Ian Porterfield, his footballing hero from yesteryear, had taken over as manager at Fourth Division Sheffield United and, although he didn’t really want to drop down the leagues, the Blades were a big club so Young moved to Bramall Lane.

A year later, though, after Brighton’s relegation from the elite in 1983, striker Michael Robinson was sold to Liverpool so there was a centre forward vacancy – and manager Jimmy Melia chose Young to fill it.

The fee was either £140,000 or £150,000 depending on which account you believe, but Young was happy because he pocketed a £20,000 signing on fee (four times what he had received only a year earlier when moving to Sheffield).

His first involvement with the squad was on a close-season tour of the Balearic Islands (with associated eye-opening tales recalled by thegoldstonewrap.com) but he also picked up an injury that was to dog his season on the south coast.

While Young had a lot of time for Melia, when Cattlin took over it was a different story and, in his book, there are plenty of colourful expletives used to describe exactly what he thought! He also castigates physio Mike Yaxley – “the most useless physio I have ever worked with” – although he says the team spirit was very good…seemingly fuelled by long post-training ‘sessions’ in Woody’s wine bar.

A young He said: “The football was very enjoyable there and never more so than when Jimmy Case and I were playing together; I loved playing with Jimmy.”

For a short time in that 1983-84 season, Albion had three Youngs in their squad, none of whom were related. Along with Young the forward, there were centre backs Eric Young and on-loan Willie Young.

When Cattlin decided to bring in his old Huddersfield teammate Worthington the following season, Young was on his way, this time to Notts County. The manager who signed him was the former Liverpool and Nottingham Forest defender Larry Lloyd, but his tenure in the managerial chair was very short so, once again, Young found himself playing for a manager who hadn’t chosen him.

In two years at Meadow Lane, Young scored 12 in 43 games for County. He moved on to Rochdale where the Leeds legend Eddie Gray was in charge, but injury took its toll and he only scored twice in 28 games in the 1986-87 season before retiring at 31. He had scored a career total of 89 goals in 349 appearances.

While there were a few non-league appearances, he eventually landed a job back at Notts County in the early days of community football schemes. He made a success of the job, obtained his coaching qualifications and eventually they combined the community scheme with the centre of excellence.

Brighton fans will be interested to know that among the young lads who emerged during Young’s time there were Will Hoskins and Leon Best. The star player, though, was Jermaine Pennant.

Young has fond memories of Neil Warnock’s time as County manager, because of his interest in the work being done at grassroots level. However, the mood changed when Sam Allardyce took over.

Allardyce initially cut Young’s salary and then showed him the door. “I can’t and I never will forgive Sam Allardyce,” he said.

Away from football, Young has had a tempestuous love life – read the book to gather the detail – and has three sons and a daughter. While he also had spells working for Chesterfield and Leeds, he dropped out of the game and then had a very dark period dominated by heavy drinking in isolation, including a time living alone in a caravan on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Eventually a return to England and his break into radio punditry brought him back from the brink.

In 2013, his autobiography Youn9y was published, the sleeve notes describing the story of “a talented, brave striker who played at the highest level of the domestic game but also experienced human misery at its lowest once his playing career was over”.

The notes add: “Youngy doesn’t just recount the good times of his playing career; he also offers valuable insight and moments of perception and understanding of some of the darkest days of his life.”

After four years as match summariser, in 2014 BBC Radio Leicester dispensed with his services and replaced him with another former Fox, Gerry Taggart.

However, Young still gives his opinions about Leicester on the community radio station Hermitage FM.

Twitter enthusiasts can follow Alan @alan9young

Pictures show a shot of Alan on Brighton seafront from an Albion matchday programme; the front cover of his autobiography; other matchday programme action shots, and in the Hermitage FM radio studio from Twitter.

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Alan Smith