IT MAY simply have been David Lee’s misfortune that he joined Brighton at a time when they weren’t short of decent midfield players.
Nevertheless, a player who had gone through the ranks at Spurs alongside the likes of Peter Crouch and Ledley King might have been expected to make more of an impression.
As it was, the manager who signed him moved on and he ended up starting just one league game in two and a half years with the club.
Ultimately a horror injury brought a premature end to Lee’s career at the age of 28, but he stayed in the game as an agent – Lewis Dunk being one of his clients.
It was in January 2002 that Peter Taylor, a one-time Spurs player himself, brought Lee to the Albion from Hull City in direct exchange for fringe player Matthew Wicks.
Taylor had been close to signing him when he was manager of Gillingham but, after moving on to Leicester City, Taylor recommended him to Southend United instead.
By the time Lee arrived at the Albion, they were already on an upward trajectory towards promotion from the third tier and he had to be content largely with reserve team football and a seat on the first-team subs bench.
The first Albion fans got to see of him came on 23 February 2002 at home to Wrexham when he went on as a 23rd minute substitute for Gary Hart alongside inexperienced Chris McPhee, who was playing in the absence of goal king Bobby Zamora.
Wrexham brought Albion’s run of five straight home wins to an end in what the Argus described as “a dour deadlock” and in the process became the first side to stop the Seagulls from scoring at Withdean Stadium for 13 months.
In fact, sharper-eyed Albion watchers might have recognised the newcomer as a player who’d scored against the Seagulls twice the previous season.
He marked his debut for Southend in the opening match of the 2000-2001 season with an 83rd-minute second goal that sealed a 2-0 win for the home side.
Then, in the reverse fixture, he scored again as United completed the double over the Seagulls on a quagmire of a pitch at Withdean on New Year’s Day 2001. On that occasion, Lee went on as a 77th minute substitute for Ben Abbey and scored five minutes later as the Shrimpers again won 2-0.
Described by Spurs history website ‘My Eyes Have Seen The Glory’ as “a slightly built, but athletic midfielder, who had an eye for an attacking option as he used his passing to try and open up opposition defences”, Lee spent a season at Roots Hall, initially under Alan Little, scoring 10 goals in 52 games. “I played nearly every game so it couldn’t have gone much better really,” Lee told the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo.
But after just one season with Southend, Lee joined Division Three Hull City, managed by previous manager Little’s brother Brian (better known for his time in charge of Leicester and Aston Villa). It was a decision Lee later rued.
“Looking back, I do regret it,” he said. “I left because the (Southend) manager Dave Webb said he thought I’d had a good season and that Leicester were interested in me.
“My form wasn’t good at the end of the season so he told me they would be coming back to have another look at the start of the next season. Then he told me I’d have to take a pay cut to stay.
“At the same time, Hull offered to double my money for three years.” Hence he ended up with the Tigers.
He made his debut as a substitute in the League Cup and followed up that appearance with brief cameo roles off the bench in the league. One saw him score Hull’s fourth goal in a comprehensive 4-0 thumping of York City for whom Graham Potter was playing!
Lee made a rare start in a 1-1 draw away to Shrewsbury Town and kept his place for the next game (a 1-0 win over Torquay United), but it was back to appearances off the bench after that.
It was Taylor, fired by Leicester but installed as Micky Adams’ replacement at promotion-seeking Albion, who rescued him from Hull, signing him on a two-year contract in January 2002.
Unsurprisingly, Lee saw it as a “massive blow” when Taylor quit the Albion after steering the side to promotion because he didn’t believe enough was going to be spent on investing in the squad to compete at the higher level.
“I’m disappointed because he brought me to the club in the first place,” Lee told the Argus. “When I came, he wasn’t looking for me to get straight into the first team.
“He told me next year he would look to get me more involved. Now he has left it’s going to be difficult. When the new manager comes in, I have got to make sure I am fit and try to impress him.
“It’s a huge stage for a young player in the First Division and I need to be playing.”
Of course, if Lee had hung on at Hull slightly longer, he’d have been joined there by Taylor!
“I should have stayed there for longer but I went to Brighton,” Lee told the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo. “I did three and a half years there (ed. it was two and a half) and had some great times winning the promotions but I never did hold down a first team place and, when Peter Taylor left, I was well out of it.”
Indeed, in the 2002-03 season, Lee didn’t make a single league or cup appearance for the Albion, although, in October 2002, after Steve Coppell’s appointment as manager, he appeared – and scored – in the first half on a rainy, gale-battered evening alongside trialists Simon Rodger and Dean Blackwell when an Albion XI beat Hassocks 5-0 in a game to mark the opening of a new stand for the County League side. While Blackwell and Rodger subsequently signed up, Lee was sent on loan to Bristol Rovers, but only stayed for a month.
Pretty clear his future didn’t lie with the Albion, on 23 April 2003 he played in a trial match for Cambridge United’s reserves against Gillingham in a 3-0 win. Impressing in another reserve match against Colchester, the U’s manager said he would like to sign Lee on a permanent basis. But nothing came of it, and he remained on Albion’s books.
As if to emphasise what they missed out on, in August 2003 Lee scored against Cambridge in a comprehensive Albion Reserves win. The 3-0 win was the opening fixture for the Seagulls’ second string in the Pontin’s Holidays Combination League.
A short spell on loan to Ryman League Thurrock followed in October 2003 but, in the time he was away, Brighton had a new manager; Mark McGhee replacing Coppell, who had moved to Reading.
And so it was, in December 2003, that Lee finally made his full Albion debut, away to QPR in the LDV Vans Trophy. Albion narrowly lost 2-1, and he was subbed off on the hour mark, being replaced by Gary Hart, but McGhee defended his selection in the following matchday programme.
“I saw the game as an opportunity to find out about players who haven’t had the chance since my arrival,” he said. “The inclusion of David Lee and Dan Harding in particular did not result in us losing the game. Basic defensive errors led to the defeat. However, I did learn a lot about Dan and David and I do believe that both players will continue to make a contribution this season. So, as an exercise, there were positives to take out of the game.”
While Harding would go on to become an established member of McGhee’s side, Lee was a perennial bench warmer and only started one league match: a 2-1 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on 27 March 2004.
“That was a nice surprise,” he said. “I thought I did okay, apart obviously from the result.”
But Lee realised his Albion future was up in the air, telling the Argus: “I’ve had a meeting with the gaffer and he said he is going to have to wait and see where we are next season, so it’s touch and go for me.”
He admitted he’d been close to moving to Grimsby just before the transfer deadline, but Town boss Nicky Law had chosen alternative options.
Lee was able to join in the celebrations that followed Albion’s promotion via the play-off final win over Bristol City at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, but he was only ever on the periphery.
He was given one last chance to prove himself when he was handed a three-month deal in July 2004. But, over that period, Albion brought in Darren Currie and Alexis Nicolas, so, on the expiry of the short term deal, Lee was released.
Assistant manager Bob Booker said: “David worked extremely hard but just fell a little short to make the first team.”
While Lee told the Argus: “I never really got started all the time I was at Brighton. But I worked really hard in the summer, and I did quite well pre-season. That’s why I am disappointed to be going now.”
Born in Basildon, Essex, on 28 March 1980, Lee went to Gable Hall School in Thurrock from 1991 to 1996 and his young footballing talent was spotted as an under 10 by Spurs scout Lenny Cheesewright.
Lee talked at length about his career to Lennon Branagan in August 2020 for the excellent SuperHotspur blog.
He developed through the different age groups at Spurs under various coaches, citing in particular Tommy Cunningham really putting him through his paces aged 15-16, then Bobby Arber after he’d signed a scholarship. “He was a real top coach who taught me a lot about tactics and positioning and the ugly side of the game.”
The highlight of his time at Spurs came when he was captain of the 1996 Spurs youth team that won the Northern Ireland Milk Cup, an annual international youth tournament. Spurs beat Blackburn in the final by a single goal scored by John Piercy, who later also moved to Brighton.
Another memorable moment came when Lee, aged only 16, scored the winning goal for Spurs Reserves against Bristol City in a testimonial for Leroy Rosenior (father of Liam).
In Spurs’ youth team, Lee was managed by the former West Ham winger Patsy Holland, who he felt never really rated him. Eventually, in Spurs’ reserve side, he was managed by Chris Hughton – “one of the best coaches that I’ve played for and had the pleasure of working with”.
While contemporaries such as Luke Young progressed to the first team, Lee fell just short and he was honest enough to admit: “Looking back now, I think the thing that you look at was did I really show the coaches that I wanted it enough? And did I really give absolutely everything to be a top player? And probably the answer’s no, if I’m being honest with myself. That’s the biggest regret or the real shame that I have really.”
Ironically, it was when his friend Piercy got a first team call-up instead of him that he decided to move on from Spurs although, once again with the benefit of hindsight, he reckons he was probably too hasty in his decision.
George Graham was manager at the time and Lee reckoned he wasn’t his type of player. Although he still had 18 months left on his contract, he decided to move on because he couldn’t see himself making it at Spurs. But not long afterwards, Glenn Hoddle took over as manager and Lee reckons if he had stayed he might have had a better chance of training with the first team a bit more, and improving as a player.
After the Seagulls released Lee in September 2004, he trained with Oldham Athletic and signed on a non-contract basis for a month but was not retained.
He returned to Thurrock, had a trial at Kidderminster Harriers, signed for Conference side Stevenage Borough in February 2005, but then changed his mind and signed for Aldershot instead.
It was during a game for the Shots against Canvey Island in August 2005 that he suffered a horrific injury that doctors told him would end his career.
“I was actually only an hour away from losing my foot and it was all quite worrying as you would expect,” said Lee. “When I was in hospital they told me I would never play again.”
The injury forced him to miss the majority of the 2005-06 season, and, although he extended his contract by a year on 30 May 2006, he eventually left the Shots at the end of January 2007 and signed for Ryman League Division One Harlow Town. That didn’t last long; he had a short spell with Braintree, then AFC Hornchurch and then Canvey Island.
In an interview with Chris Phillips of the Basildon Canvey and Southend Echo in June 2008, Lee said he was pleased to have proved the doctors wrong in managing to get back playing football, but he admitted: “I’ve been playing non-league this season, but my heart hasn’t been in it.”
Lee turned to football agency work that year and has continued in that line ever since. He was with Skillequal for 10 years before switching to ICM Stellar Sports in April 2018.
WHEN a flame-haired midfield player called Steve Sidwell joined the Albion on loan from Arsenal in 2002, it wasn’t the first – or last – time he would link up with manager 
One of my favourite memories came at Highfield Road, Coventry, on January 11 2003 when Albion probably deserved to win but had to settle for a point in a 0-0 draw. Before the kick off, Albion fans were chanting his name during the warm-up, urging him to stay, because there had been speculation linking him with moves to other clubs.
“Brighton were as good a side as we have seen at Highfield Road this season.”
Sidwell, who was out of contract at Arsenal at the end of the season, said: “Stoke put a bid into Arsenal. I went up there and it’s a great set-up and a fantastic club but we will see what happens.”
Hughes took him on a free transfer to Stoke but he managed only 13 appearances so jumped at the chance once again to link up with his old pal Zamora to join Albion on loan in early 2016 to supplement their efforts to get promoted from the Championship.
In parallel lines 