Tag: Arsenal

The geography was all wrong for O’Grady’s Seagulls excursion

SHEFFIELD UNITED and Brighton once went head to head for the services of journeyman striker Chris O’Grady.

It might be said many Albion followers were somewhat disappointed that the Seagulls pipped the Blades to signing the player from Barnsley in the summer of 2014!

It wasn’t long, however, before United, then in League One, landed their man when he failed to score in 11 appearances and struggled to settle in Sussex.

On taking O’Grady on loan, United manager Nigel Clough said: “There aren’t too many strikers of Chris’s calibre around at the moment.

“We liked him last season at Barnsley and he has got good Championship experience. Chris was a target for us in the summer but Brighton came in with a deal we simply couldn’t match in terms of wages and what they could have been potentially offering him as a playing challenge.”

The 28-year-old impressed in four Blades starts, scoring once in a draw with Walsall at Bramall Lane, and Clough remained hopeful of eventually doing a permanent deal for the player.

But Albion head coach Sami Hyypia left the club shortly before Christmas and O’Grady was recalled to cover a mini injury crisis amongst the available forwards.

Under caretaker manager Nathan Jones, O’Grady was introduced off the bench at Fulham and set up a goal for Solly March in a 2-0 win.

Then, in Chris Hughton’s first match in charge, a third round FA Cup tie at Brentford, O’Grady bagged his first Seagulls goal in another 2-0 win. On as a 67th minute substitute for Mackail-Smith, O’Grady hit a post, saw an effort trickle wide and then scored a decisive stoppage time second goal against the Bees to secure Albion’s passage through to the fourth round.

It was in the third minute of added on time when, put clear through by Adam Chicksen, he doubled the lead gained when Lewis Dunk headed in an 88th-minute opener at Griffin Park, thus helping Hughton’s reign get off to a winning start against Mark Warburton’s side.

After the match, O’Grady opened up about his struggles in an interview with BBC Sussex. “It’s been extremely tough,” he said. “It has tested a lot of relationships in my life. Thankfully the strongest one, my family, is still together which is the most important thing.”

O’Grady had spent all of his career playing in the Midlands, Yorkshire or the North West and said settling on the south coast with his partner and three children had proved difficult.

“We’ve been trying to settle in the area and it’s not quite happened on the pitch,” he said.

“We’ve got a home we’ve had for quite a few years back up north and we’ve been half in that and half down here as we don’t know what’s going on.

“I’ve been doing my best but it was not working out. I got a chance to go back up north and find myself and get some fitness.

“My whole career I have performed for people who believe in me. I felt I wasn’t sure why I was here.”

O’Grady was fighting an uphill battle at the Albion from the moment he was signed by head of football, David Burke. The Seagulls had banked £8m from the sale of Leonardo Ulloa to Leicester and obtaining O’Grady’s services from relegated Barnsley (he’d scored 15 goals as they went down) was seen by fans as inadequate recompense, even though the club tried to insist it wasn’t a like-for-like transaction.

Hyypia said at the time: “This is an area we want to strengthen, and Chris is a good start. He is a strong, physical presence and gives us something different to the other strikers we already have here at the club.

“You need that option in the squad of a forward with power and strength, and Chris can give us that – as well as scoring goals.

“We still want some extra attacking additions, and in other areas of the team, but I’m pleased we have another one of our targets.”

Those “extra attacking additions” turned out to be Adrian Colunga and Sam Baldock the following month and both largely put paid to O’Grady’s hopes of gaining a regular starting spot.

Not that O’Grady felt overawed by the challenge. “For the past two seasons I’ve hit double figures and that has been a reflection of the desire and hunger that I have to succeed at this level,” he said.

“Having played for Leicester City and Sheffield Wednesday in the past, I know what it’s like to play for a big club – and Brighton certainly fall into that category.

“Earlier in my career playing for those clubs might have been a bit daunting for me, but at my age I know how to deal with the expectation and to win the fans over. It’s fantastic to be joining a club with such big ambitions and to be joining in the peak years of my career.”

O’Grady started the first three games of the season, but the presence of incumbent Craig Mackail-Smith plus the late August signings of Colunga and Baldock soon indicated competition for forward places was going to get a lot tougher.

Injuries to Baldock and Mackail-Smith gave him some limited game time but Hyypia told the Argus he expected more from the bustling big man.

“He is training well, he’s doing his work and he can be a tricky player for the centre-backs because he is so strong.

“I know that he can be dangerous. Sometimes I wish he would go forward a little bit more.

“He’s not slow so he could give the centre-backs more problems if he didn’t always come to the ball.”

Nigel Clough’s Sheffield United were keen to sign O’Grady permanently

It seemed the FA Cup suited O’Grady because he also pulled a goal back for the Seagulls in the 50th minute of the glamour fourth round tie against holders Arsenal, in front of a 30,278 crowd, although they eventually lost 3-2.

Although Clough was keen to take O’Grady back to south Yorkshire, Hughton made it plain he wanted him to stay and fight for his place

“This is a player that came here and had a difficult time, went away on loan and has been excellent for us since he came back,” Hughton told the Argus. “I must admit I’m still getting to know him. I knew him from his time at Barnsley, I don’t know him as much from his time here.

“He certainly couldn’t have done any more than he has in the last two games. He is no different to any other player, you want to be playing and involved, and if you are you are generally happier. At the moment, I think he’s in a nice place.”

O’Grady admitted: “I’m just getting a chance to play. I’m taking it and doing my very best for however long I am wanted here.

“I am being professional and doing my very best. Since I’ve been back, there is a freshness and a chance to get involved and contribute. That’s all I’ve ever really wanted.”

Buoyed by the change in management, and with his family settled, O’Grady told the Argus in early February: “I’ve succeeded at all the clubs I’ve been at in the past five years, which has led me to be here.

“I started in League Two and if you do fail at any club at any time then you are only going to go down. Failure is not really an option. You have to work as hard as possible to succeed.

“Even though the first half of the season didn’t go well, it would have been too easy to give up and just write it off as ‘this one didn’t really work out’.

“That’s a lesson that if you persevere with a situation it will eventually come good if you deserve it.”

Unfortunately, Hughton thought Leon Best on loan from Blackburn Rovers might be a better option, and Baldock or Mackail-Smith invariably were ahead of him as the manager shuffled his pack in a battle to stay in the division.

It wasn’t until 10 March 2015 when O’Grady, making a rare start away to Reading, scored his first – and only – league goal for the Seagulls, netting from the penalty spot as the Albion went down 2-1.

Come the start of the 2015-16 season, Tomer Hemed and the returning Bobby Zamora made O’Grady’s future involvement a lot less likely.

His only action came in two League Cup matches, away to Southend and Walsall, and he missed a penalty as the Saddlers dumped out the Albion 2-1.

So, it was no surprise he was sent out on a season-long loan to Nottingham Forest, the club who’d let him go as a young boy. During that temporary return to Forest in 2015-16, he scored twice in 21 games.

In the last year of his Albion contract, 2016-17, he was reunited with Nigel Clough, this time at Burton Albion, (pictured in action below) where he scored once in 26 games. While he was a regular in the first half of the season, he made only five appearances after the turn of the year following the arrivals of Cauley Woodrow, Luke Varney and Marvin Sordell.

Born in Nottingham on 25 January 1986, O’Grady was at Forest from the age of 10 to 13. “I dropped out of football for a while but then got back into it at 15,” he told Albion’s matchday programme. “I wrote to the clubs local to me: Leicester and Derby. Leicester were doing open trials at the time, and I progressed through that, then on to proper trials at the training ground, and I eventually got signed up.”

A young Chris O’Grady in his Leicester days

It was during his time at Leicester that he took up yoga, inspired by the knowledge Ryan Giggs was an advocate of it. “It definitely helps,” said O’Grady. “I was a young lad in the youth team at Leicester and quite big physically but not very flexible with it.

“I was also picking up injuries at the time so I just knew I needed to do something. Once I started with the yoga all the injuries kind of went away and I’ve never really had a muscle injury since.”

After he’d got on the scoresheet regularly at under 18 and reserve level, former Albion boss Micky Adams gave him his first team chance with the Foxes.

He also won an England Youth cap in a 3-0 defeat away to France in Limoges on 13 November 2002. When he couldn’t pin down a regular place at City, he had loan stints with Notts County and Rushden and Diamonds and, although he returned to Leicester and played a handful of games in the Championship, in January 2007 he was sold to Rotherham United, where he spent 18 months.

Next up was Oldham but, in two years on their books, he had loan spells at Bury, Bradford City, Stockport County and Rochdale.

O’Grady in action for Barnsley against Albion’s Stephen Ward

His 31 goals in 95 matches for Dale earned him a move to Sheffield Wednesday on a three-year deal in the summer of 2011 but on transfer deadline day in January 2013 he made the short journey to Barnsley and then made the move permanent that summer.

At the end of his three-year Brighton deal, O’Grady moved to League Two Chesterfield for a season, but when they lost their league status he moved on in 2018-19 to his former club, Oldham Athletic, by then in League Two, where he scored eight goals in 47 matches.

The following season he moved up a division and played for League One Bolton Wanderers but their relegation to League Two brought down the curtain on O’Grady’s league playing days.

After he was released, he spent a year out of football. But in May 2022 he signed for Southern League Premier Division Central side Ilkeston Town, where he scored seven goals in 19 games. The side’s manager Martin Carruthers declared on signing him: “Chris is an excellent addition to our squad and brings with him a wealth of experience.

“He is a big, powerful unit and super fit, he will certainly be of huge benefit to our current strikers who will all be able to learn and develop from Chris this season.

“He will give us different attacking options and I’m sure will bring plenty of goals to the team.This is a real coup for the club.”

In February 2023, at the age of 37, O’Grady joined ‘The Gingerbreads’ – Northern Premier League Division One East side Grantham Town – where he played alongside former Nottingham Forest and Derby County forward Nathan Tyson. He scored just the once in eight matches, in a 3-0 win over Brighouse Town (Tyson scored the other two).

Irish midfield maestro’s arrival created buzz of excitement

AN AIR of excitement swept around the crumbling terraces of the Goldstone Ground when one of the finest midfield players of his generation became Brighton’s manager.

Liam Brady had been the darling of Highbury in the 1970s, won titles in Italy with Juventus and then brought the curtain down on a glorious playing career in three years with West Ham United.

After six years watching Brighton’s fortunes fluctuate under the low profile guidance of Barry Lloyd, fans who craved a return to the glory days of Alan Mullery’s first reign had great expectations when such a well-known footballing figure as Brady arrived at the Goldstone in December 1993.

But how did it come about? Brady’s first foray into management – at Glasgow giants Celtic – had not gone well and he was unemployed having resigned in early October.

With only four wins in 26 games, Lloyd’s near-seven-year reign at the Goldstone was in its final throes as autumn turned to winter, and in early December he was said to have left “by mutual consent”.

The managerial vacancy caught the eye of former Albion favourite – and Brady’s former Irish international teammate – Gerry Ryan, who’d been forced to retire from playing and was running a pub in Haywards Heath, and he got in touch.

“He asked if I’d be interested. I saw it as another part of my learning curve as a manager and was happy to take it,” said Brady.

Ryan was promptly installed as Brady’s assistant and before long he’d persuaded Jimmy Case to return to the Seagulls at the age of 39 (he’d been playing non-league for Sittingbourne) to bring experience to the battle against relegation and lend a hand on the coaching side.

Brady takes charge at the Albion

By a strange quirk of fate, the opponents for Brady’s first game in charge, Bradford City, were managed by his former Arsenal and Eire teammate, Frank Stapleton, who the following season he recruited for a couple of games.

Unlike the effect of Brian Clough’s arrival at the Goldstone 20 years previously, the gate for the Bradford match the Saturday before Christmas was only 6,535. Albion lost 1-0 but in the next four games, played over the course of 13 days, there were two wins and two draws. Steady improvement on the pitch was helped by the introduction on loan of two exciting youngsters from Brady’s old club Arsenal – firstly Mark Flatts and then Paul Dickov.

The threat of relegation lifted and, looking back, Brady said his favourite match in charge came on 6 April 1994.

“We beat Swansea 4-1 in an evening game towards the end of my first season, when we had (Paul) Dickov on loan in a very good partnership with Kurt Nogan,” he said.

“There was a real buzz that we were going to avoid relegation. The players believed the club was going places again, as we all did.”

At the start of the following season, Brady picked up two youngsters from Arsenal’s north London neighbours, Spurs, in lively forward Junior McDougald and midfielder Jeff Minton.

Right-back Peter Smith, who assistant manager Ryan had spotted playing in a non-league charity match, was brought on board and crowned his first season by being named player of the season.

Brady also brought in the former England international Mark Chamberlain, but the balance of the side remained youthful and, with money remaining tight, a mid-table finish was not entirely unexpected.

In a matchday programme article in 2015, Brady reflected on how relegation had been avoided against the ugly backdrop of what the directors were doing to the club (selling the ground with no new home to go to) and realised subsequently that he should have left at the end of that second season.

“I became aware that Bill Archer had no intention of taking the club forward, despite his public announcements to the contrary. I could tell that the club was going nowhere.

“Archer and Bellotti were winding the club down and it wasn’t right. But it wasn’t a case of me walking away. I was living in Hove, I had grown attached to the club, the fans, and feelings were running high.”

After 100 games in charge of the Seagulls, he quit in November 1995, handing the reins to Case, who was reluctant to take on the job.

Brady’s fondness for the club remained undiminished, though, and he was subsequently involved in Dick Knight’s consortium trying to wrestle control of the club out of Archer’s hands.

It had been planned that he would return as manager but as the negotiations dragged on he was offered the opportunity to return to Arsenal as head of youth development and couldn’t turn it down.

“I had a family to think about and it was a dream job for me. Dick understood, particularly as there were no guarantees with what was happening at the time at Brighton.”

The fact he had the Arsenal job for the following 25 years meant he probably made the right decision! Even after leaving that role, Brady retained his links with Arsenal by becoming an ambassador for the Arsenal Foundation.

Brady was born into a footballing family in Dublin on 13 February 1956 – a great uncle (Frank) and older brother, Ray, were internationals, older brother Frank played for Shamrock Rovers and another brother, Pat, played for Millwall and QPR.

Brady went to St Aidan’s Catholic Boys School but left at 15 in 1971 to join Arsenal after their chief scout, Gordon Clark, had spotted him and Stapleton playing for Eire Schoolboys.

A Goal magazine article of 7 October 1972 featured boss Bertie Mee talking about the pair as future first team players – even though they were only aged just 15 and 16.

Mee said: “Brady is almost established as a regular in the reserve side. He needs building up but has the potential to become a first-team player. Stapleton has made quite an impact in his first season and, providing he maintains a steady improvement, he could also follow the path of Brady.”

It was only Brady’s second season and Clark said at first he thought he would be better suited to becoming a jockey because he was so small and frail!

He quickly changed his mind when he saw his ability with a football. “He was like a little midget, but he had so much confidence. He’s really shot up now and although he’s still not very tall, he’s strong enough to hold his own,” said Clark. “Liam’s got a very mature head on his shoulders. His maturity shows in his play.”

Brady became a professional at 17 in 1973 and made his debut in October that year as a substitute in a league game against Birmingham City. Mee used him sparingly that season and he picked up the nickname Chippy – not for any footballing prowess but for his liking of fish and chips!

Initially dovetailing with former World Cup winner Alan Ball in Arsenal’s midfield, he eventually took over as the key man in the centre of the park. He became a first team regular in 1974-75 and began to thrive when Terry Neill took over as manager with Don Howe returning to Arsenal as coach. In the second part of the decade, Brady was named the club’s player of the year three times and, in 1979, he won the prestigious Players’ Player of the Year title from the PFA.

Brady played in three successive FA Cup finals for Arsenal – in 1978,1979 and 1980 – winning the competition in the 1979 classic against Manchester United, courtesy of his driving run and pass to Graham Rix whose sublime cross from the left wing into the six-yard area allowed Alan Sunderland a simple tap-in for the winner.

Having lost to Ipswich Town the year before, it was Brady’s first trophy with the Gunners and he said: “It was just wonderful to experience being a Wembley winner. It’s something I’ll never forget.”

The opening game of the following season saw Brady line up for Arsenal at the Goldstone in Albion’s very first top level match.

There was nothing more likely to rile Arsenal than a former Spurs captain claiming beforehand what his team were going to do to the Gunners.

Arsenal promptly romped to a 4-0 win and Brady recalled: “Alan Mullery was shooting his mouth off. Brighton had arrived in the big time and were going to turn Arsenal over.

“Mullers was good at motivating players but he motivated us that day.

“We all thought it was going to be a hard game, but once we got the first goal we settled down and Brighton were in awe of us. I scored a penalty and we ran out comfortable winners.”

However, it was the start of Brady’s last season as an Arsenal player. The following May, Arsenal lost to Trevor Brooking’s headed goal for West Ham in the FA Cup Final and Arsenal also lost to Valencia in the Cup Winners’ Cup Final in a penalty shoot-out – Brady and Rix missing their spot kicks in Brussels.

Nevertheless, having played 307 games (295 starts + 12 as sub), arsenal.com recalls one of their favourite sons warmly: “Chippy had everything a midfielder could want – skill, vision, balance, strength, a powerful shot and the ability to glide past opponents at will.

“Like all great players he always had time on the ball and almost always chose the right option. On a football pitch, Brady’s brain and feet worked in perfect harmony.”

Brady moved on to Italy where he spent seven years, initially with Juventus, winning two Italian league titles and then with Sampdoria, Inter Milan and Ascoli. In his second season at Brighton, Brady had the Seagulls wearing the colours of Inter as their change kit – I still consider it to be the best the club has had.

As well as a highly successful club career, Brady won a total of 72 caps for his country. He made his Republic of Ireland debut on 30 October 1974 in a 3-0 home win over the Soviet Union and went on to win 72 caps for his country.

He retired from internationals ahead of qualification for the 1990 World Cup and, although he later made himself available for selection, manager Jack Charlton decided to choose only those who had helped Eire qualify for the finals.

Brady had returned to the UK in March 1987 to enjoy three years at West Ham in which he scored 10 goals in 119 appearances. His first somewhat ironically came against Arsenal while he reckoned his best was a 20-yarder past Peter Shilton that proved to be the winner in a league game against Derby County.

Brady explained the circumstances of his move to the Hammers in an interview with whufc.com. He nearly ended up joining Celtic instead, but he’d given his word to West Ham boss John Lyall and, because he’d retained an apartment in London, it made sense to return there.

Brady in action for West Ham at the Goldstone, faced by ex-Hammer, Alan Curbishley

In only his fourth West Ham game, he found himself up against Arsenal and was mobbed after netting the final goal in a 3-1 win at the Boleyn Ground.

“With ten minutes remaining, I won the ball on half-way before running to the edge of the 18-yard box, where I hit a low curler around David O’Leary and beyond Rhys Wilmott’s dive, into the bottom right-hand corner,” he said. “The place went wild! I certainly wasn’t going to just walk back to the centre-circle without celebrating my first goal for my new team.”

While the Hammers finished 15th that campaign, they were relegated in 1989 which brought about the departure of Lyall. Brady clearly didn’t see eye to eye with his successor, Lou Macari, but was pleased when he was replaced by Hammers legend Billy Bonds.

Brady eventually called time on his playing days in May 1990, Wolves and West Ham players lining up to give him a guard of honour as he took to the pitch for the final game of the season.

He was substitute that day but went on for Kevin Keen and rounded off his remarkable career by scoring in a 4-0 win.

“Having scored at the Boleyn Ground with my last-ever kick in professional football, I couldn’t have written a better script,” he told whufc.com.

After not making the move to Celtic as a player, his first step into management came at Celtic Park as successor to former club legend Billy McNeill in June 1991. He was the first manager not to have played for the Hoops.

It was a big step to take for a novice manager, and hindsight suggested the players he signed didn’t do him any justice. He later admitted: “I didn’t do particularly well as Celtic boss. Second place behind Rangers was seen as a failure and, even if you’ve had a good reputation as a player, it counts for little as a manager.”

Brighton (well, Hove actually) would prove to be as far from the cauldron of Glasgow as he could possibly get, but the club management game clearly didn’t suit Brady, and he didn’t take on any other senior managerial hotseats after the Seagulls.

Alongside his youth team responsibilities at Arsenal, he did assist his country’s national team between 2008 and 2010. He was assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni during his time in charge, also working alongside Brady’s former Juventus teammate Marco Tardelli.

Brady still lives in Sussex and he told whufc.com how he occasionally meets up with Billy Bonds at Plumpton Races and enjoys a round of golf with Trevor Brooking.

How the career of high rise Flatts came tumbling down

MARK FLATTS was destined for a glittering career after breaking into Arsenal’s first team when only eighteen.

It was the season when George Graham’s side finished in a disappointing 10th place in the league but won the League Cup and the FA Cup, beating Sheffield Wednesday in both competitions.

Flatts got seven starts plus four appearances off the bench and the following season, after he’d been troubled with a few injuries, Graham sent him out on loan to get some games under his belt.

His first loan was at Cambridge United, then in January 1994 Flatts joined forces with former Gunners legend Liam Brady at Brighton.

The former midfield maestro who’d graced the game at the highest level as a player had not long arrived at the Goldstone Ground, creating a buzz of anticipation amongst the largely disillusioned Albion faithful.

Brighton were bumping along around the foot of the third tier table when he arrived and it augured well that Brady could use his connections with his former club to secure the services of a prodigious young talent who’d already played a handful of matches in the Premier League.

He made his debut in a cracking 4-1 New Year’s Day home win over Cambridge United when Kurt Nogan scored a hat-trick and he was only on the losing side twice during his two months at the club, helping the Albion move away from the relegation zone.

Brady wrote about it in his autobiography Born To Be A Footballer, describing how “livewire” Flatts had heated up “a freezing Goldstone” on that debut day. “He’s a lovely young kid off the field but on the park there’s a strut about him. That’s exactly what we need. He’s full of tricks.”

Flatts started nine matches, came on as a sub once, and scored one of Albion’s goals in a 3-2 home win over Blackpool, but it was his skill on the ball and pace that fans enjoyed most.

After he had returned to Highbury, Brady thanked him for his contribution and said in his programme notes: “He gave the place a tremendous lift. He’s a very confident lad and he did us a real favour and hopefully he’s got something out of it as well. I think he has and I think he enjoyed his time with us.”

Flatts confirmed as much recently. Although he has kept a low profile for many years, in 2020, online from his home in Norfolk, he appeared in two podcasts talking about his career.

On the Shoot the Defence podcast in April 2020, Flatts talked admiringly of his time under Brady at Brighton – “He still had it in training” – as well as the experience of playing alongside senior pros Jimmy Case and Steve Foster at the Goldstone Ground.

“Loyal fans as well. It was a good time,” he said. “I got on well with the fans and a few of them still text me, so that’s nice. Liam Brady and Jimmy Case had seen me in a few games, said they wanted me on loan, and I went there and enjoyed it.”

Born in Islington on 14 October 1972 and brought up in Wood Green, Flatts played for Haringey Borough and Middlesex County school teams and he was playing for Enfield Rangers when he caught the eye of professional clubs.

He spent time training with Watford and West Ham, but his mum and older brother were Arsenal fans so, when they invited him to join them, it was no contest. The scout responsible for picking him up for the Gunners was the former Brighton wing-half, Steve Burtenshaw.

Flatts was one of the country’s top talented 14-year-olds who went through the FA National School of Excellence at Lilleshall before becoming a trainee at Highbury after graduating.

In the first edition of a new fans’ podcast Over and Over and Over Again on 20 August 2020, Flatts talked about how he, Andy Cole and Paul Dickov up front, Ray Parlour and Ian Selley in midfield, Scott Marshall at the back and Alan Miller in goal were all going through from youth team to reserves at the same time. “It was a good strong youth team,” he said. “Pat Rice was the youth team manager who brought us through. He was a good coach.”

Flatts signed professional in December 1990 and he progressed to the reserve side who were managed by another Arsenal legend, George Armstrong.

One particular reserve match stands out as memorable – but not because Flatts scored a goal in a 2-2 draw. Ordinarily, Flatts was accustomed to playing in front of a few hundred supporters for the second string, but on 16 February 1991 it’s reckoned more than 10,000 turned up.

The Ovenden Papers Football Combination game against Reading was originally scheduled to be an away fixture but freezing conditions meant the game was swapped to Highbury because it had undersoil heating.

The reason for the surge of interest was the match saw the return to playing of Tony Adams after his release from prison, having served half of his four-month sentence for drink driving. The amazing response of the Arsenal faithful was remembered in this football.london article in February 2018.  

Often niggled by injuries, Flatts was sidelined by one he hadn’t even been aware of, other than what felt like a small discomfort. “I got a stress fracture on my ankle and was playing on it for a month without realising,” he said.

Physio Gary Lewin arranged for him to see a Harley Street specialist and it was only after he was put through tests on a running machine that the problem was diagnosed. The injury required surgery that put him out of action for over a year.

Flatts got his first real involvement with the first team on a pre-season tour of Norway ahead of the 1992-93 season, getting on as a substitute against Stabaek and Brann Bergen. He was a non-playing sub in two subsequent pre-season friendlies away to Wolves and Peterborough.

It was back to reserve team football at the start of the season but Graham selected him to travel with the squad for an away game at Sheffield United on 19 September and he made his competitive debut as a 71st minute substitute for Anders Limpar, shortly before Ian Wright netted an equaliser for the Gunners.

His next involvement came in a third round League Cup encounter with Derby County. He was a non-playing sub in the away tie but started in Limpar’s place for the replay on 1 December 1992, when Arsenal edged it 2-1.

Flatts (right) celebrates Arsenal’s League Cup win with some familiar faces

He kept his place for the league game which followed four days later but was subbed off as Arsenal lost 1-0 at Southampton.

At one point, the Islington Gazette declared Flatts, Neil Heaney, Parlour and Dickov as the “next crop of Arsenal starlets who will take the club forward”.

As the year drew to a close, on 19 December, Flatts earned rave reviews for his showing in a 1-1 home draw against Lennie Lawrence’s Middlesbrough.

“It’s very unusual to have a quick player with a brain,” said manager Graham. “Mark has skill but he also has the application to go with it.”

Writing about how brightly Flatts shone in the game, Trevor Haylett, of the Independent, said: “He possesses an easy and deceptive running style which frequently carried him away from markers, and has a confidence that few of his colleagues shared in a desultory first 45 minutes.”

Haylett observed: “The problem for Graham is that his most productive line-up, with Merson in the ‘hole’ to distribute and ghost into scoring areas, leaves no room for Flatts, who amply justified his manager’s contention that he has a ‘very big future in the game’.”

Flatts kept his place for the following match, a goalless Boxing Day home draw against Ipswich Town, and was back on the bench away to Aston Villa three days later but came on for the second half in a game Arsenal lost 1-0.

The game he remembers most fondly came just over a fortnight later away to Manchester City at Maine Road. He sped past two players and crossed it for Paul Merson to score with a near post header that gave Arsenal a 1-0 win.

But competition for places was intense and he didn’t next get a start until 1 March against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, another game that finished goalless.

He had to wait until May for his next involvement, as a sub in a 1-0 defeat away to Sheffield Wednesday, who his teammates would play twice in the space of five days later that month to win the FA Cup on penalties, both games having ended in draws.

With the first of those matches only four days away, Graham put out a young side to face Spurs in the last league game of the season, and Flatts was part of a side who lost the north London derby 3-1, Dickov getting the Arsenal goal.

After his loan spell at Brighton, Flatts got back into the first team picture at Arsenal towards the end of the 1993-94 season, featuring in three successive league games: as a sub in a 1-1 draw with Wimbledon and starting in a 2-1 win at Villa and a 1-1 home draw against QPR.

While he travelled to Copenhagen with the squad for the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final on 4 May 1994, he didn’t play in the Gunners’ 1-0 win.

Flatts wasn’t back in the Arsenal first team set-up until December 1994, when he had a four-game spell, starting in a 2-2 draw away to Nottingham Forest, being a non-playing sub away to Manchester City and then coming on as a sub in a 3-1 defeat at home to Leeds on 17 December and in the goalless Boxing Day home match with Aston Villa.

He came off the bench in a third round FA Cup replay defeat to Millwall on 18 January 1995 but the following month the manager who had supported his development was sacked, and the young wideman went out on loan to Bristol City.

Flatts didn’t reckon much of the man management skills of Graham’s temporary successor, Stewart Houston, but it was the manager who eventually succeeded him who showed the youngster the door.

“Bruce Rioch took over, and said: ‘No, you’re not good enough’ and that was it,” Flatts recalled. He had another short loan spell, this time at Grimsby Town, in the 1995-96 season, but when his contract was up in 1996, he was given a free transfer.

When Flatts left the famous marble halls of Highbury, all that early promise rapidly evaporated and despite a handful of trials at several clubs, his career fizzled out, the player admitting he fell out of love with the game.

Initially, he headed off to Italy to try his luck with Torino in Serie B. He said while he enjoyed his few months there, a limit on the number of foreign players who could play at any one time edged him out of the picture.

According to arseweb.com, back in the UK he had trial periods with Manchester City (September 1996) and Watford (October 1986), although the scathing Hornets fans website, Blind, Stupid and Desperate has a less than flattering summary of his efforts to impress at Vicarage Road. He was briefly at Kettering Town in December 1996, then Barnet (1997-98 pre-season) and Colchester United (1999-00 pre-season) but none of them took him on.

Former Arsenal striker Martin Hayes, manager at Ryman League Division One side Bishop’s Stortford, signed him during the 1999-00 season.

And his last appearance on a team-sheet was as an unused substitute for Queens Park Rangers in a 2000-01 pre-season 4-2 away defeat at Dr Martens League Premier Division side Crawley Town.

Flatts told host Richie Wakelin on Over and Over and Over Again that he kept on picking up niggling injuries too regularly. “With fitness concerns, I just lost interest,” he said. “I ain’t got no regrets. I loved it at Arsenal. I loved playing football. George Graham had faith in me and he gave me a go.”

He said his teenage son and daughter both play football and he has done some coaching at a local level and has considered setting up his own coaching school. He has also done some scouting work for Cambridge United and Norwich City.

Flatts looks back at his football career during a 2020 podcast

Pictures from Albion’s matchday programmes and various online sources.

Why Shane Duffy is forever grateful to Everton

SHANE DUFFY has seized the opportunity to re-establish himself at the heart of Brighton’s defence to the obvious delight of the manager who appeared to have shunned him.

With injury sidelining Dan Burn and Covid-19 isolation protocol ruling out Joel Veltman, Duffy stepped up with a solid performance in the season-opener at Burnley, and a goalscoring return to the Amex in the 2-0 win over Watford.

“It was a fantastic header from Duffy, he’s a monster in the box,” boss Graham Potter told the BBC after the televised Watford match. “He is so big and strong to stop – it was a great goal.”

Duffy’s form has been a reminder of the solid centre-back partnership he formed with Lewis Dunk as the bedrock of Brighton’s promotion from the Championship in 2017.

Although a metatarsal injury in a 3-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest meant he missed out on the run-in, Duffy was obviously confident of being restored to the line-up when the Premier League season got under way.

“I’m looking forward to going back to Everton to see a few mates but they’re all going to be big games,” Duffy said in a matchday programme article. “I feel more ready for it than I was four or five years ago at Everton, and I deserve another crack at it, but I know I’ve got to work hard.”

While additions to the squad were to be expected as the Albion sought to stay among exalted company, the Duffy-Dunk pairing at the back didn’t look much like being broken up. Certainly not under Chris Hughton.

Happy with his mainstays at the heart of the defence, Hughton allowed Connor Goldson to leave for Glasgow Rangers and Uwe Hünemeier to return to Germany and Duffy was comfortable alongside Dunk as Albion retained their top division status. And so it remained for Albion’s two first two seasons back amongst the elite.

But when Potter replaced the popular Hughton in 2019, it soon became apparent Duffy didn’t fit the mould of the sort of ball-playing centre-back he wanted in the side.

Although he started the season under Potter, his place was gradually taken over by big money signing Adam Webster. Duffy invariably ended up warming the bench and at the start of the 2020-21 season, with Ben White preferred alongside Dunk and Webster, he jumped at the chance to go on loan to Glasgow giants Celtic, the team he’d supported as a boy.

Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be quite the dream move Duffy had hoped for, with criticism arrowing in from all quarters as the Republic of Ireland international underwhelmed in the centre of the Hoops defence, and Celtic could only watch as city rivals Rangers won the Scottish title.

Doubtless the irony wasn’t lost on Duffy that his first match back in a Seagulls shirt saw him up against Rangers in a pre-season friendly, when the home fans ensured he was given a ‘warm’ reception.

But let’s go back to where it all started.

Born in Derry, Northern Ireland, on 1 January 1992, Duffy was playing for Northern Ireland Under-16s against England in the Victory Shield when he caught the eye of watching Everton boss David Moyes.

Duffy had been playing for his local side, Foyle Harps, at the time and, although Arsenal took him on trial and offered him a scholarship, Everton invited him to train with them and offered him a professional contract immediately.

“Of the two clubs, I just had a good feeling about Everton; obviously it was more of a family club, and there’s also the Irish connection with the city of Liverpool, so it was easy for me to settle in,” Duffy told the matchday programme.

In his second season at Goodison Park, he made his first team debut aged just 17 in a Europa League match against AEK Athens.

“David Moyes handed me my debut and I owe him a lot because he always had belief in me, whereas I could have gone somewhere else and maybe ended up back in Ireland,” he said. “I was raw as I hadn’t been with an academy before, but he was patient with me, as were all the coaches, and I came through the youth team and reserves before I got my break in the Europa League and then later in the Premier League.”

Duffy played against Brighton when the third-tier club’s youngsters (with Dunk in defence) acquitted themselves brilliantly in the fourth round of the FA Youth Cup against Everton at the Withdean on 21 January 2010 before eventually losing 2-0. The programme pen picture said of him: “Strong in the tackle and dependable in the air, Shane is considered a ball-playing defender.”

Duffy recalled: “I’d just turned 18 and had recently broken into the Everton team in the Europa League. I do remember Dunky a little bit because we were marking each other at corners.”

A month after his visit to Withdean, Duffy decided to switch allegiance to the Republic having previously captained Northern Ireland’s Under-19s. It came just as he was selected for the full international squad to face Albania in a friendly in Tirana where he was expected to receive his first cap in the absence of captain Aaron Hughes (who later spent a season with Brighton) and Chris Baird.

Disappointed Northern Ireland boss Nigel Worthington told The Guardian: “There is a loophole where a player can walk away after a lot of time and investment has gone in. Until it is resolved, that’s where we are. Shane has represented Northern Ireland all the way through from a very early age to the Under-21s.

“I am a big admirer of Shane. I like him as a player and a lot of work has gone in with different coaches. I am disappointed with the situation as he is going to be a very good player. Shane has decided, after discussing the matter with his family, to represent the Republic. As a manager, I have got to respect that.”

Duffy, who had close family ties to Donegal in the Republic, said the decision to switch his allegiance from Northern Ireland was the right thing to do to help his international career.

Speaking to evertontv, Duffy said:“It was difficult for me to leave because of what they’ve done for me in Northern Ireland since I was young. They brought me through the ranks which gave me the chance to come to Everton.

“It was hard to leave all the coaches and all the players, but it was always a case of wanting to come to my own country. I spoke to a couple of people about it because I didn’t want to disrespect Northern Ireland, but I just had to do what was best for me and I thought it would be best for me to switch.”

Astonishingly, in his first-ever training match with the Republic, under manager Giovanni Trapattoni, he was involved in a freak collision that lacerated his liver and emergency surgery was required to save his life as he lost a huge amount of blood.

After a speedier-than-expected recovery, Duffy was soon lining up for the Republic’s Under-19s and Under-21s and he went on to make 20 appearances for the Under-21s.

In 2012 he was called up to the senior squad to replace the injured Richard Dunne but missed out on the squad for the 2012 Euros. He had to wait until June 2014 to make his full debut and it was another two years before he was next involved.

He was called up to the side who famously beat Italy in a 2016 Euros group match to qualify for the final 16 but was then sent off as the Republic bowed out 2-1 against France. Nevertheless, under Martin O’Neill, Duffy became established in the side and in March 2018 was named his country’s Player of the Year. He told the matchday programme: “When I heard the news, I was shell-shocked, but when it sunk in it gave me time to reflect on how far I’ve come in a short space of time.

“So much has happened: the Euros, failing to reach the World Cup in the play-offs, winning promotion with Brighton, playing in the Premier League.

“The manager noticed a difference in me when he brought me back into the side two years later, and that’s because I went away, played games and I worked hard. I got myself properly fit, dedicated, and I feel like I’ve benefited from that.”

Reflecting on the experiences given to him by Hughton and O’Neill, Duffy pointed out: “Chris has given me the chance to play in the Premier League where I’m developing, and Martin has given me the chance to play on the big stages and in a big tournament.

“You take little things out of each one of them and it’s coming together a bit now, and hopefully there’s more to come. I’m still a bit raw in some things I do but I’m getting better and it’s a nice feeling to go out knowing you can compete with top players and feel comfortable.”

Duffy went on to captain the Republic for the first time in a 1-1 draw against Denmark in November 2019 and retained the captaincy in Stephen Kenny’s first game in charge, in September 2020; a 1-1 draw against Bulgaria.

As an established international, Duffy has nearly 145,000 followers on Twitter.

Looking back, by his own admission, Duffy had realised his early exposure to senior football at Everton was going to be short-lived, telling the club’s website at the time: “I know I’m not ready to play in Everton’s first team yet as I’m so young but if I’m needed I’ll do my best for the team. A loan would obviously make me better and make me more mature on the pitch.”

Initially that loan came at Burnley in the Championship, but he only played one game under Eddie Howe and, in 2011-12, he had a more fruitful loan at League One Scunthorpe United, playing 19 games under Alan Knill.

An injury to Phil Jagielka prompted Everton to recall Duffy from Scunthorpe in January 2012 and a week after playing against Hartlepool he found himself going on as a substitute for Sylvain Distin against Spurs at White Hart Lane.

Spurs had Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Emmanuel Adebayor in their line-up but Duffy said: “I refused to get overawed by the occasion. I just treated it as another football match, another opponent, and only afterwards did I take in what had happened.”

He said: “Everton are a club that will always mean a lot to me because they gave me my chance as a professional and shaped the player I am today. David Moyes was a big influence on my career; he helped me a lot.”

Duffy spent the 2013-14 season on loan at Yeovil – “another fantastic learning curve for me” – when Gary Johnson’s side were in the Championship and although Moyes’ successor Roberto Martinez offered Duffy a new contract at Everton, he was warned he would have to wait to establish himself because he was still young and inexperienced.

So, in the summer of 2014, he decided to join Paul Lambert’s Championship side Blackburn Rovers and, while a knee injury restricted his appearances in his first season at Ewood Park, he became a permanent fixture alongside Grant Hanley in 2015-16.

When Gordon Greer’s imposing reign as Brighton centre-back and captain came to an end in 2016, Hughton turned to Duffy as his replacement (Greer went back to Rovers). The fee was undisclosed but was reported in The Mirror to be £4m.

It remains unclear where Duffy’s future lays although his performances in the opening two games of the season suggest there could yet be a future for him under Potter. The manager didn’t hold back in his praise for the big Irishman, but the defender didn’t get carried away.

Duffy opened up to the media after the win at Burnley, talking about what he’d been through over the previous 12 months, but he pointedly added: “It is only one game and a lot can still happen, but as long as I am here I’ll try and help the team whether that’s on the pitch or off the pitch with the younger lads. That is what I am here to do.”

He said he had “hit rock bottom” when affected by off-field problems (for example, his father Brian died aged 53 in May 2020), but he praised the Seagulls for continuing to offer him support and he added: “I am still taking it day by day and be like an 18-year-old try and impress every day, try and improve and try and help as much as I can. I feel like if you do that you get the reward sometimes when maybe you don’t expect it.”

Duffy also spoke openly and honestly to Sky Sports as part of the build-up to the game against Watford.

Pictures from Albion’s matchday programme and online sources.

Cobblers hero Mike Everitt started out with the Gunners

CONTACTS made as a youngster at Arsenal stood versatile Mike Everitt in good stead for the rest of his career.

He went on to play under his former Gunners teammate Dave Bowen at Northampton Town as part of one of football’s most remarkable stories and earned a place in the Cobblers’ ‘team of the century’.

Later, he joined a small enclave of former Arsenal players at Brighton. Everitt swapped Devon for Sussex in March 1968 when he moved from Plymouth Argyle for a £2,500 fee.

The man who signed him, Archie Macaulay, was a former Arsenal man himself who’d already brought three other ex-Gunners to Hove in goalkeeper Tony Burns, Irish international full-back Jimmy Magill and winger Brian Tawse.

Everitt started the new season as first choice left-back in Macaulay’s side and an uninterrupted 14-game run in the team as autumn turned to winter straddled Macaulay’s departure and the arrival of new boss Freddie Goodwin.

Everitt slotted home a penalty as Albion drew 1-1 away to Bristol Rovers on 18 January 1969 but the 3-1 home win over Crewe Alexandra the following Saturday was his last outing of the season.

Everitt, Howard Wilkinson and Dave Turner from this Albion line-up all went on to become coaches

He picked up an injury and, with Goodwin having signed his former Leeds teammate Barrie Wright from New York Generals, local lad John Templeman able to fill either full-back slot, not to mention the addition of Eddie Spearritt from Ipswich Town, Everitt couldn’t win back his place in the starting line-up.

Competition for a starting place only intensified in the summer of 1969 when Goodwin’s former Leeds teammate, Willie Bell, arrived from Leicester and was installed as the regular choice at left-back, while Stewart Henderson cemented the right-back slot to the extent he was named Player of the Season.

While Everitt deputised for Bell on a couple of occasions and filled Bobby Smith’s midfield spot for four matches, his only other involvement was as sub on a handful of occasions. He was a non-playing sub in the final game of the season (a 2-1 home defeat to Mansfield Town) and then left the club during the close season.

Born in Clacton on 16 January 1941, Everitt represented Essex Schoolboys and London Schoolboys before being taken on as an apprentice by Arsenal in 1956. He turned professional in February 1958 and, thanks to the excellent records of thearsenalhistory.com, we know that he first played in the first team in the Harry Bamford Memorial match at Eastville against a Bristol XI on 8 May 1959.

He then went on Arsenal’s end-of-season tour to Italy and Switzerland. He was an unused sub for friendlies against Juventus and Fiorentina but came on as a substitute in a 4-1 win over Lugano of Switzerland on 24 May 1959.

Everitt (circled back row) lines up for Arsenal – with (left to right trio in centre of front row), David Herd, Tommy Docherty and Jimmy Bloomfield

It wasn’t until Easter 1960 that he made his competitive first team breakthrough, but when he did it was a baptism of fire in George Swindin’s side.

He made his first team debut in front of 37,873 fans packed into Highbury on Good Friday (15 April 1960) as the Gunners beat a Johnny Haynes-led Fulham side 2-0.

Modern day players might not be able to comprehend it but Everitt also played the following day when Arsenal travelled to Birmingham City, and lost 3-0. Two days later, away to Fulham this time, Everitt was again in the starting line-up as Arsenal lost 3-0.

He kept his place for the following Saturday’s match – at home to Manchester United – and in front of 41,057 he was part of the side that beat United 5-2. Future Albion teammate Alex Dawson led the line for a United team that included Bobby Charlton and Johnny Giles.

That was the penultimate game of the season and Everitt retained his place for the final game, which ended in a 1-0 defeat to West Brom at The Hawthorns.

The 1960-61 season got off to a good start for him too as he played in the opening four matches and, into the bargain, scored Arsenal’s only goal as they beat Preston North End at home on 23 August. Unfortunately for him, a tigerish Scot called Tommy Docherty edged him out of the first team picture and in February 1961 he moved to Fourth Division Northampton Town (for a fee of £4,000) who were managed by the aforementioned Bowen.

His stay with the Cobblers spanned one of the most remarkable stories in football history as they were promoted season on season from the Fourth to the First….and then relegated all the way back down again (although Everitt had left for pastures new before they reached the basement again).

What he was part of, though, was achieving three promotions in five years. Glenn Billingham recalled that heady era in a 2017 article for thesefootballtimes.co.

In 1961-62, Everitt was a regular at wing-half and scored five goals in 41 appearances. He switched to left-back the following season and played 30 matches as Town went up as champions.

A season of consolidation in 1963-64 saw Town finish 11th in Division Two, when Everitt played 45 matches. He played in 43 games in the 1964-65 season which culminated in the historic promotion to the top-flight courtesy of finishing in runners up spot, a point behind champions Newcastle United.

Necessary investment in improving the squad was slow to materialise and Bowen initially had to rely on the same squad of players who’d got them up. Everitt was one of only five Town players who had previously played at that level.

A 5-2 defeat away to Everton in the opening fixture was perhaps a portent of what was to follow for the rest of the season. They didn’t record a win until their 14th game, at home to West Ham (when they won 2-1), but the underdogs performed heroics in their first two home matches. It must have been quite an occasion when in only the second game of the season Everitt lined up in the Northampton side to face Arsenal.

The game finished 1-1, although Everitt had to be replaced at half-time. However, he also played in the return fixture at Highbury which also finished in a 1-1 draw.

Town also drew 1-1 at home to Manchester United, stifling the attacking threat of Best, Law and Charlton, although United exacted revenge at Old Trafford where they dished out a 6-2 thrashing. Charlton got a hat-trick, Law scored a couple and John Connelly was also on the scoresheet.

Everitt made 34 appearances (plus one as sub) that season and scored two goals, one in a rare win, in the penultimate game, when the Cobblers beat Sunderland 2-1 (the Wearsiders scorer was Neil Martin, who later played for the Albion). Graham Carr (father of comedian Alan Carr) played 30 times for the Cobblers that season.

Back in the second tier, Everitt featured in 17 games but as Town plummeted straight through the division, he moved on to Plymouth Argyle in March 1967, where his former Arsenal teammate Jimmy Bloomfield had moved to from West Ham. Everitt was still only 26 when he made his debut in a 1-0 home defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers. After 31 games for Argyle, he made the move to Brighton.

Everitt had already gained his preliminary coaching badge when still a player and after leaving Brighton in 1970 he initially moved to Plymouth City as player-manager. Within months, he seized the opportunity to move up a level when he landed the player-manager role at then Southern League Wimbledon.

In a January 2010 interview in The Guardian, it was revealed the two candidates he beat to land the position were David Pleat, who went on to manage Luton, Leicester and Spurs, and his former Albion teammate Howard Wilkinson, who won the league title with Leeds United.

Pleat recalled: “The director, Stanley Reed, went for Mike and Howard ended up at Boston United while I was eventually appointed by Nuneaton Borough in the Southern League.”

A few eyebrows were raised in 1973 when Everitt was appointed manager of newly-relegated Brentford just seven days before the start of the 1973-74 season, taking over from Frank Blunstone, who’d left to become youth team manager at Manchester United.

Greville Waterman, on a Bees fan blog, said Everitt polarised opinion, declaring: “He was undoubtedly a cheap option and received little support from the directors (now where have we heard that before) and did his best with a wafer thin squad.”

A classic example saw defender Stewart Houston sold to Manchester United for a club record £55,000 in December 1973, but the money wasn’t immediately reinvested in the squad.

Nevertheless, Waterman pointed out: “His approach did not go down well with some of his players and he brought in a number of tough bruisers. Under his management, Brentford declined rapidly, fell to the bottom of the Football League and barely escaped the need to apply for re-election.”

Legendary Brentford defender Alan Nelmes was particularly disparaging about Everitt. “He didn’t have the technical expertise that Frank had and you felt as if the club wasn’t going anywhere with him. Frank was very advanced in his thinking, ahead of his time, really, and it was a step backwards to have Mike.”

Everitt finally got some backing from the boardroom on transfer deadline day. Experienced forward Dave Simmons was brought in from Cambridge United and former Everton and Southampton defender Jimmy Gabriel from Bournemouth and a 10-match unbeaten run from mid-February to early April did enough to assure the Bees avoided bottom spot even though their finishing position of 19th was their lowest position for nearly 50 years. Crowds were hovering around only 5,000 too.

It didn’t get much better the following season and in spite of getting a vote of confidence in November 1974 from new chairman Dan Tana, Everitt only lasted a few more weeks in the hotseat.

Ironically, after a poor start to the campaign, he’d begun to turn results round and lifted the side to a mid-table position on the back of four wins and a draw in a seven-game spell between late November to mid-January, but he was sacked on 16 January and replaced with John Docherty, who’d only packed up playing for the Bees the previous summer.

Everitt’s next role came as a coach (pictured above) under his old Arsenal pal Bloomfield at Leicester City, and former winger Len Glover came up with an amusing reminiscence on lcfc.com.

Glover recalled when he was 17 playing against Everitt for Charlton Athletic against Northampton.

“He had massive thighs, and had his sleeves rolled up. In the first five minutes he had kicked me when the ball was nowhere near, and now he was our coach!

“He was just the same when he was our coach. When he started, he gathered us round at the training ground. His opening gambit was, ‘You don’t know me, and I don’t know you, but we will soon change that!’

“Then he noticed Frank Worthington who was not with the group but was with the apprentices who were crossing the ball for him to volley like they did every morning. He went, ‘Oi, get over here!’ Frank went, ‘Yeah, in a minute’. Instead of saying, ‘Over here, now!’ Everitt just went, ‘Well, hurry up then’.

“Before Everitt left we went to Leeds and we got stuffed 3-0. After the game Birch (Alan Birchenall) was doing his hair with his hair dryer. Win or lose he would always do his hair. Mike Everitt came in and said, ‘It’s a pity you’re not as good with the ball as you are with that hair dryer!’ Birch replied, ‘If I was as good with the ball as I am with the hair dryer, I wouldn’t be playing for Leicester!’”

After leaving Leicester, Everitt managed Kuwaiti side Al-Shabab when another former Arsenal teammate, George Armstrong, was manager of the Kuwaiti national side (Armstrong’s daughter, Jill, posted a picture of them in Kuwait on Twitter in 2019).

Jill Armstrong posted this picture on Twitter of her with dad George and Everitt in Kuwait

After Kuwait, Everitt managed Cairo-based Egyptian teams Al Mokawloon and Al Ahly, the club Percy Tau joined in the summer of 2021.

According to Wikipedia, Everitt had particular success at Al Mokawloon, winning the 1982-83 Egyptian Premier League title and two African Cup Winners Cups.

• Pictures from matchday programmes and online sources.

That man from Argentina scored goals in the UK and Spain

LEONARDO ULLOA brought down the curtain on his playing career in Madrid, netting six goals in 20 appearances (plus 12 off the bench) for Rayo Vallecano in the Spanish second division.

It was to the delight of Brighton fans that 28 of his career 148 goals were scored for the Albion, where he quickly established himself as a fans favourite by scoring on his debut against Arsenal in the FA Cup.

Previously virtually unknown in England, Ulloa’s arrival in January 2013 provided the tall, goalscoring presence up front Brighton had been craving since Glenn Murray headed to Crystal Palace in the summer of 2011.

Within two months, Ulloa was cementing his place in Albion history by scoring the first ever hat-trick at the Amex, in a 4-1 win over Huddersfield Town, and it wasn’t long before fans were serenading him with his own terrace song: “Who’s that man from Argentina, who’s that man we all adore…..”

His efforts in the stripes got even better when he scored twice in a memorable 3-0 win over Palace that March giving the Seagulls their first home win over their bitter rivals for 25 years.

After the game, manager Gus Poyet told BBC Radio Sussex: “Leonardo Ulloa is making the difference. I am pleased for him. If he had been here for the first six months I can’t imagine where we would be right now.

“What a prize for him, scoring two goals against our biggest rivals. I am very happy for him.” By the season’s end, Ulloa had scored 11 goals in 16 starts (plus one substitute appearance).

While Poyet departed acrimoniously after defeat in the play-off semi-finals, Ulloa continued to thrive under new boss Oscar Garcia. Top-scoring with 16 goals, he’ll always most memorably be known for nodding in a last-gasp header from Craig Mackail-Smith’s left-wing cross to secure a 2-1 win at the City Ground, Nottingham on 3 May 2014.

It earned Albion another play-offs place in the bid to secure promotion to the Premier League, although a 6-2 aggregate defeat at the hands of Derby County meant it didn’t end well.

Sadly, not only did it mark the end of Garcia’s reign, it also led to Ulloa’s exit from the club, but the £8m record fee newly-promoted Leicester City paid for his services was difficult to resist, quite apart from the player’s desire to play at the top level.

Switching to the East Midlands was a short hop compared to the journey he had to make when he was starting out in the game.

Born on 26 July 1986 in General Roca, a city in Argentina’s northern Patagonian province of Rio Negro, Ulloa moved 700 miles from home at the age of 15 to pursue his footballing dream, as he told Brian Owen of The Argus in a 2013 interview.

It was only when he wasn’t getting much playing time in Argentina that he took the opportunity to move to Spain, initially with Spanish second-tier side Castellon in the Valencia region.

When they were relegated in 2010, he stayed in the second tier by moving to the south east of the country to join Almeria, where he scored 39 times in 90 appearances. It was from there Albion bought him for an undisclosed sum, widely thought to be £2m.

The subsequent move to Leicester couldn’t have got off to a better start when Ulloa scored Leicester’s first Premier League goal for a decade in August 2014, hitting the net on his debut against Everton at the King Power Stadium. He also scored a brace of goals in a famous 5-3 victory over Manchester United.

Indeed at the end of that 2014-15 season, Ulloa was Leicester’s top scorer with 13 goals in 31 appearances (plus nine as a sub).

Few could have imagined it was going to get a whole lot better the following season, but as Claudio Ranieri’s City shocked the football world by climbing to the summit of the Premier League and staying there, Ulloa collected a title winners medal for his contribution.

Although he made just nine starts, as Jamie Vardy and Shinji Okazaki took centre stage, he appeared 22 times as a substitute and, in his supporting role, chipped in with six – often vital – goals.

He scored an 89th minute winner to earn a 1-0 win over Norwich City after entering the fray as a 78th minute sub and, when defeat at home to West Ham looked on the cards after Vardy had been sent off, he coolly netted a penalty in the fifth minute of added on time to secure a 2-2 draw.

With Vardy suspended for the following game, Ulloa stepped up with two goals in a 4-0 win at home to Swansea City.

Phil McNulty, BBC Sport’s chief football writer, said Ulloa had fully repaid the faith shown in him by Ranieri. “When Ulloa earned the Foxes a vital point with a stoppage-time penalty last weekend against West Ham, he showed he was not a man to be perturbed by pressure – and he relished the responsibility put on his shoulders against Swansea,” he wrote, describing how Ulloa “ran selflessly all afternoon to compensate for the darting, pacy threat of Vardy, and most importantly contributed two goals that eventually made this a stroll for Leicester City”.

It all turned sour for him at the King Power Stadium the following season and with a lack of involvement his frustration went public as he sought a move away. Sunderland, fighting (ultimately in vain) relegation from the Premiership, reportedly had three bids to sign him turned down in the January 2017 transfer window.

Ulloa told Sky Sports News reporter Rob Dorsett: “I’m a bit sad about the current situation. It’s been two wonderful years at the club but now, given my situation – not playing and not being part of the team’s plans – I feel that the best way forward is I leave and I can be happy somewhere else.”

He added: “They know I am not going to be used. The best thing for both parties is they sell me to another club and I can continue playing my football somewhere else.”

However, when Ranieri was sacked the following month, Ulloa found a path to first team football re-opened under new boss Craig Shakespeare. He only made four starts but he appeared off the bench 19 times, and, in August 2017, signed a new two-year contract with the Foxes.

Speaking to LCFC TV, Ulloa said: “I am so happy because I have lived massive moments with this club and it makes me happy to stay here and fight, to help the team and increase the club’s history. That is so important and I am so happy for this two-year contract. Now I have to fight to play. I will train and give my best. I appreciate it a lot to stay here and I am so happy here now. For that, I want to continue in this in the same way by working hard and working my best for the club.”

Shakespeare added: “Leo’s goals and performances have been key to some wonderful moments for this football club since he first joined and I’m delighted to have him with us for another two years. He’s a popular member of the squad and gives us an excellent option in attack.”

All of the words came to nought however, because Ulloa was barely involved, other than sitting on the subs bench and only getting on once. So, in January 2018, he was happy to return to Brighton on loan to supplement the striking options in Chris Hughton’s squad.

But with Glenn Murray in top form and Sam Baldock and Tomer Hemed as other striker options, Ulloa only made four starts plus eight appearances as a sub. He scored twice, including opening the scoring against Manchester City at the Etihad, but Albion didn’t share the striker’s enthusiasm for a permanent return to the Seagulls.

Instead of moving back to the south coast, Ulloa headed to Mexico to join Pachucha, and a year later he headed back to Europe, and back to Spain, to sign for Rayo Vallecano.

The striker spent eight months sidelined by a serious knee injury in 2020 but returned to action in October 2020 before retiring at the end of the 2020-21 season. Ulloa received a warm reception from Albion fans when he was interviewed on the Amex pitch in March 2023 when West Ham were the visitors.

Pictures from various online sources.

The Tiger who came to Brighton and fitted to a T

DIMINUTIVE winger Brian Tawse is remembered by veteran Brighton fans for his boyish good looks…. and a stunning disallowed goal.

It perhaps does a disservice to the fact he played 109 games (plus five as a sub) in the second half of the swinging Sixties after joining the club from Arsenal.

Tawse spent two years with the Gunners and made a handful of first-team appearances but with George Armstrong ahead of him it wasn’t until he joined the Albion that he began to play regular league football.

It was a cracking strike by Tawse in the closing minutes of a FA Cup fourth round tie against Chelsea in January 1967 that stuck in people’s memories.

In front of a packed Goldstone Ground crowd of 35,000, a big upset looked on the cards when Tawse’s terrific volley flew past Peter Bonetti five minutes from the end of the game for what would have been a 2-1 win.

Unfortunately, the referee had spotted an infringement by Kit Napier and the ‘goal’ was disallowed. In the replay at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea ran out clear 4-0 winners.

“I smashed a volley past Peter Bonetti from 20 yards out with the score at 1-1 and thought I’d got the winner,” Tawse told Brian Fowlie of the Sunday Post in 2015, ahead of Brighton’s fourth round FA Cup tie with Arsenal. “It was a goal that could have made my career – but the referee chalked it off.”

Tawse had been with the Albion for just over a year when that cup tie came around. He was one of three ex-Arsenal players in the side: the Northern Ireland international full-back Jimmy Magill joined Albion in October 1965, Tawse followed him two months later, and goalkeeper Tony Burns joined in the summer of 1966.

Albion’s boss at the time was fellow Scot Archie Macaulay, a former Arsenal player himself, who during his time at the Gunners had persuaded them to sign Alex Forbes, who later became the coach Tawse played under in Arsenal’s youth team. But more of that later.

Tawse got his first Brighton goal in only his second game, a 4-3 home win over Bristol Rovers on New Year’s Day 1966, and he went on to score six in 22 matches as the Albion finished 15th in Division 3.  

Although he started the next season in the no.11 shirt, close season arrival Howard Wilkinson became an automatic choice on one wing and Tawse found himself competing with Wally Gould for a place on the other.

Aside from the excitement of that Chelsea cup game, Tawse did find the net eight times (three times from the penalty spot) as he played in 28 games (+ one as sub) that season.

The winger couldn’t always be relied on from 12 yards, however, as contributor ‘Questions’ recalled on North Stand Chat in 2008. “Ah Tiger Tawse, he of the boyish good looks and ability to blaze a penalty over the north stand roof against Watford, I think. Good little player though….”

The majority of Tawse’s Albion games (41 + 1 sub) came in the 1967-68 season although he only scored twice as Albion finished 10th.

The signing of Paul Flood from Bohemians added forward options to the manager’s selection, but it was the £5,000 signing of speedy Dave Armstrong from Millwall in September 1968 that began to edge Tawse out.

Tawse (arrowed) in an official Albion team photo ahead of the 1969-70 season

In the 1968-69 season, which saw the arrival of Freddie Goodwin as manager in place of Macaulay, Tawse made only 16 appearances (+ three as sub), and he featured only twice between the start of December and the end of the season.

My own Albion watching journey began in February 1969 and the only game I saw Tawse play was in the Easter Saturday 4-1 win over Barnsley when he replaced Kit Napier; the only change to the side who had played 24 hours earlier, again at home, when Orient were beaten 2-0.

Goodwin mostly went for Armstrong on the left and Wilkinson on the right.

By the time the 1969-70 season arrived, opportunities were even more limited for Tawse. He was only on the bench once and started just two, his last first-team appearance coming in a 2-0 defeat away to Tranmere Rovers on 25 October 1969.

Former Albion teammate Wilf Tranter writing on North Stand Chat, said: “Brian finally lost the no. 11 shirt to Kit Napier in the 1969-70 season. He had been a very good servant to the club and was regarded with great affection by many supporters.”

Tawse with rival Kit Napier who became a good friend

Born on 30 July 1945 in Ellon, just north of Aberdeen, his footballing talent was first spotted while playing for Aberdeen boys’ team, King Street A. He told the Sunday Post’s Fowlie how the big freeze in 1963 worked in his favour.

“I went down for a trial game with Arsenal in 1963 and got stuck in London because of the terrible winter,” he said. “I trained with the youth team that was taken care of by famous Scottish player Alex Forbes.”

Forbes had joined Arsenal just after the war on the recommendation of fellow Scot Macaulay, whose place in the side he subsequently took over.

When Forbes later became youth coach at Arsenal, he took a party of Arsenal youngsters on a summer tour to South Africa, got offered a coaching job in Johannesburg and decided to make it his home for the rest of his life.

Tawse (centre) between George Armstrong and Jon Sammels in an Arsenal line-up, with Magill (far left) and Billy Wright

Billy Wright, the former England captain who’d won 105 caps for his country, was manager of Arsenal in the mid-’60s and it was he who took Tawse on as a professional.

Wright may have been a legend as a player but one of Tawse’s fellow Highbury hopefuls, John Ryan, who later starred for Fulham, Luton Town and Norwich City, was not at all enamoured.

Looking back in an interview with a Norwich archive site, he said: “Billy Wright was the only manager of the 12 I ended up playing for who I neither liked nor respected.

“He seemed to take an instant dislike to me and would single me out for some vicious treatment in front of the other young players.”

Ryan shared digs with Tawse and David Jenkins and he recalled how he found out Arsenal were letting him go. “At the end of that season (1964-65), I was sitting in the digs when two large brown envelopes and one small registered white one dropped through the front door. As I opened the small white one that was addressed to me, I wondered where the other two lads had disappeared to.

“It turned out that they’d read the situation as my letter was from the club notifying me I was being given a free transfer whilst the two brown envelopes that were for them both contained contract offers.”

Tawse made his Arsenal debut away to West Brom on 21 November 1964, a game which finished 0-0. Although his first team game time was limited, in the space of three days in February 1965 he played in successive 2-0 wins at home to Fulham and Spurs and at the end of the following month against West Ham away, another 0-0 draw.

Away to Nottingham Forest on 13 March 1965, Tawse took George Armstrong’s place on the wing – and the aforementioned Magill earned a rare outing in place of Don Howe at right back – but they lost 3-0.

Brian Tawse alongside George Armstrong, the winger he couldn’t dislodge to gain a regular Arsenal place

Although the official record books only show those league appearances, thearsenalhistory.com details how Tawse also played twice in an end of season five-game tour in Italy. He played in a 2-2 draw against Torino and was one of the scorers in a 3-0 win over Latina.

The following season he was selected in a 5-2 friendly win over non-league Corinthian Casuals on 21 September and a month later –  on 23 October 1965 –  he was on the substitute’s bench in a 2-2 home draw against Blackburn Rovers, but that was the last of his involvement, and he moved to Albion five weeks later.

“The main problem was that regular winger George Armstrong never seemed to get injured,” Tawse told the Sunday Post.

He also dispelled a myth about how he came to get his nickname Tiger, telling the reporter: “People think it’s maybe because I was a real terrier on the pitch, but the truth is that it was about petrol.

“Esso had a campaign – Put a Tiger in Your Tank – and gave away a free tiger’s tail to put on your car.

“At the age of 19, I turned up for training with one on my Mini and was immediately christened ‘Tiger’ Tawse!”

After leaving Brighton in March 1970, Tawse moved to Brentford where he played in 13 games as new manager Frank Blunstone took the Bees to within three points of promotion from Division Four, finishing fifth just behind Port Vale.

But in the 1970-71 season he made just eight appearance (plus two as sub) and ended up on loan to Southern League Folkestone.

Still only in his mid 20s, he decided to head to South Africa and played for Durban City at a time when dozens of British players, managers and coaches were recruited by that country’s 16 clubs.

He was later joined there by former Albion teammate and fellow Scot Kit Napier and after they hung up their boots, they worked together in the motor trade.

When Napier died in March 2019, Tawse told The Argus: “We remained friends afterwards and we were both golfers. He was a very good golfer, which people probably don’t realise. He played in a lot of pro-ams.

“He was a good lad and, of course, a bit of a legend for what he did with Brighton.”

Tawse spent 17 years in South Africa but returned to the UK and settled in Westdene, Brighton…and watches the Albion from the West Stand at the Amex.

Boss feistily defended crowd-heckled Bobby Smith

B Smith white actionTOUGH-TACKLING midfielder Bobby Smith made more than 200 appearances for Manchester United’s reserve side.

He played alongside emerging talents such as George Best and Nobby Stiles but wasn’t able to follow them in making the step up to the first team.

Like many before and since, he had to look elsewhere to establish a career in the game, and 85 of his 307 senior career appearances came in the colours of Brighton & Hove Albion, the fourth of seven clubs he served as a player.

Smith stayed in the game as a manager and coach for 26 years after hanging up his boots, his most notable achievement coming in December 1979 as boss of Third Division Swindon Town when they overcame the mighty Arsenal in a thrilling League Cup quarter final.

Born in Prestbury, Cheshire, on 14 March 1944, Smith won six England Schoolboys (under 15s) caps, playing right-half with future World Cup winner Martin Peters playing on the left.

He went on to win two England Youth caps: on 9 March 1961, he was in an England side (which also included John Jackson in goal and future Luton and Spurs boss David Pleat) that lost 1-0 to the Netherlands in Utrecht and three days later was again on the losing side, this time 2-0, to West Germany in Flensburg, when teammates included John Milkins, Portsmouth’s ‘keeper for many years, and striker John O’Rourke, who played for various clubs. Smith turned professional with United the following month.

MUFC REs v WBA

I’ve discovered an old programme (above) for a Man Utd reserve fixture against West Brom during that era. It shows Smith alongside Wilf Tranter (who also later played for Brighton, and was Smith’s assistant manager at Swindon), Nobby Stiles in midfield, and George Best on the left wing.

In 1964, when a first team call-up continued to elude Smith, he lowered his sights and went to play for a former United colleague at Scunthorpe United. That colleague was Freddie Goodwin who would later be his manager at Brighton as well.

At Scunthorpe, Smith finally saw league action and played 87 games in two seasons before being transferred for £8,000 to Grimsby Town. In two years with the Mariners, he played 56 games before joining the Albion in June 1968.

My distant memory of Smith was of a tough-tackling midfielder who was in the shadow of the likes of Nobby Lawton and Dave Turner when it came to his popularity with supporters. And manager Goodwin hit back strongly when a section of fans voiced their disapproval of the player.

Smith scored the only goal of the game after only 50 seconds away to Stockport County on 23 January 1970, but in the previous home game (a 2-1 win over Bradford City) there had been a few shouts from the terraces in Smith’s direction.

In his weekly article for the Brighton and Hove Herald, Goodwin said: “I was most disappointed to hear certain sections of the crowd getting at Bobby Smith.

“He has done nothing to warrant this behaviour. He is a 90-minute aggressive player and his value to the team lies in his ability to win the ball from the opposition.

“He is well aware of his limitations as a player, but there is no-one who can accuse him of ever giving less than 100 per cent.

“This sort of behaviour by a small minority of spectators does nothing to help the team or the individual players.

“Any player who takes the field as a representative of Brighton and Hove Albion does so because he has been selected for the team by me.

“It is my responsibility that a player represents the Albion. So, to barrack any player is most unfair to him.”

Smith in action against the backdrop of the packed East Terrace at the Goldstone. Albion won 4-0

His 85 games for the Albion came across three seasons: 33 in 1968-69 and 26 in each of the following two seasons. Goodwin’s successor, Pat Saward, released him at the end of the 1970-71 season, and, in June 1971, he went on a free transfer to Chester City.

After only four months in the North West, he switched to the North East, joining Hartlepool United, initially on loan. Over two years, in which Len Ashurst’s side only just avoided the old re-election places, Smith played in 76 matches before moving on to Bury in August 1973. He signed as a player-coach but didn’t feature in the league side, instead taking over as manager – aged only 29 – from Allan Brown in December 1973.

It was the start of a coaching and managerial career that would span more than a quarter of a century.

He took Bury to promotion from the fourth tier by the end of that 1973-74 season, and remained in charge for just under four years, He was at the helm for a total of 215 games; the record books showing he achieved a 41.9 per cent win rate.

A six-month stint followed at Port Vale, between November 1977 and May 1978, but, of his 33 games in charge, he only presided over six wins (there were 14 draws and 13 defeats).

Swindon paid £10,000 compensation to lure him to the County Ground, where, as mentioned, his assistant manager was the aforementioned Tranter.

The official Swindon website remembered: “Despite being a relatively young manager, he guided Swindon to a promotion challenge in his first season in charge – missing out by three points, after losing the last two games of the season.”

Part of the secret had been Smith’s signing of strikers Andy Rowland and Alan Mayes.

Swindon w BS WTSmith (far right) as manager of Swindon, with Tranter (far left), Chris Kamara (circled back row) and skipper Ray McHale (centre front row).

His major achievement came the following year, when Town beat Arsenal 4-3 in a replay to reach the League Cup semi-final.

When one considers the size of League Cup game crowds now, it seems extraordinary to discover around 7,000 Swindon fans (in a gate of 38,024) had made the trip to Highbury for the initial tie, which finished 1-1.

The Gunners had famously lost to lowly Swindon in the 1969 League Cup Final at Wembley, so the humble Wiltshire club smelled history repeating itself.

In the replay, with 21,795 packed into the County Ground, Steve Walford and John Hollins scored own goals and future Brighton manager Liam Brady scored twice for Arsenal. One of the key players for Swindon was future Sky Sports reporter Chris Kamara.

Striker Rowland, who scored an extra time winner, relived the momentous occasion in an interview with SwindonWebTV.

Smith on Focus

Unsurprisingly, the giant killing attracted plenty of media attention and Smith was interviewed live on Football Focus by presenter Bob Wilson.

Smith pointed out that his side had been well grounded and, after the initial draw against Arsenal, had thumped his old club Bury 8-0, equalling Swindon’s biggest winning margin in a league game. Amongst the scorers were Rowland and Billy Tucker – two of four ex-Bury players in Swindon’s starting line-up. Another was Brian Williams – Bury’s youngest ever player – and one of the other goalscorers, Ray McHale, (later to play for Brighton in the top division) went on to have a loan spell at Gigg Lane later in his career.

The Robins beat top-flight opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 at home in the first leg of the semi-final but went down 3-1 at Molineux in controversial circumstances, Wolves scoring the decisive goal five minutes from the end.

“We were so unfortunate because Wolves should have been down to 10 men,” Kamara told the Swindon Advertiser. “Alan Mayes got hit by the goalkeeper (Paul Bradshaw). He came out of his goal, didn’t get anywhere near the ball and he clattered Alan and broke his two front teeth and his nose but didn’t get sent off.

“I know everyone looks at situations and says ‘You were unlucky’ but that was a turning point in the game, and we ended up losing.”

It later emerged that the tie could have had a dramatic impact on Kamara’s playing career. In a 2010 interview with FourFourTwo magazine, he explained how he was once on Manchester United’s radar during Ron Atkinson’s reign.

“I was at Swindon and my manager Bobby Smith said, ‘Big Ron’s coming to watch you.’ We were playing in the 1980 semi-final of the League Cup against Wolves, but I had the ’flu and didn’t play so well. I’m not saying that’s the reason he didn’t sign me, but Ron went back to his old club, West Brom, and signed Remi Moses instead.”

With the benefit of hindsight, the cup run took its toll on the Swindon side. Before the semi, they were just five points from a promotion place, with four games in hand. But only five of their last 18 games were won, and they lost nine away games on the trot, resulting in a disappointing 10th place finish.

Smith had spent large –  by Swindon’s standards –  including £250,000 on two players, David Peach and Glenn Cockerill, both of whom never fitted in at the club.

When Swindon lost their first five matches of the 1980-81 season, Smith was relieved of his duties.

He later took charge at Newport County and Swansea City, as well as coaching at the Swans, Blackpool, Cardiff City, and Sheffield Wednesday, together with a spell as assistant manager of Hereford United.

He was assistant manager to Frank Burrows at the Vetch Field but when the chairman at the time announced his intention to sell up, and no funds were being made available for new players, Burrows left of his own accord and Smith became caretaker manager.

Contributor Colin_swansea, on the fans website scfc2.co.uk, observed: “After Tosh left we had caretakers Doug Livermore for 30 days, Les Chappell for 23 days prior to Tosh returning, and after Tosh had left for a second time on the 5th March 1984 Les returned as caretaker until the end of the season.

“Our manager’s position was even more farcical after Frankie Burrows left with his assistant Bobby Smith taking over until a bust up during the Xmas period when Doug Sharp wouldn’t sanction the buying of rubber studded boots to combat the winter conditions.

Smith interviewed after his Swindon side held Spurs to a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup

“Smith left on 22 December 1995, Jimmy Rimmer was caretaker to 7 February 1996, Kevin Cullis became manager for a week, a two-game spell of two defeats, Rimmer returned for eight days as caretaker, before Jan Molby’s appointment on 22 February 1996. Molby’s replacement as manager on 9 October 1997 was Micky Adams who lasted 13 days and three league defeats with his assistant Alan Cork taking over until the end of the season.

“Cork didn’t fit the profile for the club’s new owners, Silver Shield, and he was offloaded at the end of the season. Ironically his successor, John Hollins, didn’t sign one player the following season when the club reached the play offs.

“Never a dull moment being manager of the Swans during the 80s and 90s!”

The luck of the Irish eluded striker Graham Barrett

GRAHAM Barrett did his level best to impress when new boss Steve Coppell took charge for the first time at Withdean.

The on-loan Arsenal forward put in an inviting cross from the right wing for Gary Hart to score midway through the first half of the 19 October 2002 game against Sheffield United.

Barrett himself then got on the end of a precision pass from Bobby Zamora out wide on the left to put Albion 2-0 up in the 34th minute.

Unfortunately, the young forward’s contribution was overshadowed by events at the other end of the pitch in the second half. Firstly, the Blades hit back through Michael Brown and then substitute Carl Asaba equalised.

Referee Phil Prosser became the villain of the peace by awarding United two penalties in the final four minutes of the game, both converted by Asaba.

The first was given when Prosser reckoned goalkeeper Michel Kuipers had brought down Asaba in the box; the second when Adam Virgo pushed over Wayne Allison in the penalty area.

“Albion fans were so incensed by Prosser’s first penalty decision that several hundred left their seats in the south stand to protest from the running track,” The Argus reported. “Police and stewards gathered in front of them to prevent the threat of a pitch invasion.”

Even Albion-supporting MP Ivor Caplin got in on the act, subsequently calling for an FA inquiry into Prosser’s “totally inept” display. Needless to say, that went nowhere.

Barrett, meanwhile, was far less impressive the following Saturday when he and his temporary teammates were thrashed 5-0 by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.

He started 20 games for the Albion in that season, as well as making 10 substitute appearances – but that single strike against Sheffield United was his only goal.

g barrett stripesBorn in Dublin on 6 October 1981, Barrett was one of several Irish youngsters who began their football careers with Arsenal having been spotted by ex-Albion boss, and fellow Irishman, Liam Brady, playing in an Ireland U15s game against England at Blackburn.

Brady had become Arsenal’s head of youth development and academy director after his spell at Brighton. Barrett agreed professional terms with Arsenal in 1998 and went on to captain their FA Youth Cup winning team of 2000.

He earned a call-up to the Republic of Ireland’s under 21 team and went on to play 24 times at that level, scoring five goals. Between 2002 and 2004, he stepped up to the full Eire side and scored twice in six matches.

Try as he did, Barrett couldn’t add to his single goal against Sheffield United

Barrett managed to break through to the first team squad at Arsenal in December 1999 and made his debut as a substitute for Thierry Henry in a 3-0 win over Leicester City. The following month, again as a substitute, he appeared in a 4-1 win over Sunderland, and he also played in a league cup match.

“I was around the first team for a good four or five months, travelled a lot with them and got to train every day with them, played a little bit,” Barrett told the42.ie, in an April 2018 interview.

Facing stiff competition for a first team place, Barrett was sent out on loan to gain playing time at a lower level. He went to Bristol Rovers but only managed one game before being struck down with glandular fever, causing him to be out of the game for six months.

When he’d recovered, he went on loan to Crewe Alexandra and Colchester United who had wanted him back for the 2002-03 season, but he opted to join Brighton instead.

With little chance of dislodging the likes of Bergkamp, Henry, Wiltord and Suker at Arsenal, Barrett was given a free transfer by Arsenal in May 2003 and opted to join Coventry City on a three-year contract.

graham barrettAlthough he made 32 league starts plus 23 as a sub, ex-Albion boss Micky Adams made it plain he didn’t fit into his plans. He went to spend the last year of his contract on loan at Livingston in Scotland but after only six games suffered a season-ending knee injury.

He subsequently stayed in Scotland and played for Falkirk and St Johnstone before returning to Ireland to play for Shamrock Rovers, who his dad, Gary, had played for in the Eighties under Johnny Giles.

Barrett is now a director of football agency Platinum One, representing the interests of young players.

Sprinter’s boys took different tracks after starting Gunners

A GUNNER from the age of nine gained valuable first team experience with the Seagulls but ultimately fell short of reaching the same heights as his brother.

Commonwealth Games gold-medal winning sprinter Wendy Hoyte saw sons Justin and Gavin climb through the academy and reserve ranks at Arsenal.

Justin played 68 first-team games for the Gunners and went on to make a name for himself in the North East, but younger brother Gavin only played four first-team games for Arsenal and had to set his sights lower to pursue a professional career.

The younger Hoyte spent most of the 2009-10 season as a Brighton player and, although only 19 at the time, got a rough ride from Seagulls supporters who expected more from someone who’d played at the top level of the game.

Initially signed on loan in October 2009 by Russell Slade to cover for the injured regular right-back Andrew Whing, Hoyte was handed his debut against Slade’s former club Yeovil Town at Huish Park.

“I am delighted to know the club wants me,” the youngster told The Argus. “They have got a lot of games this month and I just want to get out there and play.”

As it turned out, Hoyte outlasted Slade at the Withdean, and his temporary transfer was extended when Gus Poyet took over as manager.

The young full-back in the no.27 shirt gained a good amount of game time until Poyet unearthed Inigo Calderon in January 2010.

Even then, Poyet was happy to retain the services of the Arsenal youngster, telling the Argus: “We explained to Gavin before asking Arsenal that there was probably a player coming.

“Arsenal knew that as well, so nothing has been hidden. Everyone knows where they stand.

“We are working on different aspects of the game with Gavin, because he has got something which is very difficult to find sometimes in football, the speed to recover.

“When you have that ability, you don’t need to go to ground, because you are quicker than most players.

“He is young and there is plenty to come. We want to help him become a Premier League player or top Championship player.”

G Hoyte stripes

Hoyte got another chance to prove himself when Calderon picked up a nasty hip injury in April, bringing his total number of Albion games over the season to 21.

When it looked like the popular Spaniard was going to move to Southampton instead of accepting a contract offer from the Seagulls, Argus reporter Andy Naylor ventured: “Gavin Hoyte’s encouraging conclusion to the campaign suggests he might even be capable of rising to the occasion if he returns on loan from Arsenal.”

It didn’t come to that, though, and, over the next two years, he dropped down another division with loan spells at Lincoln City and AFC Wimbledon.

When he realised there was little hope of him ever getting close to the Arsenal first team, he left for Dagenham and Redbridge, having spoken to Arsenal goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts, who’d played for the Daggers himself.

Born in Leytonstone on 6 June 1990, Hoyte followed in his brother’s footsteps to Arsenal and progressed to the point of being appointed the under 18 team captain in the 2006-07 season when he was still only 16.

“I am very vocal during games, although I wouldn’t quite say that I was a Tony Adams, but that’s the sort of captaining style I try to emulate,” Hoyte told the Arsenal matchday programme. “I have captained at schoolboy level and in particular in tournaments and so I do have some experience, but I did not expect to be captain of the under 18s so early.”

Hoyte captained Arsenal’s under 18s when he was only 16

Hoyte was also capped at England under 17, under 18, under 19 and under 20 levels. In the 2009 UEFA under 19 championships, he played in two qualifiers in the space of four days when England beat Slovakia 4-1 and Scotland 2-1; his teammates including current Albion no.3 Jason Steele in goal, and future full international Kieran Trippier.

He was part of the squad who took part in the finals in Ukraine, starting twice and coming on as a substitute three times as England finished runners up to the hosts. The side was managed by Brian Eastick, who’d been an Albion coach during the Mike Bailey era.

Hoyte’s one game for the under 20s came as a substitute in a 1-1 draw away to Uzbekistan on 2 October 2009, when a fellow substitute was Sam Baldock. Two non-playing subs in that game were Jonathan Obika and Gary Gardner, who both had spells on loan with the Seagulls.

Hoyte looked back on his Arsenal time in an interview with Will Unwin for planetfootball.com and said: “When you’re there you always think you’re going to make it – I was pretty confident.

“I had my older brother there as well, so that helped a lot, seeing how he progressed.

“That was a big thing for me, seeing him play every week, watching him, thinking, ‘I want to try and get to where he is’.”

Hoyte was an unused substitute for several first team games before making his debut in a 6-0 League Cup win over Sheffield United, and starting in the next two rounds, against Wigan and Burnley. His Arsenal career only seemed to be heading in one direction.

“Just to play at the Emirates was massive, coming out to a big crowd,” he told Unwin. “There were a lot of young boys in the team so that helped me with confidence and eased it.

“But there were a lot of players in front of me, so I didn’t think about playing in the Premier League. It was always in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t thinking I was going to play immediately.”

But 11 days after the second of those League Cup appearances, Hoyte was handed his Premier League debut, after William Gallas had been stripped of the club captaincy for criticising team-mates amid a poor run of only one win in four games.

G Hoyte v Man City

Up against Robinho of Manchester City, he was taken off after an hour of a 3-0 defeat, and it would prove to be both the start and end of his top-flight career.

Hoyte didn’t recall getting much feedback after the game, although it wasn’t long before he was awarded a new contract. He made his fourth appearance for the club in a League Cup quarter-final defeat to Burnley at the start of December – but he didn’t play for Arsenal again.

He was sent out on loan to Championship side Watford for the second half of the 2008-09 season, featuring in 10 matches, and he eventually left Arsenal in 2012 when his contract expired.

After two seasons in League Two with Dagenham, he spent the 2014-15 season with League One Gillingham, featuring in 35 matches. He dropped down to League Two with Barnet, ended up at National League Eastleigh until the end of the 2017-18 season before returning to Dagenham in 2018-19.

It proved to be a frustrating season for him under the managership of former Albion boss Peter Taylor, but, reunited with former manager John Still at Maidstone United, he has been a regular at right-back in 2019-20 and scored just the third goal of his career against Dulwich Hamlet in December.

Along with his brother, the younger Hoyte has enjoyed the opportunity to play international football with Trinidad and Tobago, as he told socawarriors.net, and spent 20 minutes on the same pitch as Lionel Messi in a friendly as Argentina warmed up for the 2014 World Cup.