Tag: Brian Marwood

Teenage prodigy Assulin didn’t live up to early expectations

GAI ASSULIN played for his country aged just 16, was hailed as ‘the new Lionel Messi’ and appeared in Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona first team at 18.

Two years later he had two starts and five substitute appearances for Brighton in the Championship, on loan from Manchester City, but couldn’t agree terms for a permanent move.

He subsequently flitted from club to club, country to country, and in the autumn of 2021 was playing local five-a-side football in Cheshire.

Where did it all go wrong? Was it a case of too much too soon?

Assulin was only 12 when he uprooted from his Israel home to pursue the chance of a career with Barca. He spent seven years there, playing for the youth side before reaching the renowned B team in 2007 where he was coached by Guardiola.

“I learnt a lot from him,” he said. “He helped me develop as a player but then so did all the coaches I played for at the club. From the age of 12 to 17 you learn the philosophy of the first team; how to play, what to do, and that never changed.

“Whatever age group you are in, the system you play is the same as the senior side so, if you do get called into the first team, it is not a big, big difference to what you are used to.”

When Guardiola stepped up to first team coach, Assulin was among the youngsters he blooded involving the winger in the Copa del Rey game against Cultural Leonesa in October 2009 and then some pre-season friendlies, including against Tottenham at Wembley.

“Playing in those games was a good experience,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “As the manager likes his younger players, he gave me an opportunity but the competition for places was really, really tough so it was hard to break into the team.

“I also had a few problems with my knee which didn’t help either and my time with the club eventually came to an end.”

Ahead of Guardiola eventually making the same move, Assulin signed for Manchester City under Roberto Mancini in December 2010, explaining: “I wanted to continue my football education at another top club and Manchester City has many top, top players.”

He has since publicly castigated Mancini for not giving him the opportunity to break through at City, telling ITV in 2016: “He didn’t give anyone a chance, he didn’t care about any young players, especially me.

“I didn’t even do the pre-season, when it was a good time to give someone a chance and see if they do well (or) if they are not doing well. But I didn’t get a chance, which was frustrating. It was a shame as I always felt good when I trained with the first team, but sometimes he chose his own sons over other players and I don’t think it was fair.

“It is very important for me to tell people as a lot of City (fans) don’t know what happened with me at City. People always ask me why I didn’t get a chance, and it’s obvious that the manager was the problem.

“I loved playing there, I loved the city and I wish I had a chance there. (City execs) Brian Marwood and Garry Cook loved me and really wanted me to stay, but Mancini didn’t and that was the problem.”

When Assulin joined Brighton in February 2012, Gus Poyet admitted he hadn’t been planning to take him on because at the time he was only interested in getting City midfielder Abdul Razak on loan.

A window opened up when forward Will Hoskins went to Sheffield United on loan, and Poyet told the Argus: “We were not looking to bring in another player after Razak. This was something that came along that I thought was very interesting. When there is something unique and unexpected like this I think it’s a no brainer.

“Gai was one of the top young talents in the world four or five years ago and he was very unlucky with an injury.

“He is still very young. He has got an incredible amount of quality and he can really make a difference but for any young player he needs to be playing and right now at Man City that is very difficult.

“He is an offensive player without any doubt, not a midfielder. He can play up front, wide or behind the striker.”

Assulin made his Brighton debut on 22 February against Hull City, going on as a substitute for Razak in the 77th minute of a 0–0 draw. He made his first start against Cardiff City at the Amex on 7 March but was substituted after 59 minutes of a 2–2 draw.

Although Razak returned to City after falling out with Poyet, Assulin’s loan was extended to the end of the season. However, he only made one more start – in the 6-0 drubbing dished out by West Ham at the Boleyn Ground, again being subbed off when Kazenga LuaLua replaced him on 53 minutes.

His last action in an Albion shirt was as a 61st-minute substitute for Will Buckley in a 0-0 draw at Barnsley’s Oakwell ground. As an aside, Barnsley had future Albion back-up ‘keeper David Button in goal, and ex-Seagulls Jim McNulty in defence and Craig Davies up front.

Rather like the situation at City, there was plenty of competition for places at Brighton with Buckley, Craig Noone and LuaLua the wide choices and the incomparable Vicente playing just off the strikers.

Supporters commenting online recognised Assulin’s talent but felt he was too slight for the robust sort of treatment meted out by Championship defenders.

There was some speculation at the end of the season that a permanent move from City might materialise but terms couldn’t be agreed and Assulin moved instead to Racing Santander back in Spain.

He also had spells with Granada, Hercules and Mallorca and Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv. He returned to Barcelona to join third-tier side Sabadell in August 2016 but in January 2018 his contract was cancelled by mutual consent after an 18-month spell hampered by injury.

Next stop was Kazakhstan Premier League team Kairat but he played only once and mutually agreed to tear up the two-year contract he’d signed. He also went to Romanian outfit FC Politehnica Iași and, until the end of the 2020-21 season, he was playing for Crema in Italy’s Serie D.

Without a club, Assulin returned to his home in Cheshire with his partner and eight-year-old daughter, and, while searching for his next move, was doing the school run, coaching, playing five-a-side and helping with his partner’s children’s clothes shop, he told football reporter Will Unwin in a November 2021 interview.

“On an indoor pitch at an industrial estate in nearby Cheadle Hulme, it is not hard to spot the man with La Masia education among those from Moston and Moss Side,” Unwin observed.

“I grew up as a kid in Israel, in a small town and my dream was to play first-team football for a professional club,” Assulin told the reporter.

Born in Nahariya, Israel, on 9 April 1991, Assulin’s family supported Maccabi Haifa,  and young Gai went to watch them from an early age.

How did he end up at Barcelona? “My dad (Eli) took me to a club in Israel called Natanya and they had a manager who had contacts with Barcelona,” he explained. “I was invited to Andorra for a ten-day trial with other players from many different countries and I did really well. A scout from the club then invited me to Barcelona and I did really well at a trial there too. They then offered me a contract.”

Only 12 at the time, he said: “It was a big change obviously at that age, as you are not used to being in a different country and a different culture, but I did the right thing. I love football, it is my life and my family were with me when I needed them.

“My dad came over with me to live in Barcelona and then the rest of my family – my mum, one brother and two sisters – came over for a year before returning to Israel. They used to come and visit every couple of months. The experience has made me a more mature person.”

Unwin noted that Liverpool’s Thiago Alcântara once described Assulin as “the most talented player I’ve ever seen in La Masia”, the two players having progressed alongside each other.

“We grew up together at the club and played in the same team for seven years,” said Assulin. “I would see him every day, and we went to school together.”

In a 2018 interview with Unwin for Planet Football, Assulin said: “Training with Barcelona’s first team was the best experience I’ve had in my career.

“I learned so much. I’m proud to say I was training with such big players. I’ve learned from Messi, Henry, Zlatan. They’re all different types of players, so it was great to see how they operate and pick up little things from them.”

Likewise at Man City, especially from David Silva. “He’s such a good player and different from anything you will see,” said Assulin. “He’s just so intelligent on the pitch and a great guy too.

“I had a good relationship with almost everyone. I was talking more to the Spanish guys – Silva; Carlos Tevez was there at the time; Yaya Toure I knew from Barcelona; Kolo Toure was a really nice guy.

“I had a great relationship with everyone, but especially those guys. Every time I went to train with the first team, they helped me, and they liked me.”

That one full international appearance for Israel happened in a friendly match against Chile in 2008, his appearance as a 78th minute substitute coming 14 days before his 17th birthday. He subsequently made 22 appearances for Israel’s under 21 side over the next five years, but didn’t win another full cap.

Unwin observed: “The early pressure of being synonymous with Lionel Messi was not a tag Assulin particularly enjoyed as he looked to come out of the Argentinian’s shadow.”

The player himself explained: ‘They like to compare in football; it is something they do all the time and for me it is a big compliment, but Messi is the greatest footballer in history. ‘Sometimes it is not good if you take it in the wrong way, as the expectation is for you to go on to the pitch and do the same as Messi all the time. Whichever club I went to, they saw I was compared with Messi, so they thought I was going to be Messi and score 50 goals a year, so that comparison at the time was not as positive.

‘Right now, after being at so many clubs, I see it as something positive and I take it as something that hasn’t been said about so many players. Messi is the best in history, so it’s nice to be compared to him for something that I did right at the time.’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mooy produced a headline–grabbing performance against Bournemouth

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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