Tag: Chelsea

Illness and injury brought Izzy Brown’s dream to an early end

IZZY BROWN was just 20 when he joined Albion on a season-long loan from Chelsea hoping to prove his worth as a Premier League striker.

Sadly, a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury meant that ambition was thwarted after only four starts and eight appearances off the bench.

Then, at the age of 26, a twice-ruptured Achilles tendon forced him to quit the game altogether.

Brown’s ascent to the elite level of English football was rapid. He was only 16 when he made his debut for West Bromwich Albion, becoming the second-youngest player in Premier League history when he went on for the Baggies towards the end of a 3-2 defeat against Wigan in May 2013.

Two months later, Chelsea offered him five times more than West Brom were paying him and he switched to Stamford Bridge to join their scholarship scheme.

The financial cushion they gave him at such a tender age meant retiring from the game early came as less of a blow than it might have done.

“I’m thankful to Chelsea for everything they’ve ever done for me because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what my life would be like now,” Brown told Nancy Froston in an exclusive April 2023 interview with The Athletic.

“They put me in a position where, while it’s not that I don’t ever want to work again, it has set me up to provide for my family for quite a few years.”

Brown spent eight years as a Chelsea player although Brighton were the fourth of seven clubs he joined on loan over that period.

Although he scored twice on his Chelsea debut in a 5-0 pre-season friendly win over Wycombe Wanderers, he made only one competitive first team appearance and that was as a sub against his old club, West Brom, in May 2015. Chelsea lost 3-0 and Brown saw only 11 minutes of action when Jose Mourinho sent him on to replace Loic Remy.

Brown had previously been an unused sub on several occasions in the second half of the 2014-15 season, but that summer he was sent on loan to Vitesse Arnhem where he registered just the one goal in 24 appearances.

In the 2016-17 season, Brown had two loans in Yorkshire: scoring three in 20 matches for Rotherham United and then five in 21 for their fellow Championship side Huddersfield Town.

He was involved in the Terriers’ Championship play-off final win over Reading and there were reports they wanted to make his move permanent, with a fee of £8m mentioned.

But Brown thought it wasn’t the right move for him, still harbouring hopes of making it at Chelsea. “I’m still learning and I feel Brighton is the place for me to develop further,” he said.

“There were plenty of clubs calling my agent but Brighton was always my number one choice,” he told the matchday programme. He explained he wanted to learn from manager Chris Hughton, adding: “The facilities here and the ambition of the club was also important for me.”

Hughton said of the youngster: “He’s a very flexible forward player. We brought him in very much as a (number) ten, where he had played for Huddersfield last season.

“In his first loan at Rotherham he played very much off the front, went abroad played off the left, and in his first game for us and in pre-season was on the left. He has that versatility in his game.”

That first league game was the opening day defeat at home to Manchester City and he went off injured (replaced by Jamie Murphy) as Albion went down 2-0. He didn’t re-appear until 1 October away to Arsenal when he struggled as an orthodox striker in another 2-0 defeat.

Thereafter, he only made two more league starts – the 5-1 home battering by Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield.

Although Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup on 8 January gave him a chance to show what he could do from the start, the game was only six minutes old when he was forced off with the knee injury that brought his time with Albion to a close.

Hughton saw it as a big blow because he had been planning to make much more use of the young striker in the second half of the season.

“You would have seen him much more involved,” he said. “He’d had a slight hamstring injury when he first came which kept him out for a few weeks.

“But certainly I would have seen him play in more games than perhaps in that first half,” said Hughton.

“He is a very popular player here. Before he’d come here, he’d had a couple of other loans and I think that adapted him well going into a new environment.”

Brown himself had said the only player he knew before his arrival was Connor Goldson through his friendship with Jonny Taylor, who Brown had played with at Rotherham.

Deprived of Brown’s services, Hughton brought in Jurgen Locadia from PSV Eindhoven and a familiar face in Leonardo Ulloa, returning to the Amex on loan from Leicester City.

Although both were on the scoresheet when Albion dispensed with Coventry City in the fifth round of the FA Cup, it would probably be fair to say neither were a rip-roaring success. The combination of Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross were the main goal contributors.

Born in Peterborough on 7 January 1997, Isaiah Brown, to give him his proper name, said in an emotional open letter on his retirement: “As soon as I could walk, I always had a football at my feet. That was me, that was my happy place.”

He was talented enough to represent England at under 16, under 17, under 19 and under 20 levels, winning a total of 34 caps.

At Chelsea, he was in the side that won the Under-21 Premier League title in 2013-14 and the UEFA Youth League the following season.

After the disappointment of his time at Brighton being curtailed, he was still recovering in August 2018 when he went back to Yorkshire on loan to Championship Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa.

But once recovered, he was mainly involved in United’s under 21 side. He only made two substitute appearances for the first team, one in a 1-0 league defeat at QPR and one in the end-of-season play-off final that Leeds lost 4-3 on aggregate to Derby.

The following season once again saw him head out on loan for a season, this time to Luton Town. He scored once in 19 starts, plus nine games as a sub, as the Hatters narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship.

The 2020-21 season once again saw Brown heading to Yorkshire, this time with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.

It was a season that saw the club have three full-time managers and a caretaker, finishing bottom of the league and relegated to League One. Brown made only five starts plus 16 appearances off the bench.

With his contract at Chelsea finally coming to an end, his next move was a permanent switch away from the Bridge, and he signed a one-year deal with Preston North End.

Head coach Frankie McAvoy said: “He’s got good pedigree. He’s got great experience in terms of playing in the Championship and an ex-Chelsea player from a young age.

“He’s had quite a few loans over his time, some he’s done well, others maybe latterly not done as well as he hoped, so he just needs to find that self-belief again and confidence. But we’re certainly getting a player with undoubted talent, very offensive and we’re looking forward to working with him.

“He can play across the front, but probably his preferred position is a ten behind a striker or two, depending on how we play.

“He can also play in pockets off right and left, so he adds that bit of versatility to our front players and I think if we can get him up and running, believing in himself, being confident in his own ability then I’m sure he’ll endear himself to the Preston faithful.”

Brown, by then 24, said: “Now I’m getting to that age where I want to develop myself as a player and hopefully be a legend at a club, and I really feel like Preston’s a place where I could do that.”

But less than a month after signing for North End, he ruptured an Achilles during pre-season training – and he never actually played a competitive game for Preston.

“We had a pre-season game against Celtic when I was at Preston and I felt some pain in my Achilles, but it wasn’t too bad,” Brown told Froston. “Then we had a couple of days off, I came back for training and then I just passed the football, like I’d done a million times before, and I heard a pop. I thought someone had kicked me but no one was around me.

“It had snapped. So I had the surgery and it went well, but we noticed there was like a little gap in my Achilles.

“We thought maybe it’s not healed properly, but this was only after two months so we gave it time. Then I went out for some dinner and stepped down a small step and it snapped again.

“So I had two Achilles surgeries in the space of three and a half months. To come back from one is hard. To come back from two is basically impossible.”

On top of those football injuries, he got sick with hand, foot and mouth disease, then had an issue with his nervous system that led to muscle loss and affected the nerves in his feet.

He was subsequently told he had a rare and serious condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome and it was apparent he would have to retire from playing football.

In a revealing interview with Froston, he concluded: “Football was my dream. It still is my dream. But dreams have to end one day.”

In the open letter he wrote on his retirement, he said: “Football doesn’t define me as a person. I’m a father, a son, a brother and a friend, and I will be that after football.

“I’ve lived my dream and memories that will stay with me forever. To every club that I have played for, I really appreciate you all for believing in me and giving me a chance to play the game I love.”

Zeke Rowe’s three goals and a red card as Albion went down

CHELSEA loanee Zeke Rowe scored three goals in nine matches for doomed Brighton and ended his spell with the ignominy of being sent off.

Rowe, a 22-year-old striker who had scored plenty at youth level for Chelsea,  was one of five new faces to join Jimmy Case’s relegation-bound Seagulls in the spring of 1996.

Winger Paul McDonald and striker Craig Maskell joined permanently from Case’s old club, Southampton, together with Saints defender Derek Allan, on loan initially and then permanently. Future captain Gary Hobson signed from Hull City.

All found themselves plunged into what turned out to be a fruitless battle to avoid relegation against a toxic backdrop created by the people running the club at that time – the hated Archer / Stanley / Bellotti regime – who tried to sell the club’s home without having a new ground to move to.

In the same matchday programme that announced the arrival of the five new players, the publication also detailed the impending departures of the likes of former first team regulars Steve Foster, Ian Chapman, Dean Wilkins, John Byrne, Stuart Myall and Stuart Munday; not to mention directors Bernard Clarke, Peter Kent, Dudley Sizen and Denis Sullivan. To misquote Shakespeare: Something was definitely rotten in the state of Hove!

Rowe made his debut in a 1-1 draw at home to Rotherham United, on 30 March, and then got off the mark with a goal away to Swindon Town four days later, although the Albion went down 3-2 (Jeff Minton scored the other).

Rowe’s picture adorned the front cover of the matchday programme for the 9 April home match v Burnley when his goal earned the Seagulls a win.

And his solitary goal also proved to be the decider in another 1-0 home win, over fellow strugglers Carlisle United, managed at the time by Mervyn Day.

Rowe’s dismissal for fighting with York City’s John Sharples came in a Thursday morning game, played five days after the official end of the season, in front of a post-War record low gate of 2,106 fans at the Goldstone.

The fixture had been rearranged because the original game 12 days previously had been abandoned after disgruntled Albion supporters had stormed the pitch in protest at the proposed sale of the ground and broken both crossbars.

It drew hysterical reaction in some quarters (probably because it was only a few weeks before England played host to Euro 96) but had the desired effect of bringing the rogue direction of the club to the attention of the football authorities who somewhat late in the day intervened to stop the Albion going out of business.

The original York game had looked like being the last ever at the Goldstone but a stay of execution saw the club stay for one more season before the site was redeveloped and the Seagulls were forced to groundshare at Gillingham.

The only happy supporters at the Goldstone on 9 May 1996 were around 400 followers of the Minstermen because their side overcame going a goal down to a Maskell opener to win 3-1, a result which prevented them joining Albion in the drop. Gary Bull, who had enjoyed a successful time on loan with Brighton at the start of that season, had equalised for York.

One City fan, Simon Worden, wrote an amusing blog about the whole occasion, and explained: “Whilst I should have been in a lecture at university at Preston, as I was only 19 at the time, I decided that the match was too important to miss and travelled down the day before to watch the match and stayed in a very cheap B&B.”

After witnessing the win, he said: “All the York fans were jumping around on a Thursday morning singing ‘We are staying up’ and enjoying the sunshine.

“One of the best days even and, whilst I was very tired, it was an enjoyable (but expensive) trip back to Preston where I had to catch up with my studies!”

Also watching on was Michael Knighton, chairman of Carlisle United, who, as a consequence of the result, were relegated with the Albion. Greg Wood, covering the game for The Independent, spiced up his report with a couple of choice quotes from him.

“Once York had gone 2-1 ahead, Brighton just weren’t interested,” said Knighton. “We’ve been relegated and we’ll never know if we should have been. This competition should be based on fairness, and towards us it hasn’t been.”

Wood also observed: “After York’s third goal, a member of their board turned to Knighton and made some distinctly unsporting gestures. Ordinary supporters have probably been expelled for less.”

Born in Hackney on 30 October 1973, Rowe was a frequent goalscorer in Chelsea junior teams playing alongside the likes of Neil Shipperley, Muzzy Izzet, Michael Duberry and Craig Burley.

But a first team breakthrough eluded him and before his time at Brighton he had scored twice in 10 games on loan at Barnet and had a trial with Swindon Town that didn’t work out.

When Chelsea let him go in the summer of 1996, he moved to Second Division Peterborough United under Barry Fry and was quickly off the mark netting the Posh opener in a 3-3 home draw with Millwall on 10 September 1996.

He was on target again, four days later, ironically against York City, in a 2-2 draw. But the season didn’t end well for Posh, because they were relegated. Rowe only scored once more in his 15 starts and 14 appearances off the bench that season.

Over the next two seasons, he only made four more starts for United and 13 appearances as a sub, while also going out on loan to Kettering Town and Doncaster Rovers.

Rowe later moved to Welling United where, according to the fanzine Winning Isn’t Everything, he was a disappointment after a bright start. It said: “Ezekiel Bartholomew Rowe, to give him his full name. Another in the long line of loanees from Uncle Barry Fry, he was brought in late in the 1998-99 season as the club attempted another Houdini act. Joined permanently in the summer, was on fire pre-season and then… he was shit. Had an impressive tattoo, erm, apparently.”

At King’s Lynn, Rowe played under his former Peterborough teammate Tony Spearing, who won the FA Youth Cup with Norwich City. (That 1983 success saw the Canaries draw 5-5 with Everton over two legs – Mark Farrington scoring four of Everton’s goals – before edging a replay 1-0).

Rowe ended his playing days with Conference North side Hinckley United where he was a teammate of Stuart Storer, who famously scored the last ever goal at the Goldstone – against Doncaster Rovers – a year after Rowe’s dismissal at that much-loved old stadium.

Youth Cup winner Rohan Ince faded after a bright start

THERE WAS a time it looked like Brighton had rescued a gem of a player in Rohan Ince.

After 13 years on Chelsea’s books, he was picked up at 20 by the Seagulls and quickly earned a place in the first team.

He progressed from a development squad triallist to first-team midfielder in little over six months, getting his chance because of an injury to Liam Bridcutt, another former Chelsea youngster who had been an inspiration for his move to the Albion.

“Liam is older than me but I knew he was a good lad who was always having a laugh,” Ince told the matchday programme. “It was only later when we were training with the reserves that I played with him.

“He is doing well at Brighton and I have great respect for him because it is not easy to find that success after leaving a club like Chelsea.

“He is a great example for young Chelsea boys that have been released, and to all young footballers who don’t get offered contracts.

“Liam has shown it is not the end of the world and if you keep fighting you can get there.”

Ince knew about Brighton from his uncle, Eric Young, a centre-half who played for Brighton in the 1980s.

“When I told him I was signing for the club, he was really happy for me,” he said. “He told me it was a good club and good area to live in. He’s an accountant these days, doing really well for himself.”

Ince arrived at the club towards the end of Gus Poyet’s reign but it was under successor Oscar Garcia’s direction that he thrived. Garcia switched him from a central defender into a defensive midfield player.

“For me he is a player who will have a better professional career as a midfielder than as a defender,” said the head coach. “He positions himself well, he is very alert to second balls, he doesn’t lose possession, he can move the ball quickly.

“I think these are all physical and technical characteristics that are better suited to the midfield role.”

And Garcia demonstrated that it wasn’t always a case of either/or between Bridcutt and Ince when the pair combined successfully in a 3-1 home win over Leicester City at the Amex in early December 2013.

He told The Argus: “All good players can play together. It’s up to the manager to try to find the best position for them.

“Rohan is young but when we are watching him he seems an experienced player. He has to improve a lot of things but he wants to do it and this for me is the most important thing.”

Such was Ince’s progress that in January 2014, a year after he joined the club, he was offered a new two-and-a-half-year contract and was being touted as the natural successor to Bridcutt, who, at the end of that month, made a much-predicted move to follow Poyet to Sunderland.

“He has earned this contract with the way he has trained and played ever since I came to the club,” said Garcia. “He has an excellent attitude every day, he looks after himself and works hard in training; and we are all seeing the benefit of that with his performances on the pitch.

“It is nice for the club to reward that hard work and professionalism with this new contract and I am very pleased for him.”

Ince topped off the first of his two seasons playing in the Championship by being crowned Brighton’s Young Player of the Year. He was probably sadder than most to see Garcia depart immediately after the play-off semi-final defeat to Derby County.

He told The Argus: “I started off as a midfielder at Chelsea up until I was 16, then I was changed to a centre-back because of my height and physical attributes.

“I went back and forwards between midfield and defence in my Chelsea career but I came here as a centre-back because that’s where I thought my career would be best.

“Oscar didn’t believe that and I am happy he didn’t believe it either, because midfield is my preferred position.

“He has given me the opportunity to play first team football, in my preferred role as well, so I couldn’t be more grateful.”

After winning the Young Player of the Year award, Ince said: “The gaffer is a really calm character who doesn’t go about shouting, so is my type of person. The senior pros have also been a massive help, talking to me on the pitch and in training. I couldn’t have won this award without them all.”

Sadly, Ince’s progress seemed to peter away after Garcia left. He made only 11 starts in 26 games for Sami Hyypia, and the player told The Argus: “It was quite hard for me, quite a setback, coming off the back of a good season I had previously.

“I had to keep my head up, keep training well, not get too down or depressed about it. I felt I did that and when the opportunity came I felt I did well.”

It looked like his fortunes had changed after Chris Hughton had taken charge. He was a frequent starter under Hughton initially and the player himself felt bold enough to tell The Argus: “I feel I’ve been playing quite well recently, bringing good competition for the gaffer in the midfield area. I’m giving him quite a tough decision to drop me, in my opinion.”

Hughton clearly felt differently, though. He had already signed Beram Kayal and, in the summer of 2015, added Dale Stephens. They became Hughton’s go-to central midfield pairing.

Another promising young midfielder, Jake Forster-Caskey, found himself sent on loan to MK Dons and, on the last day of the transfer window in early 2016, after Hughton acquired the services of the experienced Steve Sidwell, Ince joined Fulham on loan until the end of the season.

At least it was still Championship level, although Ince didn’t get into Slavisa Jokanovic’s struggling side straight away. It wasn’t until 19 March he was handed a start away to Birmingham City when he obliged with a goal in a 1-1 draw.

“It was a frustrating and a confusing period,” admitted Ince in Fulham’s official matchday programme. “I could have easily given up, but I continued to train hard and kept knocking on the gaffer’s door to make sure he didn’t forget about me. It’s starting to pay off.

“He just said it was tactical why I wasn’t playing but then he decided he wanted to try something different at Birmingham. I think he wanted a more solid midfield with me and Scott Parker in there and I’ve been back in ever since. Long may it continue.”

Ince made eight starts and two sub appearances as Fulham narrowly avoided the drop.

Back at the Albion, Ince only got three first-team starts in the League Cup and was an unused sub for a handful of league games. It was no surprise, therefore, that in January 2017 he was once again sent out on loan, this time to Swindon Town, whose head coach was Luke Williams, who had been in charge of Albion’s development squad when Ince first joined the Seagulls.

Robins fans would have remembered Ince for a wonder strike for Brighton at the County Ground during a Capital One Cup tie in August 2014. It opened the scoring in a 4-2 Albion win, that went to extra-time.

Ince scored twice in 14 games in a squad with some familiar faces: Bradley Barry, Yaser Kasim, Anton Rodgers and Jonathan Obika.

As Albion began life in the Premier League, Ince once again found his only outlet for first-team football was in the League Cup and his display in a 1-0 win over Barnet proved to be a shop window.

Within days, League One Bury signed him on a season-long loan, their manager Lee Clark, saying: “Rohan is a player that has been on the radar for a while. The chairman, Alan Thompson and I went down to Brighton on Tuesday to watch him play for Brighton and he was very impressive for them.

“He will bring a presence to the team and is a very good footballer. He plays it simple and plays it effectively and I believe he will be a big player for us in every sense of the word, both in his physicality and in his play.

“He is an established Championship player and unfortunately for him, Brighton have gone to the next level. Once we found out he was available, we went for him. I am more than delighted to get him in.”

Ince made 22 appearances for Bury in what turned out to be a disastrous season for them because they finished bottom of the table and were relegated. Clark only lasted as manager until the end of October, Chris Lucketti was in charge for two months and caretaker Ryan Lowe was in the hotseat for the remainder of the season.

The loanee played his last match for Bury in April 2018 and was released by the Albion in June that year.

Let’s rewind for a moment, though. Born in Whitechapel, London, on 8 November 1992, Ince was picked up by Chelsea as a promising young player when he was only eight years old.

Football was clearly in the Ince family genes; as well as Uncle Eric, a less close relation is former England international Paul Ince, his dad’s second cousin.

Rohan progressed through Chelsea’s academy and joined the club after completing his formal education at Thamesmead School in Shepperton.

In a detailed pen picture on cfcnet.co.uk in July 2009, Philip Rolfe said: “Look at Rohan from a distance and you could mistake him for a younger John Obi Mikel. His tall, gangly stature and his head of spiky black hair brings about the comparison, and although he’s a centre-back by trade, his laid-back and composed style is very much in the mould of the Nigerian international.

“Ince has most often played in the heart of the under 16s defence alongside Danny Mills, especially in 2007-08. Previously he could also have been found in defensive midfield when Jack Saville was a regular in the under 16s team, and it’s in that position where he might be at his best.

“Much taller and stronger than most opponents his age, he can bring the ball out in the style of the much sought after footballing centre-back. At centre back his somewhat lethargic style can result in a loss of possession, and he is often found to hit a long pass rather than pick out a shorter option.

“In midfield he has more options and more freedom, but as a regular in the under-18s already, he’s honing his craft.”

In 2010, Ince was a member of Dermot Drummy’s FA Youth Cup-winning side that beat Aston Villa 3-2 on aggregate (Ben Sampayo and Anton Rodgers, who also later joined Brighton, were Chelsea subs). Ince signed professional for Chelsea in July 2010 and went on to play regularly for the reserves but didn’t make it to the first-team.

In July 2012, he signed a six-month deal to go on loan to Yeovil. But he made only one start and three substitute appearances for Gary Johnson’s side before returning to Stamford Bridge with a recurring ankle injury.

After finally leaving Chelsea in January 2013, he said: “Chelsea said they couldn’t see me breaking into the first team, which is probably true.

“It is very difficult to get into their first team because they can go out and buy the best players in the world.

“When I was told I wouldn’t get a new deal, I decided to go on a series of trials and Brighton was the club I identified as the best place to go to.

“I travelled to Bournemouth for a friendly on the second day of my trial and felt I had performed well, but then the weather had a dramatic impact on my hopes. There was loads of snow so I was limited to what I could show as we were training indoors, but from what I did show, Luke Williams liked it and extended my trial.”

On being released by Brighton, Ince played a couple of pre-season friendly matches for Charlton Athletic but he didn’t get taken on because of a knee injury. Caretaker boss Lee Bowyer told londonnewsonline: “He’s got something wrong with his knee. He came with it. How he’s been training and playing in the games I don’t know, because he’s injured.”

It led to Ince spending the whole of 2018-19 without a club trying to heal and recover his fitness. Eventually, he was taken on by League Two Cheltenham Town in July 2019, with manager Michael Duff telling the club website: “He’s had a good schooling where he’s come from at Chelsea and had 80 or 90 games for Brighton in the Championship. “When I played against him, he was the next big thing coming through. He’s been a bit unfortunate with his injury last year. We’ve done all the due diligence with regards to testing, seeing specialists, scanning — we think we’ve found a very good player.

Michael Duff greets Rohan Ince

“He’s 6’4”, powerful, but he can play as well. We’re hoping he can add physicality and quality into our midfield.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t a great start for Ince, when the Robins travelled to east London to take on Leyton Orient on the opening day of the season. In a mad five minutes midway through the second half, Josh Wright scored past Scott Flinders to put Orient ahead, Town striker Luke Varney saw a second yellow for alleged simulation in what the visitors contended was a clear penalty shout.

Frustrated by the decision, Ince, who’d taken a drink of water during the halt in proceedings, threw the empty plastic bottle to the sidelines, but it hit the fourth official. Referee Michael Salisbury deemed it to be violent conduct and showed him a straight red card.

“He seems to think he did it intentionally,” manager Duff explained to gloucestershirelive.co.uk afterwards. “I am not sure Rohan’s aim is that good that he can hit someone five or six yards away, walking the other way. There is not a lot I can do about that one, but I think it’s very soft, particularly after what’s gone on in the 60 minutes before that.”

To make matters worse, the FA charged Ince with breaching an FA rule and, instead of the statutory three-match ban, he was banned for five matches.

Then, just when it looked like he would return to the side in a game at Crawley, he injured his hamstring in a pre-match warm-up and had to pull-out of Cheltenham’s starting line-up.

He ended up making only nine League Two appearances and was released at the end of his one-year deal.

It was only when he linked up with fifth-tier Maidenhead United for the 2020-21 season that he finally got a decent run of games, featuring 31 times for the National League side, and helping the club finish 13th, the second-best finish in the club’s history.

In 2021 he was called up for the first time to play for the national football team of Montserrat, which is coached by Willie Donachie, the former Manchester City, Oldham and Scotland defender, who had been Joe Royle’s managerial no.2 at various clubs.

The tiny Caribbean nation, a British overseas territory of less than 5,000 inhabitants, is trying to rebuild after half the island was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in 1995, forcing thousands to flee to Britain. Most of the British-born semi-professionals who play for Montserrat are related to those island residents who came to the UK.

Ince featured in qualifying matches for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and scored his first goal in a 4-0 win over the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Although they did not advance from their World Cup qualifying preliminary group, the ‘Emerald Boys’ finished unbeaten with eight points and earned draws against El Salvador and Antigua and Barbuda.

On his return, for the 2021-22 season, Ince switched to another National League side, Woking, and is described on the club website as “an integral player at the base of the Woking midfield”.

Adding that he had “quickly became a firm fan favourite”, it says of him: “A tough-tackling defensive midfielder also capable of pushing further forward, he made 37 appearances during his debut season with the Cards, whilst chipping in with two goals and four assists.”

Back-up ‘keeper Alan Dovey’s limited chances to shine

THE LIFE of a back-up ‘keeper can be pretty soul destroying, with first team opportunities often few and far between.

Such was the lot of former Chelsea youngster Alan Dovey, who was deputy to longstanding no.1 Brian Powney at the start of the 1970s, and only played eight first team matches for Brighton in two years.

Dovey initially joined on loan in March 1971. Powney’s rival for the no.1 shirt at the start of the season had been the experienced Geoff Sidebottom but he had been forced to retire because of a head injury.

Saward subsequently brought in Ian Seymour from Fulham on a temporary basis when Powney was out for three games, but Chelsea boss Dave Sexton, who’d previously played for the Albion, did his old side a favour by lending them youth team goalie Dovey until the end of the season.

He had to wait until the last two games before getting his chance to shine, making his debut in a 3-1 win away to Bristol Rovers and then appearing in the season’s finale at Wrexham, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

The loan became a permanent transfer that summer, Albion securing the young ‘keeper’s services for £1,000.

He played three times in Albion’s 1971-72 promotion season, and manager Pat Saward appeared content with the youngster, telling Goal magazine “It’s hard having to leave him out again, but what can you do. Chelsea manager Dave Sexton did us a great favour when he let Alan go for £1,000.”

His first game of the season was at Carrow Road, Norwich, when Albion were knocked out in the second round of the League Cup 2-0.

However, under the headline ‘Dovey’s daring display’ the matchday programme declared: “Despite the 2-0 defeat, the former Chelsea goalkeeper had a fine game and thrilled spectators with some daring saves. He had been nursing an injury and this was an in-at-the-deep-end experience but he came through it with great credit.”

It was more than three months before he got his next first team outing, but he once again earned rave notices for his performance in a 2-1 win away to York City, earning Albion’s Man of the Match accolade from Evening Argus reporter John Vinicombe.

The following matchday programme reported: “It was ‘all go’ for Alan. He had to race out of his goal in one York raid and was booked for an infringement, and also had numerous adventures in keeping out shots, centres and breaking up penalty box scrambles.”

Dovey was only ever back-up to Brian Powney

Saward didn’t next call on Dovey until 15 March, a 1-0 home defeat to Oldham Athletic which temporarily put the brakes on Albion’s bid for automatic promotion. Remarkably, that game against Oldham (which also saw a debut as substitute from new signing Ken Beamish) was the first time Dovey had played in front of the Goldstone faithful.

When Albion entertained Exeter City in the first round of the League Cup on 16 August 1972, the crowd may have been 6,500 down on the attendance for the season opener against Bristol City four days earlier but the game presented Dovey with another chance to show what he could do. (The game also saw the return of former captain John Napier to the centre of defence, although he was most likely being ‘shop windowed’ with a view to a transfer).

It is interesting to read an Exeter-angled summary of the game, which declared: “There was no denying that the first half belonged to City, and they deservedly led after 22 minutes with Fred Binney’s goal. There were a few moments early on when the back four and reserve goalkeeper Alan Dovey were little more than strangers in the night. 

“Eventually the pattern knitted together and Dovey gained confidence to make two fine saves in the last 20 minutes from Binney (who two years later joined the Albion in exchange for John Templeman and Lammie Robertson) and Dick Plumb – shots that could so easily have caused a shock defeat.”

Albion eventually prevailed thanks to goals from Willie Irvine and Beamish.

The two league matches Dovey featured in that season were not games he’d look back on fondly. Away to Preston North End on 25 November, Albion’s rookie ‘keeper conceded four when he deputised for ‘flu-hit Powney.

It was the same scoreline at Sunderland, who hadn’t won in 11 games, but who went on to reach that season’s FA Cup Final in which they famously beat Leeds United 1-0.

The Wearsiders hadn’t won at home since September but Brighton went to Roker Park having lost their previous nine matches and, according to the Sunderland Echo, “The winning margin could well have been doubled…. they applied themselves to the task of mastering Brighton’s strong-arm tactics and taking them apart.”

Sunderland took the lead in the ninth minute. Joe Bolton’s hammered left-foot shot struck Dovey in the face, knocking him over, and Billy Hughes pounced on the rebound to drive home a low shot.

Dennis Tueart added a second in the 45th minute and Brighton found the going tougher still in the second half.

After surviving a goalmouth scramble, Sunderland got their third goal in the 58th minute. A free-kick against George Ley for pushing Tueart was taken by Bobby Kerr, whose well-placed drive to the near post was brilliantly headed into goal by Hughes.

Hughes twice came close to completing a hat-trick but it was Bolton who hit what the Echo described as the goal of the game: “a right-foot drive, of such power that Dovey had no chance”.

Struggling to come up with a solution to the disastrous run, Saward went public and started to point the finger at players who he reckoned weren’t cutting it.

Dovey was transfer-listed along with veteran defender Norman Gall and Bertie Lutton. Lutton got a surprise move to West Ham but Gall stayed put and Dovey was released at the end of the season without playing another game.

Born in Stepney on 18 July 1952, Dovey grew up in Chadwell St Mary in Essex and played for Thurrock Boys before joining Chelsea straight from school in 1968 after writing to them to ask for a trial.

He became a youth team regular as well as playing a handful of games for the reserves. On 18 January 1969, he was in goal for a Chelsea side (which also included future first teamer and England international Alan Hudson) when they beat Brighton 5-2 in a South East Counties League youth team fixture.

It was always going to be difficult for Dovey to progress at Stamford Bridge because Worthing-born Peter Bonetti was an almost permanent fixture in Chelsea’s first team and he was understudied initially by Scotland under-23 international Tommy Hughes (who later played three games for the Albion on loan from Aston Villa in 1973) and then future Welsh international John Phillips, who was briefly Graham Moseley’s back-up during Albion’s second season (1980-81) in the First Division.

However, Dovey made national newspaper headlines when he came close to making a first team appearance on 10 January 1970.

Both Bonetti and Hughes went down with ‘flu ahead of a key match between third-placed Chelsea and Leeds United, who were in second place. Chelsea tried to get the game postponed but the Football League wouldn’t hear of it.

The Daily Mirror reported: “Chelsea failed to convince the Football League last night that it would be unfair to put 17-year-old Alan Dovey in goal against Leeds today.

“Dovey, untried beyond an occasional game in the reserves, stands by to face the League Champions.”

Veteran football reporter Ken Jones wrote: “Bonetti has no chance of playing. Unless Hughes has improved by this morning, Dovey will be drafted into the team.”

Chelsea boss Sexton told Jones: “We are hoping Hughes will recover. But if he doesn’t, we shall just have to put Alan in.

“It’s not the sort of thing we like doing with a youngster, but he won’t let us down if he has to play.”

Jones noted that although Dovey had only been a professional for six months, he didn’t display any nerves when interviewed.

“The things that happen in League football happen in youth football,” Dovey told him, “so it will only be the pace and the skill which will be different.

“When Dave Sexton told me I might have to play, that itself was a great thrill. It will be an even greater thrill if I do play against such a great side as Leeds.”

As it turned out, Hughes was adjudged fit after all, although he might have regretted it. In what was only his fifth senior game in five years at the club, he shipped five goals as United won 5-2 in front of a Stamford Bridge crowd of 57,221.

In August that year, Dovey was once again on standby to step up to the first team squad when Hughes suffered a broken leg. But Sexton went into the transfer market instead and bought Phillips from Aston Villa.

The Goldstone Wrap in 2014 noted Dovey stepped away from full-time football after the Albion let him go to pursue a career in insurance. Nevertheless, he played part-time for various Sussex clubs.

Notably he was at Southwick, along with former Albion teammate Paul Flood, at the same time as Ralf Rangnick, later to take temporary charge of Manchester United, was on their books.

Dovey also played for Worthing for three seasons, in their double promotion-winning squad of the early ‘80s, until, in April 1984, manager Barry Lloyd publicly criticised him, telling the Argus: “Alan has done exceptionally well for us over the past three years, but he’s not really aggressive enough in this premier division.”

Isaac’s long, long wait for an Albion win

IT seems extraordinary to think Robert Isaac had to wait FOURTEEN MONTHS to experience a win as a Brighton player after joining the club from Chelsea.

The young defender who had realised every schoolboy’s dream by playing for the team he’d always supported left a disgruntled dressing room at Stamford Bridge only to join a side sliding inexorably toward the relegation trapdoor of what is now the Championship.

“I must admit it was a bit depressing at first because we just couldn’t do anything right,” Isaac told Dave Beckett in an Albion matchday programme article. “We just had no luck at all; if we had I think we might well have survived in Division Two.”

Isaac also appears to have gone out of the frying pan into the fire. Telling thegoldstonewrap.com how he’d left Chelsea because the management was losing support of the players and he wanted regular first team football, he added: “When I joined Brighton in February 1987 they were in freefall. The dressing room was even more at odds with the manager than at Chelsea.

“Barry Lloyd dropped Dean Saunders, our only hope of surviving the drop. I found Barry rather rude. He’d blank me in the corridor and make me train on my own.”

The young defender made his Seagulls debut on 21 February 1987 in a 2-1 defeat at home to Oldham Athletic and featured in four draws and five defeats by the season’s dismal end.

Back at what was for so long Albion’s normal level of third tier football, Lloyd’s side did begin to pick up points – but Isaac wasn’t involved because of a groin strain and a troublesome hernia injury that sidelined him for months.

“I had stomach trouble quite a lot but no-one could put their finger on the problem until I saw a specialist in Harley Street,” he explained.

“After the operation, I was out of action for the best part of six months and at times I didn’t think I would get back to full fitness. I had around 40 internal stitches and even when I began playing again they would stretch and pull and I felt sick after games.”

It wasn’t until March 1988, with Albion in sixth spot, that Lloyd shook things up, initially drafting Isaac in at right-back in place of Kevan Brown, and then selecting him to replace suspended captain – and Isaac’s former Chelsea teammate – Doug Rougvie at centre back alongside Steve Gatting.

Isaac also stepped in when Rougvie missed a couple of games with a ‘flu virus and, although a win in Seagulls’ colours continued to elude him in his first three games back in the side (a defeat and two draws), he kept the no.5 shirt ahead of the rugged Scot. That elusive win finally came in a 2-1 away win at Notts County on 4 April.

Five wins and a draw followed and the successful run-in saw promotion gained as divisional runners-up behind Sunderland. Isaac was one of three former Chelsea players in that back four, with Gary Chivers (who’d arrived from Watford) at right-back and Keith Dublin at left-back.

Dublin had played for England under 19s with Isaac three years earlier. They both played four games in Dave Sexton’s side at the Toulon Tournament in the south of France in 1985 (England beat Cameroon 1-0 and Mexico 2-0, lost 2-0 to the USSR and succumbed 3-1 to France in the final at the Stade Mayol in Toulon).

Sadly, the subsequent fortunes of the two players went in opposite directions: Dublin went on to become such a success with the Seagulls that he was the 1989-90 Player of the Year and was sold to Watford for £275,000; the injury-beset Isaac had to quit the game after only 33 matches in a Brighton shirt.

After Albion bounced back to the second tier, the defender played in the first 11 matches of the 1988-89 season – eight of which were defeats – but his appearance in a 1-0 defeat away to Leicester turned out to be his last as an Albion player.

“I got injured at Leicester,” he recalled. “I didn’t feel it until the next day and then it really hit me. My knee just blew up. Come Monday morning I couldn’t even walk.”

He required an operation to repair the patella tendon in his left knee and, as he sought to regain fitness, spent a fortnight at the National Rehabilitation Centre at Lilleshall.

Meanwhile, Lloyd signed experienced central defender Larry May (whose own playing career would be ended by injury later that season) and, subsequently, Nicky Bissett.

A programme item in the 1989-90 season reminded supporters that Isaac was still around, although he hadn’t played at all throughout 1989.

Looking ahead to 1990, Isaac said: “I just hope I have a better year. I’d like to think that I deserve it after all the frustrations of the last few years with two major operations.”

Sadly, it didn’t happen and in August 1990, he was forced to quit football. After retiring, he worked as a chauffeur for the Maktoums, the ruling family in Dubai, before running his own vehicle business.

Born in Hackney on 30 November 1965, Isaac was Chelsea through and through from an early age.

“We lived in Chelsea and my great grandfather went to the first ever match at Stamford Bridge,” he told thegoldstonewrap.com. “My family have been going to matches home and away since. I went to see Chelsea play Stoke in the (1972) League Cup Final aged six.”

Isaac went on to join the club as a junior, made his reserve team debut at the tender age of 15 and was named Chelsea’s young player of the year in 1984.

It was on 9 October 1984 that his promising career could have been snuffed out before it had even begun: it’s a horrifying tale, told the following day on the front page of The Sun, and covered in detail by that1980sportsblog.

Three knife-wielding Millwall thugs slashed his back from his shoulder to the base of his spine in a dark alley near the south London club’s notorious old stadium, The Den.

Isaac needed 55 stitches to repair the damage and only the thickness of a leather coat he was wearing prevented the wound being potentially life-threatening.

Remarkably, later the same season, in March, he had recovered well enough to make his Chelsea first team debut in a 3-1 win at Watford, although Eddie Niedzwiecki, a Chelsea coach who later worked with Mark Hughes for Wales and at several clubs, told Kelvin Barker’s Celery! Representing Chelsea in the 1980s: “He was a young, up-and-coming apprentice at the time and luckily he managed to pull through, although he never really recovered from it.”

In the 1985-86 season, Isaac played two league cup games for Chelsea and three times in the league. The following season saw him get a mini-run in the side, playing four consecutive league games in November, but his fifth match – a 4-0 home defeat by Wimbledon in which Rougvie was sent off in the first 10 minutes for headbutting John Fashanu – proved to be his last.

The website sporting-heroes.net said of him: “A steady, reliable centre-half and occasional full-back, Robert did little wrong during his time in the Chelsea first-team, but was unfortunate to play for the club at a time when Colin Pates, Joe McLaughlin and, a little later, Steve Wicks, were all demonstrating their considerable talents at the heart of the defence.”

Isaac asked for a transfer after a disagreement with manager John Hollins and his assistant Ernie Walley, and that led to his transfer to Brighton for a £50,000 fee.

The only way was up after Tomori’s awkward Albion debut

FIKAYO TOMORI couldn’t have had a worse debut for Brighton.

The teenage defender on loan from Chelsea was booked on 37 minutes and scored an own goal in the 62nd as Brighton were humiliated 3-1 in the FA Cup by non-league opponents, National League Lincoln City.

Tomori, playing at right back, sliced Nathan Arnold’s cross past a startled Casper Ankergren who’d only just come on as a sub for the injured Niki Mäenpää.

In fact, Tomori wasn’t on the winning side in any of the three matches he started for the Seagulls.

However, he saw plenty of action when making seven appearances off the bench. For example, he played an hour in Albion’s 3-1 home win over Birmingham City when sickness forced off Lewis Dunk on the half-hour mark and slotted in alongside Uwe Huenemeier, who himself was deputising for injured Shane Duffy.

“We knew Lewis wasn’t quite right before the game and everyone had told me to be ready,” he said later. The matchday programme observed: “Tomori looked as if he’d been playing all season alongside Uwe, such was their understanding.”

The two were also paired together in the second half of the 2-1 win away to QPR when Tomori replaced Dunk at half-time. And Tomori lined up alongside Dunk in the centre of defence for the last game of the season at Villa Park when Jack Grealish’s last-minute equaliser denied Albion the Championship title.

Nevertheless, the talented youngster, who went on to be capped by England, was recognised as having played his part in the Albion winning promotion that 2016-17 season.

“I would have liked to play more football but this team’s pushing for promotion and I knew before I came here that getting in the side was going to be difficult,” he said in a matchday programme interview.

“I’ve had to be make sure I’ve been ready when called upon and take any opportunities that have come my way. It’s a challenge I’ve embraced. The manager has been really good to me and I’ve taken a lot of confidence from the fact that when we have had injuries in defence, I’m pretty much the first player to come on.

“I’ve really enjoyed it here. Being involved with a club that’s going for promotion has been a different sort of challenge to what I’ve been used to.”

Reflecting on that period a few years later, Tomori said: “It was a big part of my development, playing every day with professionals who have been playing the game for 10, 15 years.

“That focus, will to win and need to be at the top of your game every game was something I had to learn, and it was really important for my development.”

He added: “They were trying to get their first promotion to the Premier League. The team was really together and focused, and when the games came, they were really on it.

“It was my first taste of senior football and being in a senior changing room and being part of a matchday and stuff like that. It was a great learning experience and obviously we got promoted which was great.”

Born in Calgary, Canada, on 19 December 1997 to wealthy Nigerian parents, Yinka and Mo, who originate from Osun in the south west region of Nigeria, Tomori was less than a year old when the family moved to England.

The family home was in Woolwich and he enjoyed a kickabout with his friends from the age of five or six before starting organised football with Riverview United. The youngster admitted he modelled his game on Thierry Henry.

“I wore my socks above my knees like him, I wore gloves like him even if it wasn’t cold, and I celebrated like him,” he said. “I loved everything about him. Back then it was all about having fun and never did I think that one day I would end up playing for Chelsea.”

Tomori was taken on by the Chelsea academy as a seven-year-old but it wasn’t all about football and, after passing his 11+ exams, he attained 10 GCSEs (six As, three Bs and a C) at Gravesend Grammar School, where he was a pupil between 2009 and 2014.

Assistant head James Fotheringham told The Sun Tomori was the first Gravesend pupil to “really make it” as a footballer, pointing out: “We’ve had a number of boys promised the world by different football clubs and then they get dropped and end up nowhere.

“I asked Chelsea, ‘What makes Fikayo different?’ The guy said, ‘Because he’s got all the attributes of a footballer’s skills but he’s incredibly bright and he just reads the game. He’s got a couple of yards on people because he’s so bright’.”

At Chelsea, Tomori bonded with Tammy Abraham from an early age. They became good friends and made their way through the ranks and were part of the team that recorded back-to-back wins in the UEFA Youth League and the FA Youth Cup in 2015 and 2016.

The 2015-16 season saw Tomori named the Chelsea Academy Player of the Year and he rounded it off by making his first team debut as a substitute against Leicester City on the final day. He described it as “the proudest moment of his career” and explained: “To be out there playing with the likes of Eden Hazard and Willian was a fantastic feeling for me and my family.”

As Albion adjusted to the demands of the Premier League, Tomori remained in the Championship having gone on loan to a Hull City side battling to avoid the drop – a very different experience to his time with the Seagulls.

“My first full season on loan was at Hull and it was my first time away from home too,” he said. “We were hovering over the relegation zone for the whole season, so that was a different kind of challenge mentally.

“You weren’t sure if you were going to be in the team the next week if we had lost the game, because the club needed the points to stay up.

“Those loans really gave me a good outlook on football. Coming from Chelsea, you’re winning a lot of games and trophies, and are protected in a way. Those loans were what moulded me as a person and as a man and made me grow up a lot quicker.”

Tomori’s rapid progress earned him England international recognition and, in 2017, he was in the England under 20 team who won the World Cup in South Korea and in 2018 was with the under 21s when they won the Toulon tournament.

As a forerunner to his breakthrough at Chelsea, Tomori spent the 2018-19 season on loan at Derby County, where Frank Lampard had taken over as manager.

Fikayo played a total of 55 league and cup matches as County made it all the way to the play-off final where their tilt for promotion to the Premier League was finally quashed when Aston Villa beat them 2-1 at Wembley.

Nevertheless, the young defender was named as Derby’s Player of the Year, and perhaps it was no surprise that when Lampard’s next move was to become manager of Chelsea, he was quick to put Tomori into the first team at Stamford Bridge.

The majority of his 27 matches for Chelsea came in that 2019-20 season, and, although defending might have been his priority, he popped up with a couple of goals. A long-range screamer he scored against Wolves was voted Chelsea Goal of the Year.

The same season, Tomori stepped up to the full England side and made his debut as an 84th-minute substitute for Trent Alexander-Arnold in the 4-0 away win against Kosovo in a Euro 2020 qualifier in November 2019. In doing so, he became the 50th Chelsea player to be capped by England.

However, it was another two years before Gareth Southgate selected him again, by which time he had moved to AC Milan.

After falling out of contention at Chelsea, he joined the Italian side on loan initially in January 2021 but then made the move permanent in June 2021, signing a four-year deal.

In a lengthy interview with Sky Sports, he spoke about how his career had turned round after the disappointment of losing his place at Chelsea.

“It was a difficult time – every footballer wants to play, and every footballer wants to show themselves on the pitch,” he said.

“When you are not able to do that, it is difficult – and being able to overcome and forget about that is part of the reason why it is now going so well.

“I didn’t really dwell on it and just moved on and put it as part of football, part of life.

“I had a really good support system with my family and my friends – and now I’ve overcome that I want to take it further and keep progressing.”

On 9 October 2021, Tomori was a 60th minute substitute for John Stones in England’s 5-0 thrashing of Andorra, when his good friend Abraham was among the scorers.

The pair were up against each other 22 days later when Tomori’s Milan beat Abraham’s AS Roma 2-1 in a Serie A clash. Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored his 400th league goal (and 150th in Italian football).

Liam Bridcutt was the Real deal for Poyet’s Brighton

LIAM BRIDCUTT won back-to-back Player of the Season awards at Brighton and later went on to captain Leeds United.

The diminutive midfielder was a stand-out defensive midfielder who Seagulls supporters took to their hearts.

He was pivotal to the new style of play Gus Poyet introduced, sitting in front of the back four, and comfortably acting as the conduit for the side’s highly effective passing game.

Having been brought through as a youngster at Stamford Bridge, he had witnessed close up the role Claude Makelele executed so efficiently for Chelsea, and, when his former Stamford Bridge colleague Poyet gave him an initial five-month contract at Brighton, he seized the chance.

“Chelsea made me the player I am today and they gave me the best of everything in terms of facilities and training with some of the biggest names in football,” he said shortly after signing for the Albion.

“My favourite player was Dennis Wise. I always wanted to be like him in that central midfield role. Then, as I got older, the team changed and it was Makele who I watched. Chelsea wanted more of a Makele player out of me.”

With so many star names ahead of him, it was inevitable Bridcutt would have to look elsewhere to progress. Initially he went on loan to Watford, managed by Brendan Rodgers, who he’d played under for Chelsea’s youth side and reserves.

“I played in some really big games, jumping from reserve football – full of kids and not that physical – into games where players are literally fighting for their careers,” he said.

“My first game was against Doncaster, where I was named Man of the Match, and then it was Spurs in the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. I was up against Jermaine Jenas and Jamie O’Hara. I loved the adrenalin and pushing myself against all these players.”

It meant he didn’t fancy returning to reserve football and went out on loan again, playing more than 20 games for Stockport County in League One – including being sent off playing against the Seagulls! “It was another good learning curve for me,” he said.

When released by Chelsea, he had trials at Crystal Palace, Wycombe Wanderers and Dagenham and Redbridge – without success – but Chelsea let him return to train with them for three weeks and, during that time, Ray Wilkins suggested him to Poyet, who gave him an initial five-month contract to show what he could do.

After his debut against Orient, he told the matchday programme: “The manager has been saying to me that he needs a player in there who can control the game, break things up and play. I aim to prove I am that player.”

Mission accomplished, Bridcutt earned a two-year deal and he told the Argus: “It was one of my goals when I first signed here, to get a longer deal, and I’ve done that.

“I have been rewarded for my hard work. All I’ve got to do now is settle down and think about my future and look forward to next season.

“There was no hesitation from me really. I want to be here as long as I can. I can see what Gus has done here is brilliant. It’s a big club on the way up, so I was more than happy to sign.”

Bridcutt helped Albion win League One and is particularly remembered for a stunning long-range volley at Withdean on 5 March 2011 that proved to be the winner in a 4-3 win over Carlisle United. He was also on the scoresheet when Albion twice came from behind against Dagenham and Redbridge and eventually won another 4-3 thriller to clinch promotion back to the second tier.

Comfortably taking the step up in class in his stride, Bridcutt was pivotal to Albion reaching the Championship play-offs, but, after Poyet’s departure, rumours began to swirl that the young midfielder would follow him to the north east.

It didn’t happen immediately but, after handing in a transfer request, he finally made the move in January 2014 after featuring in 151 games for the Seagulls.

Given the opportunity to reflect on that time, Bridcutt admitted to the excellent podcast Football, the Albion and Me that he should never have left but, at the time, he didn’t feel the Albion did enough to persuade him to stay when Premier League and Championship clubs were sniffing around.

“Because they had so many good offers, they didn’t try to keep me,” he said. “I didn’t want to leave the club. I was very much happy there. But at the time I had other offers. The club knew about this and were back and forth with other clubs and turned down lots of offers.

“All I wanted was to be rewarded for the time I had given to the club,” he said, maintaining that, regardless of Poyet going, he wanted to part of the club’s long term goal of getting to the Premier League.

Scotland cap

In March 2013, Bridcutt’s consistent Albion form earned him a call-up to the Scotland international squad. Newly appointed manager Gordon Strachan gave him his first cap against Serbia, although the 2-0 defeat ended the Scots’ hopes of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup, and Bridcutt collected a booking in the 77th minute.

It wasn’t until three years later, during his spell at Leeds, that Bridcutt earned his second and only other cap. It came when he was a second half substitute in a 1-0 win over Denmark and some observers considered Bridcutt lucky not to see red for a robust tackle in the game at Hampden Park.

Although born in Reading, on 8 May 1989, he qualified to play for Scotland through his Edinburgh-born grandfather.

In July 2021, Bridcutt gave an illuminating and excoriating insight into his move and time on Wearside to a Sunderland podcast.

He recalled how on the day he signed for the club Poyet called him at midnight informing him he’d be playing the next day in the Tyne-Wear derby game and, before putting the phone down, said: “You better not be shit because I’ve pushed hard to get you here!”

Thankfully, Bridcutt had an outstanding debut in place of the injured Lee Cattermole in a 3-0 win for the Black Cats over their arch rivals.

Poyet purred: “Liam Bridcutt knows the defensive midfielder role I want us to play perfectly. So I was not worried.

If there’s one person that knows the role better than anyone else in the world, it is Liam and the best thing for him is that we won, we kept a clean sheet and he got through 90 minutes having not played all month.”

Poyet was rarely shy in singing Bridcutt’s praises, once telling the Mail: “If I was coach of Real (Madrid) I would take him because he deserves to go to the highest level.

“As a holding midfielder, there is no better player in the division. The best thing about Liam is that he understands me to an incredible level. The way he understands what I want from him is spectacular.”

However, Bridcutt reckoned a lot of players Poyet inherited at Sunderland were scared to play the sort of football Albion’s players had readily embraced and he also questioned their professionalism, saying: “It was almost like he (Poyet) was fighting a losing battle because there was literally lads out every other night and you could see that in our performances. We were terrible.”

Supporters piled on the pressure too and, although Bridcutt reckoned he could cope with the barbs, someone like Marcos Alonso responded badly to the stick but proved he was a decent player after he moved to Chelsea.

After keeping Sunderland in the Premier League against the odds, Poyet signed a new two-year contract in May 2014 but was sacked the following March. His successor, Dick Advocaat, froze Bridcutt out and, eventually, in November 2015, Steve Evans took him on loan at Leeds United.

In the early part of 2016, ahead of playing against Brighton at the Amex, Bridcutt confessed he’d be open to a return to the south coast. He told the Argus: “It was probably my best period in football. That was my opportunity to properly showcase what I could do and I had brilliant times there.

“I know the place well and I’d call it home. My first child was born there and it’s where my family started. It’s where my career really started and it’s a club where, if there was the right opportunity to go back at some stage, I definitely would.

“Even when I first joined, the club always had direction. There was always a plan. Nothing happened by accident. They hit a bit of a rocky patch after losing Gus (Poyet) but, like most clubs, it happens. They seem to have got their stability back. I’m happy to see that.”

As it was, Bridcutt stayed at Elland Road until the end of the season and, after Garry Monk’s appointment as manager, he was signed on a permanent basis in August 2016. A month later he was appointed Leeds captain, taking over the role from Sol Bamba.

A delighted Bridcutt said: “It’s a real honour, the manager has shown great faith in me by giving me the captaincy.

“It puts a little bit more pressure on me but that’s something I like. I’ve always been a player that’s thrived under pressure, and I think that’s the way to get the best out of me.”

Unfortunately a broken foot saw Bridcutt miss a large part of the season and the managerial revolving door at Leeds saw Monk replaced in the summer of 2017 by Thomas Christiansen.

After 53 games for United, Bridcutt also found himself heading for the exit, joining Mark Warburton’s Nottingham Forest on a three-year deal for a fee thought to be around £1m.

Former Forest favourite Garry Birtles was suitably impressed by the new signing, telling the Nottingham Post: “He’s 28 so you’d think he will hit his peak for Forest, having signed a three-year deal.

“He was Leeds United’s captain last season as they finished in seventh place in the Championship. I saw him play for Leeds and, I have to say, he was very impressive. He’s got that creative ability, and his all-round game was good.”

While Bridcutt played plenty of games under Warburton, when another managerial change saw the arrival of Aitor Karanka, his game time dried up.

Bridcutt spent the first part of the 2019-20 season on loan at League One Bolton Wanderers, where he was made captain by boss Keith Hill, and was reunited with former Albion and Sunderland teammate Will Buckley.

But after his recall to Forest in January 2020 he was then dispatched on loan to Lincoln City for the remainder of the season.

It wasn’t long before Bridcutt was captaining the Imps and in August 2020 he joined them on a permanent basis after his Forest contract expired.

Injury sidelined Bridcutt from Colin Appleton’s side as Lincoln beat Sunderland over a two-legged League One play-off semi-final in May 2021 but Bridcutt skippered the Imps as they narrowly lost 2-1 to Blackpool in the final at Wembley.

Ahead of the Sunderland clash, Lincoln fan Gary Hutchinson, of The Stacey West Lincoln fan website, told SB Nation Roker Report: “I love Bridcutt. He is the pivot around which our entire side function. Playing in the four role he picks the ball deep, protects the back four and is always willing to add to an attack. There are options in the middle of the park – Jorge Grant usually deputises there and Max Sanders who recently signed from Brighton is the long-term heir-apparent for Bridcutt.”

Released by Lincoln at the end of the 2021-22 season, Bridcutt, aged 33, was eventually reunited with Appleton at Blackpool; his signing on a one-year contract for the Championship side announced on 30 September 2022.

“I’m excited to be here and working with the manager again,” Bridcutt told the Blackpool website. “He was brilliant for me over the last two years – he put a lot of trust and faith in me.

“We’ve got a good understanding in terms of what he wants from his teams and his players day-to-day. I get that and it’s how I work and how I’ve always worked. He knows what I’m like and what he can get out of me.”

Appleton added: “We know the quality and the experience he’s got – at Premier League and Championship level – and he’s a fantastic character who will also bring a lot of things off the pitch as well. His addition will be a real plus.”

Why Roman’s roubles spelled bad news for Alexis Nicolas

A PROMISING young midfielder edging towards first team football at Chelsea had his dreams extinguished when Roman Abramovich arrived with lorry loads of cash.

Manager Claudio Ranieri had let Alexis Nicolas know that he was heading in the right direction after he’d broken through to the fringes of the first team.

But when Abramovich took over at Stamford Bridge, big name signings started to arrive and Nicolas was left way down the pecking order behind the likes of Juan Sebastián Verón, Claude Makélélé, Geremi and Scott Parker.

New boss Jose Mourinho informed the youngster he should look elsewhere to make progress, and Brighton, newly promoted to the Championship, offered a refuge for the talented London-born Cypriot under-21 international.

Albion’s midfield options were depleted at the beginning of the 2004-05 season with Simon Rodger a long-term absentee, stalwart Richard Carpenter recovering from close-season knee surgery, and Charlie Oatway also sidelined through injury.

It meant Nicolas had a chance to show what he was made of and he played 15 games on loan from the start of the season through to October.

Enthusiastic Albion boss Mark McGhee said: “He has brought energy and he has got quality. He is a certain type of player, similar in many ways to Charlie Oatway.

“He is not a box-to-box goalscoring midfielder but what he does brilliantly is that he is always in the area around the ball where you need him.

“He breaks things up quickly and, when we win possession, we go more quickly from defence into attack with Alexis in there than we did previously.”

Nicolas clearly relished the opportunity he’d been given and, as the prospects of a permanent move grew stronger, he told the Argus: “It’s flattering that Brighton want to keep me. I like it here. I am happy with the club and the manager and I don’t see why it can’t be permanent.

“If everything can come together, and I think it will be a good move, then I don’t see why it won’t go ahead.”

He added: “There is a lot of stuff to be sorted out with a lot of different people.

“All I can say is I am happy here and I like the club. They are good people and the fans are great. Anyone with an offer to come here has got to be chuffed with that, because it is a great set-up.”

McGhee made no secret of his admiration for the 21-year-old, saying: “He’s been a fixture in the team and that says it all. He is improving week in and week out and I think he has got a good future.

“He has a terrific little engine and attitude. He quietly goes about his job and he has been really important for us so far this season.

“The boy himself is modest and unassuming. He loves Chelsea, he loved being there and I am sure he will be very disappointed to leave, but he wants to be a footballer more than he wants to be a Chelsea player. That is the important thing for us.”

McGhee explained the difference Nicolas made to the side. “He has that knack of being in the right place at the right time; he seems to cover such a big area. For a physically small lad, he is everywhere.

“He anticipates where the next ball is going and gets there early, puts people under pressure, wins the ball back and activates us going forward. He wins it and, before you know it, we’re going forward.”

When he signed permanently, Nicolas said: “It feels great. You are always sad to leave a club and I have been at Chelsea for a while, but I am excited and glad that I have signed for Brighton.

“The role I play is similar to Claude Makélélé’s and I used to speak to Claude regularly. He used to give me a lot of good advice. I’ve learned from all of the players at Chelsea, but now it’s time for me to open another chapter in my life and learn some other stuff.”

Nicolas said breaking into the Chelsea first team had whetted his appetite to return to that level and he told the Albion matchday programme: “Having played in the Premiership, I would like to achieve it here at Brighton and I don’t see why one day Brighton can’t be a club in the Premiership.”

Unfortunately, he joined an injury and suspension hit squad that couldn’t compete with better-resourced clubs in the second tier because of crowd-restricted home gates at the Withdean Stadium.

While Nicolas impressed in his first season, playing in a further 19 games, McGhee was forced to sell star players Danny Cullip and Darren Currie to bolster the club’s perilous finances, and the side only just managed to avoid the drop.

The following season, with Dean Hammond and Carpenter the mainstays in central midfield, Nicolas too often watched on from the bench and missed several weeks because of ankle and knee injuries.

Asked about his watching brief from the sidelines, he said in a matchday programme article: “It’s been very frustrating for me this season and I’m upset about it. I’d like to think that a lot of the fans would like to see me out there. The manager can only pick eleven players and he’s the boss – what he says goes and I respect that.”

His frustration was barely disguised in an interview with the Argus on 23 Feb 2006, after a reserve match he was due to play in was called off.

“It seems impossible for me to get 90 minutes at the moment,” he said. “I was out for six weeks injured and have only managed 60 minutes football against Millwall in a reserve match since because of postponements.

“Before that I was mostly on the bench. I have hardly played this season.

“Even though I am not fully match fit, I have been training hard and have enough about me to be able to cope. I am not thinking of myself when I say this. I have put personal goals to one side.

“After all, I pulled out of international squads with Cyprus earlier in the season even if it meant I could just be on the bench for Brighton. I feel I have a lot to offer.”

The midfielder added: “What matters is Albion. I love the club, the lads and the fans and want to do my best for them.”

Unfortunately, after playing only 12 matches in 2005-06, he wasn’t kept on after the Seagulls were relegated on 30 April 2006, and he never played league football again.

Born in Westminster on 13 February 1983, Nicolas went to Trent CE Primary School in Cockfosters, where he first showed a talent with a football. He also enjoyed long distance running and tennis.

He played football for a decent Sunday League side in Colliers Wood alongside two other future professionals, Steve Sidwell and Leon Britton, and eventually became part of Arsenal’s youth set-up. But he ended up as an apprentice at Aston Villa, and got taken on as a professional. He was in the same under-19s squad as future Albion goalkeeper Wayne Henderson and defender Liam Ridgewell.

But in December 2001, he joined Chelsea on a free transfer, and with 24 starts plus one as a sub, he missed only one of the reserves side’s 26 matches in the 2002-03 season.

He was handed the no.27 shirt for the 2003-04 season and made his Chelsea first team debut in their 1-0 FA Cup win away to Scarborough on 24 January 2004.

John Terry scored the only goal of the game and Nicolas played in midfield alongside Frank Lampard and Emmanuel Pettit in a side also featuring Joe Cole and Wayne Bridge.

Guardian football reporter, Paul Wilson, noted: “Alexis Nicolas made an encouraging debut, but time and again Cole, in particular, would attempt something complicated when a simpler option was available.”

Nicolas made his Premiership debut a week later in a 1–0 win over Charlton Athletic. His only other appearance was as a 90th minute substitute for Lampard as the Blues rounded off the season with a 1-0 home win over Leeds United.

Nicolas spoke about those early years at Chelsea in an interview with Simon Yaffe of planetfootball.com.

“Ranieri called me into his office at the end of 2002-2003 and told me the club didn’t have a lot of money to invest and that he didn’t have too many midfielders at his disposal, so I would be in his plans for the following season,” Nicolas said.

Even as the oligarch’s takeover was going through in the summer of 2003, the youngster was part of Ranieri’s team which beat Newcastle United 5-4 on penalties in the final of the FA Premier League Asia Cup in front of a crowd of 41,500 in Kuala Lumpur’s national Bukit Jalil stadium. It was the first piece of silverware of the Abramovich era.

“It maybe wasn’t the most glamorous of trophies, but it was still the first of many under the new owner,” Nicolas said.

It wasn’t long before a flurry of big-name signings soon changed the picture for Nicolas; the arrival of five midfielders in particular being somewhat ominous.

“I had planned to go out on loan because I had fallen so far down the pecking order,” Nicolas added. “But some of the midfielders, like Makélélé and Petit, were picking up injuries, so I stuck around.

“Looking back, it was easy to think, ‘He’s signed, so that is why I am not playing,’ but it was really a turning point in Chelsea’s history, and it was nice to have been part of it.

“I was pleased for the club when Abramovich took over but also a little bit disappointed for myself.”

After relegated Brighton released him, Nicolas tried to continue his league career and had a trial with Bradford City, but after an unremarkable game for their reserves side, manager Colin Todd told the Bradford Telegraph & Argus: “At the moment I can’t guarantee him anything. His fitness levels aren’t the best but if he wants to continue to train with us and try to improve on that then it’s up to him.”

In fact, he decided to join St Albans City on 26 September 2006 and made his Nationwide Conference debut in a 2-1 defeat at Weymouth four days later.

On 12 November, the St Albans City website noted: “A knee injury restricted Alexis to just six appearances for St Albans City but, with a number of League One and League Two sides showing an interest, the player has decided to move on.”

Nicolas said he was grateful to manager Colin Lippiatt for giving him the opportunity and added: “I was not in the best of states when I joined the club but everyone has been a great help and when fully fit I hope to join one of the League One or League Two sides who are showing an interest in me.”

But it was a career in property investment that opened up for him instead and in 2012 he set up his own business in partnership with Ryan Springer.

He wasn’t completely done with football, though, and, also in 2012, Nicolas had a spell as player-manager of Hadley FC, a Spartan South Midlands League Premier Division side, and in 2014-15 he was part of the club’s management team under former Spurs and Chelsea player Micky Hazard.

Pictures as featured in the Albion matchday programme and from various online sources.

How Shots stopper Mark Beeney’s move saved the Albion

MARK BEENEY has coached young goalkeepers at Chelsea for nearly 20 years, but Brighton fans who saw him play remember his most important ever save.

The proceeds from his sale to Leeds United for £350,000 on 20 April 1993 quite literally saved the Albion from being wound up by the Inland Revenue.

Beeney had played 55 league and cup games in the Albion goal that season (missing only one because of a suspension) and he didn’t have much say in what happened next, as he remembered in an interview with the Argus in 2001.

“Albion were at Plymouth and the night before the game manager Barry Lloyd told me that he had given Leeds permission to talk to me and that he wanted me to negotiate a deal otherwise the club were history,” he said.

“I didn’t really have much choice because if I’d have turned down the chance I’d have been unemployed anyway with the financial situation at Albion.”

Howard Wilkinson, the former Albion winger who had led Leeds to the old Division One title the previous season, had been looking for a ‘keeper to compete with the ageing John Lukic, and Beeney fitted the bill….as well as footing the bill for Brighton where the taxman was concerned.

The move was certainly an upheaval in terms of geographical location but it presented Beeney with the chance to leap from third tier football into the Premier League.

It didn’t quite pan out as he might have hoped – most of his action was for Leeds’ reserve side! – but over the course of six years he played 49 games in the Premiership and 68 first team games in total for the Elland Road outfit.

Born in Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells, on 30 December 1967, Beeney went to St Francis Primary School in Maidstone then to St Simon Stock, a Catholic secondary school.

He first came to the attention of talent spotters when playing for Ringlestone Colts, a successful Maidstone junior side, and he was invited to join Gillingham, Kent’s only professional side at the time, as an associate schoolboy.

He made sufficient progress to be taken on as an apprentice by the Gills and turned professional in August 1985. He only played two first team games, though, and was given a free transfer by manager Keith Peacock.

Beeney, circled, when with the Maidstone United squad who won promotion to the league

He joined Maidstone United in January 1987 and, although they were in the GM Vauxhall Conference at the time, he helped them to gain promotion to the Football League in 1989.

His form for Maidstone led to international recognition when he played as a second half substitute for the England C (semi-professional) side in a 1-1 draw away to Italy on 29 January 1989. The game at Stadio Alberto Picco in La Spezia saw Fabrizio Ravanelli, a Champions League winner with Juventus seven years later, score the Italians’ goal.

Back at Maidstone, it wasn’t the best news for Beeney when Peacock arrived as manager. He ended up going on loan to Aldershot, where he played seven games. On his return, Maidstone’s goalkeeping coach Joe Sullivan recommended him to Brighton boss Barry Lloyd and the Seagulls paid a £25,000 fee to take him to the Goldstone in March 1991 as back-up to Perry Digweed.

Wheeler-dealer Lloyd had sold John Keeley to Oldham Athletic for £238,000 a year before – not a bad return for a player who cost £1,500 – and with the inexperienced Brian McKenna not really a meaningful challenger for Digweed’s place, Beeney was ideally suited to the Seagulls.

However, he had a rather ignominious start when, on 20 April 1991, Albion lost 3-0 at home to Oxford United but he kept a clean sheet second time around when he was between the sticks for a 1-0 win at Hull City before Digweed returned to star in the end-of-season excitement that culminated in a trip to Wembley for the play-off final.

Beeney’s third senior Albion appearance couldn’t have come in stranger circumstances, and I was at close quarters to witness it. I was a guest in the directors’ box at The Den, Millwall, on the evening of 4 September and tracksuited Beeney was sat a couple of rows behind me, having travelled but not been included in what in those days was a 13-man squad.

During the warm-up, Digweed suddenly pulled up with an injury and, after physio Malcolm Stuart attended to him, it was evident he wouldn’t be able to take part in the game. But the referee was poised to start the match, so the ‘keeper’s jersey was handed to Gary Chivers to go between the posts to avoid delaying the kick-off.

A discussion between the managers and the officials gave the green light to allow Albion to replace Digweed with a recognised ‘keeper and, although he hadn’t been due to be involved, Beeney was summoned from the stand to enter the fray as an emergency substitute.

Eight minutes of play had elapsed by the time he’d managed to leg it down to the changing room and get himself ready for action. John Crumplin, who had started the game in Chivers’ right-back slot instead of being on the bench, was forced to come off without having broken into a sweat, and a relieved Chivers resumed his more traditional defensive position.

Into the bargain, the eventful evening saw the Seagulls come away with a 2-1 win – their second successive victory at The Den, having won 2-1 there in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals four months earlier.

Digweed’s injury meant Beeney then had his first extended run in the side, playing in 30 of the following 31 league and cup games (loan American goalkeeper Juergen Sommer deputising in a 0-0 away draw at Cambridge United) before Digweed was finally restored to the no.1 spot in early February. Only five of the remaining 16 games were won and Albion were relegated back to the third tier.

When the new season got under way, Beeney had stepped up to become first choice ‘keeper, and, when interviewed in a matchday programme article, said: “I came as second string ‘keeper as I knew Perry was the number one but I have always wanted to establish myself and this season I have had my chance.”

As referred to earlier, his final Albion appearance came away to Plymouth on 17 April, and Beeney left the club having featured in 87 games plus that one as sub. He told the Argus he retained great affection for the Seagulls. “I remember it as a friendly club even though they didn’t have much to be cheerful about with the taxman trying to shut them down and the players were wondering whether they would get paid.

“There was a good spirit in the dressing room with experienced types like Fozzie (Steve Foster) and Johnny Byrne around the place who had seen it all before.

“I spent the least time there but it is the one former club that makes me most welcome. I appreciate that.”

With Beeney transferred, Digweed returned for the final three games of the season, but the 3-2 home win over Chester turned out to be his last game for the club, and Albion began the following season with 18-year-old Nicky Rust as their first-team ‘keeper.

Because Beeney’s transfer had gone through outside of the window, Leeds gained special dispensation from the FA and their opponents, Coventry City, to allow him to make his debut in the final game of the 1992-93 season, there being nothing of consequence at stake with both sides comfortably sitting in mid-table.

Beeney conceded three in the game at Highfield Road but the game finished 3-3, diminutive Rod Wallace a hat-trick hero, rescuing a point for Leeds with goals in the 87th and 90th minutes to add to his first half strike.

In his first full season at Elland Road, Beeney shared the no.1 spot with Lukic, but the former Arsenal stopper had the upper hand in the following two seasons.

And just when Beeney thought he would make the breakthrough, Leeds signed Nigel Martyn from Crystal Palace to take over from Lukic.

Beeney told the Argus: “I thought I was going to be no. 1 and Paul Evans no. 2 in 1996 and both Paul and I were told a deal with Nigel was not going through. A couple of days later he had joined. I was disappointed. But I decided to buckle down as we were happy at the club and in the North with my family. I ended up playing more than 400 reserves games, I was hardly ever injured, and it was frustrating.”

Beeney handles ouotside the box at Old Trafford and is sent off

One time when he did get a start, against Manchester United at Old Trafford, on 14 April 1996, he was sent off after 16 minutes! Wilkinson never picked a sub keeper, so defender Lucas Radebe had to go in goal.

The excellent Leeds archive website ozwhitelufc.net.au remembers Beeney as: “A big keeper, his meticulous planning left him well prepared as he keenly watched videos of potential penalty-takers. He proved a capable deputy for John Lukic, taking over from him when his form dipped. His contract was extended in June 1996 for a further two years, but he had to retire due to injuries sustained in a reserve game at Stoke City when he ruptured an Achilles tendon in March 1999.”

In fact, he ruptured it twice in the space of eight months, he told the Argus, and he quit playing professionally after taking the advice of Leeds’ boss at the time, David O’Leary, whose own career had ended with a similar injury.

“The medical people said the Achilles would not hold up to what was needed at the level I was at,” he said. “I sought a second opinion afterwards and was told the Achilles was strong but it’s so short it doesn’t give me the spring I need to play at the top.”

Beeney set up an executive chauffeur business – Victoria Beckham was among his clients – but a former playing colleague at Aldershot, Steve Wignall, had taken over as manager at Doncaster Rovers, and offered him a return to playing.

“I just wanted somewhere to train,” Beeney told the Argus. “He (Steve) said they needed cover as a goalkeeper so I might as well sign on. I played four reserve games and was substitute for the first team.”

Eventually, after eight years living in Yorkshire, Beeney moved the family back to Kent so sons Mitchell and Jordan could be nearer their grandparents. He linked up with Dover Athletic as a back-up ‘keeper and played in a couple of pre-season friendlies but was mainly standby to first choice Paul Hyde.

In October 2001, he switched to Sittingbourne as manager, and also began working two days a week with the young goalkeepers at Chelsea (under 21s, under 17s and under 16s).

He left Sittingbourne in 2004 when the role at Chelsea was made a permanent position, and he’s been coaching the Premier League club’s reserve and academy ‘keepers ever since, although he did work with the first team ‘keepers temporarily when Jose Mourinho was in charge in 2007.

Beeney the goalkeeping coach pictured in 2010

Both his sons went through the Chelsea academy as goalkeepers. Mitchell was at Chelsea from 2007 until 2018. He came close to first-team action as a non-playing substitute for a home 1-1 draw with Liverpool in May 2015, which he spoke about in an interview with the42.ie and he did get to play league football out on loan at Newport County and Crawley Town. When he finally left Chelsea, he moved to Ireland to play for Sligo Rovers and returned to the UK in 2019 to join Hartlepool United.

Younger son Jordan left Chelsea in 2014 after seven years and joined Charlton Athletic where he spent four years before being given a free transfer.

Pictures from Albion matchday programmes and online sources.

Andrew Crofts just couldn’t stay away from the Seagulls

ANDREW Crofts is one of that rare breed of player who had three separate spells at Brighton, although the latter time was only as player-coach with the under-23s.

The Welsh international midfielder returned to the Seagulls after only a month as player-coach at Yeovil Town when Liam Rosenior left the Albion to move to Derby County.

His signing as an over-age player as well as a coach was explained by technical director Dan Ashworth, who hailed the “innovative step” and told the club website: “The thinking behind the playing role is to have someone of his experience out there on the pitch alongside our younger players, and to impart that crucial knowledge he has gained from his time in the game.

“To have that experience out on the field, in the pressure situation of a game, will be of enormous benefit to our young players and have a positive impact on their collective and individual development.”

Crofts first joined the club in the summer of 2009 during Russell Slade’s managerial reign and, when Gus Poyet took over the managerial chair, he appointed Crofts as captain for his first game in charge.

The midfielder repaid the faith in that televised away game at St Mary’s on 15 November by scoring in Albion’s memorable 3-1 win. Crofts retained the armband through to the end of the season and his form had caught the attention of Championship side Norwich City.

Crofts made the switch to Carrow Road and played 44 games as Paul Lambert’s outfit won promotion to the Premier League in runners up spot.

In the top-flight, though, Crofts was no longer a mainstay of the midfield, starting just 15 matches in 2011-12, and coming off the bench on 10 occasions.

“Towards the end of the season I was in and out,” he told the Albion matchday programme in 2019. “Paul then went to Aston Villa and when the chance came up to return to the Albion I jumped at it.”

“It felt like coming home and I wanted to replicate what we had done with Norwich. It was a completely different club compared to the one I’d left, with the Amex Stadium and plans for the new training ground.”

Poyet wasted no time in seizing the chance to re-sign him, telling the club website: “When we knew about the possibility to bring him back we worked very hard to do that.

“I am delighted to have him back. He is going to be a very important player.

“He is coming back to a club that he knows and he was happy to come back – that shows his commitment,” said Poyet. “He leads by example and we want players like that on the pitch.”

Unfortunately, that season his playing time was limited by two long-term spells out injured, and the following season it got worse. After sustaining a serious cruciate knee ligament injury in January 2014, he was sidelined by an almost identical injury again in October 2014.

When the player suffered the first injury in an away game at Birmingham, Poyet’s successor, Oscar Garcia, said: “He will be a big loss and I feel sorry for Crofty. He has been excellent and has been a key player.”

Crofts battled over many months to regain fitness only to suffer a partial tear of his anterior cruciate ligament and a tear to the meniscus in a match against Watford in October 2014, putting paid to any involvement in the rest of the 2014-15 season.

Head coach Sami Hyypia told the club website: “We are all devastated for Crofty. He is an important member of our squad and worked incredibly hard to get back to full fitness after last season’s knee injury.

“Crofty is a very strong character and he will continue to receive the best possible care and treatment from our medical staff throughout his rehabilitation.”

Unfortunately for him, by the time he was fit again, another new manager was in place and Dale Stephens and Beram Kayal were firmly established as Chris Hughton’s preferred midfield pairing. So, in March 2016, Albion loaned him back to his first club, Gillingham, until the end of the season.

On leaving the Seagulls that summer, he moved to Charlton Athletic under his former Albion boss Slade, on a one-year contract, and made a total of 54 appearances for the Addicks.

Although born in Chatham, Kent, Crofts qualified to play for Wales because his grandfather hailed from the principality. He earned a total of 29 caps, spread over 13 seasons, initially under John Toshack, most coming under Gary Speed, before making his final appearance against Panama in November 2017, in Chris Coleman’s last game as Wales manager.

Crofts v Rooney in a Wales v England match
Welsh international

Crofts was on Chelsea’s books from the age of 10 to 15, going through the ranks with John Terry, with whom he shared digs. One of his coaches was ex-Albion and Chelsea defender Gary Chivers. After being released by Chelsea, he linked up with Gillingham as a trainee and worked his way through the youth and reserve sides, making a surprise first team debut against Watford in May 2001 when only 16.

It wasn’t until 2004 and 2005 that he became a first team regular. His first Gills goal was scored in the Championship clash at the Withdean Stadium on Boxing Day 2004 when the Seagulls won 2-1.

Crofts eventually took over the captaincy at Gillingham but, after the side were relegated to League One, manager Mark Stimson believed the role was too much of a burden on the player. After more than 200 appearances for the Gills, he was made available for transfer and, in 2008-09, went out on loan to Peterborough United and then Conference side Wrexham under former Albion striker Dean Saunders.

When he joined Albion on a free transfer in June 2009, boss Slade said: “He’s an international player so that’s not bad for a start. He’s got good pedigree and was an important player for a good Gillingham team at the time.

“He can sit in for you defensively or he can get forward. He has got a good work ethic and I’m pleased to get him.”

Towards the end of his league playing days, Crofts had spells at Scunthorpe United in 2017-18 then Newport County for the 2018-19 season, playing under his former Gillingham teammate Michael Flynn, who he played alongside at Priestfield between 2005 and 2007,

Flynn made his old pal captain and said: “He’s a gentleman and he’s somebody I trust a lot. So signing him was really a no-brainer.

“Andrew coming in is a massive signing for the club. He’s the ultimate professional and he’s in fantastic condition.”

Crofts himself said: “I played with Michael Flynn at Gillingham and he was a winner. I loved playing with him and I can’t wait to play for him now with him being my gaffer.”

Unfortunately, injury issues restricted Crofts to just 12 appearances for Newport and he was released at the end of the season.

On leaving County, Crofts moved to Yeovil Town as player-coach with manager Darren Sarll saying: “To bring a player of Andrew’s experience into the club at this time is a great coup.

“He still has a thirst and hunger for playing and winning promotions and it’s refreshing to be part of the very early stages of his coaching career.

“He’ll be a valuable asset to the squad both as a player and in terms of passing on his experience and knowledge to the younger members of the squad.”

But then the opening arose with the Albion and he didn’t hesitate to return. When Graham Potter left the Albion, Crofts temporarily took on the head coach position and was retained as a first team coach under Roberto De Zerbi and his successor, Fabian Hurzeler.

• In an interview with Andy Naylor of The Athletic in December 2020, Crofts talked at length about his career, his coaching ambitions and some of the big names he played alongside.