WHEN IT comes to home-grown talent, Brighton have had particular success with central defenders.

Lewis Dunk is the prime example, staying with the club from humble beginnings through to Europe. Others had to move on to make the most of their careers.

For example, Steve Cook joined the club aged nine and made it through the different age levels into Albion’s first team. But to get regular football, he moved along the coast to Bournemouth.

If moving from Championship Brighton to League One Bournemouth seemed like a backward step in 2012, two promotions later saw him laughing on the other side of his face when the Cherries made it to the Premier League (in 2015) a season before the Seagulls.

Cook spent 10 years with the Cherries, making more than 350 appearances (168 of them in the Premier League), and after the departure of fellow ex-Albion defender Tommy Elphick, he took over as their captain.

Cook first got a taste of the big time in 2008, when he was a second year scholar on £60 a week, aged just 17. He was sent on by Micky Adams as an 85^th-minute substitute in the famous League Cup game against Manchester City that League One Albion won on penalties.

Two months later, he once again replaced right-back Andrew Whing, this time in a FA Cup first round replay defeat to Hartlepool United, and picked up a booking into the bargain.

To gain more experience, in December that year, Cook went west to spend six weeks with Conference South Havant & Waterlooville. On his return, he once again had a first team look-in, going on as a 77^th-minute sub for Calvin Andrew in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy southern final defeat at Luton Town that marked the end of the second coming of Adams.

Before the appointment of Russell Slade, Cook went on for the second half as a sub for injury-plagued sub Adam Hinshelwood (who’d been an 18^th-minute sub for Elphick) in a 4-0 home defeat against Crewe Alexandra.

Slade marked his arrival by bringing in plenty of old hands in what eventually proved to be a successful skin-of-the-teeth survival battle against relegation. Cook didn’t get another chance in the first team until some time after Gus Poyet had taken charge.

His development continued on loan with the likes of Eastleigh and Eastbourne Borough and in November 2010 he moved away from home to join former league club Mansfield Town on a three-month loan.

“Mansfield play very different to Eastbourne but it’s more like playing for Brighton where they like to keep the ball and play out from the back, which you don’t get in the Conference very often,” he told the matchday programme. “I see it as a great opportunity to prove myself and try to earn another contract at Brighton.”

He added: “Playing Conference football helped me grow up, physically and mentally, so by the time I returned I felt I was ready to challenge for a first team place.”

After a handful of non-playing appearances on the first team subs bench, when he did get his first ever start, it could not have been a bigger match: Liverpool at home in the third round of the Carling Cup with Luis Suarez, Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy in the opposition forward line.

“It was a real confidence boost knowing the manager had faith putting me into the side for such a big game, but I really enjoyed the experience and got a great deal out of it,” he said.

“While I had a good pre-season, I’ve not played a lot of games since then. It was one in two months before the Liverpool game, but I’d been working hard in training and got my reward.”

Cook only found out 90 minutes before kick-off that he would be taking the place of fellow academy graduate Dunk, with both Elphick and Adam El-Abd out injured.

“It was a real baptism of fire though because for the first 20 minutes Liverpool were brilliant. Suarez, Bellamy, they were all excellent going forward, the pace of them as a team was unbelievable and in that opening spell I think we were in awe of them.”

Cook thought his involvement that night would lead to more chances, but he said: “Later that month we had Ipswich away, Dunky was suspended but instead of playing me, Gus put Romain Vincelot – a midfielder – in alongside Gordon Greer. From that point on, my mind was made up; I knew I had to look elsewhere if I wanted to kick on in my career.”

That autumn, Cook initially joined Bournemouth on loan, featuring in eight games, but he was recalled by the Seagulls when a shortage of defenders meant he was needed for a crucial New Year game at home to table-topping Southampton.

Having lost four games on the bounce, the odds were stacked against a positive result, but Albion remarkably won the game 3-0 (two cracking goals from Matt Sparrow and another from Jake Forster-Caskey).

Nevertheless, within 24 hours of the game ending, Cook finally took the tough decision to leave the Albion permanently. The fee was a reported £150,000.

He told the matchday programme: “I have loved my time at Brighton but this is a chance to play regular football and I can’t turn that down. It was nice to go out on such a high – not many players get that chance.”

Cook reckoned he might have got the odd game or two if he’d stayed at Brighton but he didn’t rate his chances of becoming a regular when everyone was fit. “I could play close to 30 games for Bournemouth and that is massive for a young footballer,” he said.

In a later interview, he said: “It was always going to be a tough decision to leave the Albion as I had been at the club since the age of nine.

“I had a decision to make: do I stay and fight for my place, despite being a fair way down the pecking order, or do I leave and try to continue my career elsewhere?

“It wasn’t easy because I was leaving a club on the rise; the Amex is one of the best stadiums in the country, the team was establishing itself in the Championship and there was a new training ground on the way.

“But having been at Bournemouth on loan, I could also see a hugely ambitious club and a talented squad which I believed was going places.

“So, I decided to leave and it’s been the best decision I could ever have made. I’ve moved away from my parents, so have grown up off the pitch, while on it I’ve been playing regularly and have really enjoyed my football.”

Much of that time he partnered Elphick in the middle of the Cherries defence and it wasn’t long before the pair were emulating the Albion’s achievement of promotion from League One.

“Tommy arrived a year after me but of course I told him about the club, the town and knew it would be a good move for him as it was for me,” he said. “We’d obviously played alongside each other before, had known each other a long time, and so we soon built up a good partnership.

“He had those leadership qualities he displayed at Brighton and was soon made captain. We had a terrific three years together and remain good friends off the pitch.”

In a subsequent Albion matchday programme, when he was once again visiting with the Cherries, he said: “Lovely stadiums and training facilities are great, but only if you’re playing in them and I can now look back on nearly 300 appearances for Bournemouth, where I’ve had some fantastic moments, played regularly in the Premier League and really developed my game. It’s a move that couldn’t have gone better.”

Although Cook held his own in the Premier League, he admitted the transition from the Championship was hard. “The gulf with the Championship is huge,” he said. “The intensity and pressure, in particular, are massive and the first six months were a real learning curve.

“Once I’d adapted and dealt with the expectations placed on me, I could relax and start to enjoy myself.”

Born in Hastings on 19 April 1991, Cook joined the Albion as a schoolboy following a six-week trial under the auspices of Martin Hinshelwood, the head of the youth set-up at the time.

“Initially, I was only training Tuesday evenings in the Eastbourne centre of excellence but, when I reached 13, we were training twice a week with a game on the Sunday,” he recalled.

“I remember I had a choice to make: Hastings Town, my local team, or Brighton and obviously I was swayed by the facilities, the coaching and being associated with a professional club.”

After Bournemouth lost their top tier status in 2020, Cook captained the side through to the Championship play-off semi-finals in 2021 where they were beaten by eventual winners Brentford.

There was plenty of emotion when Cook finally left the club in January 2022 with manager Scott Parker saying: “I know too well what someone like Steve Cook has done for this football club and the journey he has been on with the club. He has been paramount and done everything, really. I wish him all the best.”

And in an open letter to the club’s fans, Cook wrote: “I’ve been lucky enough to captain the team in League One, the Championship and Premier League and writing this just fills me with immense pride.

“The time has come for me take the next step in my career but I will never forget the staff that helped me improve as a player and person.

“The players that I shared a dressing room with and, and most importantly, the fans that supported and cheered for all those games.

“The journey that we have had is one that will never be beaten, and the relationship we had was undeniably strong. Thanks for everything.”

Upon signing for Nottingham Forest, Cook declared: “You can see the progress the club is making and I’m excited for the new challenge. 

“I thought it was the perfect time in my career to make this move to hopefully come and contribute and help get this club back to where it wants to be.

“The history of the club speaks for itself and I know how passionate the fans are. I’ve played at the City Ground in the past and it’s always been electric.”

Manager Steve Cooper said: “Steve is a fantastic player and brings a good level of experience, both in the Championship and the level above.

“He’s played in a team that has won a lot of games and I think that that’s important. We want our group to be young and hungry along with players of experience that can drive the team forward and that’s what we’re building.”

Having been part of the Forest side promoted to the Premier League in May 2022, his involvement back in the elite division was restricted to 12 games and he was omitted from Forest’s 25-man Premier League squad for the second half of the 2022-23 season.

In the summer of 2023, he switched to Queens Park Rangers in the Championship, telling the club’s website: “Playing football is the most important thing for me but I also pride myself on being a good character around the group.”

He went on: “My time in the Championship has been quite successful, and that success is something I want to bring here. 

“I don’t want my career to peter out, I still really want to be successful and to contest. I still have aims and targets I want to achieve and I’m hoping that the success I’ve had in my career so far continues so that I can help push QPR forward.”