Welbeck – “something really exceptional you don’t find in many players”

DANNY WELBECK was still at school when he made his senior football debut in the League Cup.

A first-year scholar at Man Utd, and just 17 in September 2008, Welbeck made his bow against Middlesbrough in front of a 53,000 crowd at Old Trafford. United won 3-1 with goals from Ronaldo, Giggs and Nani. And they went all the way that season, beating Tottenham on penalties in the final at Wembley.

Although Welbeck had been subbed off 10 minutes into the second half, it was the first of many medals he collected and in five years at Arsenal, after his £16m 2014 transfer deadline day move from Old Trafford, he twice collected FA Cup winners’ medals (even though he missed the 2015 final through injury when Aston Villa were humbled 4-0).

When Welbeck scored the decisive quarter-final goal for Arsenal that knocked United out of the 2015 competition, manager Arsene Wenger praised the player and said: “We all want to do well when we play against our former club, to show that you are a great player, but it’s not easy to deal with the mental situation of it.

“He focused just on his game, didn’t do anything special. He just played football like we wanted him to play. He has shown mental strength because it’s not always easy to deal with that. You have a little bit of a psychological consideration.”

Wenger continued: “Overall, I think he had a great game. He just wants to win. He’s a team player, that’s what I like about Danny. He’s intelligent and he always wants to do well for the team.

“He’s a great talent and he has shown again that he can produce such a complete performance, defensively and offensively as he did today – he has a great future.”

Welbeck played in the 2017 final when the Gunners edged it 2-1 against favourites Chelsea, and it was a highlight of his injury-plagued five years at Arsenal.

“It was a great performance,” he said. “Every single one of us on the pitch performed really well that day. It was a deserved win.”

*Welbeck scoring one of his three against Galatasary*

Another highlight was scoring the first senior hat-trick of his career in a 4-1 Champions League home win over Galatasary in October 2014.

Injuries to each of his knees and a serious broken right ankle severely limited Welbeck’s availability during his time with the Gunners and he admitted in a matchday programme interview: “When I look back, the injuries I suffered really hindered my progress.

“That really disappoints me to this day because I know that if I had managed to stay fit I would have done a lot more at the club, scored more goals and made more appearances.”

Even so, he pointed out: “I look back on my time at Arsenal as a great experience; a great club. There were lots of positives, despite the negatives with the injuries.

“The fans always treated me well, showed me love, and I will always respect and remember that.”

Welbeck opened up about the impact of his many injuries in a July 2020 interview with Adam Bate of Sky Sports. “You go through a load of emotions,” he said. “There are times when you are there sat in your hospital bed and you are crying. You are just overthinking things.”

He continued: “Once you have had the surgery and your head is straight, you know what has happened, it is behind you and you have got to look forward. You try to build from where you are that day. Every single day there are steps to overcome. You just have to come through them and you find that you are getting better and better and feeling in a better state of mind.”

He also explained how the time wasn’t entirely wasted. “There are football games on TV, you can watch different players who are playing in your position, you can watch your own clips to see what you can improve on,” he explained.

“There are little apps that can help you, people who you can talk to. I think there are so many extra percentages you can gain and if you can get that extra one per cent it is always going to be a help.”

*Welbeck buries one of his 32 goals for Arsenal*

Wenger was certainly an admirer of what Welbeck was able to contribute. For example, speaking in February 2018 ahead of a shock 2-1 Europa League second leg home defeat against Graham Potter’s Ostersunds, Wenger said: “I want to keep him because I believe he has gone through a torrid time.

“He has come out well. I see signs in training now that are positive. If he can stay on the pitch and not be injured, I want him to stay here.”

And after the striker scored his fifth goal in five appearances to clinch a Europa League quarter final v CSKA Moscow, he said: “The qualities of Danny Welbeck… when your back’s against the wall, he looks like he has that extra special motivation in his body and in his head, that can give you something special.

“That’s something really exceptional and that you do not find in many players.”

Welbeck made 126 appearances for the Gunners (78 starts + 48 as sub) and scored 32 goals. As he had at United, he once again found himself at a club when there was an end of an era moment as Wenger left the Gunners after 22 years in 2018.

A badly-broken right ankle sustained in a Europa League match against Sporting Lisbon in November 2018 proved to be the end of his Arsenal career – he only made one Premier League start (out of seven appearances in total, plus seven off the bench) under Wenger’s successor Unai Emery.

Released at the end of that season, he joined Watford, who train next to Arsenal’s training ground in Hertfordshire, but injury struck early into his time with the Hornets, a hamstring problem putting him out for four months. After they’d got through four managers in the Covid-hit season, and been relegated from the Premier League, he left in October 2020 having scored three goals in 20 appearances (10 starts + 10 as a sub).

When Welbeck linked up with Brighton that autumn, few supporters would have imagined five years later he would still be making a huge contribution to the club.

There were a few murmurings at the beginning of the 2025-26 season but a brace in Albion’s comeback 3-1 win at Chelsea in September once again saw him grabbing headlines for all the right reasons. Two more followed at home to Newcastle and he once again scored against his first club at Old Trafford on 25 October. And long may it continue!

Speaking to The Athletic in February 2025, Welbeck said of his longevity: “I can probably thank my mum and dad for the genes. I work hard to keep myself in good condition and I am feeling fit and strong.”

Reporter Andy Naylor said: “He does not have a strict diet regime but watches what he eats, snacking on fruits or an occasional bar of chocolate between a normal three meals a day. His idea of a takeaway is a mixed grill with rice and salad.

“Another secret of Welbeck’s long-running success is a desire and determination to be the best he can be for as long as he can. He focuses on his football, turning down invites to take part in podcasts and punditry, preserving his energy for the training pitch and matchdays.”

After four seasons at Brighton in each of which he scored six or seven goals, in 2024-25 his 11 goals made him joint top scorer with Karou Mitoma from 26 starts + 10 as sub.

With five on the board before Halloween in 2025-26, the signs are looking positive for his best-ever haul.

Welbeck himself declared: “As long as I feel good, that’s how long I will go on for. If I feel good, feel like I can impact games, then I will just keep on going.”

Why Colin Pates is forever grateful to Liam Brady

ONE-TIME Arsenal back-up defender Colin Pates had a Gunners legend to thank for persuading him to quit the game before he did any life-altering damage.

Thankfully, Pates took Liam Brady’s advice to bring his professional playing days to an end at Brighton in January 1995 and he went on to have a long and successful career coaching at an independent school in Croydon where he introduced football to what was previously a rugby-only establishment.

“Liam told me that I should think of my health before my playing career and that I would be a fool to myself if I carried on playing,” Pates told the Argus in a 2001 interview.

“My knee had fallen apart and it was the right advice. If I’d ignored it, I could well have ended up not being able to walk.

“Footballers need to be told when it is the end. I’ll always be grateful to Liam for that.”

Pates had played the last of 61 games in the stripes (a 0-0 home draw against Bournemouth) only six weeks after he was presented with a silver salver by former England manager Ron Greenwood to mark his 400^th league appearance (on 24 September 1994, a 2-0 home win over Cambridge United).

In the matchday programme of 17 December, Brady confirmed that Pates and fellow defender Nicky Bissett, (who’d twice broken a leg and then sustained a knee injury) would be ruled out for the rest of the season. Neither played another game for the Seagulls.

It brought to an end Pates’ second spell with the Seagulls, having originally spent a most productive three months on loan in 1991 helping to propel the club to a Wembley play-off final. If Albion had beaten Notts County that May, Pates may well have made a permanent move to the south coast. As it was, he said: “Unfortunately, the club couldn’t meet Arsenal’s asking price for me that summer so I returned to Highbury.

“But when my contract expired in 1993, there was only one club I wanted to be at… Brighton.”

*Pates had plenty of competition for the centre back berth at Arsenal*

As if Tony Adams, Andy Linighan, David O’Leary and Steve Bould weren’t enough centre back competition at Arsenal, manager George Graham had also taken Martin Keown back to the club from Everton for £2m – six and a half years after selling him to Aston Villa for a tenth of that amount.

So, it was no surprise that Pates found himself surplus to requirements at Highbury and given a free transfer. Graham’s old Chelsea teammate, Barry Lloyd, eagerly snapped up the defender for a second time, this time on a permanent basis.

Goalkeeper Nicky Rust, still a month short of his 19^th birthday, who’d also been given a free transfer by Arsenal, made his Albion league debut in the season-opener at Bradford City behind the returning Pates, who had just celebrated his 32^nd birthday four days before the game.

After starting the first 10 matches alongside the aforementioned Bissett, Pates suffered an abductor muscle injury early on in a 5-0 drubbing away to Middlesbrough in the League Cup which necessitated a spell on the sidelines. He missed nine matches – only one of which was won.

These were the dying days of the seven-year Lloyd era and, even with Pates back in the side, one win, two draws and four defeats brought the sack for the manager.

Any doubts new manager Brady had about Steve Foster and Pates were swiftly dispelled, as he wrote about in his autobiography (Liam Brady: Born To Be A Footballer).

“Fossie was 36. I feared he might be going through the motions at this stage in his career and it would have been hard to blame him,” said Brady. “Colin Pates was a few years younger, but he’d been at Chelsea and Arsenal and could have been winding down.

“I appealed to them to give me a dig out, to lead this rescue mission. And they responded just as I hoped.”

Together with the even older Jimmy Case, who was brought back to the club from non-league Sittingbourne, they “brought on” the younger players in the new man’s first few weeks and months.

Under Brady, young Irish centre-back Paul McCarthy played alongside Foster in the middle, with Pates at left-back. And Pates saw the arrival of some familiar faces in the shape of young Arsenal loanees, first Mark Flatts and then Paul Dickov, whose successful spells helped Brady to steer the Seagulls to safety by the end of the season.

“I really enjoyed it, playing mainly at left-back,” said Pates. “It was a great family club and I made a lot of friends there along the way.”

At the time Pates had to call it a day, Albion were a third-tier side but the bulk of his career had been played at the top of the English game for two of its leading lights in Chelsea and Arsenal, and briefly Charlton Athletic.

*Albion’s ex-Arsenal trio Liam Brady, Raphael Meade and Colin Pates*

The player’s move to Arsenal from Charlton for £500,000 in January 1990 raised more than a few eyebrows because he was 28 at the time and none of Arsenal’s back four – Lee Dixon, Bould, Adams and Nigel Winterburn – looked like giving way.

“People asked me why I went there,” said Pates. “But when a club is paying that money and that club is Arsenal who wouldn’t go and take the chance?

“I knew this was going to be the last opportunity to have a move like this in my career and although I knew I was only being signed as cover, I couldn’t turn it down.”

He continued: “I’d joined a team that had just won the league, that would do so again in 1990-91 and they had the fabled back four – the best defensive unit in world football at the time.”

The website upthearsenal.com acknowledged: “Pates had built a solid reputation at Chelsea as a dependable defender who was strong in the air and no slouch on the deck.”

Pates added: “When I first met George (Graham) in his office at Highbury, he was honest and straight talking. He told me I’d have to work hard to get into the side.”

However, within a month he made his Gunners debut at left back in place of the injured Nigel Winterburn in a 1-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday. It turned out to be his only first team appearance that season.

Although he found it difficult to motivate himself for reserve team football, he pointed out: “I still enjoyed the training sessions with the first team and I did learn a lot about defending from George, even at that late stage in my career.”

However, after his return from the loan spell at Brighton, he saw action as a sub in three pre-season friendlies ahead of the 1991-92 season and that autumn had his best run of games in the first team.

He featured in eight games on the trot between October and November 1991 and memorably scored his one and only goal for Arsenal in a European Cup match at Highbury against a Benfica side managed by Sven-Göran Eriksson. He also played in the February 1992 1-1 North London derby against Spurs and made two appearances off the bench that season.

It was a similar story in the 1992-93 campaign when he went off the bench on five occasions although he had two starts: in a 2-0 win at Anfield (Anders Limpar and Ian Wright the scorers) and a 3-2 defeat away to Wimbledon.

“I was a bit-part player but it was a good time to be at the club with the cup finals and being part of the squads,” said Pates.

On his release from Brighton, Pates had a spell as player-manager of Crawley, played a handful of games for non-league Romford, and coached youngsters in various places including Mumbai in India and the Arsenal School of Excellence.

Pates told The Guardian in a 2002 interview how a sense of history and continuity was the first thing he had noticed when he signed for Arsenal.

Brady, Paul Davis, Bould and other former Arsenal players were all invited to the Arsenal academy, and Pates told the newspaper. “Young players need people like Stevie Bould to tell them how proud they should be to pull the shirt on and to show them what’s expected of them. “When I joined Arsenal, everyone was kind and considerate. You were left in no doubt about how you were supposed to conduct yourself. For the way it’s run, it’s the best club in the country.”

By then though, Pates had begun a new career as a coach getting football off the ground at the independent Whitgift School in Croydon. He was to stay 24 years at the school having been invited to introduce football by its headmaster, Dr Christopher Barnett.

The story has been told in depth in several places, notably in London blog greatwen.com by Peter Watts, among others. Watts wrote: “A posh school in the suburbs is not where you’d expect to find a hard-bitten former pro, and Pates admits: ‘Whitgift is quite alien to some of us, because we had state school educations. It was intimidating, and not just for the boys.’ But he jumped at the opportunity.

At first, he took a sixth-form team on Wednesday afternoons, but there were no goalposts, pitches, teams or even footballs! “We didn’t have anything. So, we had to start from scratch, pretty much teach them the rules,” he said.

“They were rugby boys playing football, so these were quite aggressive games. But after three years we introduced fixtures and we’ve never looked back,” said Pates.

In an interview with the Argus in October 2001, Pates added: “We went over the local common for our first training session with some under-18s after finding a ball that looked like the dog had chewed it up.

“I had to go right back to basics. All they had known was rugby, so it was a case of going through the rules of football to start with, like the ball we use is round!

“I was told that in 300 years football had never been considered. But a lot of the boys and their parents expressed an interest.

“It might be an independent school but you can forget the black and white filmed images of public school kids. Most are from working class backgrounds and they love their football.

“It grew a lot quicker than the head thought and he told me I should take over as master in charge of football.”

As the sport grew, he recruited his former Charlton teammate (and ex-Brighton, Wolves and Palace full-back) John Humphrey and Steve Kember, the former Chelsea and Palace midfielder to help with the coaching.

Asked about it on the chelseafancast.com podcast Pates delighted in recounting how from time to time he would show Humphrey a video clip of a rare goal he scored for Chelsea against Wolves when he flicked the ball over Humphrey’s head in the build-up to it – however Chelsea lost that 1983 match 2-1!

More seriously, Pates spoke at length to Watts about the benefits of a good education in case things didn’t pan out.

“You have to be an exceptional footballer to make it these days. So, we want to give them the best opportunity to be a footballer, but also give them a magnificent education so if they don’t sign scholarship forms they have something to fall back on. It works for us, it works for the academies and it works for the families.”

The Tiger who came to Brighton and fitted to a T

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

*Tawse with rival Kit Napier who became a good friend*

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seagulls gave Martin Keown first team football opportunity

MARTIN KEOWN, who was born in Oxford six days before England won the World Cup in 1966, made his breakthrough into what became an illustrious playing career with Brighton.

The TV pundit football fans see today was famously a stalwart defender for Arsenal, Everton and Aston Villa, not to mention England.

But as an emerging player yet to break through at the Gunners, he got the chance of first team football courtesy of Brighton boss Chris Cattlin, who negotiated with Arsenal boss Don Howe to secure his services on loan.

“He is a young player with plenty of potential,” Cattlin wrote in his Albion matchday programme notes. “He is still learning and will make the odd mistake, but these are all part of learning and I feel he will be a very good player in the very near future.”

MK BW He made his debut away to Manchester City in February 1985 and, in two spells, stayed a total of six months with the Seagulls, making 23 appearances. It wasn’t long before he earned the divisional young player of the month award and Cattlin said: “Martin has done very well and done himself great credit in coming into the heat and tension of a promotion battle and coping well.”

He made such a great impression, it wasn’t long before the Albion matchday programme went to town with a somewhat gushing feature about the young man.

“Fans and Albion players alike have been impressed by the character and maturity displayed by the 18-year-old English Youth International,” said Tony Norman. “No less a judge than former England manager Ron Greenwood was instrumental in Martin’s recent Robinson Young Player of the Month award.

Keown prog front “So, the young man from Oxford must have something special going for him. On the field he is a sharp, decisive player, but away from the game he is quietly spoken and unassuming.”

Some things obviously changed!

“His progress in football has not gone to his head and he is quick to thank the special people who have helped him find success,” Norman continued.

Keown told him: “Going back to the early days in Oxford, I think my parents were the greatest help of all. I played for several different teams, so there was never a particular coach who helped me. But my family were always there giving me their full encouragement and support.”

At Highbury, he credited the scout who took him to Arsenal, Terry Murphy, as his greatest help in his early years, helping him to settle into the professional game.

“He was very good to me,” said Keown. “I was only 15 when I joined Arsenal as an apprentice. I was in digs in North London and it was all quite a change from life in Oxford. It took a bit of getting used to.”

The former Chelsea midfield player John Hollins, who played for Arsenal between 1979 and 1983, was also an influence.

“He always had a word of encouragement for the youngsters,” said Keown. “He is the kind of man who can make a club happier just by being there. I liked and respected him a great deal. He was a model professional.”

During his time with Brighton, young Keown lived with physiotherapist Malcom Stuart and his family. “They have made me feel very much at home,” he said. “It has been a happy time for me.”

M Keown Arse Unfortunately for Brighton, Keown returned to Highbury and it wasn’t long before Howe, the former coach who’d become Arsenal manager, gave him his first team debut on 23 November 1985 in a 0-0 draw away to West Brom.

In much the same way he has become something of a Marmite pundit on the TV, Keown wasn’t every manager’s flavour. When George Graham was appointed Arsenal boss in 1986, Keown didn’t figure in his plans and he sold him to Aston Villa (see picture below) for £200,000.

M Keown villa Three years later, he became what Colin Harvey described as his best signing during his time as boss of Everton. A fee of £750,000 took him to Goodison.

In an interview with the Liverpool Echo back in 2013, Keown declared: “I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Everton. The only disappointment was that I couldn’t contribute to the club winning anything tangible in my four years there.

“I played under Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall and I was eternally grateful to them for the opportunity to play at a club like Everton.

“Looking back, in hindsight it was probably a bit much to ask a young lad, which I was then, to step into the boots of a club legend like Kevin Ratcliffe. But I always gave absolutely everything.”

Keown added: “The atmosphere was always superb at Goodison. Even though I played a lot of my career at Highbury, I loved Goodison.”

It was during his time at Everton that he won the first of his 43 England caps, getting the call-up from Graham Taylor to join the squad in 1992 to replace Mark Wright. When Terry Venables took over, he didn’t get a look-in.

But Glenn Hoddle restored him to the squad in 1997 and, although he was part of the 1998 World Cup squad, he didn’t get a game. He was a regular under Kevin Keegan and, in a game against Finland, had the honour of captaining the side. Age began to count against him by the time Sven-Goran Eriksson took charge of England and, although he was part of the 2002 World Cup squad, he wasn’t selected for any games.

His return to Arsenal in February 1993 meant he was the first player since the days of the Second World War to rejoin the Gunners, and it went on to become a 10-year spell in which he helped the club to win three Premier League titles and the FA Cup three times.

Arsenal paid a £2m fee to bring back their former apprentice and he and Andy Linighan were more than able deputies who kept established first choices Steve Bould and Tony Adams on their toes.

“Martin was deployed most frequently at centre-half where his formidable pace and thunderous tackling combined to thwart both target men and strikers running in behind,” declared an article on arsenal.com, lauding the merits of the ‘50 greatest Arsenal players’. “It meant, too, that he was vastly capable in an anchoring midfield role; something utilised by his manager.”

While not always a regular, Keown became an integral part of Arsene Wenger’s double-winning sides of 1998 and 2002 and remained a part of the set-up through to the winning of the FA Cup against Southampton in Cardiff in 2003.

The following season included the much-repeated TV moment when Keown mocked Ruud van Nistelrooy for missing a late penalty in a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford, an incident still being discussed only last summer.

Although Arsenal went on to win the title, Keown played only 10 league games and was given a free transfer at the end of the season.

He joined Leicester City, where he played 17 games but moved on to Reading six months later, ending his league career with five games at the Madejski.

Since calling time on his playing career, Keown has, of course, become known for his TV punditry with both the BBC and BT Sport, as well as being a newspaper columnist and contributor to many different media.

On Twitter, @martinkeown5 has 278,000 followers! He has also coached back at Arsenal and been a regular on the football speaker circuit.

Stop-gap big Willie given runaround in Brighton’s colours

W Young Joe Jordan A TOWERING Scottish defender who played in three consecutive FA Cup finals for Arsenal was a temporary centre-back stand-in for Brighton in 1984.

Willie Young had moved on from the marble halls of Highbury by the time Albion boss Chris Cattlin borrowed him to plug a gap.

Young was nearing the end of a 14-year career and had switched to Norwich City but was made available to help the Seagulls out of a hole.

Another former Gunner, Steve Gatting, was suspended for three matches in March 1984 and former club captain Steve Foster had just been sold to Aston Villa to raise some much-needed funds.

So Cattlin brought in flame-haired Scot Young to play alongside inexperienced namesake Eric Young. His first game, at home to Manchester City on 10 March, finished in a 1-1 draw.

A week later, Albion triumphed 3-0 away to Derby County and won by a similar margin at home to Leeds United on 24 March.

So far, so good, but in what turned out to be Young’s final game, the wheels came off big time and Albion succumbed 5-1 away to Portsmouth, despite taking the lead.

The line-up saw Eric Young unable to play through suspension and Willie partnered by the returning Gatting. They were no match for Pompey’s prolific centre forward Mark Hateley.

Young found himself in the book with 15 minutes of the first half still to play following a foul on Hateley. Evening Argus Albion reporter John Vinicombe said: “Young was lucky not to be sent off when he bowled Hateley over from behind. Hateley was in a goalscoring position, and, at the time, Albion were still in front.”

The club’s official report added: “On 65 minutes, Hateley outpaced Young and moved smoothly in to net his 22^nd goal of the season for Portsmouth.”

Vinicombe gave a brutal assessment: “Out of the shambles may come some good. If Cattlin had been undecided about taking Willie Young on contract, this performance may well have made up his mind.

“Hitherto, Young had not let the side down in his previous three loan appearances, but Mark Hateley, ten years his junior, gave him a terrible runaround.”

So, an ignominious end to his short spell and he was subsequently sacked by Norwich for misconduct.

After a short spell with lowly Darlington, Young called time on his playing career later that year and ran a pub and restaurant, Bramcote Manor, in Nottingham, before it was demolished to be replaced by a religious meeting place.

He subsequently took over the running of the Belvoir kennels and cattery in Bottesford, Leicestershire, while also being a part-time pundit for Scottish television.

Born in the Midlothian village of Heriot on 25 November 1951, Young went to school at Ross High in Tranent and was more noted for rugby than football – he was a talented hooker who had a trial for the South of Scotland Schools’ team.

However, he was playing football for amateur side Sefton Athletic when Hearts offered him a trial – but as a Hibernian supporter he turned them down! Falkirk then gave him a trial but a change of management meant it wasn’t followed up and eventually Aberdeen stepped in to sign him in 1969.

After making 187 appearances for the Dons in five years, initially under Eddie Turnbull and then Jimmy Bonthrone, Tottenham Hotspur boss Terry Neill signed the defender after he’d impressed in a UEFA Cup tie between Aberdeen and Spurs. He played 64 times for the Lilywhites in two seasons.

Neill’s successor Keith Burkinshaw dispensed with his services and he joined Neill at Arsenal when the Northern Irishman switched to manage the side he used to play for. According to The Scotsman, Neill described Young as “a big awkward bastard who liked a drink”.

Before the move, he’d been sent off in a Spurs v Arsenal clash following what was described as a kung fu style kick on Frank Stapleton.

W Young Gerry Ryan Young (pictured above launching into a tackle on Albion’s Gerry Ryan) became something of a Gunners cult hero for making the controversial switch from the north London rivals and fans inevitably enjoyed the chant: “We’ve got the biggest Willie in the land.” In four years, he made a total of 236 appearances, chipping in with 19 goals as well.

His three FA Cup Final appearances came in 1978, 1979 and 1980, only collecting a winners’ medal in 1979 when the Gunners beat Manchester United 3-2.

The consensus view was that Young did well in that game, suppressing the threat of fellow Scot Joe Jordan, who led the line for United. In 1980, Young famously committed a professional foul on Paul Allen as he looked like he would score as the youngest player in a FA Cup Final.

Young said in that piece in The Scotsman: “I was the last man and only got booked. After that the rules were changed and the ‘professional foul’, as it started to be called, became a red card offence. Paul was going to score so I had to take him down. Afterwards he said: ‘Don’t worry, big man, I’d have done the same.’ But everyone else was appalled. He was only 17, the youngest to play in an FA Cup final, and I’d ruined the fairytale. Big, bad Willie had done it again.”

Hammers won the game 1-0 with a rare Trevor Brooking header.

W Young Forest After Young lost his first team place at Arsenal to Chris Whyte, he moved on to Nottingham Forest (pictured above), where he spent a couple of seasons, playing 59 games.

He then joined Norwich in 1983 but, dogged by injuries, he failed to command a regular place in their side.

Young won five Scotland under 23 caps but his involvement in some over-exuberant revelry in Copenhagen in 1975 brought about a life ban from the international set-up, which he spoke about in the 2015 interview with The Scotsman.

Post-playing, Youngr settled in the Nottingham area with his wife Lynda, and ran a pub for many years. His death at the age of 73 was announced on 31 October 2025.

Former Gunner Raphael Meade a damp squib for the Seagulls

Meade best

ISLINGTON-born Raphael Meade joined Arsenal as a schoolboy and made it through the ranks to play more than 50 times for the Gunners.

A rather eclectic career saw him play in Portugal, Spain, Scotland, Denmark, Hong Kong and back in England.

Brighton boss Barry Lloyd had something of a penchant for picking up players from these shores who’d rather lost their way playing abroad and, while forwards Mike Small and John Byrne would count as great successes of that genre, Meade was largely a disappointment.

He played 40 times and scored 12 goals in the 1991-92 season, but the Albion were relegated to the third tier, so it was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Born on 22 November 1962, Meade was on the Gunners’ books from June 1977 to the summer of 1985.

The superb thegoldstonewrap.com unearthed the Arsenal annual for 1981 in its research; it said of the young Meade: “He’s got a hell of a lot of pace and is fantastically brave in the box. He’s got all the makings of a top player. However, he’s another one who has got to work on his control like Brian McDermott with tighter controls and lay-offs. But with his type of pace he will always be a threat.”

The reality was that with the likes of initially Alan Sunderland and John Hawley ahead of him in the pecking order, then Tony Woodcock and Lee Chapman, followed by the arrival of Charlie Nicholas and former Ipswich striker Paul Mariner, his first team chances at Highbury were restricted.

While he was prolific in the Reserves (24 goals in 27 league games in 1983-84), his first team appearances over four years were somewhat sporadic.

Manager Terry Neill handed him his debut in a 3-0 UEFA Cup away win against Panathinaikos on 16 September 1981 and he scored a spectacular goal with his very first kick! His league debut came a month later – and he scored again, netting the only goal in a 1-0 win at home to Manchester City. The 1981-82 season saw the majority of his first team involvement: he played a total of 22 games, scoring five times.

A cartilage injury sidelined him for a large part of the 1982-83 season but when he did return in February 1983 he scored twice against Brighton in a 3-1 win.

CN + RM braces v Spurs The following season, Meade scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 win over Watford, which began Don Howe’s tenure as Arsenal manager, and he also earned a special place in Gunners’ fans hearts when scoring twice (pictured celebrating above with Charlie Nicholas, who also got two) in Arsenal’s 4-2 victory over arch-rivals Spurs on Boxing Day 1983.

Unfortunately, they were sporadic highlights and, in the summer of 1985, he was sold to Sporting Lisbon.

“Sporting Lisbon provided me with a great experience. I really enjoyed myself because the climate was great and, as well as finishing third in the league one season, we also reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Cup,” Meade said in a Shoot/Goal article.

He said it was the arrival of former Spurs boss Keith Burkinshaw that precipitated the end of his time in Portugal because he wanted him to play in an unfamiliar right midfield role.

Thus he was loaned to Spanish side Real Betis towards the end of his three-year contract, and, on his return, was transferred to Dundee United where he made 16 starts, plus six substitute appearances, scoring seven goals.

However, United boss Jim McLean made public his dissatisfaction with the striker and questioned his fitness. Meade hit back saying he was fit but being played out of position on the wing.

Subsequently a shoulder injury saw him sidelined and unable to regain his place and he joined a struggling Luton Town side for a £250,000 fee.

luton move But after only four games for the Hatters he was on his way again, this time to Odense BK in Denmark.

During two years on their books, he had loan spells back in the UK, playing once for Ipswich Town and five times for Plymouth Argyle.

As the 1991-92 season got under way, cash-strapped Brighton were forced to sell the previous season’s successful strike duo of Small (to West Ham) and Byrne (to Sunderland).

Byrne’s departure didn’t happen until October, and it was while playing alongside the popular Republic of Ireland international that Meade scored his first goal for the Seagulls, in a 3-1 home win over Port Vale.

He had found himself in the right place at the right time in only the fourth game of the season when an injury sidelined Bryan Wade, who had started the first three games alongside Byrne. smart Meade

Lloyd had watched the former Arsenal striker score in a 2-0 win for the reserves against Fulham and pitched him in against Wolves – a 3-3 thriller in which Mark Barham, Gary O’Reilly and John Robinson netted for the Albion.

“Ideally, I needed one or two games to get match fit but it was great to get the chance in the first team and I wasn’t going to waste it,” said Meade.

Meade in action with another former Gunner, and ex-Albion defender, Steve Gatting (in Charlton’s colours), and a man of the match award for a brace against Grimsby Town.

After Byrne’s departure to the north east, there was seldom a regular strike partner for Meade. The busy and bustling Mark Gall, signed from non-league Maidstone United for £45,000, managed 14 goals but was some way short of Byrne or Small’s quality. And another of Lloyd’s overseas ‘finds’- Mark Farrington from Feyenoord – was an almighty flop.

Meade cover boy

Meade popped up with the occasional goal and one of those rare glimmers of light in an otherwise dark season came in a game I went to see at Vicarage Road on 31 March 1992.

Although Albion were ultimately headed back to Division 3, a brief respite from that tumble came against the Hornets courtesy of a howler by David ‘Calamity’ James in their goal. James came to the edge of his area to collect a routine-looking through ball, spilled it rather than gathering it cleanly and Meade was on hand to pick up the loose ball, round the stranded ‘keeper and slot what turned out to be the only goal of the game.

Meade scored twice more before the season’s end but Albion lost four of the final six games and were relegated along with Port Vale and Plymouth. Meade elected to leave the club and head for Hong Kong.

After a season with Sea Bee, he returned to England and rejoined Brighton but only featured in three games. He moved on to Crawley Town in 1995-96, where he ended his playing days.

Pictures from various sources including the matchday programme, Shoot/Goal, and online.

Goal machine Frank Stapleton ended his playing days in a Brighton shirt

stapleton stretch

FRANK STAPLETON hit the heights as a goalscorer for Arsenal and Manchester United but his prize-winning playing days came to an end in a Brighton & Hove Albion shirt.

Stapleton was the scorer of the first top flight goal at the Goldstone Ground – unfortunately, it was the opener in Arsenal’s 4-0 win in 1979! He was also one of the Manchester United scorers in the 1983 FA Cup Final against Brighton, having moved to Old Trafford two years earlier (above, however, he just fails to connect for Arsenal against Brighton with Steve Foster and Gary Williams looking on).

His two appearances for Brighton came in 1995 when his old pal Liam Brady brought him in to try to improve the front line of an ailing side.

Born in Dublin on 10 July 1956, the promising young Stapleton was rejected by United as a teenager but the Gunners reaped the benefit of that decision by snapping him up at the tender age of 15 on chief scout Gordon Clark’s recommendation.

Arsenal’s confidence in the prospects for the promising young Irish duo were reflected in a Goal magazine article of 7 October 1972 in which boss Bertie Mee talked about them as future first team players. At the time, they were still part of the club’s junior ranks, aged just 15 and 16.

goal cutting

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

It was only Brady’s second season and Clark, the Arsenal chief scout who unearthed him, said, at first, he thought he would be better suited to becoming a jockey because he was so small and frail!

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

Stapleton, at 15, joined Arsenal in the summer of 1972 and quickly developed a reputation as a goalscorer, netting 11 goals in seven games.

“Frank is tall and very good in the air,” said Clark. “He seems to get up and hang for the ball. He is also very good on the floor and reads the game intelligently for a youngster.”

As expected, Stapleton progressed to the first team and made his debut in 1975 against Stoke City. He initially formed an impressive partnership with England striker Malcolm Macdonald and in three successive seasons was Arsenal’s leading goalscorer.

Such prowess brought him to the attention of the Republic of Ireland international selectors and player-manager Johnny Giles gave him his full debut aged just 20 in 1976 against Turkey in Ankara.

It was the first of a total of 71 caps for his country, during which time he became their captain and scorer of 20 goals. He led Eire when they famously beat England 1-0 at the Euro 1988 finals in Germany. Although he was part of the 1990 World Cup squad – alongside former Albion boss, Chris Hughton – he was by then behind Niall Quinn, John Aldridge and Tony Cascarino in the pecking order.

Stapleton was part of Arsenal’s three successive FA Cup final teams (1978, 1979, 1980), scoring against United in Arsenal’s 3-2 win in 1979.

When the Gunners sold Brady to Juventus in 1980, Stapleton started to question the club’s ambition and, the following year, on expiry of his contract, decided he would move on himself.

He had scored 108 goals in 300 appearances for Arsenal – some strike rate! – and it wasn’t a popular move to join a major rival in the same division, but he wasn’t the first or last player to have done so.

In the Sixties, United had taken David Herd from the marble halls of Highbury to lead their line and, of course, in more recent times, United signed Alexis Sanchez.

stapleton utd

When Robin van Persie made the same transfer switch from Arsenal to Manchester United in 2012, the Daily Mail took Stapleton back 30 years to talk about the circumstances of his own move.

Stapleton was Ron Atkinson’s first major signing for United and in his first season was partnered up front with Garry Birtles. Stapleton was the leading scorer for United in that first season, with 13 goals in 41 league games.

Subsequently, his main strike partner was the Northern Ireland international, Norman Whiteside.

Stapleton scored United’s first goal, a 55th minute equaliser, in the 2-2 Cup Final draw against Brighton: one of 19 he notched during the 1982-83 season in which he played in 59 of United’s 60 games.

By the end of the following season, Stapleton’s regular strike partner was Mark Hughes and he scored in the 1985 FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool to set up yet another Wembley appearance, this time collecting his third winners’ medal when Whiteside’s winner beat Everton.

Despite a good start to the following season, with Stapleton once again amongst the goals, poor league form eventually cost Atkinson his job and his successor, Alex Ferguson, began rebuilding the side.

After six years at United, Stapleton, by then 30, was amongst those to be let go, and he was sold to Ajax of Amsterdam, lured by the fact they were managed by Johan Cruyff. But the move failed to live up to expectations, as detailed by the42.ie, and he ended up having a spell on loan at Anderlecht.

It was the first of a series of moves which didn’t really work out for him, although in the 1988-89 season he found himself playing in France alongside fellow Irish international – and future Brighton striker – John Byrne for Le Havre.

stapleton 4 derby

Derby County offered him a platform back in the UK game and he featured 10 times for them in 1987-88 and, after his stint in France came to an end, he spent two seasons with Blackburn Rovers.

He played once for lowly Aldershot and five times for Huddersfield Town before landing a player-manager’s post with Bradford City. In three years at Valley Parade, he made 68 appearances before the axe fell, and he answered Brady’s call for help at the Goldstone Ground.

The brilliant The Goldstone Wrap detailed his brief involvement in a March 2015 post, explaining how he featured as a substitute in a 0-0 draw at home to Bournemouth and started in a 3-0 defeat away to Cardiff City.

It was a final swansong for his playing career, as he looked to get back into coaching or management. He had two stints working under his former United teammate Ray Wilkins: at QPR and, in 2014, with the Jordan national side.

Stapleton spent eight months in 1996 as the first head coach of American Major Soccer League side New England Revolution, of Massachusetts.

His last appointment in the English game was briefly as a specialist striker coach at Bolton Wanderers, appointed during Sam Allardyce’s reign, in 2003-04.

Nowadays, Stapleton is more likely to be found talking about his illustrious career, his availability for bookings listed by football-speakers.com.

Matthew Upson was a class act in Albion’s defence

ARTICULATE pundit Matthew Upson was deservedly player of the season after starring in Brighton & Hove Albion’s back line during the 2013-14 season.

Earlier, in a career spanning eleven clubs, he played more times (144 plus once as sub) for West Ham United than any of his other clubs. He also won 21 England caps.

Upson initially joined the Seagulls during the second half of the 2012-13 season, signing on loan from Premier League Stoke City, where, in two years, he’d only managed 21 games (plus four as sub) following four years with the Hammers.

On signing him for Brighton at the age of 33, manager Gus Poyet told seagulls.co.uk, “When we had the chance to bring a player with the quality of Matt until the end of the season we went for him.

“He’s experienced, he’s been a regular Premier League player and there were no doubts about it. He has presence, he’s a leader as well and it’s a good opportunity for us to use him the right way and for him to play football.”

Upson joined a side already blessed with the on-loan presence of another former England international in the shape of left-back Wayne Bridge, but unfortunately the side couldn’t get past arch rivals Crystal Palace in the play-offs to gain promotion from the Championship.

Although Poyet departed, Upson decided to make his move to Brighton permanent and played 41 games, mainly alongside skipper Gordon Greer. Unfortunately, Oscar Garcia’s squad also stumbled in the play-offs.

Hampered by an ankle injury towards the end of the season, although Upson played in the first leg 2-1 home defeat to Derby County – when he conceded a penalty with a clumsy foul – he was one of several players to miss out through injury in the away leg, when the Rams prevailed 4-1.

At the season’s end, Upson declined a new contract offer with the Albion and decided to seize the opportunity to return to Premier League football with newly-promoted Leicester City.

As it turned out, injury delayed his debut by seven months and he made just six appearances for the Foxes before ending his playing days with MK Dons, where he was limited to four full appearances plus three as a sub.

Upson is now a regular pundit on our TV screens, displaying verbally the sort of calm assuredness he demonstrated out on the pitch.

So where did it all begin? Born on 18 April 1979 in Eye, a small Suffolk market town, Upson went to Diss High School, over the border in Norfolk, and his football ability first shone at Diss Town FC. He went on to the Ipswich Town Centre of Excellence but it was Luton Town who took him on as a trainee after his Ipswich coach, Terry Westley, had switched to the Hatters.

It was to be a lucrative decision by Luton because, after signing him as a professional in April 1996, a year later they sold him to Arsenal for £2million. He only ever made one first team appearance for Luton and that was as an 88^th minute substitute against Rotherham United in August 1996.

Unfortunately, his time with the Gunners was dogged by injury and lack of opportunity because of the solid form of the likes of Tony Adams, Steve Bould and Martin Keown.

Just as he was beginning to make a breakthrough in the 2001-02 season, taking the ageing Keown’s place, he broke his leg and missed out on the Gunners’ end-of-season League and FA Cup double, although he earned a league winners’ medal. At the season’s end, he’d made 16 appearances plus six as a sub.

While waiting for his chance at Arsenal, he had gone out on loan, to Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, then Reading after his return from the leg break. But after a total of 39 appearances, plus eight as a sub, for Arsenal spanning five and a half years, he made a £1m move to Birmingham City in January 2003.

City were halfway through their first season in the Premier League, under Steve Bruce, and Upson made 14 appearances as the side finished in 13^th place.

Upson told the dailystar.co.uk: “I had a good four and a half years under him at Birmingham. We had quite a successful period there.”

It was during his time with the Blues, during which he made 127 appearances plus one as sub, that his form was recognised with a call up to the England squad.

He had played at youth level and 12 times for the under 21 side but his first call-up for the senior squad came in February 2003, when he was an unused sub for England’s 3-1 win over Australia.

Three months later, coach Sven-Göran Eriksson gave him his debut when he came on for the second half In England’s 2-1 win over South Africa in Durban on 22 May 2003.

His final international appearance also came in South Africa – when he scored in England’s 4-1 defeat to Germany which brought about their exit from the 2010 World Cup. His involvement in the tournament was keenly followed by relatives and the whole community back in Diss.

He was involved in the squad for two subsequent games in September that year, but didn’t get to play. In total, he won seven caps while with Birmingham and 14 under Fabio Capello, after he had moved to West Ham. Of his 21 England appearances, 16 were as a starter, five as a sub.

Birmingham boss Bruce was reluctant to lose him but, on the final day of the transfer window in January 2007, the recently appointed Hammers boss, Alan Curbishley, paid £6million to take him to Upton Park, where enjoyed the longest spell of his playing career.

As he’d experienced at previous clubs, injury hampered him early on but eventually he got a regular spot in the side and subsequently took on the captaincy after the departure of Lucas Neill in August 2009.

It was after relegation from the Premiership during Sam Allardyce’s tenure as manager that Upson finally left the Hammers at the end of the 2010-11 season.

studio upson

In parallel lines

Memories from 55 years following Brighton & Hove Albion

Tag: Gunners