Tag: Jermain Defoe

Managerial turnover played havoc with goalscorer Bent’s career

FORMER England striker Darren Bent, who now shares his opinion of the game with listeners to talkSPORT, was still only 30 when he pulled on the stripes of Brighton, one of nine clubs he represented in the Premier League and Championship.

He couldn’t have got off to a better start when he scored on his debut at the Amex, netting against one of his former clubs, Fulham. Unfortunately, the visitors turned the game on its head and won 2-1.

Timing is everything in football and perhaps if Bent had joined the Albion in happier circumstances, there may have been a better story to tell. The Seagulls were about the ditch the manager who brought him to the club – an all-too-familiar scenario Bent encountered on many occasions throughout an 18-year playing career.

At Spurs he played under three different managers – he later described it as “the worst two years of my career” – and his temporary move from Aston Villa to Brighton came about because he’d been frozen out by Paul Lambert even though Gerard Houllier had smashed Villa’s transfer fee record to sign Bent from Sunderland for £18m in January 2011.

Bent arrived at the Amex in November 2014 with 184 goals in 464 career appearances behind him, and only three years earlier had won the last of 13 caps for England, for whom he scored four goals.

“His record speaks for itself,” said Albion boss Sami Hyypia. “He is a top-class striker with more than 100 Premier League goals with Charlton, Spurs, Sunderland and Aston Villa. I hope he will score plenty of goals for us during his time with us.

“There is no doubting his ability to score goals. He also wants to play regular games and that is evident in his willingness to step down from the Premier League to the Championship.”

The player himself told the matchday programme: “Anyone who knows me knows that all I care about is football.

“It has never been about money or anything like that. It has always been about playing football. I’m always at my happiest when I’m playing.”

Bent added: “Brighton felt like the perfect place to come and play football, especially for someone like Sami Hyypia, who I’ve played against many times over the years.

“As a manager, I think he is the right man. He is the kind of guy I want to play for.”

It was a generous assessment in the circumstances because Brighton had managed only two wins in 16 matches before Bent’s arrival.

The experienced striker’s second goal for the Albion looked like it might have earned the beleaguered coach a reprieve from the inevitable. He scored in the 10th minute away at Wolves, stooping to head Inigo Calderon’s first-time cross past goalkeeper Carl Ikeme. It was a lead that lasted until the 88th-minute but was cancelled out by a Danny Batth equaliser after Albion had played 30 second half minutes with 10 men following a red card shown to Bruno. Brighton parted company with the big Finn shortly afterwards.

Bent played one more game, under caretaker Nathan Jones, when Albion fought back from 2-0 down (both scored by on-loan Glenn Murray against his old club) to earn a home draw against Reading, but he was forced off injured after less than half an hour and the knock kept him out of the next game at Fulham, when Brighton won 2-0.

Hyypia’s replacement, Chris Hughton, spoke at his first press conference of trying to keep the player, but Bent had the chance to join a side at the opposite end of the Championship and he moved to promotion-seeking Derby County instead, scoring 12 times in 13 starts as the Rams missed out on a play-off spot by one point.

Released by Villa at the end of the season, he subsequently joined the Rams on a permanent basis in the summer of 2015. He saw even more managerial churn at Pride Park – Paul Clement and Darren Wassall in 2015-16 and three – Nigel Pearson, Steve McLaren and Gary Rowett – in 2016-17. Across the two seasons in the Championship, Bent scored 14 in 67 matches, but a hamstring injury sidelined him for the start of the 2017-18 season.

In January 2018 he went on loan to Championship strugglers Burton Albion under Nigel Clough where he scored twice in 14 appearances (nine starts + five off the bench) including netting the equaliser against his old club Sunderland when Burton’s 2-1 win relegated the Black Cats to the third tier of English football for only the second time in the club’s history. Burton also went down.

Released by Derby in the summer of 2018, he announced his retirement at 35 in July 2019.

Funny that he should end his career at Derby County because it was against them that he scored his first competitive goal for Tottenham in a 4–0 home victory in August 2007.

Bent had previously scored 37 goals in 79 matches over two seasons at Premier League Charlton Athletic before making what at the time was a record £16.5m move to White Hart Lane, where Dutch boss Martin Jol greeted him enthusiastically.

On target for Spurs

Although he already had Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov, Jermain Defoe and Mido as forward options, Jol said of the new signing: “Darren’s strength is his stamina. Normally players will make runs three or four times in 45 minutes, he will do it all the time and if you manage to play balls behind the defence, he will be there.

“He has pace, he links play well and can see a pass – he can exploit the space and play as well.”

What happened subsequently is covered superbly in a 2019 article by Jack Beresford on Planet Football, but, to fast forward a little, Jol was shown the White Hart Lane exit and his replacement, Spaniard Juande Ramos (assisted by Gus Poyet) was a lot less enamoured by the big money signing.

Indeed, Beresford writes: “Bent later recalled how Tottenham became ‘a horrible place to be’ under Ramos, who regularly lambasted players over a lack of professionalism in regards to training and nutrition, demoting several senior figures to the reserves.”

Although Bent struggled to cement a regular starting spot in his first season at White Hart Lane, he was Spurs’ top scorer at the end of the 2008-09 campaign with 17 goals.

While things initially looked good under Bent’s third Spurs boss, Harry Redknapp, the manager’s decision to publicly humiliate the striker eventually brought an unhappy spell to an end.

Bent missed a golden chance to score in a match against Portsmouth and Redknapp told reporters after the game: “You will never get a better chance to win a match than that. My missus could have scored that one.

“Bent did not only have part of the goal to aim for, but he had the entire net – and he put it wide. Unbelievable. I was just so frustrated.”

Bent put in a transfer request and said: “No one goes out to deliberately miss. When you miss a chance and your manager comes out and supports you rather than criticises you, it’s a big help.”

Ironically, circumstances meant Bent went on to make 12 more appearances for Tottenham, scoring five times and his 12 league goals made him the club’s top scorer.

Although Redknapp said Bent had a future at the club, he signed Peter Crouch and Beresford reported Bent later said: “I didn’t feel Redknapp wanted me there. It’s massive to have the support of your manager and that’s not been the case for the last two years.

“My career stood still at Tottenham. There’s a lot of politics going on there. I scored a lot of goals, but it was the hardest two years of my life.”

In those two years, he scored 25 goals in 79 games for Tottenham, but 36 of those appearances had been as a substitute.

Born in Tooting, south London, on 6 February 1984, Bent seemed always destined to be a footballer because his dad Mervyn had been on the books of Wimbledon and Brentford as a youngster.

The family moved to Cambridgeshire when the young Bent was only 10 and his early football career was nurtured at Godmanchester Rovers.

Ipswich Town picked him up as a 14-year-old and nurtured him through their youth ranks until he signed his first professional deal on 2 July 2001. George Burley gave him his debut five months later as a sub in a 3-1 UEFA Cup win away to Helsingborgs IF.

He scored twice in seven league and cup appearances that first season but the Tractor Boys were relegated from the top flight. Burley was soon replaced, temporarily by Tony Mowbray, then Joe Royle, under whom he cemented a regular starting berth in the second tier over the next three seasons.

By the time he left Ipswich in 2005, he’d scored 56 goals in 141 appearances. Former Brighton midfielder Alan Curbishley was at the helm of the Addicks when they paid a fee of £2.5m to take him to The Valley.

He scored five goals in Charlton’s first four league games (including two in the opening day 3-1 win over future employer Sunderland), finished his first season with 22 league and cup goals and was named Charlton’s Player of the Year.

Bent top scored again the following season, with 15, but under three different managers – Iain Dowie, Les Reed and Alan Pardew – they were relegated to the Championship along with Watford and Sheffield United.

As described earlier, Spurs presented the opportunity for him to continue playing in the Premier League, and he continued playing at that level when Sunderland bought him for £16.5million in the summer of 2009. Demonstrating the knack he had at several clubs, he scored on his debut, giving the Black Cats a 1-0 win at Bolton.

Bent went on to score 24 league goals for the Black Cats in his debut season at the club – and you can only imagine how delighted he was (pictured below) to net two in a 3-1 win over Spurs at the Stadium of Light!

The first came after just 34 seconds of the game on 3 April 2010, and a 29th-minute penalty gave him his 23rd goal of the season, although incredibly Bent also saw two other penalties saved by Spurs ‘keeper Heurelho Gomes. He had also missed a penalty in the reverse fixture at White Hart Lane the previous November, when Spurs won 2-0.

He obviously wasn’t the most reliable from 12 yards: I witnessed a Bent penalty miss myself back in 2003 when he’d gone on as a sub for Ipswich against Brighton at Portman Road. With the score at 1-1, Richard Carpenter’s foul on Chris Makin gave Bent the chance to restore the home side’s advantage from the spot. But he blasted the ball over without goalkeeper Dave Beasant needing to make a save. Tony Rougier then put Albion ahead but a Martin Reuser thunderbolt evened it up.

Bent’s 18-month stay with Steve Bruce’s Sunderland proved to be his most prolific goalscoring spell in football, netting 38 goals in just 52 appearances.

In the first half of the 2010-11 season, his partner up front was young Manchester United loanee Danny Welbeck, but in the January 2011 transfer window Bent was on the move again, this time to Villa.

Once again, he got off to a great start for a new club, marking his debut with the only goal of the game in a win over Manchester City. It was the first of nine goals in 16 league appearances which put him joint top scorer with Ashley Young, even though he’d only arrived at the club in January.

After health issues forced Houllier to step down as Villa boss, Alex McLeish took over for what was a tumultuous and under-performing season when relegation was only avoided by two points, although Bent was top scorer with 10.

McLeish’s successor Lambert not only took the captaincy off Bent, he also froze him out, only selecting him for 13 Premier League appearances. If he thought it was difficult enough to have three different managers in three seasons at Villa, when he spent the whole of the 2013-14 season on loan to Fulham, they had three different managers in one season!

Bent’s old Spurs boss Jol was in charge as the campaign got under way but, with only two wins in 14, he was replaced by former Man Utd no.2 René Meulensteen in December before Felix Magath took over in February. All the upheaval saw Fulham relegated with a team that included David Stockdale, Steve Sidwell, Aaron Hughes and Dan Burn. Bent scored six in 14 starts + 15 sub appearances.

If Bent was used to managerial change at club level, it wasn’t much better with the England national team: he played under three different managers in five years!

He had previously earned selection for his country at under 15, 16, 19 and 21 levels – he scored nine in 14 matches for the under-21s – and he was first called up to the full squad by Sven-Goran Eriksson shortly after he’d made the move from Ipswich to Charlton, although he didn’t play in a 4-1 defeat to Denmark.

“Making my Premiership debut for a new club, scoring my first brace in the Premiership and then to get the England call-up on the back of that was just a dream come true,” he told the FA website.

It was another six months before he made his full England debut, in a 2-1 win over Uruguay but he didn’t do enough to stake a claim for a place in the World Cup squad.

His next cap came as an 80th minute substitute for Joe Cole in the 3-2 defeat to Croatia in November 2007 that cost Steve McLaren his job when England failed to qualify for the Euro 2008 tournament.

By the time he made his second start for England, on 14 November 2009, Fabio Capello was in charge. England lost 1-0 in a friendly to Brazil in Qatar when Bent’s teammates included Matthew Upson, Wayne Bridge and James Milner.

“Bent was struggling to make an impact as he attempted to convince Capello of his worth, not helped by a lack of service that rendered his task almost impossible,” reported the BBC’s Phil McNulty. “He had one opportunity, but could not direct a header on target from Milner’s cross.”

He didn’t make the cut for the 2010 World Cup squad but in September was back in the fold and scored his first England goal after going on as a 70th minute sub for Jermain Defoe as England beat Switzerland 3-1 in Basle.

By now at Villa, it was the first of three goals in three games (he also netted against Denmark and Wales) after which he told the Birmingham Mail: “I’d love to be No 9 for as long as possible, there are a lot of top strikers about but Fabio keeps picking me and hopefully I can keep producing the goods.

“Even when the goals weren’t going in, I always believed I was good enough to score at this level and hopefully it’s showing now. I’m finally getting my chance and getting a good run in the side. I’m delighted with it.

“It has been years since my first chance and it’s certainly been a long, long wait but it’s finally come.”

He started the 2-2 Euro 2012 qualifier with Montenegro in October 2011 and the following month was in the side that beat World Cup holders Spain 1-0 at Wembley; it was his header from Milner’s cross that rebounded off a post for Frank Lampard to nod in.

Three days later, he played what turned out to be his – and Capello’s – last game for England as a 70th minute sub for Bobby Zamora when England beat Sweden 1-0 at Wembley.

Yet another man was at the helm when it came to selection for the Euro 2012 tournament and Roy Hodgson didn’t reckon Bent had recovered sufficiently from an injury to merit inclusion.

For all the highs and lows of a lengthy playing career, nothing came close to what he suffered in front of a nation of TV quiz viewers: he scored only three points over two rounds of Celebrity Mastermind and admitted to talkSPORT listeners: “Honestly? It was probably the worst experience of my life!”

He explained: “As a footballer you get nervous before games, when you take a penalty in front of thousands of people, when you join a new club, but when you’re sitting in that chair opposite John Humphrys, it’s pitch black in there and all you can see is him, his eyes looking at you and he’s asking you questions and you just go blank.”

The Barking boy who became a Hammers play-off final hero

IT WAS A DREAM come true for Bobby Zamora to play for West Ham, the team he supported as a boy.

Born in Barking on 16 January 1981, he explained: “They were my local team and having been spotted by the club playing for my Sunday side, Senrab, I signed schoolboy forms and we’d be given tickets to watch the team on a Saturday afternoon at the Boleyn.”

Zamora’s favourite player was Tony Cottee and the side at that time included the likes of George Parris and Julian Dicks. “It was always a great atmosphere down there, singing ‘Bubbles’, and I count myself honoured and privileged to have played for the club that I grew up supporting,” he said.

Fellow Senrab players John Terry, Paul Konchesky, Ledley King and JLloyd Samuel were all snapped up by the Hammers at the same time but when the club decided to merge two centres of excellence they found themselves playing fewer games which prompted them all to leave.

Zamora joined Terry at Chelsea but suffered Osgood-Schlatter disease (which causes pain and swelling below the knee joint)and had to stop playing for six months. He described in the Undr The Cosh podcast how Norwich kept in touch with him to see how the injury was progressing so, when he was fit again he joined them and spent a season in Norfolk.

“They had a lot of London lads in their side but it was like playing in the Land of the Giants,” he explained in a matchday programme article. “They were all 15 going on 18, much bigger physically and taller than me, and I was released for being too small.”

His friend Luke Williams was also released but the pair of them were offered a trial by Bristol Rovers and, after only playing half a match, both were offered apprenticeships.

As described in my previous post, it was from Rovers that Zamora joined Brighton, while Williams played non-league before moving into coaching, which included a spell as development coach at Brighton.

When Spurs decided to swap Zamora for Jermain Defoe, a move to the Boleyn was a bit of a no-brainer for the former fan, although Premier League Leeds United were also keen to take him.

“The pull of West Ham was too great and although it was a drop into the Championship, the squad they had under Alan Pardew was more than good enough to go up,” he said.

Zamora got off to a good start with the Hammers, scoring on his debut and again on his home debut. That first goal came after he had gone on as a sub in a 2-1 win at Bradford City on 7 February 2004. He followed it up with the only goal of the game in a home win over Cardiff on 28 February.

Three more goals followed before the end of the 2003-04 campaign, but the season ended in disappointment when the Hammers lost in the Championship play-off final at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff, against Crystal Palace the day before Brighton’s famous League One play-off win against Bristol City in the same stadium.

Zamora had a first half effort saved at point blank range by Palace keeper Nico Vaesen and a second half ‘goal’ ruled out for offside before being subbed off on 68 minutes as Palace won promotion courtesy of a Neil Shipperley goal.

All was put right a year later, though, when at the same ground Zamora was the Hammers hero. It was his turn to score the only goal of the game, against Preston North End, getting on the end of a Matthew Etherington cross to slot home from six yards in the 57th minute.

Play-off final scorer

Across the season, Zamora made 20 starts and 19 sub appearances, scoring 13 goals. His first double for the club came in a 3-2 League Cup second round win over Notts County at Upton Park on 21 September 2004.

Competition for forward places was fierce with Marlon Harewood, Teddy Sheringham and Sergei Rebrov also pushing for a place up front.

As well as scoring in that play-off final, Zamora had emphasised his claim to a starting berth by scoring in the 2-2 semi-final first leg home draw with Ipswich then twice in a 2-0 win at Portman Road in the second leg.

Pete Ellis on claretandhugh.info reckoned Zamora “played a key role for the Hammers at a pivotal point in our recent history” and he added: “The promotion season in 2005, where he and Etherington played like men possessed in the play-offs, still fills me with great pride.”

Back in the Premiership, Zamora scored 10 goals in 20 starts and 22 appearances off the bench and Ellis remembered “some great displays showing his ability to hold the ball up and have the craft and guile to bag a few tasty goals in the process.

Zamora marked by former Brighton teammate Guy Butters who scored Albion’s goal in a 1-0 win for the Seagulls at the Boleyn Ground

“A proper character around the club, I enjoyed watching Bobby play and thought he never really got the plaudits that his talents and performances deserved.”

Amongst memorable goals in 2005-06 were a stunning solo effort in a 2-1 win at Birmingham and a goal in a 3-2 win at Highbury. Unfortunately, he’s also remembered for having his penalty saved by Pepe Reina in the FA Cup Final shoot-out with Liverpool.

The 2006-07 season saw Zamora make 30 starts and seven sub appearances, scoring 11 goals and named runner-up to Carlos Tevez in the Hammer of the Year contest.

A terrific start to the season saw him score five goals in his first four matches, including two against Charlton in a 3-1 opening day win.

A four-month barren spell came as the Irons struggled but he scored crucial goals against Blackburn, Everton, Middlesbrough and Arsenal (the last time West Ham played at Highbury).

Fans remember too his goal the following season – a chip over Jens Lehmann – that sealed a vital win for the Hammers at Arsenal’s new Emirates Stadium, with a heroic performance from ‘keeper Rob Green keeping out the Gunners at the other end.

The arrival of Craig Bellamy and return from injury of Dean Ashton added competition for Zamora, who missed seven months of the 2007-08 season with tendinitis.

His last Hammers goal was in a 2-1 win at the Boleyn against Derby on 19 April 2008, and his last game for the club was in a 2-2 draw at home to Aston Villa the following month. He had scored a total of 40 goals in 152 appearances for West Ham.

Even though he had missed a lot of games, and only scored once in 12 starts plus two off the bench across the whole season, he had no inkling he wouldn’t be offered a new contract.

“I went in at the start of the next season expecting to be talking about a new contract and they told me they’d agreed a deal to sell me to Fulham,” he told the Fulham website in a 2019 interview.

“It was obvious I wasn’t wanted and I made my way down to Motspur Park,” he said.

Zamora and team-mate John Paintsil moved to Fulham for a joint fee of £6.3m (Zamora was valued at £4.8m).

• I’ll explore how Zamora got on at Fulham ahead of Brighton’s game with them in March. His form with the Cottagers hit sufficient heights as to earn him two England caps.

When the ball hits the goal it’s not Shearer or Cole it’s Zamora!

EVERY NOW AND AGAIN as a football supporter a truly special player stands out well above the rest you’ve watched. Bobby Zamora was most definitely in that category.

As the new year dawns on what will be my 55th year supporting Brighton & Hove Albion, it is perhaps fitting to spend a little time remembering just how good Zamora was for the Seagulls before his outstanding ability to score goals was taken to higher levels: Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham, Fulham and ultimately, and, quite deservedly, England.

That he came back to the Albion from QPR as his career began to ebb was nothing short of a bonus­ – and, while I’m not a big gambler, I was delighted to get a modest return from the bookies when my punt on him being the last goalscorer came good after he had gone on as a sub at Elland Road on 15 October 2015 and chipped the winner (below) to register his first goal since rejoining!

“That goal was definitely the highlight of my season,” Zamora told interviewer Adam Virgo in a Seagulls World interview. “It was my first goal since coming back and to score the winner so late in the game was unbelievable. It was a special moment for me, and it settled the nerves knowing that we’d got the three points.”

Just four days later, Zamora repeated the feat going on as a 76th-minute substitute for Tomer Hemed at home to Bristol City and beating goalkeeper Frank Fielding with a low shot from 15 yards out. Albion won 2-1; Sam Baldock having levelled things up against his former club after Derrick Williams opened the scoring for City.

Unfortunately, Zamora managed just five more in that second spell. He made 10 starts plus 16 as a sub in Chris Hughton’s side but he was struggling with a hip injury.

It eventually caught up with him and prevented him from contributing further to Albion’s aim of promotion back to the elite; his last game being as a sub in a 0-0 draw at home to Sheffield Wednesday on 8 March 2016. “If I was fit, I would have scored some goals and we’d have been promoted automatically,” he told the UndrThe Cosh podcast (pictured above).

Thankfully another returning striker in the shape of Glenn Murray completed that task the following season and went on to cement his own place in Albion’s history: his 111 goals in 287 appearances putting him second in the list of Brighton’s all-time top goalscorers.

Golden goalscorers: Zamora + Murray

Each of the different eras I’ve watched the Albion has thrown up truly memorable players who have generated their own air of excitement and anticipation because of the goals they scored.

The first one for me was Alex Dawson, who netted seven in the first five games I watched in 1969. Then along came Willie Irvine whose goalscoring in third tier Albion’s promotion-winning season of 1972 earned him an unexpected recall to the Northern Ireland side – and an appearance (that I went to watch) in a 1-0 win against England at Wembley.

Next, of course, was the truly outstanding Peter Ward, who jinked his way past defenders with apparent ease and scored goals for fun, his 36 goals in 1976-77 smashing a decades-old record. Like Zamora, he came back to the scene of past glories (albeit only on loan) and scored a magnificent winner against the team he supported as a boy, Manchester United.

Garry Nelson, with 32 goals, and Kevin Bremner were a superb front pair in another third tier promotion-winning line-up in 1988 while, in 1990-91, Mike Small and John Byrne combined brilliantly to take the Seagulls within a hair’s breadth of a return to the big time.

The arrival of a beanpole of a kid with an eye for goal in Zamora completely transformed Albion’s fortunes under Micky Adams and he was the talisman in back-to-back promotions following years in the doldrums.

Zamora’s Albion story is pretty well known but let’s remind ourselves of how it all began.

Depending on whose account you believe more, it was either Dick Knight or Adams who had the foresight to bring Zamora to the Withdean.

Adams said: “The first time I saw him he came onto the training ground; he looked like a kid. But he was tall and gangly with a useful left foot; there was potential there.”

In fact, Zamora might never have arrived in Sussex if Albion had been successful in securing a permanent deal for on-loan Lorenzo Pinamonte. When Brentford outbid Brighton for the services of the Bristol City loanee, Albion turned their attention to Zamora (left), a Bristol Rovers player who was only getting sub appearances under Ian Holloway but had scored eight goals in six games on loan at nearby non-league Bath City.

“He was six foot one and we knew he had a very good first touch and could hold the ball up well, the type of player we wanted,” Knight recounted in his autobiography Mad Man: From The Gutter to the Stars (Vision Sports Publishing, 2013).

Zamora duly arrived on loan and scored six in six matches (including a hat-trick in a 7-1 away win at Chester). He scored an equaliser and was named Man of the Match on his debut v Plymouth and by the end of February was Player of the Month.

Hat-trick ball at Chester

While Knight and Adams wanted him to stay, he insisted on returning to Rovers where he thought he might force his way into Holloway’s starting line-up. But it was back only to the bench as Nathan Ellington, Jason Roberts and Jamie Cureton were ahead of him in the pecking order.

As preparations began for the new season, Albion offered £60,000 for Zamora but Rovers chairman Geoff Dunford wanted £250,000. An incredulous Knight said he wouldn’t go higher than £100,000 and couldn’t believe they could demand such a figure for someone who hadn’t actually started a first team game.

Zamora had Rovers’ youth team coach Phil Bater to thank for forcing through the move. He accompanied the shy youngster into a meeting with Holloway, who tried to say he’d get some games if he stayed. Bater reckoned the youngster was being strung along and argued Zamora’s cause saying he stood more chance of playing if Rovers let him join the Albion.

After some brinkmanship from each club’s respective chairmen, with Knight threatening to walk away from the deal, it finally went through two days before the start of the season, although Albion’s chairman reluctantly agreed to a 30 per cent sell-on clause for the player.

Zamora instantly became one of the top earners on £2,000 a week with a goal bonus built in.

“It was an absolute coup that we had finally secured this player,” said Knight. “I could only see good things in him, could only see that he would be a huge asset to us.

“Football is all a matter of opinions. There is little science to it. For me, Zamora was the best signing I ever made.”

Zamora has eyes on the ball closely watched by a young Wayne Bridge for Southampton

Not only did Zamora manage to score 31 goals as Albion won promotion from the basement division, he went one better when they went straight to the top of the third tier the following season, netting 32 times in 46 matches.

A significant number of those goals came courtesy of Zamora’s excellent understanding with left-footed right-back Paul Watson, of whom he said: “He created a lot of goals for me with those quick free kicks. He didn’t put a foot wrong too often and was very underrated. He never got the credit his hard work deserved.”

Expanding on it in another interview, he said: “Whenever Watto got the ball I knew precisely where I needed to run to and he knew where to deliver it. It was such a great connection: Watto has an absolutely wonderful left foot and it made my job as a striker so much easier when you get deliveries like that.”

Declaring that even in the Premiership he hadn’t come across anybody with a better left foot, he added: “I was very lucky to have played in the same team as him; he created numerous goals for me; not only with his deliveries but with his intelligent play as well.”

Watson had arrived at the club with Charlie Oatway and was part of a cluster of players who had served under Adams at Brentford and Fulham. When Adams and assistant Bob Booker steered Albion to promotion as fourth tier champions, Zamora was player of the season and he and Danny Cullip were named in the PFA divisional XI.

Not long into the following season, the lure of taking over as manager at a Premier League club saw Adams quit Brighton, initially to become Dave Bassett’s no.2 at Leicester City, but with the promise of succeeding him.

“While I thought I had a shot at another promotion, it wasn’t a certainty,” Adams explained. “I knew I had put together a team of winners, and I knew I had a goalscorer in Bobby Zamora, but football’s fickle finger of fate could have disrupted that at any time.”

His successor, Peter Taylor, knew how fortunate he was to inherit an experienced squad, and said: “Of course the greatest asset we had was Bobby Zamora. Having him meant that we could play a front two at home and away from home we could play him on his own and he would still get us a goal out of nothing. He was an incredible player and miles too good for that level.”

And Zamora wasn’t only a star on the pitch, as Knight spoke about in his autobiography. “When he was at his zenith at Brighton, the requests we got for him to visit schools, hospitals and go to prize-givings far outweighed all the other players together, but he was always amenable. He was never starry, never refused. I couldn’t speak more highly of Bobby Zamora as a person.”

Knight recounted in his book how, after a 1-0 win at Peterborough, when Zamora missed a penalty but also scored the only goal of the game, Albion’s promotion to the second tier was confirmed and in his own inimitable way Posh boss Barry Fry said to Brighton’s star striker: “You’re a fucking great player and you’ll play for England one day, I’m fucking sure of it.”

Zamora was still only 21 when Tottenham signed him from relegated Brighton in July 2003. He left the south coast having scored a total of 83 goals in 136 appearances but in his last season in the stripes he netted just 14 as the Seagulls battled unsuccessfully to retain their tier two status.

Unfortunately, he missed eleven matches with a dislocated shoulder and, had former Premier League striker Paul Kitson been fit to play alongside him (he managed only seven starts plus three off the bench), the season may well have had a different outcome.

Everton’s Bill Kenwright had offered £3m for Zamora during the season but their manager Walter Smith seemed less convinced and, with Kevin Campbell and Wayne Rooney likely to be ahead of him, Zamora stayed in Sussex.

But chairman Dick Knight promised not to stand in his way if an opportunity was presented at the end of the season and that came from Tottenham. Manager Glenn Hoddle and assistant Chris Hughton had been to see Zamora in action at the Withdean on a number of occasions.

Spurs chairman Daniel Levy played hardball over the deal. Eventually, Knight settled on a £1.5m fee but, because of the original sell-on clause, £450,000 was due to Bristol Rovers.

Hoddle told The Guardian: “He has got good pace and great movement on and off the ball. No disrespect to Brighton, they have got a good team down there, but we have got players here who can make the most of his movement.”

The player’s agent Phil Smith told the newspaper: “The fee for Bobby is £1.5m which is a decent price in today’s market for a Second Division striker.

“It has been a long time coming for Bobby but he is delighted to be going into the Premiership. It has always been an ambition.”

Disappointed Albion manager Steve Coppell observed: “It is a big move for Bobby and nobody really expected we could hang onto him for much longer. But it has blown a big hole in any plans I had. I don’t have a better option than playing with Bobby Zamora up front.”

When he arrived at Spurs, one of the senior pros who took him under his wing was none other than Gus Poyet.

“As a young guy coming into the team, he was one of the senior pros who would always talk to me and encourage me,” Zamora told the matchday programme. “He didn’t have to do that, but he went out of his way to do so and you could see he had coaching qualities. He would often point things out on the pitch that you’d pick up on, and when he spoke, you’d listen.

“He wasn’t starting every game either, so in training I did more things with him than maybe the rest. I really got on well with him.”

As it turned out, Zamora made only 18 appearances for Spurs (11 as a substitute) and only scored once – ironically a single goal that knocked West Ham out of the Carling Cup in October 2003.

In January 2004, Spurs chose to use him as a makeweight in taking Jermain Defoe from the Boleyn Ground to White Hart Lane.

Phlegmatic Zamora didn’t look on it as a failure but embraced the “learning curve” of training alongside the likes of Poyet, Robbie Keane, Darren Anderton and Jamie Redknapp.

“I came away a better player and with more experience,” he said. “Glenn Hoddle had signed me and then he got sacked not long afterwards. David Pleat took charge and we didn’t really see eye-to-eye, but the lads and the club were brilliant and I learned so much from my time there.

“I took a chance by stepping back down to the Championship with West Ham – but it was the opportunity of playing regular football again that was the pull for me.”

McGhee provided Albion platform for playmaker Mark Yeates

TRICKY playmaker Mark Yeates spent five years as a Tottenham Hotspur player but it was with Brighton that he played his first competitive football.

Yeates looked like a useful loan signing when he joined new manager Mark McGhee’s Albion squad in November 2003. He drew plenty of admirers and featured in 10 games over two months.

It wasn’t long before McGhee was talking about the possibility of signing him on a permanent basis, but Spurs had other ideas. He eventually had to leave north London to pursue his career but he ultimately made nearly 500 professional appearances.

Eighteen-year-old Yeates arrived on the south coast shortly after Zesh Rehman had also signed on loan (from Fulham), Albion having lost midfield duo Charlie Oatway and Simon Rodger to injuries.

The diminutive Irishman made his debut in McGhee’s first match in charge: a 4-1 defeat to Sheffield United at Withdean.

The matchday programme’s assessment was thus: “The second half was better. Mark Yeates moved into the centre of midfield and so had an opportunity to show what he can do. He could beat players, look up, and try a perceptive through ball. Wide on the left in the first half, he’d been exposed and given the ball away too often.”

On the day England won the Rugby World Cup, Yeates was one of six Albion players booked as the Seagulls beat Notts County 2-1 at Meadow Lane; an eventful game which saw Adam El-Abd make his league debut, Leon Knight score twice and John Piercy sent off for two bookable offences.

After only his third game, Yeates was off on international duty, playing for the Republic of Ireland under 19s away to France.

It was in early December that McGhee spoke about wanting to take Yeates on a permanent basis, telling the club’s website: “I’ve said already that I knew before he came here what a good player he is and I imagined he would do well in this team, and he has done that.”

McGhee told the Argus: “He has a kind of Gaelic confidence. Robbie Keane had it and Mark is similar in that respect.

“His character is perfect really for the way he plays. It goes with the ability and flair.”

Yeates hailed from the same Tallaght district of Dublin as Keane – a player McGhee knew well having given him his English football debut at 17 when manager of Wolves.

After extending his stay at the Albion to a second month, Yeates told the Argus: “Before I came here I had never really played in the centre of midfield. I usually play up front off a big man.

Yeates takes control watched by Adam Hinshelwood

“The gaffer tried me up front in the first half at QPR (in the LDV Vans Trophy) but we didn’t get the ball into mine and Leon’s feet, and with two little men you are not going to get much joy.

“At Tottenham we play with wingbacks and two holding midfielders and I am allowed a free role.

“I have to be a bit more disciplined here. Sometimes I can go running about a bit, it’s just up to the lads to call me back in to help out.”

Yeates appreciated the opportunity Albion had given him to taste senior football, telling the newspaper: “It’s great for me just to be getting first team football, plus the reason I am staying here is because they are a good bunch down here.”

He observed: “It’s a lot more fast and furious because everyone is playing for their living. You have to give a bit more and get more out of yourself which you probably wouldn’t get in a reserve game.

“In reserve football, players are going through the motions. It’s just a matter of playing a game.”

After he’d played his final game on loan, a 0-0 home draw with Oldham Athletic, the matchday programme observed: “Yeates showed some neat touches and was Albion’s most creative outlet once again.”

When Albion struggled to beat Barnsley 1-0 in the FA Cup, the matchday programme noted: “The passing abilities of Mark Yeates, and his desire to get into the penalty area, were sorely missed.”

Back at Spurs, Yeates had to wait until the very last game of the season to make his Premier League debut. He’d previously been an unused substitute when Glenn Hoddle’s Tottenham were thrashed 5-1 by Middlesbrough at the end of the 2002-03 season.

But in May 2004, David Pleat selected him to start in a side also featuring Ledley King, Jamie Redknapp, Christian Ziege, Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane.

The fixture at Molineux ended in a 2-0 win for the visitors and Yeates helped Spurs take the lead against the run of play, laying on a cross for Keane to score against his former club. Defoe netted a second to seal the win.

Born in Tallaght on 11 January 1985, Yeates was the eldest son of former Shelbourne, Shamrock Rovers, Athlone Town and Kilkenny City striker Stephen Yeates, who died aged just 38 following a tragic accident, just as Mark was making his way through the youth ranks at Spurs.

The young Yeates first played competitive football with Greenhills Boys, a club who his grandfather and father had been involved with, and then moved on to Cherry Orchard, a Dublin side renowned for producing a number of players who went on to have successful professional careers.

In an extended interview with Lennon Branagan for superhotspur.com, Yeates recalled how Tottenham scout Terry Arber did a two-day coaching course at Cherry Orchard, after which he, Willo Flood (later to play for Manchester City and Dundee United) and Stephen Quinn (who went on to play for Sheffield United) were invited to London for a trial with Spurs.

Yeates was only 15 but he was taken on and had to up sticks from home and move into digs in London.

“As a skilful dribbler who was regularly a source of assists and goals in the youth set-up, Yeates quickly demonstrated to the coaching staff at Tottenham that he possessed the raw materials required to graduate to the next level,” wrote Paul Dollery in an October 2021 article for the42.ie.

Sadly, his progress through the youth ranks was interrupted by the shock news of his father’s death in an accident. Yeates told Dollery how it could have all gone the wrong way, but he thankfully remained focused.

“It was really tough, but you’d ask yourself what else you could do if you didn’t keep going – go home to your estate in Tallaght, drink cans every weekend and get roped into whatever else? 

“I could have done that, or I could look at the three-year contract that was on the table at Tottenham and get my head down to go after that.

“It was hard, but a bit of willpower and the desire to be a footballer – which I had since I started kicking a ball – got me through it.”

In his interview with Branagan, Yeates said: “I started to train with the first team at a decent age and really being involved quite a bit as well as being a regular with the reserves group with Colin Calderwood and Chris Hughton at the time.

“I’ve just got so many unbelievable things to say when I look back now and I can only say so many good things about Spurs because it sort of built me and gave me so much.”

It was in January 2005 when Yeates next appeared for the Spurs first team, Martin Jol sending him on as a sub in the third round FA Cup tie against Brighton at White Hart Lane when Tottenham edged it 2-1.

The following week he once again replaced Pedro Mendes as a sub when a star-studded Chelsea side won 2-0 on their way to winning their first Premier League title under Jose Mourinho. He also got on in the next game, as Spurs crashed 3-0 at Crystal Palace,

While he could have continued to bide his time at Spurs, he preferred to go out on loan again to get some games under his belt. He played four times for League One Swindon Town and then had a season-long loan at Colchester United, helping them to promotion from League One in 2005-06 in a squad which included Greg Halford and Chris Iwelumo.

Further loan spells followed at Hull City and Leicester City but, in the summer of 2007, he joined Colchester on a permanent deal.

Yeates scored 21 goals in 81 games for United drawing him to the attention of future England manager Gareth Southgate who took him to Middlesbrough (who had just been relegated from the Premier League) for a £500,000 fee.

On signing a three-year deal, Yeates said: “This is massive for me. There was interest from other clubs but there was only one thing on my mind once my agent told me Middlesbrough had been in touch.

“This club belongs in the Premier League, the fans deserve to be there and I can’t wait to play in front of them. It’s a Premiership club in my mind – all you have to do is look around the facilities, the training ground, the stadium, everything is spot on.”

Yeates reckoned his versatility would suit Boro. “I can play on the right or the left,” he said. “I played a full season’s Championship football on the right for Colchester, while I played most of last season on the left. But then, in probably eight of the last 10 games, I played behind the front two.

“For a winger, I think my goals record is quite good,” he added. “I got 14 last season and nine by Christmas the season before I got injured.

“I like to get on the ball and take on defenders. The number one job of being a wide man is creating chances and I certainly like to do that, but scoring goals isn’t a bad habit to have either. I promise the fans I’ll give 110 per cent. I’m hungry to prove that I deserve to be here.”

Fine words but it didn’t pan out well for him because Southgate was sacked in October 2009 and his successor Gordon Strachan shunned the Irishman. By January 2010, Yeates was on the move again, this time to Sheffield United.

Blades boss Kevin Blackwell told the club’s website: “He’s a player we have looked at before, I’ve had my eye on him for a year or two but we couldn’t agree terms with Colchester. I’m delighted to finally get my man, although I was surprised that Boro would let him go.”

Yeates was reunited with Stephen Quinn and another former Albion loanee, Darius Henderson, was up front for the Blades. Yeates reckoned he had his best ever spell playing under Blackwell’s successor, Gary Speed.

“He was just an unbelievable man and, going back to when I was at Tottenham as a young lad, he was the prime example of the player you should aspire to be like,” he said. “He had faith in me.”

Unfortunately, when Speed left to manage Wales, former Albion boss Micky Adams took charge and the pair didn’t see eye to eye, as he explained to watfordlegends.com.

“I was at Sheffield United and it was the season when we went from the Championship to League One. Micky Adams was the manager and we weren’t getting on. In the summer Micky was sacked and Danny Wilson came in as manager.

“I trained for the full pre-season with the club, but I was aware that there were a couple of clubs keeping an eye on my situation throughout the summer. It was Blackpool and Watford who put in offers for me, and I spoke with both clubs, but when I met Dychey (Sean Dyche) I decided to sign for Watford.

“I still had a house in Loughton so overall it was a good opportunity to get back down south, and everything that Sean said to me on the phone really appealed to me.”

Yeates was at Watford for two seasons, initially under Dyche and then Gianfranco Zola, but his contract wasn’t renewed in the summer of 2013 and he decided to link up once again with his former Colchester and Hull boss, Phil Parkinson, at League One Bradford City.

He was one of the goalscorers for Bradford when they completed a massive upset by beating Premier League table toppers Chelsea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge in the fourth round of the 2015 FA Cup.

However, released that summer, he switched across the Pennines to join Oldham Athletic and six months later was on the move again, this time to Blackpool.

“Since leaving Hull it’s been a bit up and down,” he told Branagan. “I was on a short term deal at Oldham which went alright before then deciding to go to Blackpool because of a longer contract which was put in front of me which I don’t regret, as I’ve been living around the St Annes area now for five years and my children have grown up here and are at school and it’s a great area to raise a family in.”

His final league club as a player was Notts County, who he joined on a short-term deal in January 2017, and he appeared in 11 games plus three as a substitute as new manager Kevin Nolan’s side turned what at one point looked like relegation from the league into a 16th place finish (although two years later County lost the league status they’d held for 157 years).

After playing non-league for Eastleigh, in 2019 Yeates moved closer to home and signed for AFC Fylde. In September 2021, he became an academy coach at Fleetwood Town, although he continued to keep his hand in as a player at Bamber Bridge.

Reflecting on the player’s career, Dollery wrote: “With a ball at his feet, Yeates was one of the most technically accomplished Irish players of his generation, cut from the same cloth as the likes of (Wes) Hoolahan and Andy Reid.

“That such a claim isn’t backed up by international achievements can perhaps be partly explained by his own admission that he didn’t marry his talent with a devotion to other aspects of the game that were beginning to play a more prominent role in the life of a professional footballer.

“If fitness coaches scheduled a gym session, Yeates felt his time would be better spent by staying on the training pitch to perfect his free kicks. A predilection for crisps, fizzy drinks and nights out didn’t aid his cause either.”

Yeates recognised he could have done things differently and said: “The reality was that I didn’t live like a saint.

“Everyone who knows me would know that that’s just not my personality. I’ve always been a fella who likes a bit of craic; just a normal Irish lad from an estate who happened to love playing football.”

• Pictures from the Albion matchday programme and various online sources.

Much-travelled Ade Akinbiyi a big hit in brief Seagulls spell

A STRIKER with wildly differing fortunes in a varied and much-travelled career made a good early impression when joining Albion on loan from Norwich City back in the autumn of 1994.

Ade Akinbiyi had not long since broken through to the City team as a teenager and he scored four times in seven games on loan to the Seagulls.

Just turned 20, Akinbiyi arrived at a time when Liam Brady’s Albion hadn’t registered a win for 11 games and, although Albion lost the first game he played in, the remaining six produced three wins and three draws.

AA scores

There is some YouTube footage of him scoring Albion’s second goal on a snowy pitch at Hull City’s old Boothferry Park ground in a game that finished 2-2.

“He is powerful and big and he can take knocks and we have missed having somebody in that mould,” Brady wrote in his matchday programme notes.

Later in his career Akinbiyi would prove to be a real handful for the Seagulls – I recall him shrugging off a powder-puff challenge from a young Dan Harding at Withdean and muscling his way to a winning goal for Stoke City. Manager Mark McGhee subbed Harding off and publicly lambasted him afterwards.

Born in Hackney on 10 October 1974, Akinbiyi was more interested in athletics at an early age, as he told the Lancashire Telegraph.

“I was interested in football but not massive on playing it,” he said. His school PE teacher persuaded him otherwise. “I went to play for my district team, Hackney, and it all started from there.”

From Hackney, Akinbiyi joined nearby Senrab, the team that blooded the likes of Bobby Zamora, Leon Knight, John Terry and Jermain Defoe.

His age group earned a place in a children’s tournament in Great Yarmouth called the ‘Canary Cup’ where he was spotted by a scout for nearby Norwich, who signed him as a schoolboy.

“The schoolboy and youth team system was second to none, as it still is now,” said Akinbiyi. But he found it hard living away from home, missing his mum’s native Nigerian cooking.

But after finding new digs with a few of his team-mates, he stuck at it and earned a dream debut as a substitute against Bayern Munich in the return leg of their UEFA Cup second round game, less than a month after his 19th birthday.

“I thought my debut would come in a cup game, perhaps against lower league opposition, not against Bayern Munich,” he said. “Not many people make their debut in a European cup competition.”

Although Akinbiyi made 51 league appearances for Norwich, his Canaries career never really took off, hence the Brighton loan spell and a similar move to Hereford United.

Eventually, though, a manager who believed in him, Tony Pulis, made him a record £250,000 buy for Gillingham in January 1997. Akinbiyi repaid Pulis’ faith in him with 29 goals in 67 starts, leading to Bristol City paying £1.2million for the striker following their promotion to the old Division One (now the Championship).

akinbiyi + colin lee

After scoring 21 goals in 47 league appearances for the Robins, in 1999 he completed a £3.5m move to Wolverhampton Wanderers. In the same year, he played his one and only game for Nigeria, in a friendly against Greece in Athens.

He made a great start at Wolves, scoring eight times in his first 12 games for Colin Lee’s side, but a year later, switched to Premier League Leicester City, after the Foxes’ boss Peter Taylor (later to replace Micky Adams at Brighton) paid out a £5m fee for the striker.

Ade A LeicesterAkinbiyi was brought in to replace Emile Heskey, a real Filbert Street hero who had been sold to Liverpool for £11m. However, his goal touch eluded him and he managed to score only 11 goals in 58 league appearances for the club – some Leicester fans dubbing him Ade Akin-Bad-Buy!

Akinbiyi looked back on it in an interview with Four Four Two magazine and said: “I came in as Emile Heskey’s replacement, but he is a different breed of footballer.

“He’s big, strong and scores goals, but, back then, if Heskey wasn’t scoring a lot he could get away with it. He was the local hero. I was a different player – I’d be running in behind and trying to cause people problems. But Leicester looked at my record in the Championship and thought I’d come and do the same thing.”

Eventually they cut their losses and sold him to Division One Crystal Palace for £2.2m. At Selhurst, he was rather ignominiously given the number 55 shirt! Having scored just one goal in 14 league and cup appearances, in 2003 he was loaned to Stoke City, under his old boss Pulis.

He scored twice – the second goal coming in the last game of the 2002-03 season, when the Potters won 1-0 against Reading to seal their Division One (now the Championship) status (the season Albion were relegated).

Akinibiyi discussed the events in an interview with another ex-Stoke, Burnley and Brighton striker, Chris Iwelumo, for Stoke City FC TV.

AA chat with CIIt led to Akinbiyi joining on a permanent basis, on a free transfer, and he became a cult hero with the Stoke City crowd.

In March 2005, Burnley signed him for £600,000 – and he was promptly sent off on his debut! The game was only two minutes old when he head-butted George McCartney of Sunderland, and was shown a straight red.

Less than a year later, he was on the move again, switching to Sheffield United in January 2006 for what was then a club record £1.75m fee.

He scored on his Blades debut against Derby County but by October that year he was in the news for his alleged involvement in a training ground bust-up with team-mate Claude Davis.

In all, Akinbiyi made only five appearances for the Blades in the Premiership in 2006 and, on New Year’s Day 2007 he returned to Burnley for a £650,000 fee, with add-ons.

He scored in his first game back, against Reading, but only notched three by the season’s end. Burnley fans have some good memories of him, particularly in a brief spell when he played alongside loan signing Andrew Cole, but on 2 April 2009, Burnley offloaded him to Houston Dynamo.

Dave Thomas, a prolific writer on all things Burnley, talked about Akinbiyi’s cult hero status among Burnley fans, telling thelongside.co.uk: “Ade certainly had a talent and that talent was scoring goals. The story that he was utterly bad at this is totally inaccurate, but that is the legend that developed, at one club in particular, Leicester City.

“In truth, at Burnley too, he missed sitters that Harry Redknapp might say his wife could have scored. But then so do all other players and, in many games, he displayed all the things that he was good at, and the attributes that he had in abundance.”

After he was released by Houston, back in the UK he played 10 games for Notts County, as they won the League Two title In 2009-10, and the following season pitched up in south Wales to play for then non-league Newport County.

In July 2013, Akinbiyi became a player-coach for Colwyn Bay, managed by his former Burnley teammate Frank Sinclair, but both resigned in January 2015 after a 5-0 defeat at Boston.

Akinbiyi now lives in Manchester and in 2015 was interviewed about work he has done as an ambassador for Prostate Cancer UK after his father died from the disease.