Tag: Jobi McAnuff

Ooh la la: Seb Carole was a history-maker

DIMINUITIVE winger Sébastien Carole has a double entry in the history of Brighton and Hove Albion.

Not only was he the first Frenchman to play for the club, he was also the first to play under three completely separate contracts for Brighton’s first team.

As well as three different spells with the Seagulls (2005-06, 2009 and 2010), he spent two years at Leeds United where his son is now in their under 18 side.

Ironically Carole scored his first goal for Albion against Leeds, but his first Brighton manager, Mark McGhee, thought the player’s ability should have yielded far more goals.

“He’s got to get more goals,” McGhee told the Argus in November 2005. “He’s a great finisher, a great ball striker and he can manipulate the ball.

“He is going to get himself in scoring positions, because he makes space for himself when he comes inside, and in training he scores.”

That goal against Leeds came in a memorable 3-3 draw at Elland Road on 10 September 2005 but Carole’s only other goal that season came in a rare victory, 2-1, over Hull City on 16 December (Charlie Oatway got the other).

An eleven-game winless run from January to the end of March, in which only four points were picked up, pretty much sealed Albion’s fate and the promise of Carole on one wing and fellow Frenchman Alexandre Frutos on the other didn’t live up to expectations. Albion lost their Championship status with only seven wins across the whole campaign.

To cap it off, a disappointed McGhee saw Carole exercise a clause in his contract that meant he could leave Brighton on a free transfer if they were relegated.

“We gave Seb the opportunity to come here and be part of the team,” McGhee told the Argus. “Regardless of that clause, the decent thing for him to do would have been to stay, at least at the start of the season.”

Seagulls chairman Dick Knight explained the clause had to be inserted into Carole’s contract to ensure he’d join from Monaco in the first place.

“If that clause hadn’t gone in then Seb’s wages over the two years would have been higher and the signing-on fee would have been more, so it was a no-brainer,” he said. “We fought hard to keep him, but the agent has persuaded Seb to go.”

The winger chose to move to Leeds, beginning the first of several occasions he’d link up with manager Kevin Blackwell. But Blackwell was sacked after only three months and his eventual replacement, Dennis Wise, told the Frenchman he wouldn’t be part of his plans.

“I had a think about it, had a chat with my wife and I said that I would stay and fight for my place,” said Carole. “I had signed for three years and I wanted to prove I could be a good player for Leeds.

“That summer, Leeds were relegated, and I could have gone back to France and joined Le Havre but I chose to stay and fight for my place. Then, by a twist of fate, the left winger got injured, I got on, played well and after that Dennis Wise told me he didn’t want me to go.”

Wise’s assistant at Leeds was of course Gus Poyet – and the winger’s relationship with the Uruguayan would later be of use back on the south coast.

Unfortunately, when Wise left Leeds for Newcastle, replacement Gary McAllister wanted to bring in his own players so once again Carole found himself sidelined, and there was a mutual agreement to cancel his contract.

He was without a club for a few months although his old boss Blackwell, by now at Sheffield United, invited him to train with them and he played a few games for their reserve side, and he spent a short while training with Bradford City.

However, in December 2008 and January 2009 he linked up with League Two Darlington, where he played seven matches. “It was not far from where I was living and I needed some games for fitness,” he said. “I signed a monthly contract and left a week before I came back to Brighton on trial.”

Micky Adams, back at Brighton for what turned out to be an unsuccessful second spell, tried all sorts of permutations to try to turn round a string of disappointing results and the invitation extended to the Frenchman was one of the last avenues he explored before the Albion parted company with him.

He scored twice and created two more in a practice match against the youth team as Adams ran the rule over him at a trial. “He’s not somebody I’ve worked with before, but everyone at the club speaks highly of him so we will take a look,” said the manager.

The early signs for Carole under Adams were good: he went on as a 56th-minute substitute for Chris Birchall at home to Hartlepool on 2 February, putting in a cross for Nicky Forster to convert.

Sections of the Withdean faithful voiced their disapproval of Adams’ choice of change, but the manager was typically forthright in his response, telling the Argus: “We can all sit in the stands sometimes and play football manager.

“I decided Seb Carole would give us an impetus. That was no reflection on what Chris Birchall had done. I can’t be worried about what the fans are thinking. I’ve got to do what I think is best and stand there and be as brave as I can be.

“Seb travels well with the ball, delivered a couple of great crosses and put one on a plate for Fozzie.”

It wasn’t long before Adams was on his way and although Carole liked what he heard from incoming boss Russell Slade, the new man preferred Dean Cox as his wide option.

Carole told Brian Owen of the Argus: “I love the way he talks. He’s got so much passion and he has tried to do something different.

“He wants us to play a bit of football at times when it’s possible because obviously the pitch doesn’t allow you to play that much. We can see something has happened since he came here.”

However, Carole’s part in ‘the great escape’ was somewhat peripheral, making only five starts plus seven appearances off the bench.

He later said: “Micky Adams signed me and I think I did well under him, then he left and Russell Slade came and I wasn’t really in his plans.

“I wasn’t really involved in the team. I was on the bench most of the time and I didn’t understand why, because I thought I could bring something to the club.

“I was a little bit upset about the whole situation. I didn’t get the chance to do well in that second spell.”

Released by the Albion in June 2009, Carole was attracted by the prospect of playing under the legendary John Barnes at Tranmere Rovers and signed a short-term deal at the start of the 2009-10 season.

However, once again managerial upheaval would be Carole’s downfall. Rovers won only three of their first 14 matches and Barnes was shown the Prenton Park door.

“I was disappointed when he was sacked,” Carole told the Argus. “When I went there we had a long chat about how he wanted to play and I signed because of him, because I knew what he was like as a player and would play the way I like.

“I think it was a little bit unfair and a little bit early for him to be sacked, because he didn’t get the finance to make the signings he wanted.

“I definitely think if he had stayed then I would have stayed longer. When they put the physio (Les Parry) in charge, I just felt it wasn’t that good for me.”

The third coming of Carole at the Albion, on a week-to-week deal, was as a direct result of his having played under Poyet at Leeds, the winger telling the Argus: “He knew what to tell me in a certain way to get the best out of me. That is what he was good at when he was at Leeds.

“He was only the assistant manager to Dennis Wise but, more than anyone else, he was talking to the players in the right way and players were listening to him.

“He brings you confidence and you trust him and he will bring a togetherness to Brighton, which is important to get the team back on track.

“He is exactly the same as when he was at Leeds. He is really relaxed and wants to play a certain system. Obviously, that will take time. I think what he is trying to put in place here will bring the club back to where it deserves to be.”

Poyet was equally positive about taking on the Frenchman. “I know Seb better than anyone,” he said. “Seb’s a winger, not just right or left. People say he’s right-footed but he did a terrific job for us at Leeds on the left.

“We’ve been playing without a natural left-sided winger. People look at Dean Cox out there but I see him a bit more inside. I don’t think we have another player like Seb.

“People will compare him to Elliott (Bennett) but he’s a different type of player. Elliott is more direct, more about speed, more going past people with his speed. Seb is about checking in and out and dummies, taking players out of position with his skills. We don’t have that player. That’s why he is coming in.”

It was six weeks before he got his first start and he fancied his chances of getting a longer deal, especially when a hamstring injury forced Kazenga LuaLua to return to Newcastle.

“With Kaz injured for the rest of the season, I think I have got a massive chance now,” he said. “It’s up to me and how I perform.

“I was pleased to be back in the starting eleven. You always get frustrated when you are not playing but I trust Gus and I know exactly what he wants.

“I kept my head down and kept working hard and knew I would get another chance.”

His best run in the side saw him feature in four games on the trot: a 2-0 win at Oldham, a 3-0 home win over Tranmere, a 2-2 draw at home to Southampton and a 2-0 defeat at Hartlepool.

Carole certainly felt pumped up for the game against Rovers, reckoning he had a point to prove to Parry. “He didn’t play me at all. I want revenge and to show him,” he told the Argus before the match. “If I could score and just kill them I’d be happy.”

Carole didn’t score but he did put in an inviting cross that Andrew Crofts seized on to score a second goal for the Albion on the half hour. Glenn Murray had opened the scoring in the seventh minute and debutant Ashley Barnes went on as a sub to score the third.

Dropped after the Hartlepool defeat in favour of on-loan Lee Hendrie, Carole was a non-playing substitute for four matches and, although he played in the season’s finale, a 1-0 win at home to Yeovil, that was his last game in an Albion shirt.

Born in Cergy-Pontoise, a suburb of Paris, on 8 September 1982, Carole’s first memories of football were as a five-year-old having a kickabout with his dad, Jean-Claude, who had played for Paris Saint Germain’s academy but whose career didn’t take off because of an accident.

Carole went to La Fiaule school in Vaureal from the age of three to 10 where he played football every Wednesday. Apart from football, he also had an aptitude for maths. He went on to La Bussie and joined Monaco at the age of 14. He progressed through the ranks before eventually playing 11 times for the first team, including once in the Champions League.

Carole was 21 when he first came to the UK in January 2004, joining Alan Pardew’s West Ham on loan at the same time that Bobby Zamora joined the Hammers from Tottenham Hotspur.

But the young Frenchman only made one substitute appearance, going on in the 87th minute for Jobi McAnuff as the Hammers beat Crewe Alexandra 4-2 at the Boleyn Ground on 17 March.

The following season he was sent on loan to French Ligue 2 side Châteauroux where he scored once in 11 matches.

It was truly the long and the short of it when in August 2005 Albion announced the joint signing of 5’7” Carole and 6’5” Florent Chaigneau, a French goalkeeper on loan from Stade Rennes. Describing them as “exciting additions to the squad”, Albion chairman Knight said: “The fact that we have been able to attract these young players who have already represented France at various levels, is a measure of the progress we are making at this club. We will give them the stage to make their names in England.”

Carole made his debut in the third game of the season, rather ironically once again Crewe Alexandra were the opponents, in a 2-2 home draw, and Chaigneau played his first match 10 days later as Albion bowed out of the League Cup 3-2 away to Shrewsbury Town. While Carole established himself in the side, Chaigneau only made two more appearances.

Although Carole played for France through the age groups up to 19, in 2010 he played three games for Martinique, the Caribbean island side, in the Didgicel Cup.

After failing to get the hoped-for longer contract at Brighton, Carole spent the 2010-11 season with French Ligue 1 team OGC Nice. He subsequently returned to the UK and spent six months at League One strugglers Bury, managed by his old boss Blackwell, but was released having made just five substitute appearances. He then proceeded to drift around various non-league sides in Yorkshire.

He later set up his own football school, which he ran for a year, and has since been an agent (C & S Football Management). His son Keenan is currently playing for the Leeds under 18 team.

Tano incurred the wrath of plenty during Spurs playing days

GUS POYET’s loyal deputy, Mauricio Taricco, once labelled ‘The Premiership’s most hated footballer’, had a late and unexpected swansong to his playing career with Brighton.

It came six years after the Argentinian full-back thought his playing days were over when he sustained a bad injury on his debut for West Ham, having switched across London from Tottenham Hotspur, where he played alongside Poyet.

Taricco was no stranger to a red card during his days playing at the top level and he was also sent for an early bath in his comeback game when the Seagulls beat Woking on penalties in the FA Cup.

Some of Taricco’s actions drew fierce cricitism when he was at White Hart Lane, for instance the BBC’s chief football writer, Phil McNulty, wrote an excoriating piece which he began: “Taricco may have a modicum of limited talent, but he hides it brilliantly behind a selection of all that is sneaky and cynical in football.”

Spitting, diving and feigning injury were among the accusations levelled at Taricco, and he left Everton’s Thomas Gravesen nursing a shin wound that required 30 stitches.

After two sendings off in three games in 2002, McNulty said the Argentine was “swiftly becoming the Premiership’s most hated footballer” and concluded: “Taricco is a scar on the Premiership and on a club with a name for a certain style – and (Glenn) Hoddle must operate to remove it.”

Strong stuff but the BBC man was not alone in his scathing criticism; Leicester boss Dave Bassett was incensed when Taricco feigned injury to try to get Foxes’ Andy Impey sent off at White Hart Lane. “That man should be done away with,” said Bassett. “He is a disgrace to the game.”

After Taricco had been sent off at Old Trafford, and then again following “a wild lunge” on Graeme Le Saux in a match against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, Hoddle stood up for the Argentine defender, saying he’d been harshly criticised and that the reaction was disproportionate.

“I’m not saying that there haven’t been times this season that he’s done some silly things, and he admits that, but the two sendings off, in my eyes, have not been warranted,” said Hoddle. “The press have gone OTT on it.”

Not everyone viewed him harshly. Jonas Ahrell, of sports internet company Sportal, said: “A string of assured performances, along with great control, touch and distribution, has shown him to be a shrewd purchase by Spurs boss George Graham, who knows a thing or two about defenders.”

He explained how his nickname Tano is Argentine for Italian – his father was from Sardinia – and he described the defender as “articulate, impeccably-mannered and an all-round lovely bloke”.

Born in Buenos Aires on 10 March 1973, Taricco grew up playing football in the capital’s streets and he would eventually follow in the footsteps of Argentina’s famous World Cup stars Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa to White Hart Lane.

It was John Lyall who was instrumental in his arrival on European soil. Taricco had been playing for home city club Argentinos Juniors for only a year when Ipswich Town boss Lyall and experienced scout Charlie Woods were in South America on the hunt for new talent. Their main target was Uruguayan midfielder Adrián Paz, but they took a chance on 21-year-old Taricco too for whom a £175,000 fee was paid.

“You often see two players coming over together to help each other with a new culture and a new way of life but it proved to be me who stayed,” Taricco recalled in an Albion matchday programme article. “Although I was playing in the top league in my homeland, it was always an ambition to play in Europe.

“I think that Adrian leaving after a few months helped me. I was now more isolated, but it helped me to stand on my own two feet. I had to understand the language and mix with people.”

While Taricco quickly made his debut in the League Cup against Bolton Wanderers, he mainly had to be content with reserve team football initially until a change of management – from Lyall to George Burley – and relegation from the Premier League eventually worked in his favour.

Taricco made 167 starts for Town and although defending was his priority, he also scored half a dozen goals – memorably in a 2-0 League Cup win over Manchester United in 1997 and a 3-0 league win against Crystal Palace in 1998 which followed a solo run from inside his own half.

In a March 2020 interview with the East Anglian Daily Times, Taricco looked back fondly on his days at Portman Road, telling Richard Woodall: “I have great memories of being an Ipswich player – in particular the derby games against Norwich. I always knew what that game meant for the fans and for everybody involved with the club. Winning the derby, oh my god, it was a nice feeling.”

Woodall said fans remembered him as a big game player; for example, following a pre-match presentation of his Supporters’ Player of the Year award in 1997, he went on to score in that evening’s 2-0 win against Norwich. The Argentinian described the award at the time as the “greatest honour of my career”.

His cult status among Tractor Boys fans was best described by Csaba Abrahall in a piece for When Saturday Comes and, when he was sold to Spurs for £1.75m in November 1998, there was widespread outcry amongst the faithful.

Taricco became the first signing of Graham’s reign as manager at White Hart Lane, although he was injured at the time, causing a delay before he could make his debut.

“It was always my ambition to move to the Premier League, although I still left Ipswich with a heavy heart,” he said. “I was George Graham’s first signing, but I didn’t see that as an extra pressure – I knew Spurs had been watching me for a while, so I just got on with my football and I coped with the step up – I was a regular for much of my time at the club.

“At Ipswich, we lost in the play-offs and I was absolutely devastated because my dream had gone, that’s why I was so determined to make the most of the opportunity to play at the top level.”

Taricco maintained: “I think the fans at Ipswich and Tottenham liked me because they could relate to me. I’m like a fan when I’m playing. I want to win. When fans get a penalty, even if their player has dived, they jump for joy. I was the same and I’m on the pitch! I didn’t care about other players, fans, clubs. I was playing for my team and nothing else mattered.

“I always got stuck in. You don’t have to be big but you have to have the will to do it. Sometimes you give it, sometimes you take it, that’s football.

“Saying that, there were things I only learnt when I came here. For instance, when you see a 50-50 tackle here and someone gets hurt you just say ‘both players were committed’ and you carry on. In Argentina, there would be a red card and a fight breaking out. So, I learnt that I could get away with things here. If a bad tackle’s coming in and I knew a player was not going to get booked, I had to ‘manage’ things.”

Off the field, there were several managerial changes during his time at the Lane but Taricco learned most from Hoddle. “He was a very technical type of manager, as he was a player, and it was of prime importance to him to have his teams playing a particular type of football,” he said. 

“I really appreciated this as someone who always wanted to play the ball on the ground, think forward and create lots of goal-scoring opportunities.  He was a really positive manager and I can take a lot from my days working under him.”

The other important take from his time there was getting to know Poyet well (after the midfielder’s move from Chelsea in 2001) and developing a strong bond of friendship that would last through appointments at Albion and several other clubs.

Taricco’s time at Spurs came to an end in 2004 after 149 games (plus seven as a sub) when French manager Jacques Santini told him he was not part of his plans. He missed the start of the season through injury and then suspension and was allowed to join West Ham on a free transfer. It’s now quite well known that he sustained a bad injury on his Hammers debut against Millwall and voluntarily tore up his contract.

He moved to Sardinia with his wife and children, managed a property portfolio by day and kept himself fit turning out for his local team.

The idyll lasted five years before his old friend Poyet asked if he’d be interested in becoming his no.2 at Brighton. “Gus is a person I respect both as a man and for his football brain,” he said. “When he asked if I wanted to join him, I said ‘yes’ straight away – I was willing to swap everything I had for Brighton and it’s been a great decision.”

While the plan was always for him to use his knowledge and experience on the training ground and in the dugout, on 18 August 2010 there was a hint of a comeback when he suddenly played 45 minutes for Albion reserves in a 0-0 draw with Gillingham at Culver Road, Lancing. By then he was 37.

The matchday programme observed how he “turned in a cultured display, likewise one feisty challenge that has become a hallmark of an illustrious career”.

The assistant manager himself said: “It was a normal match and nothing more – there was not a lot of thinking behind my decision to play.

“West Ham v Millwall was my last professional game, although I played amateur league (for Castiadas) and regional league football (for Villasimius) in Sardinia right up until last November when I arrived at Brighton.

“But I’m not thinking about coming back to play, I’m just thinking about getting myself as fit as I can.”

However, he added: “If something happens with the team regarding an injury crisis or suspension and I can get fit enough and powerful enough to cope with League One, then who knows?

“I will now try to push myself more and try to get involved in training more often, when I can. If I can mix it up and do my own specific programme to get my sharpness and explosive power back, then I’m sure I will.”

Sure enough, three months later, Taricco stepped into first team action in the FA Cup, playing against Woking on 16 November 2010, although his involvement ended prematurely when he was sent off for two yellow cards – the second one for dissent.

He also played in the next round when it took two games to see off FC United and he finally made his 350th senior appearance after a six-year absence from playing professionally.

“I love playing football, so it’s nice to play, although I feel like I need a bit more power in my legs,” he said. “If I can get that bit more power for the first four or five yards I’ll be happier, but I am 37 years old.

“Any game could be your last, so you have got to make the most of every opportunity. Every player needs to give his all because that’s what you need to make it to the top. That goes for training as well as matches and it’s the way I’ve always approached the game of football.”

He didn’t expect to play regularly, though, and said: “I still see myself as part of the coaching staff rather than the playing staff. I’m there if we need to rest players or if somebody is recovering from an injury, because it is a very long and intense season.

“It is nice to play, don’t get me wrong, and I have enjoyed training with the team, but there are players with better legs than me in the squad.”

By the end of the season in which Albion won promotion to the Championship, he’d started five games and been sub twice, but he was still not done with playing.

The following season, Poyet called on his assistant’s playing experience on nine occasions (plus three as a sub) although Taricco was never far from the headlines for the wrong reasons.

Taricco looks back in anger after seeing red at St Mary’s

I can remember watching at St Mary’s as Taricco so hotly disputed a controversial penalty award by Peter Walton when Lewis Dunk downed Jose Fonte, quite clearly outside the box, that his protests gained him a straight red card.

Taricco also didn’t cover himself in glory at the Madejski Stadium on Boxing Day when lively wideman Jobi McAnuff gave him a torrid time and got two goals in a 3-0 win.

He featured in a six-game spell spanning December and early January but the surprise New Year 3-0 home win over Saints, when young Grant Hall replaced him in the 54th minute, turned out to be his last appearance as a player.

After his departure from the Seagulls with Poyet following the defeat to Palace in the 2013 Championship play-offs, Taricco followed his friend to Sunderland, AEK Athens, Real Betis, Shanghai Shenhua and FC Bordeaux.

He told the East Anglian Daily Times: “When I choose who to work with, I want to know that they are a decent human being, and Gus Poyet is certainly that. This quality is not always easy to find in football.

“Both of us come from similar cultures and we think about football the same way. As well as wanting to win, we both want to put our players in situations where they will flourish. Both of us feel that sometimes as players, our managers didn’t necessarily give us that chance.”

In October 2020, Taricco told the EADT: “Not being a coach now means I’ve had the time to think a lot, and I’m currently learning about world finance, how the world’s monetary system works, and why poverty still exists, so quite big topics!”

But he added: “When the phone goes and the right opportunity comes along, I’ll be ready to be assistant manager again!”

• Pictures from online sources and matchday programmes.