Tag: Jonathan Obika

Albion’s lifeline for the boy from Baghdad who turned down Spurs

BAGHDAD-BORN Yaser Kasim went through the youth ranks at Tottenham Hotspur but rejected a professional contract at White Hart Lane and tried to build a career at Brighton instead.

Although it didn’t work out at the Albion, he subsequently thrived at Swindon Town where his former Seagulls’ development squad coach Luke Williams had become assistant manager.

“He is one of the best coaches I have worked with. This guy is at another level,” he said.

Kasim joined the Spurs academy at the age of 11 in June 2003 and progressed to become a full-time scholar at 16. He was in the club’s youth team in the 2009 FA Youth Cup (they lost 3-1 to north London neighbours Arsenal in the quarter-finals) alongside Andros Townsend, Steven Caulker and Jonathan Obika.

“When the time came to sign pro forms at Tottenham, I decided to go on my own and turned it down,” Kasim told Tom Hopkinson of the Sunday People.

“From that decision it was ­difficult to get another club ­because everyone knows how ­powerful Spurs are and I couldn’t sort the compensation out for all those years I’d trained with them.”

Kasim in action for Albion Reserves v Eastbourne Borough. Pic: Simon Dack

A contractual impasse left Kasim in limbo and he was forced to train on his own until former Spurs teammates Gus Poyet and Mauricio Taricco, having taken over as manager and no.2 at Brighton, stepped in.

The pair managed to resolve the dispute between player and club and in October 2010 offered him a short-term deal with the Seagulls. Kasim later told the Argus: “They sorted something out for me and I love the football here, because they play good football, and the players are great, so everything is good except for playing more games…I’ll work hard for that.”

He was talking after he had been handed his Albion debut in the final game of the 2010-11 season, a 1-1 draw away to Notts County, with the Seagulls already having been crowned League One champions.

Kasim played for 70 minutes in midfield alongside Liam Bridcutt, Matt Sparrow and Elliott Bennett before being substituted, with Poyet saying: “The pitch didn’t help him. He is a technical player. We are trying to work on the other side of his game, the toughness and his defensive work. I think he has got a great future.

“He was very good on the ball, confident and strong. As soon as the game became more 50-50 it wasn’t good for him or us but opponents are going to try to make it a war against us.”

The Uruguayan added: “We are offering him the chance to stay with us. He is thinking about it and we’ll probably have a few more words.

“He knows where he stands. We’ve been honest with him, it’s up to him.

“It’s complicated because I don’t know if it will be easy for him to step up and start playing for the first team in the Championship, but we are offering him the chance to be there or thereabouts.”

As it turned out, he was a regular in Luke Williams’ development squad but only made the first team bench on three occasions, getting on (pictured above) just the once, as a sub for Alan Navarro, in the 66th minute of an inexperienced Albion’s 1-1 FA Cup draw at home to then non-league Wrexham on 7 January 2012.

Kasim managed to collect a booking during his brief time on the pitch in a game that saw young Ben Sampayo given his debut and Grant Hall his first start (he’d previously been a sub five days earlier against Southampton). Anton Rodgers, son of Brendan, was sent on at the same time as Kasim entered the fray. Kasim was an unused sub in the replay when Albion only advanced courtesy of a penalty shoot-out, edging it 5-4 after the game ended 1-1.

Come the summer of 2012 and Kasim went on a six-month loan to then Conference Premier League Luton Town, with Hatters boss Paul Buckle telling the club’s website: “Yaser can do a variety of jobs. He can be a box-to-box man and also play in a defensive midfield role.

“It’s great we have been able to capture someone of his calibre for six months. I have no doubt that he will prosper with us.”

The player made five starts plus six appearances off the bench and scored once, in a 2-1 win at Tamworth (the other scorer was Stuart Fleetwood, who’d been on loan at the Albion in the 2008-09 season).

In the second half of the season, Kasim played five games for Conference National League Macclesfield Town.

Released by Brighton in May 2013, Kasim went on trial to League One Swindon and signed a three-year deal after spending a week at the Robins’ pre-season training camp in Portugal. Manager Mark Cooper paired him in midfield with Massimo Luongo and he played 45 times in his first season.

Reliable Robin

Perhaps it was inevitable that Kasim managed to get on the scoresheet against Brighton in August 2014 when Swindon lost 4-2 (after extra time) at home to Sami Hyypia’s Albion in the second round of the League Cup (future Town midfielder Rohan Ince scored a belter for the Seagulls, Adrian Colunga edged Albion ahead in the 95th minute. Kasim equalised before two late penalties scored by Jake Forster-Caskey put Albion through).

Kasim ended up having four seasons at the County Ground, was part of the side that made it to the League One play-off final in 2015, when they lost 4-0 to Preston, and it was reported at one point that Premier League Swansea City and West Ham were interested in signing him.

Nothing came of that, though, and his final campaign with the Robins saw him dogged by groin and hip injuries as Town were relegated to the bottom tier.

Mentor Williams was Town’s head coach by then and, after being forced to drop Kasim in February 2017 and replace him with the aforementioned Ince, opened up to the Swindon Advertiser.

Reckoning Kasim was not showing enough of a physical side to his game, Williams said: “I have known Yaser a long time and he is an incredibly talented player but, for one reason or another, I don’t think he is performing to anywhere near his best and at the moment, he needs to come out of the team.

“Players fall out of form because of a combination of things, sometimes off the pitch as well.

I wish I could find the reason and try to make everything okay for Yaser because he is a very important player and has given a fantastic service to us.

“He is somebody that I think a lot of personally so I would love for him to be in top form.

“I think Yaser in top form is as good a player as you’ll see at this level for sure, unfortunately he doesn’t seem to be able to quite find it.”

The coach added: “He came here and I think, certainly for the first two seasons, he was absolutely fantastic and last season, there was far more good from Yaser than bad. This year, he hasn’t been able to recapture that.”

Born in the Karrada district of Baghdad on 10 May 1991, three months after the end of the Gulf War, Kasim’s passion for football began at a young age on the streets of Baghdad.

“I lived in Iraq until I was six years old,” he told the-afc.com. “I don’t know how young I was when I started to play, but before I left we used to play a lot of football on the streets.

“It is a very sunny and hot climate so we used to play on the streets and there were a lot of people playing 20 a-side sometimes on the tarmac and there were a few rolled ankles and a few chipped toe nails, but I loved it and we used to be outside all day.”

The family left Iraq because Kasim’s father saw a decline in his business as a used car parts salesman. They spent a year in Jordan before moving to England, and eventually settling in north west London.

“I started playing after school every day and then I started to go to football clubs and a coach at one of my sports centres took me to Fulham,” he said. He had only been at Fulham a few months before switching to Spurs.

Explaining why he turned down the offer of a professional contract at Tottenham, Kasim had concerns about the way players were being cared for. He said: “There was a lot of competition; I don’t mind competition as the more the competition, when growing up especially, the better it is, but they were bringing in players without plans on how to look after them and I felt they weren’t doing things right by the players so I saw that my opportunities would be limited and I thought this was not for me.”

It was during his time at Brighton that he was approached to join up with the Iraq national side, at the time coached by Wolfgang Sidka. He won 21 caps over a number of years, although he had a somewhat chequered relationship with the representative side.

In international action for Iraq

He made his debut in March 2014 featuring in a 3-1 win over China, was hero-worshipped after a series of influential performances in the 2015 Asian Cup (scoring a key winning goal in their opener against Jordan and netting a penalty in the quarter-final shootout against Iran), but went AWOL during the country’s preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics (he was called up as one of three coverage players for the tournament but he left the training camp in Spain and never returned).

He also turned down national team call ups under coaches Radhi Shanaishel and Basim Qasim then, after saying he’d retired from the national set-up, returned and went on as a sub in a 4-1 win over Saudi Arabia in 2018 – the most high-profile match to be staged in Iraq for years and Kasim’s first international match on Iraqi soil (previously ‘home’ matches were played at empty grounds across the world).

“Just having that real home feeling is very special,” Kasim told Mark Lomas in a post-match interview for Arab News.

“When you compare it to playing in Dubai, or playing in Malaysia, the difference is just ridiculous. Even when it’s an important game, it is just not the same as it being in Iraq. It elevates you to another level – really, it’s amazing being out there on the pitch. I really do hope we get to play our home games here going forward.
“I truly hope that FIFA sees this game and realises that these fans deserve to watch their team play in Iraq.”

Kasim added: “I have always said that the Iraqi fans are the best in the world — they are crazy for football and for the players.

“I appreciate them so much and I’m humbled when they shout my name. When I come back to Iraq, I get to meet a lot of people every day and you just get such a good vibe.”

By the time of that interview, Kasim had moved on to League One Northampton Town but he told Thomas: “It is just really good that someone like me, who left Iraq at a young age, is able to come back and reconnect with my heritage. It brings out something within you as a man, a bit of maturity and cultural understanding. It goes some way to helping you feel more complete as a person.

“This occasion, obviously, will always give me happy memories of Basra. It kind of trumps everything else I’ve experienced in Iraq. Being around the people and these sorts of occasions, it really helps the country move forward. You realise that officials are stepping up and doing things right. I’m hoping this is just the beginning.”

After Kasim left the Cobblers in January 2019, he had brief spells with Örebro SK in Sweden, and Erbil and Zakho in Iraq (when Dick Advocaat was briefly Iraq manager, Kasim was recalled for the 2021 FIFA Arab Cup after he’d impressed playing for Zakho).

Ahead of the 2022-23 season, Kasim was a trialist for Notts County in a pre-season 1-1 draw with   Boston United (National League County were managed by the aforementioned Luke Williams) but his next club was National League South Welling United, where he played 11 matches.

On signing him, manager Warren Feeney said: “He’s a fantastic player. We’re very lucky to get him and we’re absolutely delighted. He’s a player who can open teams up, he’s a great player who’s played at a great level and is an international so he has great pedigree. He’s hungry and we’re delighted to have him.”

After only three months, he moved on to National League North Gloucester City but after only one game headed back to the south east and linked up with Football’s Next Star winner (and one-time Brighton teammate) Ben Greenhalgh, who was assistant manager at Margate, of the Isthmian Premier League. Kasim played 13 matches for Margate and the following season linked up with another former Brighton colleague, coach Mark Beard, who was in charge of National League South Eastbourne Borough.

He played 17 matches for Boro before returning to Margate where after 12 more games he decided to retire from playing at the age of 33.

In May 2024, Kasim wrote a lengthy piece on the medium.com platform entitled The Illusion of Time and Space: A Footballer’s Perspective in which he explained: “The most beautiful part of playing the game has been the ability to create the illusion of time and space on the pitch. This involves making complex decisions and movements appear effortless, allowing a player to control the game seamlessly.”

As to what he’s doing now, his LinkedIn profile says he’s aiming to develop a career in investment management. Also, as the holder of a UEFA B licence, he’s a part-time coach for Crystal Palace’s academy, working with different age groups.

Youth Cup winner Rohan Ince faded after a bright start

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Michael Duff greets Rohan Ince

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Harry Hotspur youngster who went west

MULTIPLE loans away from parent club Tottenham Hotspur didn’t succeed in laying a path to a top level football career for striker Jonathan Obika.

One of the last such arrangements saw the young forward spend three months with the Seagulls in the 2013-14 season.

Nathan Jones, no.2 to Brighton head coach Oscar Garcia, had seen what Obika could do when the young striker had been under him as a coach on loan at Yeovil and Charlton Athletic.

Unfortunately, his impact with the Seagulls was underwhelming even though he scored on his first (and, ultimately, only) full start in a 3-1 win away to Port Vale in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Obika salutes his one and only goal for Brighton

Albion’s other goals that day, from Rohan Ince and Solly March, were also their first for the club – generating the statistic that it was the first Albion game in 110 years in which three players had scored their first goal in the same league or cup match.

It had been an amazing goalscoring performance for Spurs reserves that prompted Albion to make a move for Obika as cover for first choice Leonardo Ulloa, especially with Craig Mackail-Smith and Will Hoskins sidelined by injury and Ashley Barnes on the brink of a move to Burnley.

The Argus reported that Obika had previously been a target but a move had been put on ice because he’d been injured. His return to fitness saw him net a double hat-trick in a friendly for Tottenham against Charlton’s under-21s, watched by Jones.

“The report coming back on him after the game was one word – lethal!” former Seagulls goalkeeper Ben Roberts, then on the coaching staff at Charlton, told the Argus.

“Like Nathan, I worked with Jon at Yeovil and then at Charlton and he’s a really good pro,” said Roberts. “He is guaranteed to score goals. He is a real predator around the box.

Obika in action for Yeovil

“I’ve been waiting for his career to really kick off. When he came to us at Charlton it took him a couple of weeks to get up to speed. But he was brilliant for us. The end of the season came too soon for us.

“He is a great signing for Brighton and he will suit the way they play.”

However, Garcia also brought in Spaniard David Rodriguez at the same time and Obika found himself down the pecking order, especially when Manchester United loanee Jesse Lingard was added to the forward options.

The Vale cup game aside, Obika made just seven appearances as a substitute but didn’t add to the lone goal and was eventually recalled by Spurs and sent out on loan to Charlton again until the end of the season.

Nevertheless, Garcia said: “He came in to give us forward cover and, while he may not have played as much as he would have liked, he has been a great professional and a pleasure to work with.”

Obika’s long association with Tottenham finally came to an end in September that year when he headed west to League One Swindon Town, where he played for three years, scoring 28 times in 108 games for the Robins.

In 2017, he switched to Town’s rivals Oxford United on a two-year deal before then trying his luck in Scotland, playing in the Scottish Premier League for St Mirren.

On the expiry of that contract, Obika moved to League One Morecambe and, in January 2022, found himself back in the news ahead of this year’s FA Cup third round when Morecambe travelled to North London to take on the club who nurtured his early career for 13 years.

Although Morecambe took a shock first half lead against Spurs through defender Antony O’Connor, it wasn’t a fairytale ending as the Premier League side eventually won the tie 3-1 with three goals in the last 16 minutes of the game.

Obika had to watch from the bench until the 58th minute when he replaced Jonah Ayunga – a Brighton reserve player between 2016 and 2018 – with Morecambe still clinging on to their slim lead.

Born in Enfield on 12 September 1990, of Nigerian parents, Obika grew up in Edmonton and it was while playing football for his primary school, St Paul’s & All Hallows, that he was scouted by Tottenham.

“I lived five minutes from the stadium, so I used to walk to training as a 10, 11-year-old,” he said. “That was my only focus back then.” He later attended Bishop Stopford School in Enfield and left with seven GCSEs.

Originally a left winger, Spurs’ under 18s coach Alex Inglethorpe was responsible for moving him to play as a central striker and in the 2007-08 season he was top scorer for the Spurs academy side.

Those goals caught the attention of first team boss Harry Redknapp and he signed his first professional contract at 18, while a second-year trainee in the academy, and earned a call-up to the first team squad.

Wearing the number 80, he made his debut off the bench in a UEFA Cup game in Holland against NEC Nijmegen on 28 November 2008. A few weeks later, he made his first senior start in front of the White Hart Lane faithful, playing against Shakhtar Donetsk in the same competition.

“I didn’t know I was starting at the beginning of the game, there were a few injuries so a lot of the youth team players trained that week and we were in the squad,” Obika remembered.

When announcing the team, Redknapp actually read out his name as John Utaka, his former player at Portsmouth, amid much hilarity. “That broke the ice,” said Obika. “I was less nervous after that. I was more relaxed and actually ended up having a good game. To play at the Lane, having grown up down the road, was a great feeling and I had all my family and friends there that night.”

Along with Inglethorpe, the coaches who most influenced his development at Spurs were John McDermott and, when he progressed to the reserves, Tim Sherwood, Les Ferdinand and former Albion full-back Chris Ramsey.

Obika and fellow Spurs youngster Andros Townsend were sent out on loan to Yeovil – it was the first of four loan spells there for Obika – as recalled by Jones in an interview with coachesvoice.com: “A host of other clubs wanted them, but I think Harry saw two young kids who wanted to play, and he saw something in us as a coaching team.

“Townsend clearly had huge drive and ambition, and Obika scored the goals that kept us in League One that season – so we will always be thankful to Harry for that.”

Obika recalled: “While I was at Yeovil, Nathan Jones was my coach and I built up a good relationship with him. He would stay behind with me while I did extra shooting: he didn’t need to, I could have done it with other teammates, but he wanted to be there and help me progress and I really appreciated that. He is a good man. He also took me to Charlton for a loan spell and, of course, to Brighton.”

Obika also had loan stints at Millwall, Crystal Palace, Peterborough and Swindon although in the 2012-13 season he did manage to get two more games for the Spurs first team, featuring in the League Cup and the FA Cup.

He went on as a 75th minute substitute for Clint Dempsey when André Villas-Boas’ Spurs side beat Carlisle United 3-0 in the League Cup in September 2012, and was a 59th-minute substitute for Gylfi Sigurdsson when Leeds dumped Spurs out of the FA Cup 2-1 in a fourth round tie at Elland Road in January 2013.

Sprinter’s boys took different tracks after starting Gunners

A GUNNER from the age of nine gained valuable first team experience with the Seagulls but ultimately fell short of reaching the same heights as his brother.

Commonwealth Games gold-medal winning sprinter Wendy Hoyte saw sons Justin and Gavin climb through the academy and reserve ranks at Arsenal.

Justin played 68 first-team games for the Gunners and went on to make a name for himself in the North East, but younger brother Gavin only played four first-team games for Arsenal and had to set his sights lower to pursue a professional career.

The younger Hoyte spent most of the 2009-10 season as a Brighton player and, although only 19 at the time, got a rough ride from Seagulls supporters who expected more from someone who’d played at the top level of the game.

Initially signed on loan in October 2009 by Russell Slade to cover for the injured regular right-back Andrew Whing, Hoyte was handed his debut against Slade’s former club Yeovil Town at Huish Park.

“I am delighted to know the club wants me,” the youngster told The Argus. “They have got a lot of games this month and I just want to get out there and play.”

As it turned out, Hoyte outlasted Slade at the Withdean, and his temporary transfer was extended when Gus Poyet took over as manager.

The young full-back in the no.27 shirt gained a good amount of game time until Poyet unearthed Inigo Calderon in January 2010.

Even then, Poyet was happy to retain the services of the Arsenal youngster, telling the Argus: “We explained to Gavin before asking Arsenal that there was probably a player coming.

“Arsenal knew that as well, so nothing has been hidden. Everyone knows where they stand.

“We are working on different aspects of the game with Gavin, because he has got something which is very difficult to find sometimes in football, the speed to recover.

“When you have that ability, you don’t need to go to ground, because you are quicker than most players.

“He is young and there is plenty to come. We want to help him become a Premier League player or top Championship player.”

G Hoyte stripes

Hoyte got another chance to prove himself when Calderon picked up a nasty hip injury in April, bringing his total number of Albion games over the season to 21.

When it looked like the popular Spaniard was going to move to Southampton instead of accepting a contract offer from the Seagulls, Argus reporter Andy Naylor ventured: “Gavin Hoyte’s encouraging conclusion to the campaign suggests he might even be capable of rising to the occasion if he returns on loan from Arsenal.”

It didn’t come to that, though, and, over the next two years, he dropped down another division with loan spells at Lincoln City and AFC Wimbledon.

When he realised there was little hope of him ever getting close to the Arsenal first team, he left for Dagenham and Redbridge, having spoken to Arsenal goalkeeping coach Tony Roberts, who’d played for the Daggers himself.

Born in Leytonstone on 6 June 1990, Hoyte followed in his brother’s footsteps to Arsenal and progressed to the point of being appointed the under 18 team captain in the 2006-07 season when he was still only 16.

“I am very vocal during games, although I wouldn’t quite say that I was a Tony Adams, but that’s the sort of captaining style I try to emulate,” Hoyte told the Arsenal matchday programme. “I have captained at schoolboy level and in particular in tournaments and so I do have some experience, but I did not expect to be captain of the under 18s so early.”

Hoyte captained Arsenal’s under 18s when he was only 16

Hoyte was also capped at England under 17, under 18, under 19 and under 20 levels. In the 2009 UEFA under 19 championships, he played in two qualifiers in the space of four days when England beat Slovakia 4-1 and Scotland 2-1; his teammates including current Albion no.3 Jason Steele in goal, and future full international Kieran Trippier.

He was part of the squad who took part in the finals in Ukraine, starting twice and coming on as a substitute three times as England finished runners up to the hosts. The side was managed by Brian Eastick, who’d been an Albion coach during the Mike Bailey era.

Hoyte’s one game for the under 20s came as a substitute in a 1-1 draw away to Uzbekistan on 2 October 2009, when a fellow substitute was Sam Baldock. Two non-playing subs in that game were Jonathan Obika and Gary Gardner, who both had spells on loan with the Seagulls.

Hoyte looked back on his Arsenal time in an interview with Will Unwin for planetfootball.com and said: “When you’re there you always think you’re going to make it – I was pretty confident.

“I had my older brother there as well, so that helped a lot, seeing how he progressed.

“That was a big thing for me, seeing him play every week, watching him, thinking, ‘I want to try and get to where he is’.”

Hoyte was an unused substitute for several first team games before making his debut in a 6-0 League Cup win over Sheffield United, and starting in the next two rounds, against Wigan and Burnley. His Arsenal career only seemed to be heading in one direction.

“Just to play at the Emirates was massive, coming out to a big crowd,” he told Unwin. “There were a lot of young boys in the team so that helped me with confidence and eased it.

“But there were a lot of players in front of me, so I didn’t think about playing in the Premier League. It was always in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t thinking I was going to play immediately.”

But 11 days after the second of those League Cup appearances, Hoyte was handed his Premier League debut, after William Gallas had been stripped of the club captaincy for criticising team-mates amid a poor run of only one win in four games.

G Hoyte v Man City

Up against Robinho of Manchester City, he was taken off after an hour of a 3-0 defeat, and it would prove to be both the start and end of his top-flight career.

Hoyte didn’t recall getting much feedback after the game, although it wasn’t long before he was awarded a new contract. He made his fourth appearance for the club in a League Cup quarter-final defeat to Burnley at the start of December – but he didn’t play for Arsenal again.

He was sent out on loan to Championship side Watford for the second half of the 2008-09 season, featuring in 10 matches, and he eventually left Arsenal in 2012 when his contract expired.

After two seasons in League Two with Dagenham, he spent the 2014-15 season with League One Gillingham, featuring in 35 matches. He dropped down to League Two with Barnet, ended up at National League Eastleigh until the end of the 2017-18 season before returning to Dagenham in 2018-19.

It proved to be a frustrating season for him under the managership of former Albion boss Peter Taylor, but, reunited with former manager John Still at Maidstone United, he has been a regular at right-back in 2019-20 and scored just the third goal of his career against Dulwich Hamlet in December.

Along with his brother, the younger Hoyte has enjoyed the opportunity to play international football with Trinidad and Tobago, as he told socawarriors.net, and spent 20 minutes on the same pitch as Lionel Messi in a friendly as Argentina warmed up for the 2014 World Cup.