Tag: Kazenga LuaLua

Wembley hero Liam Dickinson’s nomadic football journey

HE’D SCORED a decisive play-off final goal at Wembley for Stockport County but a subsequent £750,000 move to Derby County didn’t work out for Liam Dickinson and Brighton signed him for £300,000 only a year after the Rams had shelled out that big money.

Dickinson didn’t even get a game for the Rams, instead being sent out on loan to Huddersfield Town, Blackpool (where he’d begun his career in their school of excellence) and Leeds United.  He was a player who didn’t stay in the same place for long; in total he featured for 23 different clubs.

Like many before and since, changes of manager were often the cause of him moving on. At Derby, for instance, he was signed by Paul Jewell, recalled from his loan at Blackpool by caretaker manager Chris Hutchings and eventually let go by Nigel Clough.

It had been intended he’d join Leeds in January 2009 but the necessary paperwork didn’t arrive until 14 minutes after the deadline! Further discussions led to a revised deal, but the move was called off because he was injured. He eventually joined up with United in the second week of March and although he scored in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Sheffield United (1-1), he didn’t get on the scoresheet in eight League One games (four starts, four as a sub) under Simon Grayson.

His first start was in a 3-2 win at Crewe and he managed three successive starts, in a 2-2 draw at Leyton Orient, a 1-0 win over old club Stockport and a 1-0 defeat at Leicester but he was not involved in the end-of-season play-offs when Leeds (with Casper Ankergren in goal) lost out to Millwall in the semi-finals.

An enclave of former Stockport teammates – James Tunnicliffe, Jim McNulty, Gary Dicker and Craig Davies – helped Dickinson to choose Brighton as his next club

After Brighton boss Russell Slade welcomed the 6’4” forward to Withdean on a three-year contract, he told the club website: “He brings something different to the table. His goalscoring record is very good and he has a good goals-per-game ratio, and like one or two of the other signings I have made this summer, he is hungry to get his career back on track. I’m sure there is a lot more to come from him.”

He scored in his third and fourth games for the Albion, but both came in defeats against former clubs: the first in a 7-1 capitulation to Huddersfield and the next in a 4-2 defeat to Stockport.

He was on the scoresheet in the home 3-3 draw against Hartlepool (Nicky Forster scored Albion’s other two goals) that spelled the end of Slade’s tenure as manager. But it is what happened two days later that many will remember him for.

Unluckily for him, he was pictured carrying a seemingly comatosed young woman in his arms in the middle of Brighton at 1am. The Sun newspaper was covering a renowned student pub crawl ritual at the time and didn’t realise who they’d snapped.

Eagle-eyed Albion supporters did, though, and, after discussion about the incident on fans’ forum North Stand Chat, The Argus picked up the story, running an article headlined ‘Samaritan Brighton and Hove striker scores an own goal’.

For his part, Dickinson told reporter Ben Parsons how he was on his way home after a meal out in the city when he helped a girl to a car waiting to pick her up.

He said it was simply a coincidence that he was helping the girl when the photos were taken, adding: “I saw two girls holding another girl up. She collapsed in front of us. Her mum or her auntie picked her up in a car. I picked the girl up and put her in the car.

“I didn’t want to just leave her. Anybody else would have done the same thing.”

Albion said they would deal with the matter internally. Dickinson was omitted from the squad for the following game, a 4-4 FA Cup draw with Wycombe Wanderers with caretaker manager Martin Hinshelwood in charge, but he was back in the fold for Gus Poyet’s first game as Slade’s replacement.

In the televised away game at Southampton, he went on as a sub for Forster in Albion’s 3-1 win at St Mary’s. Dan Harding, Dean Hammond and Adam Lallana were in the Saints side.

Dickinson got occasional starts under Poyet but more often than not was sent on as a sub to replace either Glenn Murray or Forster.

Given a start in the FA Cup second round win over Rushden and Diamonds, he scored twice, in the third and 86th minutes, as Albion edged the tie 3-2. He was preferred to Murray in a Boxing Day clash with Leyton Orient that finished goalless but, perhaps to prove a point, two days later the restored Murray hit four at Wycombe in a 5-2 Seagulls win.

Dickinson was back on familiar territory at Edgeley Park in January 2010, but only got a half an hour run-out as a sub against his old club (replacing another former County man in Dicker) as the game finished 1-1, Andrew Crofts salvaging a point with a 90th minute equaliser.

In a 1-1 draw at Leyton Orient, Dickinson started the game and, when he was denied a penalty, incandescent Poyet was sent from the dug-out for protesting.

“If you ask anyone, they will tell you it was a penalty and a red card,” Poyet maintained afterwards. “The referee is 10 yards away and he doesn’t give it. You’ve got a chance to score a penalty and it’s 2-0. It’s a different game.”

Dickinson took to the field against another of his former clubs in Huddersfield wearing distinctive ‘banana yellow’ boots. “I don’t like dull, boring colours. I like to brighten the pitch up a bit. I’ve had a bit of stick off the lads,” he told The Argus.

The striker, who’d scored six goals in 13 games for the Terriers while on loan, didn’t manage to get on the scoresheet and was replaced by Murray as the game petered out to a 0-0 draw.

At that stage, Dickinson was deputising for Forster who was out of favour with Poyet over a contract dispute.

As the Uruguayan began to bring in his own selections, such as on-loan Kazenga LuaLua, Dickinson chose to go on loan to Championship strugglers Peterborough United, who were managed by his former Stockport boss Jim Gannon. Dickinson scored three in nine games for Posh. On his return to Brighton, he was sold to Barnsley, who were in the Championship at the time, for reportedly half the fee paid out for him just a year earlier.

Tykes boss Mark Robins declared: “He is different to the strikers we have here already and will give us something else up front.

“He is only 24 and still has room for improvement. He has a decent scoring record both in the Championship and in the lower leagues.

“Liam fits in to what we are trying to do here both in terms of on the pitch and within our budget.”

But he made just one start, in a League Cup match, and three sub appearances in the league for Barnsley when his old Derby caretaker manager, Hutchings, took him on loan to Walsall. He didn’t find the net in seven League One games.

Next stop, from January to the end of the season, was Rochdale, the side against which he had scored that 2008 League Two play-off final winner.

But a goalless run of 14 games (seven starts and seven off the bench) prompted this comment from AtThePeake on fansnetwork.co.uk in 2021: “In terms of expectation versus reality, few signings can have disappointed Rochdale fans quite like the loan signing of Liam Dickinson in January 2011.”

The supporter wrote: “Dale were looking for someone to become the fulcrum of an attack that included Chris O’Grady drifting in from the left and the emerging Matt Done playing as a second striker.

“Having seen first-hand the threat Dickinson could be with his aerial prowess, strength and touch in front of goal, Dale fans were reasonably excited that the answer to their striker problem had been found, but it quickly became apparent that the struggles with Derby and Barnsley had affected Dickinson’s confidence.

“During his spell, Dickinson was all too easy to defend against, struggled to hold the ball up and lacked any cutting edge when it came to finishing the chances he did manage to fashion for himself.”

A projected move to Plymouth Argyle was called off after just eight days, with personal reasons being cited, but the nomadic striker’s next stop was League Two Southend United under Paul Sturrock, where he netted 12 goals in 37 matches (33 starts plus four as a sub).

Dickinson scored a dozen times for Southend United

Not for the first time, he found himself in the headlines for the wrong reason when he and two others were reprimanded for a breach of club discipline over an unspecified incident at a hotel the evening before a match at Morecambe.

A broken ankle brought a premature end to his season with the Shrimpers, and it proved problematic in trying to continue his league career elsewhere.

He trained with Port Vale but even his agent Phil Sproson was quoted as saying: “Liam will admit he has been no choirboy in the past.

“He has had quite a few clubs and that’s probably because he has been no angel.

“He is loud and vocal and has had too many nights out over the years – but he has matured.

“He realises he will have to change and toe the line because he has a darker side that has dragged him down in the past.”

As it turned out, he was eventually out for a year because his broken ankle didn’t heal properly. He played two pre-season friendlies for Vale in 2013 but manager Micky Adams didn’t take him on because of ongoing problems with the ankle.

Born in Salford on 4 October 1985, Dickinson was originally a centre-half when he was on the youth books of Blackpool, Bolton and Blackburn. He stepped away from professional football at 16 and studied to be a graphic artist but continued to play in non-league sides. He appeared for Irlam, Swinton, Trafford and Woodley Sports before he was taken on as a pro by Stockport in 2005 after a successful trial.

He scored on his County debut, only five minutes after going on as a 71st-minute sub against Cheltenham Town at Edgeley Park. In three years under Jim Gannon, he hit 33 goals in 94 appearances.

The 2007-08 season was his most prolific term as a league player, netting 21 times from 32 starts and six games from the bench. It also earned him Stockport’s Player of the Year award.

It was to Stockport, then in the Conference North league, that he returned in 2013, but he only managed one goal in 13 games before returning to the non-league arena.

Between 2014 and 2019, he turned out for Stalybridge Celtic, Guiseley, Bradford Park Avenue, FC United of Manchester and finally Droylsden before calling it a day.

In an online chat with Stockport County Live towards the end of the Covid lockdown, in August 2020, Dickinson opened up about his mental health, admitting he’d been through a period when he was suffering with depression.

Post playing, he told his interviewer, he was working installing signage for a print company.

Loanee João Teixeira lit up a gloomy Championship season

BRIGHTON provided a handy platform on which João Teixeira could parade his undoubted talent but he was unable subsequently to nail down a regular starting spot with parent club Liverpool.

The young Portuguese midfielder impressed sufficiently on loan to the Seagulls in 2014-15 to earn the club’s Young Player of the Season award.

His time at Brighton was certainly a whole lot more successful than a loan move made to League One Brentford the previous season: a six-month arrangement was cut short in October after only two substitute appearances because the Bees couldn’t guarantee him the game time Liverpool had been expecting him to get.

Brentford move didn’t go well

It was a different story with the Seagulls although it was a shame his efforts were overshadowed by the side’s struggle to stay in the Championship and it ended prematurely for him when he suffered a broken leg.

On his return to fitness back at Liverpool, he was a frequent first team benchwarmer under Jurgen Klopp but chose to move back home to Portugal to seek regular playing time.

Liverpool paid Sporting Lisbon £830,000 in the January 2012 transfer window to take Teixeira to Anfield and it was Brendan Rodgers who gave him his Reds debut on 12 February 2014 when he was sent on as a substitute for Raheem Sterling in a 3-2 win at Fulham.

Captain Steven Gerrard told the Liverpool website at the time: “I watched this kid a couple of years ago playing for Sporting Lisbon against Liverpool at Anfield in a youth game; I could see straight away he was the best player on the pitch.

“Credit to him, he has kept working hard. He has been invited to train with the first team. He is competing, he is trying to improve and learn. He listens – I’ve just been speaking to him in the dressing room and you can see he wants to learn and listen.

“He has got respect for the other players in the dressing room. This is the start for him now; I’ve just told him that he needs to push on, keep learning and building on what he has just achieved. He deserved his debut and he made a special tackle which helped us get over the line.”

As it turned out, his next senior action came in Brighton’s Championship visit to St Andrew’s six months later when he went on as a 64th minute substitute for Kazenga LuaLua in a 1-0 defeat.

Brighton’s newly-appointed head coach, Sami Hyypiä, had returned to his old club to clinch Teixeira’s signature on a season-long loan and he told the matchday programme: “My former colleagues at Liverpool have told me he is a very bright young prospect who is held in high regard at the club at all levels.

“João is an attacking player who likes to be on the ball and do his best work in the final third of the pitch. I hope he will bring that extra edge to the team and our play – and give us an extra dimension.”

No sooner said than done because when given a starting spot three days after the Birmingham defeat, he made an immediate impact by putting Brighton ahead in the fifth minute at Elland Road and Albion went on to beat Leeds 2-0, handing Hyypiä his first win.

A joyful scorer for Brighton at Elland Road

The boss told Sky Sports: “I am grateful to them for letting João come to us and get the games he needs, but it works both ways. They can benefit too because his time with us can hopefully be a stepping stone towards Liverpool’s first team.

“He is a young player and Liverpool have a very big squad. A player of his age needs to play games to improve. We have a quality player and I am very happy to have him with us.”

The instant impact earned Teixeira the fans vote for performance of the month which gave the player the chance to take a 48-hour demonstration drive in a Porsche.

The Portuguese youngster was on the scoresheet again on his home debut for Brighton, netting the winner against Bolton in the 64th minute after Craig Mackail-Smith had cancelled out the visitors’ lead shortly before half-time.

Teixeira seized on a pass from debut-making left-back Joe Bennett to score through the legs of goalkeeper Andy Lonergan, on as a sub for Adam Bogdan, who’d been injured in a collision with Mackail-Smith.

If it looked like a corner had been turned after the season had begun with two defeats, sadly the opposite was the case and Albion went on an 11-game winless run with the players at Hyypia’s disposal seemingly baffled by how he wanted them to play.

After he and the club parted ways, and Chris Hughton begun the task of ensuring the Albion didn’t lose their Championship status, Teixeira got back on the goal trail.

He twice scored braces (in a 3-2 home win over Ipswich on 21 January and a 4-3 home win over Birmingham on 21 February).

It said it all about Albion’s close shave with relegation that his six goals in 35 games (28 starts + seven as sub) for the Seagulls made him second top scorer behind centre back Lewis Dunk’s seven that season.

Sadly, a leg break in a home game against Huddersfield Town on 14 April brought his season, and Albion career, to a premature end. Teixeira was stretchered off after a challenge by Nahki Wells that resulted in a fracture just above the ankle.

“This is a real blow to him after such a good season for the club – and we all wish him a speedy recovery and return to action,” said Hughton.

“He’s been an important player for the club this season, both before and after I came to the club, and I would like to thank him for his efforts during his time on loan here, and also Liverpool for allowing him to come.”

The player had talked of his dream to return to Liverpool and to break into the first-team.

“I came to Brighton to become more mature and get more experience, and hopefully next year I will be playing for Liverpool. That is my dream,” he told The Guardian.

He was included in the 30-man squad that went on a four-game pre-season tour in Asia and after Rodgers was sacked he was named as a non-playing sub in the 18-man squad for Klopp’s first game in charge in October 2015 (a 0-0 draw at Tottenham, when James Milner and Adam Lallana were starters).

He did start a League Cup game against Bournemouth, which was won 1-0, and he went on to make five cup appearances for Liverpool in 2015-16. He appeared only once as a sub in the Premier League and scored his only goal for the club in a 3-0 FA Cup third round win over Exeter City.

Klopp liked Teixeira

“I like João. As a person, as a footballer,” Klopp said after that game. “But of course, players like him need matches, and if you can’t get it then you have to leave.”

And that’s what he did. Although he was offered a new contract by the Reds, at the age of 23 he chose to move back to Portugal in search of regular first team football and signed for his boyhood team, Porto.

“I am from the north [of Portugal] and to wear blue and white has always been a dream for me,” he said.

“Now I can work at my club in my region and my country. I had other offers but do not want anything other than to wear blue and white.”

Born in Braga, Portugal, on 18 January 1993, Teixeira first caught the eye with his hometown club, before being snapped up by Sporting Lisbon where he continued to make progress through its youth teams. He also represented Portugal from under-16 through to under-21 level.

It was while playing for Sporting in the NextGen Series, the under-19 tournament for academy teams of Europe’s top clubs, that he played against Liverpool and caught the eye of Liverpool’s academy director, Frank McParland.

On arrival at Anfield, he was part of the under-21 set up and made 20 appearances in the inaugural Barclays Under-21 Premier League.

“I was 18, it’s hard to say no to Liverpool, it was a unique opportunity. I went and I don’t regret it,” Teixeira reflected in an interview with Portuguese sports newspaper A Bola.

“I had wonderful experiences, I played with great players, things were happening. I don’t regret going. I still played eight games, seven of them under Klopp.”

But the return home in 2016 didn’t work out for him, and after making only eight appearances for Porto during the 2016-17 season, Teixeira returned to his first club, Braga, on a season-long loan.

It was something of a surprise when in July 2018 he joined Braga’s local rivals Vitoria Guimaraes on a three-year deal, scoring 10 times in 53 appearances across two seasons.

In September 2020, he signed a two-year contract with Eredivisie Feyenoord, telling the club’s in-house channel: “I’m very happy to be here. It’s a beautiful chance for me and I’m very excited to start training and helping the team.

“Why Feyenoord? It’s a great club with a great history. I spoke with a few people in Portugal that played here and they told me the same thing: they have the greatest fans in Holland, and I’m happy to join.”

Describing himself, Teixeira said: “I’m an attacking midfielder. I like to score, I like to assist and that’s what I’ll try to do. But the main thing is to help the team.”

That help tended to be mainly from the bench, and suffering a broken foot didn’t help either, so in the second half of the 2021-22 season he returned to Portugal again to play for FC Famalicão.

When Liverpool discovered in the spring of 2024 that Feyenoord boss Arne Slot would be taking over from Klopp, Teixeira was interviewed by Reds’ fans channel The Redmen TV about what they might expect from the incoming head coach.

By then, Teixeira had already made two other moves: in June 2022, he’d moved to Qatar to play for Umm Salal where he scored five goals in 22 appearances. And 10 months later he switched to Chinese Super League side Shanghai Shenhua. The player posts his achievements at the club to 197,000 followers on Instagram.

A hit on Instagram

An Albion promotion winner but Bong didn’t chime at Forest

IT WAS WHILE I was adding the DW Stadium, Wigan, to my list of grounds visited that I first noticed Gaetan Bong.

On the afternoon of 18 April 2015, Bong was playing AGAINST Brighton in one of 14 appearances for Wigan Athletic having moved to the UK on a short term contract from Greek side Olympiakos three months earlier.

Bong up against Inigo Calderon while playing for Wigan

Within three months, he was playing FOR Brighton, joining Chris Hughton’s side as a free agent.

The Cameroon international, who had played top flight football in France and Greece, became a regular in the left-back berth for four seasons, including being a Championship promotion winner in 2017, playing 102 times for Brighton, including 51 games in the Premier League.

Bong was the first permanent left-back Albion had signed since the days of Marcos Painter, having had three successive seasons of season-long loan players in that position: Wayne Bridge, Stephen Ward and Joe Bennett.

“Gaetan is a player that we were aware of while he was at Olympiakos,” said Hughton, on signing the player. “He is very athletic, he is a natural left-sided player and it is important to have that balance in the squad.”

Back to that bottom-of-the-table battle in April, though, and Bong was on the left of a back four that also included a certain Harry Maguire (on loan from Hull City).

It was former player Gary Caldwell’s first match in charge after the sacking of Malky Mackay and both sides were struggling to avoid the drop from the Championship.

I probably decided to go to that game anticipating a win for Brighton because Wigan hadn’t won at home since the previous August! But, as sure as eggs is eggs when watching the Albion, Athletic finally registered another win in front of their own supporters: 2-1. It’s always the hope that kills you!

Albion played Player of the Season full-back Inigo Calderon as a makeshift right-winger that day and he got so little change out of his attempts to get past Athletic’s left-back that he was eventually subbed off.

In spite of the result that day, Albion managed to stay up while Wigan went down with Blackpool and Millwall.

Bong made his Brighton debut in the season-opener at home to Nottingham Forest (a 1-0 win courtesy of a Kazenga LuaLua goal), the club he would join four and a half years later, after he’d lost his regular place at the Albion.

Introduced to Brighton fans in the programme for that match, Bong said: “Once I had spoken to the manager and learned of the plans for the club, then I wanted to be part of this adventure.

“I could have gone elsewhere, I had offers, but I was excited by coming to Brighton. Now I just want to get playing and show the fans what I am about.”

Hughton had problems at left-back in the 2015-16 season when Bong was out for four months with a thigh injury, and back-up Liam Rosenior was also sidelined. Inigo Calderon filled in on occasion and Liam Ridgewell was signed on a short-term deal from Portland Timbers. Although Bong returned to the squad in March, the rest of the season was mainly a watching brief from the bench as Rosenior played out the season in that position.

Back as first choice the following season, a knee injury robbed him of his place for several weeks – loan signing Sebastien Pocognoli filled in – but he still played in 28 matches as the Albion finally won promotion to the Premier League.

Born on 25 April 1988 in Sackbayeme, a suburb of Cameroon’s capital Yaounde, he moved to France as a teenager to join Metz, where he rose through their youth ranks before making his professional debut at 17.

Injuries meant his progress wasn’t as rapid as it might have been but he had a successful loan spell with French second tier side Tours, and then moved to Valenciennes in 2009.

Bong won an under-21 cap for France but went on to win 16 caps for Cameroon. He was in their 2010 World Cup squad but only played in their final group game against Holland. Not entirely happy with the country’s set-up, he briefly retired from international football but returned when renowned former Dutch international Clarence Seedorf was appointed head coach in 2018. Bong even captained his country in a 1-0 friendly defeat against Brazil played at MK Dons in November 2018.

Cameroon international Bong

Bong played for Valenciennes for four years (for the first two playing under former Forest boss Philippe Montanier) and made 117 appearances.

Greek club Olympiakos took him to Athens in August 2013 and he went on to establish himself as a first-team regular, including playing in four Champions League matches and featuring in their league title winning side of 2013-14, before falling out with a new head coach.

Asked by The Athletic to sum up Bong’s attributes, his former Brighton teammate, David Stockdale said: “He comes to win a game. Nothing else. He is strong, he is athletic, he is enthusiastic.

“He is a good person to have around a squad, because he is very professional, he always does his homework before games and generally just looks after himself. He is just strong — that is the word. He is strong, reliable and does what it says on the tin.”

Stockdale added: “He had that drive; that inner drive. He was always going off to do his own work in the gym, to make sure he was properly fit all the time.

“He is one who will say what he wants to say when he feels he needs to. He does know a lot about football, he certainly knows a lot about his position and what he needs to get out of the players around him.”

The goalkeeper pointed out that Bong always had a desire to do well for the team, pointing out: “He was very much a mainstay of the side when I was at Brighton. He is a player you can rely on.”

Unfortunately, a small part of Bong’s time playing in Albion’s colours will also be remembered for an unsavoury incident when he alleged he was racially abused by West Brom’s former Burnley striker Jay Rodriguez.

Rodriguez appeared to pinch his nose after the players clashed during WBA’s 2-0 win over the Seagulls in January 2018, and Bong spoke to the referee about what he said he heard.

A subsequent FA investigation into the matter said the allegation was “not proven” and added there was “no suggestion by any party involved in this case that this was a malicious or fabricated complaint”.

Nevertheless, Bong insisted he heard Rodriguez say: “You’re black and you stink.” The striker denied what he described as a “false allegation” – he claimed he had instead said “breath fucking stinks”.

The dispute led Bong to issue a statement in which he said: “Please let me be clear: I know what I heard and I did not mishear. My conscience in raising the complaint is therefore entirely clear.

“This was my first such experience in more than three years in this country and I would never seek to bring a false charge against a fellow professional. Those who have accused me of doing that do not know me.

“Equally those who have expressed an opinion were not there on the pitch at the time and only Mr Rodriguez and I know exactly what was said and I stand by my original complaint.”

If everyone involved thought that was the end of the matter, Burnley fans had other ideas and I was at Turf Moor in April that year when the home ‘support’ disgracefully booed Bong every time he got the ball.

Albion manager Chris Hughton described their reaction as “shameful” and said of the player: “He’s an incredibly disciplined and straight individual – as honest a person as you will meet. It’s something that happened, it’s not nice at all and of course he’s big enough and strong enough to cope with it. As showed by his performance (the game finished 0-0).”

The respect Albion held for the player was best demonstrated as his time at the club was coming to an end. Bong was going to be a free agent after four years with the club but was handed a one-year extension shortly before Hughton was replaced by Graham Potter.

Chief executive Paul Barber explained to The Argus: “We all felt Gaetan had earned another contract. It is a position we felt we had an opportunity with a player we know, who is a fantastic character.

“The supporters will see what Gaetan does on the pitch — solid, consistent, strong, difficult to get around — but what they won’t know is off the pitch he is a very high-quality person, someone who is very respected and liked throughout the club. Just a decent man, supportive of the young players.

“Those sort of attributes and qualities are so valuable in a club of our size and for the coaching staff and the players. You know whether he plays 10 games, 20 games or 38 games, he is going to be fit, reliable, positive, focused, enthusiastic, consistent and decent.

“All of those things, if you were going out to recruit a left-back, you would be looking for.”

Ultimately, Potter preferred Dan Burn or Bernardo in that position and Bong moved on having made 91 starts and 11 substitute appearances, but only four appearances from the bench in the Premier League under Potter.

His final appearance for Brighton came in the disappointing 1-0 FA Cup third round home defeat to Championship side Sheffield Wednesday. Sadly, when he was subbed off in the 71st minute, there was a chorus of ironic cheers from the home crowd.

Nevertheless, Potter said of the player: “I have only worked with Gaetan for six months or so, but I do know all about the part he played in helping the club get to the Premier League and then establish itself at this level. I’m sure his contribution over the last four years will not be forgotten by our supporters.”

Somewhat bizarrely, it appears that Bong’s move to Nottingham Forest (in the Championship) wasn’t exactly welcomed by head coach Sabri Lamouchi and Nick Miller for The Athletic was brutal in his description of the player’s debut.

“Bong lasted 59 minutes against Charlton, a harrowing hour in which he lost his man for the only goal in the first half, and his eventual removal felt more like an act of mercy than a substitution.”

He didn’t even make the bench for the rest of the season and it was only when his old boss Hughton arrived at the City Ground that he got back into the Forest first team. He played 11 matches under Hughton but only seven in 2021-22 when Hughton’s successor Steve Cooper got them promotion via a play-off final win over Huddersfield Town.

Even so, Cooper was appreciative of the defender’s contributions off the pitch. “We have a good mix of old players – good role models, like Gaetan Bong,” he told The Athletic.

“He doesn’t play much but is a positive influence and I’m sure has conversations with the younger players, which I encourage. The learning players do with each other is a powerful thing.”

After hanging up his boots, Bong set up Ballers & Family Consulting Ltd, a consulting agency which, according to his LinkedIn profile, helps aspiring players to optimise their potential, families to understand the demands of professional football and football clubs to manage/avoid issues concerning certain players.

Competition for places edged out midfielder Jamie Smith

DIMINUTIVE midfielder Jamie Smith spent 11 years at Crystal Palace, going through the youth ranks before signing as a pro, but didn’t play league football until he joined Brighton.

Russell Slade took on the 19-year-old during his brief reign in charge of the Seagulls (and signed the player again when he was in charge at Orient).

Albion picked up the discarded 5’6” Smith in the summer of 2009 and he did enough as a triallist in pre-season friendlies to be awarded a contract by the Seagulls.

Slade said: “Jamie has done exceptionally well throughout pre-season. He’s worked hard to convince us he is worth a contract and he has the potential to be a very good player.”

His first league start was memorable for all the wrong reasons. In only the third league game of the season, he was selected in midfield away to Huddersfield Town.

But when regular no.1 ‘keeper Michel Kuipers was sent off six minutes before half time, the young midfielder was sacrificed to allow substitute goalkeeper Graeme Smith to take over between the sticks. Depleted Albion then went on to succumb to a 7-1 battering.

“I had mixed feelings really,” he told the matchday programme. “It was great to make my debut and I thought we started the game well, but the sending off changed everything and it was all downhill from then on.”

It was Smith’s only start of the whole season. He was on the subs bench on half a dozen occasions but only went on in one of them, away to Wycombe Wanderers at the end of the year.

Gus Poyet had succeeded Slade by then and with Albion coasting at 5-2 – Glenn Murray having scored four of them – Smith replaced Dean Cox in stoppage time.

During the close season, Andrew Crofts was sold to Norwich City and Cox left for Orient, but new arrivals Radostin Kishishev and Matt Sparrow provided new competition for midfield places.

But Poyet reckoned there was something about Smith and enthused about an “outstanding” performance he’d delivered in a pre-season friendly at Burgess Hill. He told the Argus: “We really like him. He could be an interesting player for the future, I’m telling you. He has got some qualities we need to use a bit better.”

After also impressing in a pre-season game against Aberdeen, Smith was in the starting line-up for the opening game of the 2010-11 season, when Albion won 2-1 at Swindon (Sparrow scored twice on his debut).

He played the following two league matches too: a 2-2 draw home to Rochdale (although Smith was sacrificed on 54 minutes after Gordon Greer was sent off for punching Anthony Elding and Adam El-Abd was sent on to play in the centre of defence).

I was sat in the Leppings Lane end at Hillsborough seven days later when Smith retained his place in midfield against Sheffield Wednesday (above left).

The youngster even came closest to netting an equaliser for the Seagulls; his shot from Ashley Barnes’ cutback clipped the bar.

However, Albion then re-signed Kazenga LuaLua and Poyet reckoned Smith didn’t do enough to show he wanted it more than the explosive winger. “Because he is young, maybe he took it too nicely,” Poyet told the Argus. “I need people to react, to show me I have made a mistake or even to put me under pressure. He was just normal, not at his best to give me a headache to have to play him.”

Smith himself admitted: “When LuaLua)was playing I seemed to take it that he would be playing instead of me.

“Sometimes, when we were both on the bench, I used to think he would go on, not me, whereas I should have been doing everything I could to make sure I was involved. If I had the time again, I would have done things differently.

“I wouldn’t be one to go in and moan and stuff because there are always ups and downs in football but you can always go out every day and do your best and work hard.

“The season started really well for me, a lot better than I expected. I didn’t expect to be playing as much as I was but when that happens you just want more and I just want to be playing every week.

“Maybe when the team was doing really well, on a long unbeaten run, I was slacking off in training and things like that.”

The door opened ajar again after LuaLua suffered a broken leg and Smith impressed after going on as a 53rd-minute sub away to Southampton (below, left).

Smith told Andy Naylor: “LuaLua was class. He changed games when he came on and when he started he was really good. Hopefully I can do as well, if not better, than he was doing if I get the chance.

“We are really different players. He is really explosive with pace and loads of ability. I like trying to play clever little passes and making space for myself and my team-mates.”

One such cute pass at St Mary’s let in Glenn Murray to earn the Seagulls a penalty and the longstanding Albion reporter said: “The door is ajar for Smith again after that Southampton cameo and now he has to walk through it. His Albion future depends on it.”

Smith told the matchday programme: “I feel I’ve done well in most of the games I’ve played in and want to use the Southampton game as a platform for the rest of the season.

“The manager told me after that game that he wants me to give him performances like that all the time.”

Enjoying time in the limelight, the player explained: “I love to get the ball, drive forward and create chances.

“I am slight in size and most managers from the Championship downwards want strong, athletic midfielders but our manager wants footballers, players who get the ball down and play.

“As long as I’m on the ball and doing a job for the team, then the manager will be happy.”

Smith added: “I knew that if I didn’t progress this season there’s every chance I would be let go in the summer so I’ve been using that as an incentive.

“With the way the club has been progressing on the pitch and off it, there’s no way I want to leave. I want to stay here for years to come because I’m happy at the club.”

Unfortunately, the new year wasn’t even three weeks old when an accidental collision in training saw Smith sidelined for two months.

He sustained a fractured metatarsal after colliding with teammate Jake Forster-Caskey and, with his contract due to expire at the end of the season, the outlook was bleak.

But Poyet said: “I have already had a good chat with him. I told him not to worry and that we will look after him.

“He will be out until March but it is important he doesn’t feel under pressure to rush back because of his contract situation.

“I want him to make sure his foot is properly healed first, and then I expect we will see him back to fitness before the end of the season.”

Come the end of the season, Poyet was as good as his word and gave Smith a six-month contract to prove his worth.

But he wasn’t able to capitalise on the opportunity, Poyet saying: “Jamie was a revelation at the beginning of last season before we got Kazenga (LuaLua) back.

“Then he was injured for months and we were established at the top of the table, so he didn’t get the chance to play.

“I thought I would give him the chance to prove himself but it hasn’t really happened for him.”

Albion supporter ‘The Phantom’ on an Argus report of Smith’s imminent departure from the club wrote: “Shame it hasn’t worked out for Jamie Smith as showed at times that he had what it takes to be an influential attacking midfielder.

“Way too much competition in the squad now so best that he moves on. Surprised he has not been able to pick up a club so far.”

Eventually, former boss Slade offered him a chance at Orient, but he made just the one substitute appearance for the Os before dropping out of league football with Dover Athletic.

Born in Leytonstone, East London, on 16 September 1989, Smith was on Palace’s books from the age of eight to 19 and although he progressed through the ranks he didn’t get to make a competitive first team appearance.

Nevertheless, Palace under 18 coach Gary Issott said: “Jamie Smith is a diminutive attacking central midfielder in the mould of Eyal Berkovic.

“He is very clever and improved after a frustrating first year. He started this season well and, up until Christmas, his form was electric.”

He was involved in pre-season friendlies ahead of the 2008-09 season and scored the winner from the penalty spot after going on as a substitute in a 4-3 win over Aldershot. (Calvin Andrew, later an Albion loanee, made his debut for Palace in the same match).

But while Smith saw several of his contemporaries make it through to competitive first team action, such an elevation remained elusive for him.

“That was disappointing but we had the likes of Nick Carle and Neil Danns in my position and it was hard to break through,” he said. 

A year below him, the likes of Victor Moses and Nathaniel Clyne did progress. Smith said: “I spoke to Neil Warnock but he said there were experienced players ahead of me and couldn’t see me breaking into the team. We agreed it would be best for me to move on.”

Smith had a spell at Doncaster Rovers but returned to Palace to keep his fitness up before joining Brighton for pre-season training, and then being taken on after a successful trial of three or four weeks.

The moment Lee Hendrie felt ten feet tall at Brighton

SKY SPORTS pundit Lee Hendrie has reached heights and plumbed depths in a life that saw him stop off at third-tier Brighton in 2010 after 17 years with Aston Villa.

Hendrie was something of a forgotten man of football when Gus Poyet snapped him up for the Seagulls on loan from Derby County in March 2010.

Hendrie featured in eight Albion games in the last six weeks of the season: four wins, two draws and two defeats.

Turning out in League One was quite a fall for a player Glenn Hoddle selected for England, but he told the matchday programme: “The main thing is to play football. If you’re not playing then you tend to get forgotten but hopefully I can get some game time between now and the end of the season.”

And he later said to football.co.uk: “I went to Brighton to get my face back out there. Gus Poyet was brilliant. He got the lads together in a circle and said, ‘******* hell, we’ve got Lee Hendrie here’. Let me tell you, after feeling so unwanted I suddenly felt 10 feet tall.”
Hendrie made his debut as a 75th minute substitute for Sebastien Carole in a 3-0 home win over Tranmere Rovers, and he told the matchday programme: “We could have had more than three goals and I should have scored.”

But Hendrie was bubbling after his involvement and said: “Listening to the gaffer in the changing room, you can see why the lads are playing with a lot of confidence and have improved so much.

“I’ve played under a few managers, but not many, can I say, are like Gus, who is so enthusiastic and tells the players to go and enjoy themselves. There is nothing a player wants more than a gaffer telling you to enjoy your game.”

Of Albion’s midfield triumvirate of Gary Dicker, Alan Navarro and Andrew Crofts, it tended to be Dicker who was edged out by Hendrie’s arrival.

However it was in Crofts’ place that the loanee got his first start, in a 2-0 Easter Monday defeat at Hartlepool in which former Albion loanee ‘keeper Scott Flinders prevented the visitors from leaving with a point. Hendrie was subbed off on 58 minutes when Kazenga LuaLua took over.

Hendrie went on as a sub for Dicker in the following home game against Carlisle United and it was his cross that set up what looked like a late equaliser by Tommy Elphick, only for Gary Madine to nick all three points with a second for United two minutes from the end.

Hendrie started in place of Dicker away to Gillingham but gave way to the Irishman in the 79th minute and the game ended 1-1. Hendrie started once again in the 1-0 win away to Southend, but Dicker replaced him on 65 minutes.

Hendrie’s third successive start in place of Dicker came at home to Bristol Rovers, when Albion won 2-1, but once again he didn’t last the 90 minutes as Dicker took over on 74 minutes.

In the penultimate game of the season, away to MK Dons, the game finished goalless although Alex Rae and Diego Arismendi were red carded for brawling. Hendrie started and Dicker replaced him on 58 minutes.

The on-loan midfielder’s only full 90-minute appearance came in the last game of the season when Yeovil were beaten 1-0 at the Withdean Stadium; Elliott Bennett scoring the only goal of the game a minute before half-time.

The chances of a permanent deal for Hendrie looked unlikely with Poyet admitting: “We were very pleased with him and he was pleased to be here. We will wait to see if, when we start putting the squad together, there is a possibility of it happening. It’s not an easy one, because of the wages.”

Born in Solihull on 18 May 1977, football was in Hendrie’s blood: Scottish dad Paul had played for Villa’s arch rivals Birmingham City and he was playing professionally for Portland Timbers at the time his son was born. He later played for Bristol Rovers, Halifax Town and Stockport County.

For someone who became Villa through and through, Hendrie admitted to the Birmingham Mail that he had actually been at city rivals Birmingham’s school of excellence before ‘Big’ Ron Atkinson snapped him up as a teenager.

As well as his dad having played for them, his nan was a City season ticket holder and his uncle also supported them. “Villa didn’t come and scout me at the time and Blues were the first club that did. It was an opportunity for me to get myself into the pro ranks and see what it was all about. Dad said it would be good to go and have a feel for it, which I did.”

But ever since he’d scored two goals in a schools’ cup final victory for his school, Washwood Heath, against Hodge Heath at Villa Park, he had dreamed of playing for Villa.

The dream came closer when Hendrie signed on the dotted line as a 14-year-old at Villa’s Bodymoor Heath training ground, although he remembers his dad tempering his excitement.

“When we came out after I’d signed, I’d got given a load of training clobber and I thought this was it, I’d made it,” he said. “My dad said: ‘Take a step back, you, you ain’t got anywhere yet, this is the start of a long road. Just because you’ve got all the kit it doesn’t mean you’re a professional footballer and an Aston Villa player – relax yourself’.”

Hendrie and his best mate Darren Byfield, who had been strike partners in Erdington Star and Erdington & Saltley district team as kids, developed a reputation as a dynamic duo on and off the pitch, and soon became Atkinson’s ‘teacher’s pets’.

Atkinson converted Hendrie from a centre forward to left winger (even predicting he’s one day play for England in that position) and the duo continued to do well for the Villa youth team.

As it turned out, it was Atkinson’s successor, Brian Little, who ended up giving Hendrie his first team debut – although it was memorable for all the wrong reasons!

It came two days before Christmas in 1995 when he went on as a 33rd minute substitute for Mark Draper away to Queens Park Rangers. He collected a yellow card for kicking the ball away and was red carded in stoppage time; a second booking for an innocuous foul on Rufus Brevett. Into the bargain, Villa lost 1-0.

A devastated Hendrie revealed it was the opposition player-manager, Ray Wilkins, rather than Little, who put a comforting arm round him. “Someone who I’ve seen play football, a legend of the game, to come and console me and say: ‘This is football, welcome to football, these are the ups and downs you’re going to have in your career’.

“He said there’s lot of people who are talking highly of you, you’ve got a big future in the game, kid. As he got up, he tapped my shoulder and said: ‘Keep that up’.”

Few subsequent chances were given to him under Little but, when John Gregory took over, he became more established.

He would go on to make a total of 308 appearances for Villa (243 league and cup starts), scoring 32 goals, with his best performances coming in Gregory’s tenure. He wasn’t quite the same player under Graham Taylor or David O’Leary.

It was on November 18 1998 that he won his one and only England cap, sent on by Glenn Hoddle as a 77th minute substitute for Villa team-mate Paul Merson in a 2-0 win over the Czech Republic at Wembley. Two other Villa teammates, Dion Dublin and Gareth Southgate, were also part of Hoddle’s squad.

Unfortunately for Hendrie, Hoddle was sacked two months later and no subsequent England bosses called on him. “It’s a regret that I didn’t go on and make more of my England career,” he said. “It’s great that I’ve got a cap and it’s something you can’t take away from me, but I hate being classed as a one-cap wonder.”

Hendrie’s days at Villa came to an end in August 2006, his last involvement being from the bench in Martin O’Neill’s first match in charge, a 1-1 Premier League draw at Arsenal on the opening day of the 2006-07 campaign.

While Hendrie, by then 30, was excited about playing for O’Neill, the new boss had other plans and told him he was not part of them.

Initially he joined Stoke City under Tony Pulis on a season-long loan but Bryan Robson at Sheffield United outbid the Potters for his services on a permanent basis, and he signed a three-year deal at Bramall Lane at the start of the 2007-08 season.

Unfortunately, when Robson swiftly parted company with the Blades, Hendrie didn’t see eye to eye with his successor, Kevin Blackwell, who accused the player of being a money-grabber.

“Sheffield United was just the worst thing I could have done,” he told the Claret & Blue podcast.

“Kevin Blackwell was one of the worst managers I have ever, ever been under. He put the nail in the coffin for (my career).”

Blackwell sent him on loan to Leicester City, where he played nine games, and he later went to Blackpool too. United moved him on to Derby County but when he struggled for games there, he joined Brighton.

If the spell at Brighton was a temporary relief from his mounting problems, he revealed in a Guardian interview with Donald McRae that 2010 turned out to be one of the worst years of his life, and he attempted suicide on several occasions.

A property empire he had built up amassed insurmountable debts which even saw his mother’s home repossessed. He lost his own house as well, and it sent him into depression. Divorce and bankruptcy made the situation even worse.

“The football was almost over and my head was gone. I’d been trying to sell property, but the housing market crashed,” he said. “I got to the stage where I just wanted to end it all. I’d hit rock bottom.”

The ups and downs of Hendrie’s colourful life have featured in various media interviews.

The rise and fall tale was charted by the sporting.blog and Hendrie’s spoken about his troubles on Sky Sports, where he later became a pundit.

He was in tears on Harry’s Heroes: Euro Having A Laugh discussing his depression struggles with Vinnie Jones. The BBC radio programme You and Yours highlighted his plight in a March 2013 episode.

On the footballing front, a brief spell at Bradford City was followed by a host of short stopovers at Bandung (2011), Daventry Town (2011), Kidderminster Harriers (2011-12), Chasetown (2012), Redditch United (2012) and Tamworth (2012-13) before he retired as a professional.

He then played for Corby Town (2013), Highgate United (2013), Basford United (2013 – 2015), Montpellier (2016-17), Redditch United (2016), Nuneaton Griff (2019) and Highgate United (2019) on a non-professional basis.

As he tried to find a new purpose in life, alongside his media work, Hendrie set up FootieBugs, a football academy for kids aged from three to 12.

Hendrie chats on TV with Dion Dublin, a former Villa teammate

How the gaffes of goalie González worked both ways

DAVID GONZÁLEZ might well have been an experienced international goalkeeper but conceding a soft goal on his debut didn’t go down well with the Albion faithful.

Brighton fans were a whole lot happier when the same player shipped five AGAINST the Seagulls four months later.

Columbian González, who’d spent two years as a Manchester City back-up ‘keeper, only played twice for the Seagulls during a short-term deal in 2012.

After signing him in January that year, manager Gus Poyet finally gave him a chance at the end of the season after Peter Brezovan had conceded six in a thrashing at West Ham. González was one of six changes to the line-up that had capitulated at the Boleyn Ground.

But, against Watford at the Amex three days later, there were only six minutes on the clock when the Colombian saw Sean Murray’s cracker of a free-kick sail over him into the net.

When González did make a routine save, supporters in the North Stand greeted it with sarcastic applause, which incensed Poyet. In his post-match interview with the Argus, he said: “If David had let a goal in through his legs I wouldn’t agree but I would understand that sometimes we take the mickey out of somebody, but it wasn’t like that so they need to be careful.

“I don’t like it because they are being unfair to an unbelievable group of players who are bringing plenty of joy to this football club and attacking any single person is attacking the whole club.”

The ‘keeper’s debut hadn’t got much better when Troy Deeney put Watford 2-0 up with a penalty a minute before half-time. Thankfully Albion hit back in the second half and forced a draw with goals from captain Inigo Calderon and former Hornet Will Buckley.

Ironically, the Watford ‘keeper that night, Tomasz Kuszczak, was brought in by Poyet that summer and González ended up at Barnsley – the side he made his only other Albion appearance against in the last game of the season.

González keeps goal for Albion at Barnsley and, below, sees five go past him when playing FOR the Tykes at the Amex at the start of the next season

At least he didn’t concede at Oakwell, although the 0-0 bore draw was a dire spectacle: a typical end-of-season encounter.

Almost the only things of note were that Barnsley included a young John Stones in their line-up together with David Button in goal and former Albion flop Craig Davies was up front.

In one of those strange quirks of football, González was back at the Amex at the end of August having been drafted in by the Tykes to cover a goalkeeping injury crisis.

It was not a happy return. As the Yorkshire Post reported: “Brighton were 2-0 up after only 14 minutes, with goals from Ashley Barnes and former England defender (Wayne) Bridge, with Barnsley goalkeeper David González at fault on both occasions.”

González dropped a free-kick by Craig Noone for Barnes to tap in after three minutes and the Colombian was “simply a bystander” when Bridge beat him to his left with a low drive from 25 yards. It was Bridge’s first league goal for nine years.

Ashley Barnes wheels away after scoring past Albion’s former ‘keeper

Barnsley pulled a goal back with a 36th-minute penalty from Davies after Andrew Crofts fouled Jacob Mellis, but Craig Mackail-Smith got the final touch on Barnes’s shot a minute later.

Mackail-Smith scored again four minutes after half-time with a close-range header and Barnes made it 5-1 10 minutes from time, slotting home Kazenga LuaLua’s cross.

Barnsley boss Keith Hill said afterwards: “We had 12 players out but I have no excuses whatsoever. It was inept and I include myself in that. The opposition were excellent and it could have been up to 10-1.”

Born in Medellín on 20 July 1982, González began his career at his hometown club Independiente Medellín and he played more games for them than any other club he subsequently joined (he returned for a four-year spell between 2015-19). And in June 2022 he was appointed their manager.

González also had two separate spells with another Columbian side, Deportivo Cali (he ended his playing career with them in 2020) and left South America for Turkey in 2007, spending two seasons with Çaykur Rizespor.

After failing to make an impression with Argentinian side Club Atlético Huracán he had a successful trial at Manchester City in late 2009 during Roberto Mancini’s reign. He wasn’t named in their 2010-11 Premier League squad but he was the reserve side’s regular ‘keeper until, in the second half of the season, he was sent on loan to Leeds, where he remained back-up behind Kasper Schmeichel and Shane Higgs.

He was unlucky not to get a chance back at City when he sustained an injury at the same time as Shay Given and no.2 Stuart Taylor. Marton Fulop was brought in on loan from Sunderland instead.

At the start of the following season, González was sent on a six-month loan arrangement to Aberdeen, where he hoped his performances would catch Mancini’s eye.

“I want to have a good spell at Aberdeen and to show Mancini that I should be considered for the team,” he told the Daily Record. “But Man City have so much money they can go out and buy just about any player they want.

“The way things are going they will become the best team in the world and I see that happening sooner than a lot of people think.”

The goalkeeper featured in 14 games for the Scottish Premier League club when first choice Jamie Langfield was sidelined following a seizure. On his return to Manchester, his contract was terminated by mutual consent and the free agent was taken on by Brighton, where Poyet had just dropped Casper Ankergren and installed Brezovan as his first choice ‘keeper.

Poyet told seagulls.co.uk: “David is an international with an excellent pedigree, playing over 300 senior games at the top level in South America, Turkey and Scotland. He has won the league in Colombia and has been capped by the national team.

“The idea is for David to compete with Peter and Casper to be first choice. Peter has come in recently and done very well, and is currently number one, but it’s now up to both David and Casper to put pressure on him to be first choice.”

That mauling at the Amex in August 2012 was one of only three Championship games González played for Barnsley and in Albion’s matchday programme he had admitted he saw his time with the Tykes as a shop window.

“I want people to come and have a look, to see what I’m capable of, but nothing else has been said really,” he said. “I’m just here for the time being while the boys are out with injury and suspension, so I’m just going to enjoy it and try to do the best I can.” Oops!

The following year he moved back to Columbia, initially playing for Deportivo Pasto, then Águilas Doradas before returning to Independiente Medellín in 2015.

Agustien talked a good game but fitness was a big issue

A MIDFIELD player who helped keep Crystal Palace in the Championship frustrated Brighton fans in an injury-plagued two seasons with the Seagulls.

Kemi Agustien, who hailed from the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao, wasn’t fully fit when he joined Oscar Garcia’s Seagulls from Swansea City in the summer of 2013, and injuries he picked up restricted him to just 10 starts and seven appearances off the bench.

Albion’s ‘keyboard warrior’ followers were not at all impressed and poured out their vitriol, accusing the player of being overweight and not being committed to the cause.

The main gripe seemed to be frustration that a player who had played 31 games in the Premier League only fleetingly showed his capabilities in the division below.

It seems remarkable that Agustien once scooped the official man of the match award for a powerful display in Swansea’s midfield in a 1-1 top flight draw against Manchester United.

As Brighton fans would later discover for themselves, Agustien wasn’t shy at singing his own praises, saying after that United match in March 2013: “I put out a statement to the manager, the staff and for myself and my family.

“There were doubts over my fitness or if I had the ability to play in the Premier League but hopefully everybody who watched the game against Manchester United will have seen what I can do.

“I always put pressure on myself, I’ve been in and out of the team and, like every footballer, I want to play and start every week. It was my first start for such a long time and I thought I did well.

“I am not the sort of player who likes to talk about himself, but I think I can be proud with how I played.”

As so often seemed to be the case in his career, an injury stopped any hoped-for progress in its tracks and by the end of the season boss Michael Laudrup dispensed with his services on a free transfer, even though he still had a year left on his contract.

There was a sense of irony that the midfield slot Agustien took on at the Albion had become vacant when the Seagulls managed to offload Ryan Harley, another ex-Swansea player who had been a disappointment. Harley was allowed to join Swindon Town after a settlement was agreed on the remaining 11 months of his contract.

What Albion were getting in return was, on the face of it, an upgrade, and Agustien’s agent, Wessel Weezenberg, somewhat bullishly told the Argus: “Brighton are getting an excellent, all-round midfielder. He is a very technical player, physically good and strong, and will fit in well with their type of football due to his Dutch background.”

Head coach Garcia seemed to buy into it, too, saying: “He has experience in the Premier League with Swansea and his technical level, experience and confidence with the ball will help us a lot with the way we want to play.

“We will work with him, because he is not fit enough to play 90 minutes at the moment, but he wants to be fit as soon as possible and, with our fitness coaches, I don’t think it will take much time.”

Somewhat immodestly, Agustien reckoned he could fill any of the Albion’s midfield positions, explaining: “I feel I can play box-to-box, I have the power and the ability to do that. I can be dangerous in the final third, but if I need to hold I can do that as well.

“I think I’ve got all the strengths to do both but I know I can still improve. There is more to come from me.”

When he was sidelined with calf injury issues not long into his time at Brighton, he told the matchday programme: “I want to be an important part of this team, but the only way I can do that is when I’m fully fit.

“I can’t do myself justice on 80 or 90 per cent. I know when I’m 100 per cent I can bring quality to this team.”

Reflecting on his ill-fated spell at the Albion in a March 2020 interview with Tom Coleman of Wales Online, Agustien admitted: “It started all wrong. There was a certain pressure coming out of Swansea and going to Brighton.

“I had a meeting with the manager back then, and he told me how he wanted to play a certain way and that he wanted me to play in a certain position, as a number 10.

“For me, to start in that position was like adapting to a new style, and I wasn’t really fit because I didn’t really have a pre-season because of what happened with Swansea. I came quite late and I was overweight.”

Over the course of the 2013-14 season, Agustien made just eight starts plus six appearances off the bench in Garcia’s side, and he was an unused substitute on eight other occasions. Rohan Ince, Jake Forster-Caskey, Andrew Crofts and loan signing Keith Andrews formed the mainstay of the midfield before the arrival of Dale Stephens.

Albion supporters were, it would be fair to say, divided in their opinions about Agustien’s contribution. For example, ‘Clean Sheet’ on the Argus comment section said: “This guy has the potential to be a game-changer. He needs to get fit and motivated. If this happens, then he could be like a major new signing.”

But ‘Steveg1958’ reckoned: “This guy is unbelievable. He needs firing now and kicking out. What a joke. If any of the rest of us worked like him, we would be given the push. How he has got away with this for so long at Albion is nothing short of scandalous.”

On the popular fans forum North Stand Chat, ‘BensGrandad’ said: “He shows great skill and some brilliant passes but he appears to be lazy and not prepared to tackle back when required, or when he loses the ball. Perhaps that is where the problem lies.”

‘Stumpy Tim’ maintained: “He’s not mobile enough to play centre-mid. Wouldn’t mind seeing him in one of the forward positions as he’s definitely one of the more creative players in the team.”

If Agustien thought his Albion fortunes might change when Sami Hyypia replaced Garcia, he was to be disappointed. He made just two starts under the former Liverpool man, plus one substitute appearance, all at the start of the season.

He was sent on as a sub for Forster-Caskey in the opening day 1-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday that got Hyypia’s reign off to an ignominious start.

I do recall him putting in a decent shift away to Leeds United later the same month, contributing to a fine 2-0 win which saw Albion leave Elland Road with all three points, although he had to go off after twisting an ankle.

He started in a 2-0 League Cup win over Cheltenham Town but was replaced by Kazenga LuaLua on 68 minutes and wasn’t seen in first team action again.

He underwent surgery for a persistent thigh muscle injury, and Hyypia’s successor Chris Hughton didn’t rule him out altogether, but he said at the end of February 2015: “At this moment he is quite a way from being fit and ready to play.

“He hasn’t been fit for most of the season. If he is able to get fit and available for any part of the season we’d be delighted.” But he left the club without reappearing in the first team.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t done OK at that level, either, because he had already played 18 games for Birmingham City in the Championship during the 2008-09 season, and, in the 2010-11 season, three starts for Swansea under Brendan Rodgers and, when he hadn’t been able to win his City place back after injury, six starts and two appearances off the bench on loan at Dougie Freedman’s Crystal Palace as they fought to avoid the drop at the end of the season.

Explaining the Palace loan, Rodgers told Sky Sports News: “I felt Kemy needed games. He has found it difficult this season. I brought him in and he is a good lad, but some players are all right if they are not playing and others are not.

“Kemy is the type who wants to play. He came here injured and the players in his position have done very, very well.

“He has another season on his contract with us and, while it hasn’t quite happened for him here as he would have wanted, I want to see him getting games. Hopefully, come the start of pre-season, he will be fully fit.”

He got off to a decent start under Freedman when Palace won 2-1 against a Barnsley side which had former Brighton loanees Paul McShane in defence and Diego Arismendi, who went on as a substitute.

The Palace website reported Agustien impressed with his distribution on his debut, combining well with James Vaughan, and in a 2-1 defeat at Ipswich, it was an Agustien free kick that found skipper Paddy McCarthy who scored the visitors’ goal.

The loanee was in the starting line-up for Palace’s crucial away trip to Hull City when both sides needed a point to be sure of staying up. It finished 1-1. And his last game in Palace colours was in the final game of the season when the home side succumbed 3-0 to Nottingham Forest.

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.

Teenage prodigy Assulin didn’t live up to early expectations

GAI ASSULIN played for his country aged just 16, was hailed as ‘the new Lionel Messi’ and appeared in Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona first team at 18.

Two years later he had two starts and five substitute appearances for Brighton in the Championship, on loan from Manchester City, but couldn’t agree terms for a permanent move.

He subsequently flitted from club to club, country to country, and in the autumn of 2021 was playing local five-a-side football in Cheshire.

Where did it all go wrong? Was it a case of too much too soon?

Assulin was only 12 when he uprooted from his Israel home to pursue the chance of a career with Barca. He spent seven years there, playing for the youth side before reaching the renowned B team in 2007 where he was coached by Guardiola.

“I learnt a lot from him,” he said. “He helped me develop as a player but then so did all the coaches I played for at the club. From the age of 12 to 17 you learn the philosophy of the first team; how to play, what to do, and that never changed.

“Whatever age group you are in, the system you play is the same as the senior side so, if you do get called into the first team, it is not a big, big difference to what you are used to.”

When Guardiola stepped up to first team coach, Assulin was among the youngsters he blooded involving the winger in the Copa del Rey game against Cultural Leonesa in October 2009 and then some pre-season friendlies, including against Tottenham at Wembley.

“Playing in those games was a good experience,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “As the manager likes his younger players, he gave me an opportunity but the competition for places was really, really tough so it was hard to break into the team.

“I also had a few problems with my knee which didn’t help either and my time with the club eventually came to an end.”

Ahead of Guardiola eventually making the same move, Assulin signed for Manchester City under Roberto Mancini in December 2010, explaining: “I wanted to continue my football education at another top club and Manchester City has many top, top players.”

He has since publicly castigated Mancini for not giving him the opportunity to break through at City, telling ITV in 2016: “He didn’t give anyone a chance, he didn’t care about any young players, especially me.

“I didn’t even do the pre-season, when it was a good time to give someone a chance and see if they do well (or) if they are not doing well. But I didn’t get a chance, which was frustrating. It was a shame as I always felt good when I trained with the first team, but sometimes he chose his own sons over other players and I don’t think it was fair.

“It is very important for me to tell people as a lot of City (fans) don’t know what happened with me at City. People always ask me why I didn’t get a chance, and it’s obvious that the manager was the problem.

“I loved playing there, I loved the city and I wish I had a chance there. (City execs) Brian Marwood and Garry Cook loved me and really wanted me to stay, but Mancini didn’t and that was the problem.”

When Assulin joined Brighton in February 2012, Gus Poyet admitted he hadn’t been planning to take him on because at the time he was only interested in getting City midfielder Abdul Razak on loan.

A window opened up when forward Will Hoskins went to Sheffield United on loan, and Poyet told the Argus: “We were not looking to bring in another player after Razak. This was something that came along that I thought was very interesting. When there is something unique and unexpected like this I think it’s a no brainer.

“Gai was one of the top young talents in the world four or five years ago and he was very unlucky with an injury.

“He is still very young. He has got an incredible amount of quality and he can really make a difference but for any young player he needs to be playing and right now at Man City that is very difficult.

“He is an offensive player without any doubt, not a midfielder. He can play up front, wide or behind the striker.”

Assulin made his Brighton debut on 22 February against Hull City, going on as a substitute for Razak in the 77th minute of a 0–0 draw. He made his first start against Cardiff City at the Amex on 7 March but was substituted after 59 minutes of a 2–2 draw.

Although Razak returned to City after falling out with Poyet, Assulin’s loan was extended to the end of the season. However, he only made one more start – in the 6-0 drubbing dished out by West Ham at the Boleyn Ground, again being subbed off when Kazenga LuaLua replaced him on 53 minutes.

His last action in an Albion shirt was as a 61st-minute substitute for Will Buckley in a 0-0 draw at Barnsley’s Oakwell ground. As an aside, Barnsley had future Albion back-up ‘keeper David Button in goal, and ex-Seagulls Jim McNulty in defence and Craig Davies up front.

Rather like the situation at City, there was plenty of competition for places at Brighton with Buckley, Craig Noone and LuaLua the wide choices and the incomparable Vicente playing just off the strikers.

Supporters commenting online recognised Assulin’s talent but felt he was too slight for the robust sort of treatment meted out by Championship defenders.

There was some speculation at the end of the season that a permanent move from City might materialise but terms couldn’t be agreed and Assulin moved instead to Racing Santander back in Spain.

He also had spells with Granada, Hercules and Mallorca and Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv. He returned to Barcelona to join third-tier side Sabadell in August 2016 but in January 2018 his contract was cancelled by mutual consent after an 18-month spell hampered by injury.

Next stop was Kazakhstan Premier League team Kairat but he played only once and mutually agreed to tear up the two-year contract he’d signed. He also went to Romanian outfit FC Politehnica Iași and, until the end of the 2020-21 season, he was playing for Crema in Italy’s Serie D.

Without a club, Assulin returned to his home in Cheshire with his partner and eight-year-old daughter, and, while searching for his next move, was doing the school run, coaching, playing five-a-side and helping with his partner’s children’s clothes shop, he told football reporter Will Unwin in a November 2021 interview.

“On an indoor pitch at an industrial estate in nearby Cheadle Hulme, it is not hard to spot the man with La Masia education among those from Moston and Moss Side,” Unwin observed.

“I grew up as a kid in Israel, in a small town and my dream was to play first-team football for a professional club,” Assulin told the reporter.

Born in Nahariya, Israel, on 9 April 1991, Assulin’s family supported Maccabi Haifa,  and young Gai went to watch them from an early age.

How did he end up at Barcelona? “My dad (Eli) took me to a club in Israel called Natanya and they had a manager who had contacts with Barcelona,” he explained. “I was invited to Andorra for a ten-day trial with other players from many different countries and I did really well. A scout from the club then invited me to Barcelona and I did really well at a trial there too. They then offered me a contract.”

Only 12 at the time, he said: “It was a big change obviously at that age, as you are not used to being in a different country and a different culture, but I did the right thing. I love football, it is my life and my family were with me when I needed them.

“My dad came over with me to live in Barcelona and then the rest of my family – my mum, one brother and two sisters – came over for a year before returning to Israel. They used to come and visit every couple of months. The experience has made me a more mature person.”

Unwin noted that Liverpool’s Thiago Alcântara once described Assulin as “the most talented player I’ve ever seen in La Masia”, the two players having progressed alongside each other.

“We grew up together at the club and played in the same team for seven years,” said Assulin. “I would see him every day, and we went to school together.”

In a 2018 interview with Unwin for Planet Football, Assulin said: “Training with Barcelona’s first team was the best experience I’ve had in my career.

“I learned so much. I’m proud to say I was training with such big players. I’ve learned from Messi, Henry, Zlatan. They’re all different types of players, so it was great to see how they operate and pick up little things from them.”

Likewise at Man City, especially from David Silva. “He’s such a good player and different from anything you will see,” said Assulin. “He’s just so intelligent on the pitch and a great guy too.

“I had a good relationship with almost everyone. I was talking more to the Spanish guys – Silva; Carlos Tevez was there at the time; Yaya Toure I knew from Barcelona; Kolo Toure was a really nice guy.

“I had a great relationship with everyone, but especially those guys. Every time I went to train with the first team, they helped me, and they liked me.”

That one full international appearance for Israel happened in a friendly match against Chile in 2008, his appearance as a 78th minute substitute coming 14 days before his 17th birthday. He subsequently made 22 appearances for Israel’s under 21 side over the next five years, but didn’t win another full cap.

Unwin observed: “The early pressure of being synonymous with Lionel Messi was not a tag Assulin particularly enjoyed as he looked to come out of the Argentinian’s shadow.”

The player himself explained: ‘They like to compare in football; it is something they do all the time and for me it is a big compliment, but Messi is the greatest footballer in history. ‘Sometimes it is not good if you take it in the wrong way, as the expectation is for you to go on to the pitch and do the same as Messi all the time. Whichever club I went to, they saw I was compared with Messi, so they thought I was going to be Messi and score 50 goals a year, so that comparison at the time was not as positive.

‘Right now, after being at so many clubs, I see it as something positive and I take it as something that hasn’t been said about so many players. Messi is the best in history, so it’s nice to be compared to him for something that I did right at the time.’

Flipping winger Kazenga LuaLua followed brother to Toon

EXPLOSIVE pace, a feint of the shoulder, and a thunderbolt shot were trademarks of Kazenga LuaLua’s contribution to Brighton’s rise from the third tier.

Not to mention a somersault flipping goal celebration that delighted supporters but gave managers kittens as they could only see an injury in the making.

Sadly, that explosive pace came at a price — hamstrings that were all too often easily damaged, resulting in lengthy spells on the treatment table and in recovery. Ankle, knee and groin injuries also sidelined the pacy winger for long periods.

Left-sided LuaLua had three spells on loan to Brighton from Newcastle United before joining permanently, and his six seasons in Brighton colours were rarely dull. He was undoubtedly a crowd-pleaser when he was on top of his game, leaving full backs trailing in his wake to lay on chances or cutting inside and netting some memorable goals.

However, he invariably made most impact when entering the fray from the substitutes’ bench, although the ‘supersub’ moniker frustrated him.

“You don’t just want to come on as a sub,” he told the matchday programme. “Obviously it’s good in one respect as it means the team needs you, but as a footballer you want to be in the starting 11 in every game.

“I don’t view myself as just an impact player and I know that I can play 90 minutes of football.”

Albion fans first saw the Congolese game-changer in February 2010. Manager Gus Poyet had been tipped the wink about LuaLua by his former Swindon and Leeds managerial partner, Dennis Wise, who had been executive director at Newcastle.

Ashley Barnes celebrates with Albion’s speedy loanee winger

LuaLua started nine games (and went on as a sub twice) as Albion consolidated their position in League One. His impact on the side was appreciated by his teammates, as defender Tommy Elphick explained to the Argus in March 2010. After the 19-year-old winger had run Exeter full-back Steve Tully ragged, Elphick said: “He’s unbelievable for us. He really does stretch the game for you.

“It’s that raw pace and power which I personally think we have been missing for the last two years. Benno (Elliott Bennett) gives you something totally different. He is more technical. Kaz reminds me of Bas Savage in the sort of job he used to do for us in stretching the game and getting us up the pitch.

“It gives the defenders a chance to get to the halfway line and defend a bit higher.”

When Poyet secured his services for a second loan spell for the opening half of the 2010-11 season, he was delighted. “Kazenga is unique. He is pure power and speed,” said the manager. “That nowadays in football is very important and we didn’t have that.

“I don’t think there is another player like him in the division. He gives us something totally different.

“We are very pleased to have him. We know what we are getting and that is the key. He will fit in as a player, and in the dressing room.”

Poyet added: “He made a very big impact during his time here last season and I am hoping he can do the same and add a few goals to his game this time around.”

No sooner said than done; LuaLua marked his second debut with a 25-yard rocket of a free-kick to give Albion the lead in a 2-0 home win over MK Dons.

LuaLua departs the action injured

Sadly, after just seven starts plus four appearances off the bench, his involvement in that promotion season came to an end in November 2010 when a bad tackle in a 3-1 away defeat at Hartlepool left him with a broken ankle.

Born in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), on 10 December 1990, LuaLua came to England as a small child with his father and famous older brother, Lomana.

It was from Lomana that he perfected the thunderbolt shot — and the celebratory somersault.

“I have always had a hard shot on me,” he told the Albion matchday programme. “I think a lot of it comes from when I was a boy back in Newcastle and I would play with my brother.

“He would always strike a ball hard and I would try to copy him.”

It was football all the way from a young age, LuaLua recalled. “When I was growing up in Kinshasa, I remember skipping school to play football with my friends,” he said. “We were football mad and, as my brother had already moved to England, I wanted to follow in his footsteps.

“Lomana got me in at Newcastle. He moved to London with our dad some time earlier, but once he’d broken into football and moved from Colchester United up to Newcastle, then the rest of the family came over from our homeland.

“I had only been in the country a couple of months when Lomana arranged for me to have a trial at Newcastle and I was taken on straight away. It was fantastic for me and also for him; we’d go into training together and he was always there for advice when I needed it. He has been a massive influence on my career.”

The winger continued: “It was tough to begin with; I was in a new country and had to go to a new school, which was hard in itself given where I’d come from, and then I was brought into a professional football club and one of the biggest in the country.

“But Newcastle were very helpful. All the coaching staff were great towards me, and helped me find my feet. I learned such a lot from them and I quickly made new friends. I was close to Nile Ranger, Sami Adjei, Sami Ameobi, many players, and I learnt so much in terms of coaching and how to conduct myself as a professional.”

Kazenga progressed through the Toon academy and was part of the Toon youth team that reached the semi-finals of the FA Youth Cup in 2005-06. He even earned a first-team squad call-up while still only 16, although he didn’t get to play.

LuaLua’s Newcastle chances were limited

Eventually, he got his first team chance as a substitute for Damien Duff in a 0-0 FA Cup third round match at Stoke in January 2008, right at the end of Sam Allardyce’s reign on Tyneside. It was Michael Owen’s first FA Cup game for Newcastle.

The game was being shown live on TV so LuaLua’s extended family back home in the DR Congo were able to see the moment. “I was one of the club’s youngest debutants at 17,” he said.

He also went on (for Charles N’Zogbia) in the replay at St James’s Park which Toon, under caretaker boss Nigel Pearson, won comfortably 4-1. “To play in front of 52,000 people took my breath away,” he said.

He made his Premier League debut three days later, going on as an 80th-minute sub for Duff at St James’s Park, in Kevin Keegan’s first match back in charge — a disappointing 0-0 draw with Bolton Wanderers.

Although a non-playing sub on other occasions, he got on in the last game of the season, replacing Jose Enrique in the 79th-minute as United went down 3-1 to Everton at Goodison Park.

Against the backdrop of the tumultuous 2008-09 season, when Toon were relegated from the Premier League after a veritable managerial merry-go-round, LuaLua made just four substitute appearances (three in the league and one in the FA Cup), and in January 2009 he was sent out on loan to Doncaster Rovers, then in the Championship, where he played four matches in six weeks under Sean O’Driscoll.

Once Toon settled on Chris Hughton to get them promoted from the Championship, LuaLua found chances hard to come by.

He started in a Carling Cup second round match at home to Huddersfield Town, when Toon edged it 4-3, but picked up a groin injury playing in the next round, a 2-0 defeat at Peterborough in September 2009 (future Brighton teammate Craig Mackail-Smith was one of the Posh scorers).

Three months later, with his fitness restored, he was itching to be given a first team chance and told the Chronicle: “I want to be part of this team. My aim has always been to play for the first team at Newcastle United.

“I’ve been here a long time, and last season I was involved in the first team before going out on loan.”

“I have been playing for the reserves for a while now, and I’m keen to play football at first team level.

“I would go out on loan if they let me.”

That opportunity finally came a couple of months later when Hughton sanctioned the move to Brighton. LuaLua told Albion matchday programme reporter Luke Nicoli: “They are a big club and are using a lot of experienced players at the moment, so it’s been difficult for me to break into the team.

“I’ve been playing reserve team football a lot and I just want to be playing games that mean something again. I want to be playing for points and I want to be learning all the time. I want to be in a position where I can return to Newcastle a better player.”

Immediately before re-joining the Seagulls for his second loan spell, LuaLua made only his second start for Newcastle in a 3-2 Carling Cup win over Accrington Stanley and was selected by Sky Sports as the Man of the Match.

After that broken ankle at Hartlepool had taken him back to Newcastle to recuperate, he recovered to make a Premier League appearance in the penultimate game of the season, a 2–2 draw away to Chelsea. Hughton’s successor, Alan Pardew, sent him on as a 69th minute substitute for Shane Ferguson and it was LuaLua’s run and cut inside around Branislav Ivanovic that won Toon a corner from which Steven Taylor scored a late equaliser.

Nevertheless, Poyet wasn’t giving up on taking LuaLua back to the Seagulls once more and, in July 2011, he took him on another six-month deal with a view to a permanent move.

Poyet told the club website at the time: “Kazenga was one of our main summer targets and I am delighted we have finally come to an agreement with Newcastle. I am sure the fans will be equally delighted to see him back at the club.”

The permanent move went through a month before the loan was due to expire and LuaLua told the club website: “Since I came to the club it has always been my intention to sign a permanent deal so this is a really happy day for me.

“When you are on loan you are never quite sure what the future will hold, but now I’ve signed this contract I can put my mind at rest and focus completely on my football.

“I have come here because I feel Brighton is the place where I can really kick on with my career. At Newcastle I wasn’t really involved in the first-team squad and at my age I want to start playing regular football.

“From the first day I came to the club on loan, everyone was so friendly and that helped me settle very quickly. Now I want to pay that back with my performances on the pitch.”

Albion famously suffered an ignominious 6-1 drubbing in the fifth round of the FA Cup at Anfield in February 2012, but it was LuaLua who temporarily gave the Seagulls parity after Martin Skrtel’s early opener for Liverpool.

LuaLua unleashed an unstoppable 25-yard shot past ‘keeper Pepe Reina and BBC Sport’s Neil Johnston said: “It was a goal worthy of winning a Wembley FA Cup Final.”

Few doubted LuaLua’s ability but inconsistency was one of his demons which often led to him being introduced as an impact substitute rather than starting games.

Poyet wasn’t afraid to explain his selection policy and in March 2012, when he gave the winger a start against high-flying Derby County, he was rewarded with a 2-0 win at the Amex.

“I thought it was the game for Kazenga,” Poyet told the Argus. “I know he played well in his first spell and my first season here, but I don’t remember a better performance from Kazenga for Brighton.

“It was his best performance against a team that has been in the Premier League and in the top ten in the Championship. That shows what he can do. It was his game and he’s a happy boy.

“He has probably been a little annoyed not to be playing, but that is natural and he is always very respectful and always talking to me.”

A troublesome knee affected LuaLua’s involvement

LuaLua ended up playing under four different Albion managers and Oscar Garcia quickly realised the limitations he faced when in September 2013 he told the Argus: “Kaz has a problem on his knee and he cannot play many minutes in all the games. We knew before if he had played for the whole game then maybe on Tuesday we cannot use him.

“Sometimes he has pain, sometimes not, but, if he plays many minutes, he has pain. He’s had this from the start of the season,” he said. “Sometimes he has to rest, he cannot train. We have to manage this.”

The following February, LuaLua was still troubled by knee tendon soreness but was contributing as a substitute.

For example, he went on to set up Leonardo Ulloa to score the only goal of the game at home to Leeds and Garcia told the Argus: “We thought in this game he could come off the bench and make an immediate impact and he did it.

“He is a player who can change a game. We are very happy with him, because every game when he has to come off the bench he comes on with the right attitude and plays really well.”

Happy days with Beram Kayal and Joe Bennett

Even though Sami Hyypia’s time in charge was short-lived, the winger impressed the new boss until a knee injury sidelined him in November 2014.

“He has the ability to hurt people one v one and maybe one v two as well sometimes,” said Hyypia. “He’s done well this season, he has been very concentrated all the time.”

By the time LuaLua returned to fitness, his old Newcastle coach and manager, Hughton, was at the helm.

LuaLua told the matchday programme: “It was difficult for me when he first came here because I was injured, but he was great with me, always stopping to talk to me about the injury, making sure I was okay, and he told me not to rush things. That’s what I’ve done and hopefully I can now show him what I can do on the pitch now that I’m fully fit.”

Although it was a few months before that happened, arguably LuaLua’s best spell with the club came at the start of the 2015-16 season, which coincided with a change of squad number for the player.

The returning Bobby Zamora resumed the no.25 that he’d worn during his first spell at Brighton, and at other clubs, and LuaLua admitted: “I had to give the number 25 to Bobby. There was no way I was going to refuse. He’s a legend at the club and it’s nice to have him back in the squad.”

With 30 on his back, LuaLua scored four goals in the opening seven games and won the Championship Player of the Month award (above). Hughton was simultaneously Manager of the Month and said: “Kaz thoroughly deserves his award, he’s had a wonderful start. The area where he has excelled in his game is where he has got on the ball and provided an end product.”

Once again, though, injury brought the purple patch to an end. LuaLua sustained a groin injury in training that eventually needed surgery. Coach Nathan Jones told the Argus in December: “There is no real timescale on it because someone like Kazenga is so important to the squad and what we do. You can’t rush him and he is such a potent athlete, that’s the problem.”

Hughton also lost Solly March to injury that autumn but Rajiv van La Parra was brought in as a temporary solution. He already had Jamie Murphy as a wide option and then Anthony Knockaert and Jiri Skalak were added, so, by the time LuaLua had recovered, competition for places was intense.

The run-in to the end of the season saw him mainly in a watching brief from the bench, although he did play in successive matches in April – 2-1 wins away to Birmingham and Nottingham Forest.

LuaLua’s Albion days were clearly numbered as the 2016-17 season got under way. He started two League Cup games in August – the 4-0 win over Colchester United and the 4-2 victory over Oxford United, when he scored Albion’s second goal. But he only managed three league appearances as a substitute. By January, it was time for a change of scene, and he was sent on a half-season loan to QPR.

At least he got some games in Ian Holloway’s Championship side, appearing 11 times and scoring once. Having missed out on Albion’s promotion to the Premier League at the end of that season, it was no surprise that he returned on loan at Loftus Road at the start of the 2017-18 season.

However, he left west London at the beginning of December 2017, Rangers boss Holloway telling the Argus: “I don’t feel he was doing as well as some of my lads who I’ve brought here.

“Unless he rips it up and shows me – and he’s trying to – I think the loss of confidence and loss of his father has really hit him.”

In January 2018, LuaLua finally cut his ties with the Albion when he joined Chris Coleman’s Sunderland on a free transfer on a deal until the end of the season. By then 27, the winger told the Sunderland website: “I’m excited to be here and get back out on to the pitch because it’s been a long time without playing football.

“I know the North East well and I know Sunderland are one of the big clubs, not just in the North East but England, so I’m really excited to get started.”

An unfortunate turn of phrase because he didn’t start a game as Sunderland fell through the Championship trapdoor. He made just six substitute appearances.

Released at the end of that season, his former Brighton coach Jones revitalised what looked like a flagging career by signing him for promotion-chasing League One side Luton Town.

Jones told the club website: “He’s a fantastic talent. He has something that not many have, totally different from what we have here.

“He’s a quick, powerful, potent attacking player which is something that is in rare supply – and is something we felt we needed.

“The fact that we’ve been able to get him in and persuade him to come here is a good coup for us.”

And the player said: “I know Nathan from Brighton, and he’s a very good coach. He’s good at what he does, so it made it so easy for me to come in and train with the boys here.”

LuaLua spent three years at Kenilworth Road and clearly enjoyed a good relationship with their supporters. After he signed a new deal with the club following their promotion to the Championship, he told the club website: “The supporters have made me feel welcome since the moment I arrived here.

“When they get behind you, like they did since I have arrived, it gives you a massive buzz. It’s a really nice feeling. It was a really special season. I think they liked the way I play, they got behind me and I really appreciated it.”

Once again, though, his involvement was more as a substitute than a starter (37 starts plus 50 appearances off the bench) and when his contract came to an end in the summer of 2021, he decided to continue his career in Turkey, once again following in the footsteps of brother Lomana, who played for a number of Turkish clubs.

Kazenga signed a two-year deal with second tier side Gençlerbirliği in Ankara and, in November 2021, Argus reporter Brian Owen caught up with him.

“It was the right time for me to move on with my football career,” he said. “I always wanted to go abroad before I stopped playing football.

“Before signing, I was worried. I’ve never played abroad before. But it has been good. There’s a lot of boys here who speak English, including the manager, which helps a lot. I’m enjoying it.”

LuaLua then switched from Turkey to Greece and spent 18 months with Levadiakos before returning to the UK in March 2024 when Nathan Jones signed him for Charlton Athletic on a short-term deal, although he made just five substitute appearances for the League One side.

It was back to the north east for a third time in November 2024 when he signed for National League Hartlepool United under Brighton-born Lennie Lawrence, a former Luton and Charlton manager.