Tag: Lewis Dunk

Albion nurtured the rise of cultured defender Ben White

BEN WHITE must be one of the best and most successful examples of the way present-day Brighton have evolved.

Picked up for nothing as a teenager after being discarded by Southampton, White’s development was carefully managed in house and on loan at different levels before he broke into the first team, became one of an elite few Albion players to play for England, and was then sold to Arsenal for £50million.

Critics will, of course, say if such talent had been retained the club might now have been punching even higher in the football pyramid.

But, as that veteran Albion watcher Andy Naylor reminded us recently, “hopes and dreams are different from expectations”.

Denied the level of financial clout of, say, nine or 10 clubs in the same division, Albion, as Naylor says “will always be fighting to defy the odds.”

The sale of White was great business for the club – and it didn’t harm their progress. As one who loves a parallel, the season after Mark Lawrenson was sold to Liverpool in 1981, Brighton went on to achieve their highest ever finish (13th) in the top division.

Screenshot

Forty years later, the same – in fact, even better – outcome followed White’s transfer to the Gunners; Albion finished in a highest ever place of ninth under Graham Potter.

And, as if to rub it in, White was in the Arsenal side that lost 2-1 at home to the Seagulls on 9 April 2022 (Enock Mwepu and future Gunner Leandro Trossard the Brighton goalscorers). It was Brighton’s first win in eight games and the win helped to dent Arsenal’s hopes of a top-four finish.

Born in Poole, Dorset, on 8 October 1997, White was in and out of hospital during early childhood owing to an immune disorder that left him with regular bouts of appendicitis, according to an April 2024 Daily Mail article by Sami Mokbel.

He eventually had his appendix removed aged seven but it didn’t stand in the way of his love of playing football from a young age.

“My parents (Barry and Carole) aren’t football fans at all, so they didn’t push me into it,” he told arsenal.com. “But they saw how much I loved it, and they did everything they could to help me. 

“I don’t know how I got into it really in the first place, probably just through being with mates, playing in the park or the garden.  I can’t remember why, I don’t think there was a particular moment that set me off in football, but I remember loving it from the first time I ever kicked a ball.”

He enjoyed other sports too – tennis, hockey and cricket – but it was his football ability that saw him picked up by Southampton’s academy at the age of eight. He played in age group teams through to the age of 16 as a midfielder, but Saints didn’t offer him a scholarship because of concerns over his lack of strength.

Others obviously saw something, though, because he had trials at Leicester and Bristol City before opting to join Brighton. 

“It’s not nice hearing that someone doesn’t want you, but you’ve got to believe in yourself and remember it’s only someone’s opinion that may be right, or may be wrong,” he said.

Albion’s then head of academy player recruitment Mark Anderson spotted White during a trial at the David Beckham Soccer Dome in Greenwich. He played a game on trial against Brentford, and was then taken on, playing as a central defender, on youth terms working under academy boss John Morling and under-23s coach Simon Rusk.

Interviewed by The Athletic in November 2020, Morling explained how White’s pathway to Brighton’s first team was carefully planned and nurtured from the moment the club decided to give him a chance.

“He was technically good, passed the ball well,” said Morling. “He was a good, athletic shape. You knew he had a lot more development from a physical perspective.

“He had growing issues at one point. He was out for a long time. When people grow, they can have problems in their heels, knees or back. He had some back issues.”

White featured regularly for Brighton’s under-18s and under-23s under Rusk, and Morling pointed out: “He was a good learner, a nice personality, a way about him. He worked hard, did lots of extras in his under-18 year, under-23 year. He’d be very modest, but he’d be honest in his opinion of how he played if he didn’t play well. That’s how he is.”

Morling added: “His make-up, personality and modesty comes from his parents and his upbringing. That’s how he is and that is a big positive for young players to learn from.

“You’ve not made it until you’ve made it and the really top players always strive for more on the pitch. They always want to be better and, in their eyes, they’ve never made it. Ben shows that.”

At Brighton, he certainly had a shining example to look up to and he admitted how Lewis Dunk took him under his wing. “When I started at Brighton my goal was to play alongside him,” he said. “He was there from a young age as well, he was just a normal guy, English as well, down to earth, same position and we got on well.

“From him it was more a case of watching what he did every day. He was an example for me to follow. He was someone you look up to and see him training every day. I knew I needed to be at that level.”

Lewis Dunk provided a great example for White to follow

White was still only 18 when Chris Hughton gave him his first team debut in the League Cup in August 2016, a 4-0 home win over Colchester United, and he played in the next round, a 4-2 win over Oxford United. He was also an unused sub for league games.

“He is the type of boy you can’t dislike,” Hughton told Mail Sport. “The type of boy you want to see do well. A quiet lad. Very unassuming.”

Hughton said there was never a question mark about his ability, only what would be his best position – centre-back, right-back or defensive midfield. “Because he was a ball player we knew he would be capable of playing in other positions. At the time we didn’t feel he was a domineering centre-back.”

When he looked back on his first team bow, White said in a matchday programme interview: “There weren’t many people who could play because of the injuries at centre-half but I was still surprised (to be chosen) and hopefully I took my chance to impress.

“I learned a lot about concentration; you can’t afford to switch off in the first team because you’ll get punished otherwise.

“I’ve tried to take that back into the under-23s and hopefully I can implement that with them now. Learning off players like Dunky was great, they’re really good people to learn from.”

White had begun to be involved in the first team that pre-season, joining the squad for training in Tenerife and featuring in friendlies against Crawley Town, Fulham and Lazio.

Ahead of him in his position at the time were Dunk, Shane Duffy, Connor Goldson and Uwe Hunemeier, so it was always going to be a gradual transition to the senior group.

“Obviously I’d love to get involved with the first team again, as that gave me a taste of what I want to do on a regular basis,” he said.

But there were three loans – in League Two, League One and the Championship – before he became a first team regular.

Gaining experience with Newport County

First stop was South Wales, and Morling recalled how Albion gave Newport County specific instructions as to how they could improve him: he needed to work on his aerial ability and show more personality in and around training.

Brighton-born managerial veteran Lennie Lawrence was supporting team manager Mike Flynn and Morling observed: “He did really well. They really liked him and they played a big part in his development, no question.”

White played 51 games across four competitions, which included memorable tests in the FA Cup when the League Two side beat Leeds 2-1 at home in round three (it avenged a 5-1 defeat in the League Cup earlier in the season when White’s ability to carry the ball out from defence caught the eye of Leeds’ then sporting director, Victor Orta).

Leeds tried to persuade White to move to Elland Road that January but he decided to stay put and once again impressed when the Welsh side held Spurs to a 1-1 draw (Harry Kane equalised with eight minutes to go) in the fourth round before losing the replay 2-0 at Wembley (Spurs’ temporary home ground at the time).

Flynn later reflected: “I knew he was going to be a bright star just by watching him day-in, day-out. When he goes and puts in the performances he did against the likes of Leeds and Tottenham, then you start realising how good he can be.

“He was outstanding. I described him as a Rolls Royce. He moved as eloquently as a footballer can. He was quicker than he looks, he read the game exceptionally well for somebody of that age, and he was a great lad all-round. His attitude was first class.

“For me, my biggest concern was whether he could handle the physicality of League Two. But he played against the ex-Brighton captain Adam El-Abd [when Newport faced Wycombe Wanderers] and there was a 50:50 in the corner. Ben’s gone straight through him, come out with the ball and hit a 60-yard diag.”

Somewhat presciently, Flynn added: “I think he’ll play at the top level and I think he’ll represent England.”

The player’s agent, Alex Levack told The Athletic: “Going out on loan to Newport, that was the time when he pretty much turned from boy, or young man, to a proper man; players fighting for win bonuses, it was the real world, but he seems to transition easily, doesn’t get ruffled, kind of like he is on the pitch. He takes everything on board, sometimes doesn’t say much, but he understands it. He’s smarter than he might make out.”

White’s impressive season for County earned him the South Wales Argus Player of the Year Award and, on his return to Brighton, he signed a contract extension. With Goldson and Hunemeier having moved on, White had some involvement with Albion’s first team squad in the first half of the 2018-19 season although Leon Balogun was back-up to Dunk and Duffy and the youngster had only one unused sub appearance (away to Burnley).

Morling had worked in Peterborough United’s academy before joining Brighton, and Rusk had played for Posh, so perhaps it wasn’t too surprising that White’s next step was to Cambridgeshire in January 2019, where the ebullient former manager Barry Fry was director of football.

White made 15 appearances in League One for Peterborough, initially under Steve Evans and then Darren Ferguson, as they just missed out on the play-offs by a single point and one place, but Fry said: “He was magnificent, different class.

“He was far better than our standard when he played for us. Very cool, a lovely lad off the pitch, a diamond, very dedicated, great in the community but, most of all, a proper player.”

Those experiences certainly had an impact on White, who said: “Playing for points in the lower leagues and winning games is an amazing feeling, simply because the boys don’t get paid as much, so the three points and a bonus is really important to them. The players really put a shift in as a result.

“It was a good learning experience because I came up against all different kinds of strikers, with different qualities, and I had to battle and fight, which I wouldn’t say is my strongest attribute.

“I enjoyed the experience; it was very different to anything I’d been used to, but I found that as I went up the divisions it suited my game more. Saying that, the further up you go you’re going to get punished if you make a mistake.”

White playing for Leeds up against one-time Albion loanee Izzy Brown

Leeds’ Orta was determined to take White to Elland Road and, with Pontus Jansson having moved on to Brentford, quirky team boss Marcelo Bielsa gave his blessing to the youngster joining on a season-long loan in July 2019.

White played all 46 games as Leeds won the Championship title and he said later of Bielsa: “I learned so much from him; his coaching was all about details, the minor things like how the ball spins when you pass it, how you’re passing it, why you’re passing it. I learnt a great deal from him.”

Leeds teammate Luke Ayling was suitably impressed by the loanee, saying: “Top, top quality. He showed mental strength to come in here as a lad that nobody knew about and step into Pontus’ shoes and hit the ground running. A real, real quality player with a strong mentality. The sky’s the limit for him.”

The Yorkshire Evening Post was similarly impressed, naming him their Player of the Season and reporter Lee Sobot declaring: “White has the world at his feet and the centre-back has shown skills not befitting a typical centre-back during his forays forward and the occasional stint in the holding midfield role.”

Fellow Leeds writer Graham Smyth said: “He handled the division’s physicality, its relentless fixture schedule and the weighty expectation that is sewn into the fabric of a Leeds United shirt. He wore it brilliantly.”

Leeds were determined to land White permanently and put in three significant bids, one believed to be of £25million, all of which Brighton rejected. His agent told The Athletic: “They (Brighton) said he was coming back here to play. A lot of clubs would say that and maybe not follow through with it. But the manager said it, Dan Ashworth (technical director) said it, the chairman (Tony Bloom) said it, and it’s been proven correct.”

With his feet firmly ensconced as part of Albion’s first team set-up, White said: “The way the boys train and how they’re living, everything about them is at the next level. The training has been great. I’m continuing to learn under the gaffer (Potter) here and it’s great to have Dunky as my captain as well.

White blocks a Phil Foden shot

“He’s phenomenal, isn’t he? He’s done it at every level and has continued to progress and be the star man every season. He’s pure quality to train alongside. He rarely has a poor session and you can see the difference in him compared to when I was last here. He’s grown up a lot, taken charge of everyone and looks like a real captain.”

From a fans’ perspective, it was just a pity that the majority of White’s Albion matches were played behind closed doors because of the Covid pandemic.

In a March 2021 interview with Sky Sports, Potter said: “He’s got a lot of attributes that I think are really exciting for us. As a modern centre-back, he’s got a lot of things that are really interesting.”

Such was his form across 39 league and cup games that he was named Seagulls’ Player of the Season, and on 2 June 2021, White made his England debut, going on as a 71st minute sub for Jack Grealish in England’s 1-0 pre-European Championship Finals warm-up friendly win against Austria at The Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough. He became only the fifth Brighton player to play for England.

Four days later, he added his second cap when he started for England at the same stadium in a 1-0 win over Romania. On two other occasions that month, he was twice an unused sub (v Croatia and the Czech Republic at Wembley).

That recognition inevitably had big clubs circling: Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool enquired about his availability, but it was Arsenal who were prepared to meet Albion’s £50million asking price.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said: “Ben was a top target for us and it’s great that we’ve completed his signing. Ben has been educated with two very good clubs, Brighton and Leeds, in recent seasons.

“He has benefitted well from two very good coaching set-ups and has shown with both Brighton and on loan with Leeds what a strong talent he is.

“Ben is an intelligent defender who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet and his style fits perfectly with us. And of course, he is still young, so his age and profile fits with what we are building here. We are all looking forward to Ben being central to our future long-term plans.”

A sanguine Potter told Sky Sports: “It’s part of the process for us growing as a club and a team.

“Obviously Ben played a lot of minutes for us last year and was a key player but the finances involved meant it was a really good option for us as a club to improve, to keep growing, and we need to then use the money wisely to develop the team further.

“I’m happy for Ben, of course, happy for the club. I’m proud of everybody in the academy and everybody that has helped his journey outside of Brighton, because he’s had some loan opportunities as well which have developed him. It’s a great story for us.”

White on his England debut

White won two more England caps in March 2022, playing in a 2-1 win over Switzerland at Wembley and featuring in the first half of a 3-0 win over Cote d’Ivoire.

What happened subsequently to his international career has been written and spoken about on multiple occasions, much of it from unattributed sources, while the player himself has always maintained a dignified silence.

Suffice to say here, he was an unused sub for two games at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and left the squad early for personal reasons which certain sources say related to a falling-out with Gareth Southgate’s no.2, Steve Holland (although Southgate denied it).

It’s apparent reading various articles about White that he’s one of those players (Bobby Zamora was another) who switch right off from football after they’ve stopped training or playing.

In an Arsenal matchday programme, White said: “My profession just happens to also be a lot of people’s hobby. They look forward to every Saturday to watch the game and that’s great. But for me it’s about being on the pitches every day, trying to constantly be the best you can be. That’s the bit I really love.

“I never used to watch football much anyway. If it was on when I was a kid, after five minutes I’d get bored of it and go outside to play football. I didn’t really watch it, I’d much rather do it. Even now, I don’t watch football really.

“I watch my own clips and my own footage to help me improve but I wouldn’t watch a game for fun.”

White explained: “When I come into the training ground, it’s all about football – 100 per cent focus. Then when I leave, I switch off from it. I know some players are just about football 24/7 but for me, I wouldn’t be able to do that. I wouldn’t be able to give everything if I did that.

“I think it’s a good balance for me to switch off and leave it at the training ground.”

Now in his fifth season with the Gunners, he made 134 league and cup appearances in his first three seasons, but a knee injury limited his involvement to 26 matches in 2024-25 and he’s made only a handful of starts in 2025-26 with Riccardo Calafiori or Jurrien Timber often ahead of him in the right-back berth.

Nonetheless, when Arteta was questioned about White at the turn of the year, he said: “I’ve said it many times about how I feel about Ben and not [just] what he’s done in the last few weeks, but what he’s done for us in the last few years.

“He’s shown that in various contexts that he’s a player that’s going to give absolutely everything for the team, that he’s always there, he’s someone you can count on in any circumstances.”

Albion banking on Barclay to share experience with youngsters

BEN BARCLAY spent nine years in Manchester City’s youth set-up before joining Brighton in 2013.

He only made one first team appearance for the Seagulls but he played alongside several in the under 21 squad who went on to greater things, such as Ben White, Viktor Gyokeres and Robert Sanchez.

Now he’s back with the young Seagulls as an overage player helping to share his past experiences with those youngsters hoping to step up to the senior side.

Not for the first time, Barclay has followed in the footsteps of the likes of Andrew Crofts and Gary Dicker in returning to the club to work with the young professionals.

After leaving Brighton without building on his Carabao Cup first team debut in 2018, Barclay played lower league football in the north west for Accrington Stanley, Stockport County and Carlisle, as well as loan spells at Notts County and Yeovil Town.

“He knows exactly what it takes to progress from academy football into the senior game and will be a great role model for our young pros,” said Albion under-21s head coach Shannon Ruth of his appointment in July 2025.

“He has excellent EFL experience that he can share with the group. We believe he is a valuable addition to our development programme and we are excited to work with him.

“We will benefit from that not just in matches, but in training throughout the week, where having that experience out on the grass, alongside the players, is invaluable.”

Born in Altrincham on 7 October 1996, Barclay was at City from seven through to 16.

“In my squad there was Tosin Adarabioyo, who has gone on loan to West Brom (now at Chelsea), David Brooks who has signed for Bournemouth,” Barclay said in an interview with The Argus.

“I am good pals with him, he is doing really well. Everyone has left now and gone on loan and playing in the Championship.

“At the time, I saw it coming. The club moved on from me then.”

Barclay left City after he’d finished school at 16 and joined Brighton after a call from a scout.

“I didn’t know much about the city or the club, but the chance came along for me to go for a trial for a week,” he told carlisleunited.co.uk. “You could see that the club was going in a good direction and I enjoyed it.”

Barclay worked his way through the age groups at Albion to become a regular for the under-23s and he said: “By the end of my time there I’d made my debut, that was in the cup, and I’d been involved with the squad and training with the first team.”

That solitary first team opportunity against Southampton in the Carabao Cup (above) was courtesy of injury absences for those above him in the pecking order.

His regular under-23s defensive partner White, who’d impressed on loan at Newport County the previous season, was ruled out by an injury, picked up against future employer Arsenal.

“I was playing with Ben last Monday at the Emirates when he came off,” Barclay told The Argus. Although the knee injury wasn’t as bad as first thought, it gave Barclay an opportunity, particularly with Lewis Dunk (ankle) and Bruno (hamstring) also on the treatment table.

Manager Chris Hughton didn’t want to risk first choice pairing Shane Duffy and Leon Balogun with a league match only a few days away so Barclay was thrown in alongside versatile Brazilian Bernardo. Fellow under-23s Will Collar and Gyokeres also made their debuts.

“The team was confirmed on Monday in training. I travelled up to Anfield at the weekend and just missed out on the bench, so I knew I was in and around it and there were going to be some changes, so I knew I might get on the bench or a few minutes,” he said.

Those few minutes turned into 90 from the start up against Southampton’s experienced Italian striker Manolo Gabbiadini, and Barclay said: “I remember watching him at Wembley against United in the (2017) League Cup final when he first signed and I thought he as a good player, would be tricky.

“When you play against him you realise his movement is even better than when you see him on TV.

“It was massive for me. I’ll take so much from the game, just staying with his runs in the box. They are much cleverer.”

Although he and Bernardo prevented Gabbiadini from scoring, Saints substitute Charlie Austin settled it for the visitors, nodding in Nathan Redmond’s cross with two minutes left, to give Barclay’s debut a disappointing ending.

“If it’s your debut, whether you have a good game or not, if you concede at the death it’s going to be frustrating.”

After the game, Barclay recognised the next stage in his development was quite likely to be a loan and that duly came in January 2019 when he made his league debut two days after joining relegation-bound League Two strugglers Notts County in a 3-3 draw away to Colchester United. With the relegation trapdoor yawning, his first senior goal at home to MK Dons in April was scant consolation in County’s 2-1 defeat.

He made 12 starts plus one appearance off the bench for Neal Ardley’s side which also included Albion’s former goalscorer Craig Mackail-Smith. In the third-to-last game of the season, Mackail-Smith opened the scoring for bottom-of-the-league County at Crawley in a must-win game – but the home side equalised before half-time.

According to the Press Association report: “The Magpies began the second half in purposeful fashion and defender Barclay headed over a Michael Doyle free kick after 50 minutes.”

Four minutes later the young defender was shown a straight red card for a two-footed foul on Crawley skipper Dannie Bulman.

He was suspended for the last two games (a 2-1 win over Grimsby Town and a 3-1 defeat at Swindon Town) and County finished a point ahead of last-placed Yeovil Town but lost their league status for the first time since being founder members of the league in 1888.

Released by Brighton at the end of that season, Barclay spent the next two seasons at Accrington Stanley, where, on signing him, manager John Coleman said: “He is a promising defender from Brighton, he came through at Manchester City so he is technically a very good footballer.

“He had an opportunity last season in League Two with Notts County and it’s a chance for him to kick on in League One and get more league experience under his belt.”

Although offered a new deal after making 43 appearances for the club, he chose to move on to National League side Stockport County, who gave him a three-year contract. However, having made only a handful of appearances for the Hatters, he had two loans away, at National League Yeovil and League Two Carlisle United (a season-long loan).

Somewhat ironically, in May 2023, he scored the winning goal for the Cumbrians in a 3-2 play-off semi-final win over Bradford City to set up a Wembley final against his parent club – but he couldn’t play because of the terms of the loan arrangement.

United boss Paul Simpson said: “Ben got the goal but unfortunately can’t play. It is one of those nightmare scenarios.

“When he has been fit this year, Ben has been brilliant for us. I am sure he will be coming along for the trip.

“Even though he can’t be involved in the game he will be a big part of our training programme.”

As it turned out, Carlisle earned promotion to League One courtesy of a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win after the game was drawn 1-1 and, a month later, Barclay severed ties with Stockport and signed a two-year contract with Carlisle.

He made 27 appearances for the Cumbrian side in League One and a further 26 on their demotion back to League Two in 2025. His return to the Seagulls followed the end of that campaign, and he penned a one-year deal.

Back with Brighton in the summer of 2025

The Italian job to rediscover the lost art of goalscoring

EVAN Ferguson is on a mission in Italy to rediscover the eye-catching goalscoring form that saw him burst onto the scene as a teenager at Brighton in 2022.

So far, it isn’t quite going according to plan: it took 12 games  before he managed to score his first Serie A goal for Roma.

The young Irishman had previously thought his goalscoring touch would return during a four-month loan spell at West Ham under the head coach who first gave him that early introduction to the Premier League.

To say that all ended in disappointment would be an understatement, one writer (Gary Connaughton on balls.ie) describing his goalless 152 minutes of action for the Hammers as “disastrous”.

The one game he did start for United, he was hauled off at half-time after missing a sitter.

Puzzlingly for many observers, Graham Potter kept the young striker on the subs bench for most of the time he spent at West Ham.

“Here was one of the most highly-rated young strikers in Europe desperately in need of game time after an injury-plagued 18 months which had stunted his development,” wrote Damian Charles Lewis for hammers.news.

Pointing out the chance 20-year-old Ferguson had to start every week, regain his fitness and confidence and either return to Brighton restored or join the Hammers permanently, he said: “It should have been a match made in heaven. Expectation vs reality was very different, though.Fast forward four months and Ferguson became the latest addition to a long list of West Ham striker flops.”

Lewis pointed out: “The most damning statistic of all was the fact Ferguson failed to register a single shot on target for West Ham, never mind score a goal.

“When he did get a start at Wolves, Ferguson somehow fluffed a tap-in to give the Hammers an early lead in a game they went on to lose.

“Any confidence the once £100m-rated striker did have drained from his body and he was subbed off at half-time barely to be seen again.”

Maybe expectation was simply too much in the circumstances. 

The player himself said on signing: “I can see and know how big West Ham United is. It was a big opportunity for me to come here. I know the gaffer well and look forward to working under him again. I want to come in and do my best for the club, score goals, and see where we get to.”

Even former Hammers hitman Dean Ashton lauded his signing, telling the club website: “He’s easily got the potential to become a cult hero at West Ham. We’ve seen that. He’s been highly rated and highly touted throughout his career.

“He has an opportunity here, and I think with the talent he’s clearly got, he’s going to be a massive fan favourite. I think the fans are crying out for someone like him, and I’m sure he’s got the confidence to own the shirt and be the main man.

“We’ve been waiting for a long time to have a striker who can play through the middle, that can score goals, that can be in the box ready for those opportunities that get created by the wide players and midfield players.

“The biggest thing is he knows where the goal is, and I feel as if he’s the type of player that if he gets in those areas, you think he’s going to score, and that’s quite important. He won’t realise it yet, I’m sure he will start to, but what a club and what a fanbase. 

“If he does well, he’ll soon know what an unbelievable place this is and hopefully get that first goal and really kick on from there.”

When he’d failed to make a big impact after his first six weeks at the club, there were murmurings amongst Hammers fans and Potter spoke up for the player, saying: “From our perspective that is unfair, to be honest. You have to see the context of where he was in terms of the minutes he’s played previously and how he was on his return from injury.

“We got him at the really early stages of the return-to-play stage, so to think you can just walk into a Premier League team and hit the ground running and play, that is difficult but he’s come on, he’s helped us and the last four matches we’ve picked up seven points.

“He’s been part of the team and group in that respect, so we’re happy with him. I think he is enjoying his time here, settled in well and is ready to help. It was always going to be a patient one with him.”

A delighted goalscorer for his country

Ferguson may have struggled at club level but he continued to find the net for the Republic of Ireland and when he joined up with the national squad in March 2025, assistant manager John O’Shea told the Irish media that Ferguson was so sharp in training, he couldn’t believe he was not playing more for the Hammers.

“They probably felt there was a little niggling injury where they had to build up fitness,” said the former Manchester United defender. “It’s a learning curve. And he has got to knuckle down in training and prove to us this week and to West Ham when he goes back that he deserves a start.

“If he gets the chance, whether it’s five minutes, 20 minutes or half-an-hour, that you show why you should be in the team.”

Ferguson duly ended a four-month goal drought on 23 March with a crucial equaliser in the Republic’s 2-1 win over Bulgaria and he told Irish TV: “It’s always good to score, and for your country as well. It’s my job now. I didn’t catch it as cleanly as I would have liked, but that can be the next one.

“I am in a good place, and I feel positive mentally and physically. Everyone wants to play, so when you have your chance, you have to take the minutes as you get them.

“I haven’t played as much football as I’d have liked this season, for a variety of reasons, but I’ll be aiming to continue this form after the international break and have a strong end to the season.”

When that didn’t happen, Ireland’s most-capped goalkeeper, Shay Given, proffered his thoughts on Ferguson’s prospects. “I just think he needs to go, be it a loan for a season or some club buys him, and you build the team around him. I think he’s a top player, I really do,” said Given, who played 134 times for his country.

“I did some Malaysian TV recently with Bobby Zamora. He goes into Brighton once a week and coaches the strikers. Bobby said Evan was the best finisher at the club.

“Maybe because he burst onto the scene, everyone’s been expecting so much so soon. With young players, you need to have a bit of time.”

Somewhat presciently, Given added: “I just feel he’s ready now to burst onto the scene for a full season with somebody. For us, with Ireland, it would be great too.”

It turned out that move was to the Italian capital and to the club that ousted Albion at the last 16 stage of the Europa League in 2024. Ferguson had a largely watching brief from the subs bench when AS Roma beat the Seagulls 4-1 on aggregate but it didn’t take him long to make his mark for the Giallorossi when he moved on a season-long loan in July 2025.

Ferguson scored four on his debut in a 9-0 hammering of lower league opponents UniPomezia, including a hat-trick within 24 minutes.

Even though goals were missing from his early Serie A performances, Roma’s new manager Gian Piero Gasperini seemed satisfied. For example, after their opening day 1-0 win over Bologna his hold-up play and directness impressed the fans and the manager.

“He played a great game, and his condition is improving,” said Gasperini. “He played very little last year, and needs to get used to it, but tonight he showed some important qualities for us. 

“He has a lot of potential and will give us great satisfaction in the long run.”

In another interview, Gasperini added: “Now we are trying to restore the expectations that were placed on him when he had such a strong start at a young age. He is working hard.”

After the player, with his back to goal, used his trademark strength and poise to control a pass from Paulo Dybala and laid the ball off for Matías Soulé to rifle home the winner at Pisa, Gasperini observed: “It was a beautiful piece of play up front for the goal. All three players, Dybala, Ferguson and Soulé interchanged before a beautiful finish.”

Goals hard to come by in Italy

Having subbed off Ferguson towards the end of the game, the manager added: “Ferguson needs to improve physically. He comes from the north and was used to different temperatures. As he grows, he’ll become even stronger and more useful for us.” 

The manager might have more patience than the media, though, it seems. Leading Italian sports newspaper and website La Gazzetta Dello Sport reporter Andrea Pugliese wrote: “The Irishman has played eight out of nine games, missing only the Fiorentina match and starting four times. 

“But, while his first steps were encouraging, the last month has seen him lose recognition and minutes. Gasperini expects him to be more effective in front of goal, to shoot better, and to become even more effective.” 

Corriere Dello Sport had a harsher assessment, believing Ferguson “is struggling to find confidence and score goals” and even drawing readers’ attention with the word ‘Ferguflop’in a sub-headline. 

The newspaper declared: “Gasperini is expecting him to offer something new and different, if the striker wants to become a regular upfront. The manager wants immediate answers.”

Ferguson had another fruitful spell for his country during the October international break; his goal goal against Armenia being his third in four Ireland games.

However, Corriere Dello Sport reckoned the player was returning to Italy from these breaks overweight, claiming the player himself has acknowledged it publicly and privately.

In another report from La Gazzetta Dello Sport, they claimedFerguson and Artem Dovbyk (who has shared the central striking berth) are both “on the discard list” at Roma, describing them as “lost strikers who are no longer scoring”. 

The newspaper reckoned Roma would try to sell Dovbyk and send Ferguson back early to Brighton.

However, Gasperini played down the noise, saying he had seen Ferguson “train properly for the first time this season” and added: “He’s coming to a league he’s never played in, so you have to wait. Guys this young can have periods of poor performance.”

After going on and scoring as a second-half sub away to Cremonese on 23 November – Albion teammate Jeremy Sarmiento was an unused sub for the opposition who had veteran Jamie Vardy up front – a relieved Ferguson said: “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time, now I hope to get more of them.

Ferguson celebrates his first Serie A goal

“There have been many ups and downs but now I hope to continue like this, to play and score.”

His involvement in the next match (four days after the Cremonese game) was again from the bench as Roma beat Midtjylland 2-1 in the Europa League.

Although he was restored to the starting line-up for the league game at home to Napoli three days later, he was subbed off at half-time and the Giallorossi ended up losing 1-0.

It is perhaps easy to forget Ferguson only turned 21 in October, and, if he needed any inspiration, another Irish international striker had words of comfort for him.

Shane Long, who won 88 caps for the Republic, told the Irish Mirror: “He’s only a baby. I wasn’t playing properly in the Premier League until I was 21 or 22 – Evan’s already shown us he can do it at such a young age.

“It’s just a case of giving him that confidence and letting him play freely, without the weight of the world on his shoulders.

“The crazy thing is, he’s still so young,” Long told reporter Ben Crawford. “There’s been a lot of pressure and expectation on him ever since he burst onto the scene, really – all of a sudden, all of the headlines were around a mega-money move to Chelsea, and all these teams queuing up for him.

“Watching him when he first came through, he had everything – he had size, speed, he was a good finisher.

“He was hungry to do well, and he had that youth and naivety to go out and play. But then things weren’t going so well, and he was probably getting in his own head about it.

“I was excited for Evan when he went to West Ham, because he was going to a manager he knew well – I thought he’d get the best out of him, but it’s not really turned out that way.”

Ferguson opened up on events of the past year in a lengthy interview with Irish broadcaster RTÉ in October.

“It was obviously a tough end to last season,” he told RTÉ Sport’s Tony O’Donoghue. “I had a think back and said I wanted to go away and try something new. Because I’d been in England four or five years then. And Roma came about and it’s hard to say no to a club like that.

“You knew it was a big club. But then when you get there, you realise that it’s much bigger than you think. The fans are crazy.”

Ferguson has followed in the footsteps of fellow Irish international Robbie Keane, who had a short-lived stint at Inter Milan in 2000. The journalist also spoke of the success in Italy of one-time Albion manager Liam Brady who spent seven years in Italy, winning two Serie A titles with Juventus in 1981 and 1982 and later shining for Sampdoria.

“The training is a lot different compared to England,” said Ferguson. “You do more in training, it’s a lot more intense. Days off are very rare. You’re nearly celebrating a day off. It’s full on. You’re always staying the night (in a hotel) whether it’s home or away.”

The young Irishman continued: “The game is different because it’s a lot more tactical.

“You’re nearly playing man-to-man every week with teams having different systems. That’s where it’s different to England, where it’s more back-and-forth, back-and-forth… but it’s a good change.”

Asked why he thought Scott McTominay had benefitted from moving to Naples, Ferguson suggested that getting away from the noise of the Premier League may be a factor.

“Maybe it’s the way of life,” he said. “Just getting out of England… everyone knows in England, once one thing goes bad, everyone gets on it, you know what I mean?”

Yet another former Republic of Ireland international, Kevin Kilbane, reckons it has been a good move for Ferguson and in an exclusive interview with DAZN news said: “It’s a very technical league, and Evan is very technically gifted in many ways, so I expect him to thrive there. 

“He looked a bit suffocated, and a new experience might just be what he needed. His loan at West Ham didn’t work out, and Brighton loaned him out there for whatever reason, so he clearly wasn’t in favour there.

“Gasperini is a great coach for him to have. He has developed plenty of talent, so if anyone can get Ferguson back firing, it’s him. Ferguson needs goals, and I think he will score plenty for Roma this season.” 

Ferguson played against Chelsea when he was just 14!

Born into a footballing family in Bettystown, County Meath, on 19 October 2004, Ferguson has been attracting media attention from the age of 14 when in July 2019 he was sent on as a substitute for Bohemians in a pre-season friendly against Chelsea (it was Frank Lampard’s first game in charge of the Londoners).

Ferguson was taken to St Kevin’s Football Club in Dublin (Damien Duff and Liam Brady are among its alumni) as a four-year-old by his dad Barry, who had been on Coventry’s books, and had brief spells with Colchester, Hartlepool and Northampton before spending most of his playing career in the Republic. 

St Kevin’s managed Bohemians’ academy teams and Karl Lamb, who coached Ferguson for eight years at St Kevin’s told BBC Sport in May 2023: “The Chelsea thing for me was like ‘Oh, he’s hit another milestone’, but when you take a step back, it shouldn’t be happening.

“It kickstarted the proper hype around him, taking it national and outside Ireland. That was when the madness started.”

Michael O’Callaghan, chairman of St Kevin’s, said: “Evan was put into the squad and played; we questioned that. 

“We were managing Bohemians’ academy teams – they played in our ground, trained with us, we appointed the coaches. Should a 14-year-old be in a dressing room with adults? He got a runout. We knew he was destined for good things.”

Lamb continued: “He is this thing Ireland have been crying out for, for maybe 10 or 15 years. In England, it is like ‘This lad has come out of nowhere’ whereas in Ireland it is, ‘This lad is the great hope’.”

Ferguson’s talent was evident from a young age, according to Lamb. “Physically, Evan has always been a big lad, but he played football technically, tactically and in terms of decision making, miles ahead of other people,” he said. “He rarely relied on his physique. He would see something and try it, and that followed him all the way through.”

It was in the Academy Cup, against the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Arsenal, that Ferguson really began to draw attention.

“He had a touch of class; he’d be the one player you’d pick out of our team and put in the opposition’s team and he’d have been comfortable,” said Lamb.

After Brexit, British clubs were not able to sign players from the Republic of Ireland until they turned 18 but Brighton were able to bring over Ferguson at 16 because of his English mother.

Potter handed him his first team debut, in August 2021, when he was 16 and 308 days, sending him on for Enock Mwepu in the 81st minute of a 2-0 Carabao Cup win over Cardiff City. 

“It was an unbelievable feeling. It’s what every young boy wants to do – to play first-team football for a Premier League club, and I’m lucky enough to have done it,” he said.

“Just being involved in that environment, to see how it all works, was a tremendous experience and that would have been enough for me. But to then get the chance to play, it was incredible.”

His next first team appearance was in January 2022 when he went on as a 76th minute sub for Joel Veltman in Albion’s 2-1 extra-time FA Cup third round win at West Brom. The following month he went on for Jakub Moder against Spurs in a 3-1 FA Cup fourth round defeat at White Hart Lane.

The same month, he inked his way into Albion record books as the club’s youngest Premier League player when he replaced Danny Welbeck in the 68th minute of a 3-0 defeat at home to Burnley. 

He remained involved with the first team squad for the rest of the season although was a non-playing sub for several matches.

Ferguson’s first senior goal came in his first start, netting in the 94th minute of Albion’s 3-0 Carabao Cup second round win away to Forest Green Rovers early into the 2022-23 season (Deniz Undav and Steven Alzate also scored).

Ferguson became Albion’s youngest ever Premier League scorer when he netted against Arsenal on New Year’s Eve 2022 having gone on as a 77th-minute sub for Leandro Trossard. 

“Latching on to a Lewis Dunk pass, he showed quick feet and good composure to tuck home past Gunners ‘keeper Aaron Ramsdale,” reported the matchday programme. 

“I was buzzing to get the goal,” said Ferguson. “To have the record as youngest scorer is not a bad one, so hopefully I can keep going and try to get some more.”

Four days later he did just that having made his first Premier League start at Goodison Park; scoring again as Albion thrashed Everton 4-1.

Ferguson also marked his first start for the Republic of Ireland with a goal in a 3-2 win over Latvia in March 2023 (his first senior appearance had been as an 89th minute sub for Alan Browne in November 2022 when Norway ran out 2-1 winners).

After Ferguson scored the only goal of the game – his fifth goal of the season and a fourth in nine appearances – against Championship side Stoke City to send the Seagulls through to the FA Cup quarter-finals, Roberto De Zerbi said of the youngster: “He is unique for us in terms of quality, in terms of characteristic. He knows very well the way to score. I think he can and he has to improve, in the quality of play, in ball possession, to keep the ball better.

“But he is 18, he is [born in] 2004, and he will improve for sure, because I know the guy, I know his passion, his attitude. I have no doubt.”

Come the end of the 2022-23 season, Ferguson had scored 10 goals in 15 starts plus 10 sub appearances and unsurprisingly was named Albion’s Young Player of the Year.

Asked by Irish broadcaster RTE why he’d chosen Brighton rather than other suitors, he said: “When I came over, there were three or four Irish here, and since then, three or four more have come into the place.

“I’ve played with some of them before, played with Jamie (Mullins) since I was a young kid.  Having a few of the Irish boys around has helped me to settle in. You don’t really miss home, because they were your mates from home.

“Also, the feeling that the club gave me when I came over. There’s a wall that shows all the players that have come through the academy to play in the first team.

“They are not lying to you to try and get you in. There’s a pathway here, so that gives you a chance to break through earlier.”

His stand-out moment of the 2023-24 season was scoring a hat-trick in the 4-1 home win over Newcastle United in September after which De Zerbi said: “He can become big, big, big.

“His qualities are enough to become a great player. He can become one of the best, the top scorer in Europe. I don’t know how many players are young, that score like him.”

But when the goals began to dry up De Zerbi said: “For the young players, you can expect different types of performances.

“There is a time when they play very well, they score. In different moments they maybe can suffer the level of competition. I think in the last two months Evan suffered with injury, with other things. But he can play better.

“The level of Evan is higher than he is playing in this moment. But we have to help him, he has to help himself first of all to understand the play but he is very young. He is like my son. I try everything to help him become a great player for sure.”

The injury the Italian referred to was to an ankle and after surgery he was sidelined for six months. 

Contracted with the Seagulls until June 2029, Ferguson found game time hard to achieve in the early part of Fabian Hurzeler’s reign with Joao Pedro, Georginio Rutter and Welbeck ahead of him in the pecking order.

When the temporary switch to West Ham was completed, Hurzeler said: “Evan has had a frustrating 12 months with injuries and for him to get back to the level he’s capable of and to continue his development, he really needs to be playing regularly.”

When Ferguson moved to Roma with an option to buy for a reported €40m at the end of the loan, Hurzeler told the Argus: “For us it is always important the individual players have an environment where they can develop.

“We decided the loan was the best option. He is still a player of us, he still brings us quality with him, he is a target player and I am sure when he gets more game time he will one day be back and be an important player for us.”

The head coach added: “Evan had a challenging period across the past season and a half, and it has been one disrupted by niggling injury issues, which hasn’t allowed him a run of games. 

“He is over those injuries and has come back in great shape. Now he really wants to play regularly. This is an exciting opportunity in a strong league and with the prospect of European football.”

When asked in late October about Ferguson’s year-long club goal drought, Hurzeler told a media conference it was “natural” that a young player would go through “waves” in their development, and reckoned patience was the only thing that would help the player get through it.

“It’s not easy, especially for Evan, to go to another culture, it’s a completely different style of football,” he said. “We need to be patient with him, he’s still very young, he needs to adapt. I think he had a really good start.

“It’s natural, when you look at our squad, it’s the same with our young players, there are waves in the way they develop. We can’t expect that it always goes (upwards).

“Overall, the main thing is that he doesn’t regret what he’s doing, that he’s overcoming these phases because overcoming these phases means you get stronger in your personality, you become more mature, you make the next step and I’m sure long-term, this will help in his development.”

Tommy Elphick’s cherry picking ride to coaching

MEADOW LANE, Nottingham, is probably not one of Tommy Elphick’s favourite grounds. When he left the pitch on a stretcher in the 53rd minute on 7 May 2011, it was a great opportunity for the youngster who replaced him – Lewis Dunk – but for Elphick it was a turning point in a fledgling, promising career with his hometown club.

League One champions Brighton drew 1-1 with Notts County that day but, as they looked forward to playing Championship football in the shiny new American Express Community Stadium at Falmer, Elphick was sidelined for the whole of the following season with a ruptured Achilles tendon injury.

Unsurprisingly, others made the most of his absence. Although he briefly returned to first team action in a pre-season friendly v Lewes in August 2012, the level of competition by then made him realise he would need to move elsewhere to get back in the groove.

That’s when he began an association with AFC Bournemouth that continues now as first team coach, retained by the club in spite of the man who appointed him (Gary O’Neil) being replaced as manager.

As a player, Elphick took a step back to make a stride forward, dropping down a division to join the Cherries and ended up reaching the ‘promised land’ of the Premier League before the Albion.

“To say it worked out well for me was an understatement,” Elphick told Nick Szczepanik in an Albion website interview in 2020. Little wonder he is hailed as “the most successful captain in the history of AFC Bournemouth” having led them to promotions from League One in 2013 and the Championship in 2015, when he was ever-present and named Cherries supporters’ player of the season.

En route to that achievement, he finally got to play at the Amex – on 1 January 2014 – but it was in the red and black stripes of the Cherries in a 1-1 Championship draw.

At the Amex in Bournemouth’s red and black stripes

Interviewed in that game’s matchday programme, he admitted: “I’m buzzing for it. I was the first Brighton player contracted to play at the Amex but obviously my Achilles injury conspired against me and I never got the opportunity.

“Having been with the club since a kid, as we went through all the struggles the dream was always to run out at the new stadium at Falmer. It was disappointing that it never happened for me.”

Born in Brighton on 7 September 1987, Elphick played locally for Woodingdean FC before linking up with the Albion academy at the age of 11 after impressing head of youth Martin Hinshelwood.

In his early days with Brighton, he came under the influence of Vic Bragg who he described as “a very astute tactician” whose “coaching drills were excellent and kept us on our toes”.

In a matchday programme article, he said of Bragg: “While he has a heart of gold and is genuinely a nice guy, you didn’t want to cross him on a bad day – but if he did have a word in your ear, it was always constructive.”

It was under Mark McGhee that Elphick made his first team debut (above) in December 2005, going on as a 73rd minute sub away to Reading in a 5-1 mauling after his older brother Gary had earlier been sent off on his full debut.

“I’m Brighton born and bred, I was a fan at Withdean before I played, and even remember doing a bucket collection on the touchline at Priestfield (when Albion were in exiled at Gillingham) in a bid to raise money for some new jumpers for us youth-team players.

“To then go on and make my debut, having come through the system under Dean Wilkins, well it doesn’t get any better than that.

“That was the highlight for me; being one of seven players from the youth-team set-up to make it to the first team.”

Gary didn’t play for the Seagulls again and Tommy had to wait until April 2007 to make his first start, by which time his old youth team coach Wilkins was in charge of the first team. That game also ended in a defeat, 2-0 to Doncaster, and it was only the following season that he established himself as a starter, initially playing alongside Guy Butters and Joel Lynch and later Adam El Abd and Gordon Greer.

A personal highlight was winning the Player of the Season accolade at the end of his first full season (2007-08), and he went on to captain the side on many occasions, as well as being part of the team that won the League One title.

“Brighton are the club who gave me my chance in the game, who shaped me as a footballer and a person,” he said.

As well as McGhee and Wilkins, Elphick’s 182 Seagulls appearances also spread across the reigns of Micky Adams, Russell Slade and Gus Poyet.

The changes introduced by Poyet really struck home with Elphick, who told Spencer Vignes: “From day one there was absolute clarity in terms of what he expected from us, with a few simple rules to start with, which he built on week by week.

“We were in the lower reaches of the table and flirting with relegation, so for him to come in and demand that we play the way he saw the game was unbelievable really.

“A lot of managers would’ve tried to tighten the ship and play a more basic brand of football, but his football was based around possession.

“The style he produced, the football we played and what we went on to do for the next two or three years was phenomenal.”

But Elphick appreciated others too, saying: “I had such a good grounding as a kid and I’m so lucky to have played under some great managers and coaches.”

As a pointer to how things have panned out, he said: “I definitely want to stay in the game, coach, and hopefully manage one day.”

Reflecting on the League One title-winning campaign, Elphick told Szczepanik: “I relished the way we played in that season. I was brought up to play that way in the youth teams under Vic Bragg, Martin Hinshelwood and Dean Wilkins, who all wanted the game played in the right way.

“We lost our way a little after Dean left and we didn’t really have any style until Gus Poyet came to the club and revolutionised it. It was something I was enjoying until I got that injury. But if I hadn’t been injured, would I have ended up at Bournemouth?”

Elphick had signed a new contract with Albion when the move to Bournemouth in League One came up. “In theory it was a step down, but for me it was important to get back playing again,” he said.

The 2011-12 season had been a wipe-out as far as he was concerned because an infection and a repeat of the initial injury ruled out any chance of a swift comeback. He was operated on in Finland by the same surgeon (Professor Sakari Orava) who had performed similar surgery on David Beckham.

It was fully 16 months between the initial injury and playing 45 minutes of a pre-season friendly at Lewes in July 2012. “The idea had been to go out on loan and there were four or five different options, but Bournemouth were looking to have a right go at getting promoted and when I went down to meet the manager, Paul Groves, and the chairman, I was taken by the plans they had for the club,” said Elphick.

“Paul’s assistant, Shaun Brooks, was quite close to Dean Wilkins, and used to come and watch the Brighton youth team, so there was a connection there. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out for Paul and Shaun but that led to Eddie Howe coming back to the club.”

After making 145 appearances for Bournemouth, in 2016 Elphick moved on to Aston Villa, who he had scored against for Brighton at Villa Park in a 3-2 FA Cup defeat three years earlier (below left).

In the summer of 2016, Villa, under Roberto di Matteo, had just been relegated to the Championship and wanted Elphick as their captain as they aimed to bounce straight back to the Premier League.

He was di Matteo’s first signing as Villa manager – and he can thank a very understanding wife that the move went through smoothly.

Elphick cut short his honeymoon to get cracking with his new club, telling the Birmingham Mail: “As soon as I heard about Villa’s interest it’s something that turned my head straight away.

“To be able to come here and represent such a great club with such great history is going to be a real honour for me.”

However, it wasn’t long before Steve Bruce took over from di Matteo and he preferred a different centre-back pairing, meaning Elphick spent most of the second half of the season on the subs bench. I recollect him going on for Villa in the last game of the season when Albion hoped to clinch the Championship title only to concede a late equaliser when a shot from Jack Grealish squirmed through David Stockdale’s grasp.

On loan at Hull City

In January of the following year, Elphick went out on loan to Reading for half a season (but only played four games) and he began the first half of the 2018-19 season on loan at Hull City, playing 18 games under Nigel Adkins.

Because of injuries to others, he was recalled to Villa at the start of 2019 by Bruce’s replacement Dean Smith. He played 14 matches but was not involved in the end-of-season play-off final when they finally earned promotion back to the Premier League (beating Derby County 2-1).

Interviewed by the Birmingham Mail about his three years at Villa, Elphick replied: “Tough, unbelievable, disappointing, anger – I had every emotion but I wouldn’t change it for the world because it’s created who I am now.

“What I saw and experienced at Villa was mental, good and bad. A big club brings different pressures and different pitfalls and you have to experience that to know what you could be dealt with further down the line.

“It was really troubled and there was poison in the brickworks to start with. Steve Bruce did the most unbelievable job at weeding that out and bringing it all together.

A challenging time at Villa

“He wasn’t a manager I particularly took a shine to in the way he coached or managed but he taught me a lot about how to bring people together and how to create a group.

“I experienced working under Roberto di Matteo, a Champions League-winning manager, and Steve Bruce, one of the most successful managers in the Championship. Dean Smith was a bit of a trailblazer and did some powerful stuff.”

After two injury-ravaged seasons at Huddersfield Town, when he managed just 14 games for the Terriers, Elphick quit playing to embark on a coaching career that always seemed to be his destination.

He reckoned it was that long spell out injured while at Brighton that helped his move into coaching because he had time to watch and understand football in a way that wouldn’t have happened if he’d been playing every weekend.

He returned to Bournemouth as coach of their development squad, explaining to premierleague.com: “I was delighted to work alongside Shaun Cooper with the 21s. I was very, very lucky to work with such an outstanding coach, and I learned so much. That period also opened my eyes to the time and effort required to do this job properly.  

“In truth, academy football probably had a lifespan for me, but it was an invaluable year.” 

When Parker lost his job in the wake of a 9-0 humbling by Liverpool, Cooper and Elphick were promoted to work alongside new boss Gary O’Neil.

“There are benefits and negatives to being thrust into that situation,” admitted Elphick. “I would love to have spent more time coaching, experimenting, and finding out who I really am on the grass before going into such a high-pressure situation, but it was an opportunity which had to be grabbed with both hands.”

Elphick told Adrian Clarke: “At the outset, none of us had coached at Premier League level before, but we went in, took the handbrake off and went for it. Thankfully, the three us had a nice blend.”  

Elphick absorbed plenty from O’Neil’s way of working and observed: “Premier League football is such a high-level now that as a coach, if you’re put on the spot you need to be able to answer questions or offer advice on all aspects of the game. My intention is to become as well-rounded as possible.” 

After helping Andoni Iraola settle in as new head coach, Elphick has relished his supporting role although he confessed: “I’ve always wanted to manage, and down the line I’d like to put my principles and ideas into practice. It’s an itch I will need to scratch, but there is no rush.  

“Right now, I just feel so lucky to have experienced contrasting styles in O’Neil and Iraola, and I have learned an incredible amount from both men. I really resonate with Andoni, and the way he wants his team to play with emotion, and he places a lot of emphasis on spirit. 

“What I have learned so far is that to be a successful coach you firstly need strong beliefs. Then, you must deliver your messages with consistency and confidence, and of course be authentic, true to yourself.”

Tigana ‘disciple’ Paul Nevin the respected analytical coach

PAUL NEVIN didn’t rise to great heights as a player but he became “one of the most respected and most widely experienced coaches in the country”.

He was a Premier League coach at Brighton and West Ham, not to mention being part of Gareth Southgate’s coaching team for England.

They were just three of a broad variety of coaching jobs he has filled in different corners of the world – and, interestingly, Jean Tigana, one of the top French footballers of his generation, influenced Nevin the most (more of which, later).

All a far cry for a lad born in Lewisham, south east London, on 23 June 1969 who had a humble playing career that began at Division Two Shrewsbury Town and later involved short spells at Carlisle United and Yeovil Town.

Nevin the player

He was a former teammate of Albion’s head of football David Weir for three years when both played for the University of Evansville’s Purple Aces team in Missouri, America.

Having taken his A-levels while playing for Shrewsbury reserves, Nevin wanted a back-up career in case football didn’t work out and he took a scholarship to gain a bachelor’s degree in communications while playing for the American college team.

After gaining his degree, he returned to the UK and spent the 1991-92 season with Fourth Division Carlisle before moving south to join then Conference side Yeovil. He was there for two years but suffered a bad back injury that forced him to retire from playing when still only 24.

Nevin picked up the story in an interview with the Albion matchday programme. “While I was playing at Yeovil, I also volunteered at a children’s home and as a result I was soon offered a job as a social worker in Wandsworth, south London.”

He later explained: “That gave me the opportunity to develop a lot of skills that transcend into coaching – counselling skills, working with young people, trying to build self-esteem and motivation – which I can take into a sporting arena.”

He kept in touch with football, though, by working part-time for Fulham’s Centre of Excellence.

It was during the period when since-disgraced Mohamed Al Fayed took over Fulham, sacked Micky Adams and appointed Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan.

In the shake-up, Nevin worked his way up the academy system, eventually becoming youth team coach and then reserve team manager working alongside Chris Coleman. Within a year he had become full-time and by 2000 was working under Fulham boss Tigana.

“He had a major influence on my coaching career and my philosophy towards football,” said Nevin.

“The methodology of training, his highly technical approach, working with sports scientist and nutritionists, it was all new in this country and made a big impression on me.”

Together with Christian Damiano, the pair’s methods had been nurtured at the French national academy in Clairefontaine and had a profound effect on Nevin.

“We had a core of good young players coming through the club, the likes of Liam Rosenior, Zat Knight, Sean Davies, Zesh Rehman and Mark Hudson, who all went on the have successful careers in the game.”

In 2006, by which time he already held the Uefa Pro Licence as a coach, he moved with his wife and two children to Auckland to become manager of the New Zealand Knights, who played in the Australian A League.

That lasted a year before he moved to the Middle East and spent five years as football performance manager at the Aspire Academy in Qatar working with young players and coaches.

Chris Hughton brought him back to the UK to become first team coach at Norwich City when they were in the Premier League in the 2013-14 season.

Nevin was reunited with Chris Hughton at Brighton having worked with him at Norwich.

From Carrow Road, he then worked as head of coaching for the Premier League, a role that saw him run a diploma course to develop coaches with great potential as well as acting as a sounding board for coaches working in Premier League academies.

Nevin was reunited with Hughton at Brighton just ahead of the club’s debut season in the Premier League, replacing Simon Rusk who had stepped up temporarily from being under 21 coach when Nathan Jones left to become manager of Luton Town.

Hughton said: “Paul is an excellent coach and a good appointment for the club. I’m delighted he is on board and looking forward to working with him again.”

Asked whether his lack of high level playing experience was a hindrance to working as a Premier League coach, Nevin replied: “Coaching and playing are very different things. While I might not have played Premier League football, I am a real student of the game and have worked alongside some great coaches and managers. I have developed a healthy understanding of top-level football from a coaching perspective.”

On England duty with Gareth Southgate

When Lewis Dunk made his England debut in a 3-0 friendly win over USA at Wembley in October, 2018, Nevin was part of the coaching team supporting Gareth Southgate as part of an initiative to place black, Asian and minority ethnic coaches in all England squads. Formally known as the Elite Coach Placement programme, it was a key strand of the FA’s Pursuit of Progress strategy, designed to increase diversity in coaching roles.

However, Nevin and Southgate were already known to each other. At Fulham, he was assistant academy manager to former Crystal Palace boss Alan Smith, who had managed Southgate at Selhurst. Nevin got to know Southgate through Smith.

“I was a little unsure as to what the setup would be like, but to get the opportunity to work with Gareth Southgate, Steve Holland (the assistant manager) and the rest of the senior men’s setup was something I couldn’t turn down,” Nevin told the FA’s in-house media.

“The biggest challenge I found was that, if working inside a club, you get to work with the players and other coaches on ideas each day. You start preparing for a match at the weekend at the beginning of the week, with days to get the clarity of message through.

“But on the international stage, there’s a finite amount of time to get critical information across and to develop strong harmony across the squad. It’s a challenge that makes you acutely aware that every moment during an international camp counts.”

It wasn’t the first time that Nevin had worked for the FA, though. When he was head of coaching at the Premier League, between August 2014 and April 2016, he coached England’s under-16s who at the time included Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho.

Nevin, by then 49, said: “When I got the call, I was absolutely delighted and feel it’s a very privileged position. First and foremost, I’m very thankful to Gareth and The FA for the opportunity.”

Albion happy to see Nevin develop with England

He appreciated Brighton giving him the time to do something which was a development opportunity and added: “This is a chance to work with the best players in the country. Obviously, I see them week-to-week in the Premier League but working with them en-masse in a squad setting is going to be immense.

“Having had a brief experience of working at international youth development levels, it’s a chance to see the final product that’s coming through the system while working alongside the top coaches in the country.

“Being a part of that environment at the highest level of international football and looking at how they work and function will have the biggest impact on me. I previously had a spell working in coach development at the Premier League so I’m aware of the need to give opportunities to the quality BAME coaches out there.”

Nevin parted company with the Seagulls when Hughton was relieved of his duties at the end of the 2018-19 season but he wasn’t away from football’s top table for long because in February 2020 he joined West Ham along with former Hammers captain Kevin Nolan to work with David Moyes and his assistant Alan Irvine.

In October 2022, Malik Ouzia in The Standard wrote: “Nevin is one of the most respected and most widely experienced coaches in the country, a key lieutenant under David Moyes, as well as Gareth Southgate at England.”

According to Roshane Thomas, writing for The Athletic in December 2022, Nevin’s role at West Ham was to focus on creation and delivery in attacking set-plays and analysing opponents’ set-plays.

“I’m fluent in analysis tools so I can do my own analysis, I have done that for 20-odd years,” Nevin explained in an interview with premierleague.com.

Hammering home a point

The Hammers achieved European qualification in each of Nevin’s three seasons with them and he left shortly after they won the UEFA Europa Conference League trophy. Manager Moyes said: “Paul has played an important role for us during his time here and I would like to thank him for all his support and hard work during his time at West Ham United.
“He is highly ambitious as a coach and is keen to test himself in a new environment and we wish him well in doing so.”

Nevin said: “I’ll always look back on my time and the opportunity I had to work at West Ham with great fondness.

“In the three and a half years, we enjoyed a period of great success in West Ham’s history, culminating in the Europa Conference League win last season, which gives the club a fantastic opportunity and platform to go on to even greater levels in the future.”

From West Ham, he moved to French Ligue 1 side Strasbourg, where he worked as first-team coach under Patrick Vieira, who was appointed head coach by the club’s new owners, BlueCo, who also own Chelsea. Nevin didn’t stay on when Vieira left after one season to be replaced by former Albion player Liam Rosenior.

Last minute instructions for Cole Palmer at the 2024 Euros

Nevin had rejoined the senior England men’s team coaching staff in August 2021 and was part of Southgate’s support team through to the 2024 Euros in Germany. In August 2024, he took charge of England’s Elite League Squad on an interim basis when Ben Futcher stepped up to Under-21s manager following Lee Carsley’s temporary rise to take the full England team.

When asked whether he held ambitions to become a manager in his own right, Nevin told The Standard: “I owe it to myself and the people I’ve worked with.

“If the right opportunity came at the right time, then I need to give it a go because maybe with that nudge at the door, if I’m successful, it can allow me to bring others in and give others opportunities.”

Expanding on his experience in that premierleague.com interview, he said:“I’ve worked with young people outside of football, within social work, trying to study languages as well. When I’ve worked with French players and Spanish players – and I’m not saying I’m fluent by any means – but just a little bit of connection there, those little things help.

“I’ve worked in this game around the globe as well, so it’s not like I’ve just been at domestic level. I was a manager in the Australian League, I’ve worked in Qatar with the junior national teams. It’s just getting that variety and taking opportunities when they come.

“It may not necessarily be the thing you want at that particular moment, but if it opens an opportunity to show what you can do and to learn, then I think it’s always worth grasping that.”

And on a philosophical note about the art of coaching, he said: “A coach, first and foremost, has to have the knowledge and credibility to deliver, but you’re dealing with human beings.

“A lot of people can have the knowledge, but it’s about transmitting that, making the players feel valued and being able to develop relationships which help them reach their fullest potential.

“It’s probably that aspect, really getting into the human being that drives the performance, which is my strongest.”

Nevin returned to club football in January 2025 when he was appointed as one of two assistant managers to Mark Robins at Stoke City. He stood down from his role as interim England under-20s manager, where he was undefeated in six matches, to take the job.

Martin Hinshelwood went down with Palace and up with Albion

REGARDLESS of the often overblown ‘bitter rivalry’ between Brighton and Crystal Palace, many people have served both clubs with equal distinction, none more so than Martin Hinshelwood.

A player at Palace until injury curtailed his career when only 27, he went on to have a long career in the game, much of it with Brighton; more often in youth development as a coach and briefly as the no.1.

In the summer of 2002, his appointment as Albion boss 11 weeks after his former Palace teammate Peter Taylor had quit came as something of a surprise considering chairman Dick Knight declared he had interviewed seven candidates for the post.

In more recent times, Albion have had a Uruguayan, a Spaniard, a Finn and an Italian as head coach, back in 2002 it looked a strong possibility Knight might appoint wild-haired German coach Winfried Schafer, who had just managed Cameroon at the World Cup, but the chairman suspected his lack of command of English might be too big a hurdle to get over.

A terrific start

A clear favourite had been Steve Coppell but when the ex-Palace manager fell asleep during his conversation with Knight, apparently fatigued after a long-haul flight, the chairman was suitably unimpressed and, with time running out before the 2002-03 season got under way, Hinshelwood was appointed instead.

A 3-1 win away to Burnley looked like a terrific start but after a 0-0 home draw with Coventry, the side went on a disastrous 10-game losing spell (a 2-1 League Cup win over Exeter City the only bright spot amid the gloom).

Knight had already publicly signalled he would take decisive action after the sixth defeat in a row – a 4-2 home reverse to nine-man Gillingham!

He told the Argus: “If the team went ten matches losing every one, then you have got to do something about it.

“It’s very easy to criticise him (Hinshelwood). Obviously, he is a manager under pressure because we have just lost six games.

Getting his message across

“To suggest we should instantly sack him puts out the wrong message. Most people right now will think it was the wrong decision to appoint him, but I am not going to panic. I am going to monitor the situation.”

Of course, that monitoring didn’t take long to reach an inevitable conclusion – four more defeats and Hinshelwood was relieved of first team duties. He was made ‘director of football’ and Knight went back to Coppell to try to keep the Albion in the division. He very nearly managed it, too, but such a bad run of defeats had taken their toll on the points total.

As it happened, it wasn’t the first time Hinshelwood had found himself in the Albion hotseat: he was caretaker manager on three occasions: in 1993 (before Liam Brady’s appointment), in 2001 (after Micky Adams left for Leicester) and again in 2009, when he was in charge for a 4-4 FA Cup first round tie at Wycombe Wanderers after Russell Slade had been sacked and before Gus Poyet’s arrival.

When researching backgrounds of any number of players for this blog, Hinshelwood’s name is often cited as the one who either made the approach to bring them to Brighton or who was a major influence in their development.

For example, when Hinshelwood first joined the Albion in 1987, from Chelsea, he was instrumental in bringing from Stamford Bridge to the Goldstone Doug Rougvie and Keith Dublin, who both played their part in getting Albion promoted straight back to the second tier in 1988.

Hinshelwood had been reserve team manager at Chelsea for two years during the managerial reign of John Hollins, after first team coach Ernie Walley, his former Palace youth team coach, put in a good word for him.

His long association with Brighton began with a ‘phone call to Barry Lloyd to congratulate him on landing the Albion manager’s job. The former Fulham captain asked Hinshelwood to join him at the Goldstone – and he stayed for the next six and a half years.

He returned to the club in the summer of 1998, when Brian Horton had taken over, and was appointed Director of Youth, with Dean Wilkins as youth team coach.

Pensive Hinsh

An interview with the matchday programme pointed out that across the following 14 years, he oversaw a youth system that produced 31 players who made it through to the first team, although he said such success had very much been a team effort, name-checking Wilkins, centre of excellence managers Vic Bragg and John Lambert, scouting chief Mark Hendon and physio Kim Eaton.

Dean Hammond, Adam Hinshelwood, Adam Virgo, Adam El-Abd, Dean Cox, Jake Robinson, Dan Harding and later Lewis Dunk, Jake Forster-Caskey and Solly March all graduated from that period. “To have been a part of their journeys makes me immensely proud,” he said.

Hinshelwood left the Albion for a second time in 2012 and worked variously for Crawley, Portsmouth, Stoke City and Lewes. He returned to the Seagulls once again when the former head of academy recruitment at Stoke, Dave Wright, who had joined Brighton in 2019, invited him to take on a role of scouting 13 to 16-year-olds.

When Hinshelwood himself was that age, he had visions of following in his dad Wally’s footsteps. He had been a professional for Fulham, Chelsea, Reading, Bristol City and Newport County, and, although born in Reading (on 16 June 1953), young Martin had become accustomed to an unsettled childhood, moving around the country to wherever dad’s next club took him.

The family finally settled in New Addington, near Croydon, with Wally playing non-league football in Kent and Martin played representative football for Dover Under 15s, Croydon Boys and Surrey Under 16s.

He was on schoolboy terms at Fulham when Bobby Robson was manager but they didn’t think he would make it. It was while he was playing for Surrey Schools that former Spurs and Palace manager Arthur Rowe scouted him for Palace and he was taken on as an apprentice in 1969.

Hinshelwood playing for Palace, up against Stoke’s George Eastham

Hinshelwood was given his first team debut by Bert Head in 1972. He played in midfield in the old First Division for a dozen matches but the side were relegated in his first season. The flamboyant fedora-wearing Malcolm Allison took over as manager and he was later replaced by Terry Venables.

Martin’s younger brother Paul (Jack Hinshelwood’s granddad) played in the same side at full-back and the brothers were alongside the likes of Kenny Samson and Peter Taylor. In 1975-76, when still a Third Division side, they shook the football world by making it to the semi-finals of the FA Cup, where they lost to eventual winners Southampton, although Martin missed the game through a right knee injury. It eventually forced him to quit playing in 1978, after he’d made 85 appearances for Palace in five years.

Venables appointed him as youth team coach at Selhurst Park and although he spent 18 months as player-manager of non-league Leatherhead, he then resumed his Palace role under Steve Kember.

Alan Mullery dispensed with Hinshelwood’s services during his brief managerial reign at Palace but he kept his hand in at coaching with non-league clubs Kingstonian, Barking and Dorking.

Selsey-based Hinshelwood then had a spell as manager of Littlehampton before the Chelsea job came up.

Tall Tunnicliffe’s tilt at the top fell short and he quit at 24

ONE-TIME Liverpool triallist James Tunnicliffe quit playing football at 24.

When he was only 16, a £750,000 move from Stockport County to the ‘mighty’ Reds was on the cards.

But Liverpool’s then boss, Rafa Benitez, gave the young hopeful the thumbs down and his subsequent short playing career petered out in the lower leagues.

Tunnicliffe – a Russell Slade signing for Brighton in June 2009 – was at the heart of League One Albion’s defence for Gus Poyet’s first game as Seagulls manager.

But there was plenty of competition in that area of the team and, before long, the 6ft 4in centre half struggled to hold down a place. Initially Adam Virgo, Tommy Elphick, Jake Wright and Adam El-Abd were all competing in that position and, although Wright moved on, Gordon Greer – instantly appointed captain – and homegrown Lewis Dunk steamed ahead of him in the pecking order.

Slade had signed him on a three-year deal, declaring at the time: “He’s 20 and one or two other clubs were looking at the situation higher up, Championship clubs.

“We’ve kept everything quiet and gone about the business in the right manner and we’ve got our man.”

Slade told the Argus: “He has got huge potential. He’s a decent athlete for his size, handles the ball very well and hopefully will be a threat for us in the box. There’s lots more to come from him. He’s a really good, positive signing.”

Midfielder Gary Dicker, a former Stockport teammate who made the same move, added: “He’s a good tall, strong athlete and a good player.”

The player himself admitted it was a good word put in by another former Stockport teammate, Jim McNulty, that influenced his move.

“We’re good friends and used to live a couple of doors apart in Manchester and travelled into training together at Stockport,” he told the matchday programme. “He absolutely loves it here and that helped sway my decision to come.”

Albion watcher Andy Naylor had a mainly favourable first impression although he was less sure about the tactic of using the central defender to launch long throws. In an Argus comment piece, Naylor wrote: “He looks composed, comfortable in possession and has good pace for one so tall. The jury is out, though, on just how much Albion should try to exploit Tunnicliffe’s long throw.

“It has more of a loop than Rory Delap’s torpedo-like delivery and has caused opposing defences few problems so far. Albion would arguably be better served exploiting Tunnicliffe’s 6ft 4ins frame in the goalmouth for set pieces.

“His throw remains a potentially useful weapon, for example during the closing stages of the game if the Seagulls are chasing an equaliser, but it should perhaps be used more sparingly.”

Somewhat ironically, while not starting the first four games of the season, he made his first league start at home to his old club Stockport – when Albion were on the wrong end of a 4-2 scoreline.

Tunnicliffe scored the first goal of his career in a 1-1 draw at Bristol Rovers in September 2009 after captain Adam Virgo had been sent off. He said: “I am doing everything I can to keep my shirt. I don’t want to lose that and hopefully I can contribute a few more goals this season as well.”

His performance alongside Elphick drew the admiration of Richie Morris, who wrote in the matchday programme: “Tunnicliffe not only bulleted his first goal for the club with a well taken header, but diverted a Carl Rogan shot over and cleared what looked like a late winner off the line.”

Tunnicliffe scored again – this time just a consolation goal – in a 4-1 defeat at Norwich that was Poyet’s fourth game in charge. But he was cast aside after playing in the FA Cup against Torquay at the turn of the new year and, before long, was sent out on loan to MK Dons.

Any hoped-for restoration to the first team on his return was dashed when at the start of the following season he was shipped out on a season-long loan to Bristol Rovers. Eventually, with a year still left on his contract, he agreed an early end to his Seagulls deal and joined Wycombe Wanderers in the summer of 2011.

Despite it all, he told seagulls.co.uk: “It’s been frustrating for me over the last 18 months but I loved being here and I haven’t got a bad word to say about the club. I made a lot of good friends and I’m sure the team will have a very good season in the Championship.

“I’m a bit disappointed with how it worked out but I’m now focusing on working hard over the summer to try and secure first-team football with Wycombe.

“I’ve watched Wycombe a lot and I know plenty about the manager, Gary Waddock, who looks to play good football, so it’s an attractive club for me to move to.

“I’ve done a lot of thinking about what is going to be best for me and Wycombe is a good club, recently promoted to League One and on the up, so it’s hopefully going to be a good move for me.

“I’m now excited about a new challenge and I feel like I’ve got a lot of things to prove to myself and the other clubs. I want to show that I am a good player.”

Waddock pointed out: “James is a talented young centre-back with experience of playing at this level.

“He’s a footballing defender who can play out from the back. A lot of clubs were interested in him.”

And Tunnicliffe told the Bucks Free Press: “I’m more than just a defender who kicks it, I like to pass it at the right time. I’m looking forward to being in the team next year and doing well in League One.”

Born in Denton, Manchester, on 17 January 1989, Tunnicliffe went to a particularly sporty school, Audenshaw High in Manchester, and, as well as playing a lot of football, he was also good at golf and cricket as well as being a decent 100-metres hurdler.

It was at Stockport’s school of excellence that he honed his football skills: his grandad, John Bishop, was the club’s kitman at the time, and later a masseuse.

In October 2005 the young Tunnicliffe was sent on a two-week trial to European Champions Liverpool and the pound signs were already beginning to form in the eyes of his parent club: a £750,000 deal was said to have been agreed for the youngster.

Unfortunately, Benitez was unable to watch the 16-year-old because he was away with the first team for a Champions League match with Anderlecht.

Tunnicliffe was handed an extra week with the Reds to give Benitez the chance to cast his eye over the youngster, but he but did not do enough to convince the Spaniard and the proposed deal collapsed.

He returned to the League Two Hatters where manager Chris Turner reckoned the youngster’s time at Anfield had helped to develop their promising player.

“It has been a fantastic experience for him and I’m sure it’ll benefit both the player and Stockport County,” he said. “He trains with our first team at the moment and doesn’t look out of place at the age of 16 so you can imagine how highly we regard him.”

As predicted by Turner, Tunnicliffe made his first team debut as a substitute in a 2-0 defeat at Notts County and he went on to make 50 appearances for them. He also had a brief loan spell with Northwich Victoria in 2007 and, perhaps bitten by his Liverpool experience, turned down the offer of a move to Southampton because he felt he would be better served staying put.

If the move from Brighton to Wycombe was an opportunity for a fresh start, he couldn’t have wished for a better start, scoring on his debut in a 1-1 draw against Scunthorpe.

But after beginning as a regular, he was dropped after a 3-1 Johnstone’s Paint Trophy defeat at home to Cheltenham Town in October and only made a handful of appearances after that.

His final Wanderers game was in a 6-0 tonking by Huddersfield at Adams Park in January 2012, after which he was dropped in favour of youngster Anthony Stewart.

The following month he joined League Two side Crewe Alexandra on a 30-day loan, citing homesickness as a reason for wanting away from Wycombe.

Injury curtailed his spell at Gresty Road and in the summer of 2012 he rejoined Stockport, who by then were playing in the Conference National. The following year he made eleven appearances on loan for Stalybridge Celtic before returning to County.

He took the decision to retire from football aged just 24 and, on his LinkedIn profile, says: “The experiences I endured in my eight-year professional career, filled with some highs and many lows, were a catalyst that inspired me to step into the football intermediary world.”

Indeed, he cropped up as a ‘representative’ for former teammate Glenn Murray when he was involved in negotiations with Brighton over a new contract.

Tunnicliffe says of himself: “I am a people’s person and my current role enables me to advise, support, empower and challenge clients, whilst providing opportunities where they can excel and get the best out of their abilities.

“In addition, the role has provided a platform to grow a worldwide network and converse with people from various organisations and backgrounds.”

He says that in September 2022 he enrolled onto the Masters In Sports Directorship programme at Manchester Metropolitan University.

“This course has presented me with an opportunity to enhance my self-awareness and existing knowledge, whilst developing areas of deficiency.

“I am embracing this academic challenge and look forward to learning more about the commercial and business functions of a sporting organisation over the remaining duration of the course.”

That’s the way Cookie crumbled for Hastings-born defender

WHEN IT comes to home-grown talent, Brighton have had particular success with central defenders.

Lewis Dunk is the prime example, staying with the club from humble beginnings through to Europe. Others had to move on to make the most of their careers.

For example, Steve Cook joined the club aged nine and made it through the different age levels into Albion’s first team. But to get regular football, he moved along the coast to Bournemouth.

If moving from Championship Brighton to League One Bournemouth seemed like a backward step in 2012, two promotions later saw him laughing on the other side of his face when the Cherries made it to the Premier League (in 2015) a season before the Seagulls.

Cook spent 10 years with the Cherries, making more than 350 appearances (168 of them in the Premier League), and after the departure of fellow ex-Albion defender Tommy Elphick, he took over as their captain.

Cook first got a taste of the big time in 2008, when he was a second year scholar on £60 a week, aged just 17. He was sent on by Micky Adams as an 85th-minute substitute in the famous League Cup game against Manchester City that League One Albion won on penalties.

Two months later, he once again replaced right-back Andrew Whing, this time in a FA Cup first round replay defeat to Hartlepool United, and picked up a booking into the bargain.

Boot cleaning duties for young Steve Cook

To gain more experience, in December that year, Cook went west to spend six weeks with Conference South Havant & Waterlooville. On his return, he once again had a first team look-in, going on as a 77th-minute sub for Calvin Andrew in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy southern final defeat at Luton Town that marked the end of the second coming of Adams.

Before the appointment of Russell Slade, Cook went on for the second half as a sub for injury-plagued sub Adam Hinshelwood (who’d been an 18th-minute sub for Elphick) in a 4-0 home defeat against Crewe Alexandra.

Slade marked his arrival by bringing in plenty of old hands in what eventually proved to be a successful skin-of-the-teeth survival battle against relegation. Cook didn’t get another chance in the first team until some time after Gus Poyet had taken charge.

His development continued on loan with the likes of Eastleigh and Eastbourne Borough and in November 2010 he moved away from home to join former league club Mansfield Town on a three-month loan.

“Mansfield play very different to Eastbourne but it’s more like playing for Brighton where they like to keep the ball and play out from the back, which you don’t get in the Conference very often,” he told the matchday programme. “I see it as a great opportunity to prove myself and try to earn another contract at Brighton.”

He added: “Playing Conference football helped me grow up, physically and mentally, so by the time I returned I felt I was ready to challenge for a first team place.”

Cook up against Suarez

After a handful of non-playing appearances on the first team subs bench, when he did get his first ever start, it could not have been a bigger match: Liverpool at home in the third round of the Carling Cup with Luis Suarez, Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy in the opposition forward line.

“It was a real confidence boost knowing the manager had faith putting me into the side for such a big game, but I really enjoyed the experience and got a great deal out of it,” he said.

“While I had a good pre-season, I’ve not played a lot of games since then. It was one in two months before the Liverpool game, but I’d been working hard in training and got my reward.”

Cook only found out 90 minutes before kick-off that he would be taking the place of fellow academy graduate Dunk, with both Elphick and Adam El-Abd out injured.

“It was a real baptism of fire though because for the first 20 minutes Liverpool were brilliant. Suarez, Bellamy, they were all excellent going forward, the pace of them as a team was unbelievable and in that opening spell I think we were in awe of them.”

Cook thought his involvement that night would lead to more chances, but he said: “Later that month we had Ipswich away, Dunky was suspended but instead of playing me, Gus put Romain Vincelot – a midfielder – in alongside Gordon Greer. From that point on, my mind was made up; I knew I had to look elsewhere if I wanted to kick on in my career.”

That autumn, Cook initially joined Bournemouth on loan, featuring in eight games, but he was recalled by the Seagulls when a shortage of defenders meant he was needed for a crucial New Year game at home to table-topping Southampton.

Having lost four games on the bounce, the odds were stacked against a positive result, but Albion remarkably won the game 3-0 (two cracking goals from Matt Sparrow and another from Jake Forster-Caskey).

Nevertheless, within 24 hours of the game ending, Cook finally took the tough decision to leave the Albion permanently. The fee was a reported £150,000.

He told the matchday programme: “I have loved my time at Brighton but this is a chance to play regular football and I can’t turn that down. It was nice to go out on such a high – not many players get that chance.”

Cook reckoned he might have got the odd game or two if he’d stayed at Brighton but he didn’t rate his chances of becoming a regular when everyone was fit. “I could play close to 30 games for Bournemouth and that is massive for a young footballer,” he said.

In a later interview, he said: “It was always going to be a tough decision to leave the Albion as I had been at the club since the age of nine.

“I had a decision to make: do I stay and fight for my place, despite being a fair way down the pecking order, or do I leave and try to continue my career elsewhere?

“It wasn’t easy because I was leaving a club on the rise; the Amex is one of the best stadiums in the country, the team was establishing itself in the Championship and there was a new training ground on the way.

“But having been at Bournemouth on loan, I could also see a hugely ambitious club and a talented squad which I believed was going places.

“So, I decided to leave and it’s been the best decision I could ever have made. I’ve moved away from my parents, so have grown up off the pitch, while on it I’ve been playing regularly and have really enjoyed my football.”

Much of that time he partnered Elphick in the middle of the Cherries defence and it wasn’t long before the pair were emulating the Albion’s achievement of promotion from League One.

“Tommy arrived a year after me but of course I told him about the club, the town and knew it would be a good move for him as it was for me,” he said. “We’d obviously played alongside each other before, had known each other a long time, and so we soon built up a good partnership.

“He had those leadership qualities he displayed at Brighton and was soon made captain. We had a terrific three years together and remain good friends off the pitch.”

In a subsequent Albion matchday programme, when he was once again visiting with the Cherries, he said: “Lovely stadiums and training facilities are great, but only if you’re playing in them and I can now look back on nearly 300 appearances for Bournemouth, where I’ve had some fantastic moments, played regularly in the Premier League and really developed my game. It’s a move that couldn’t have gone better.”

Although Cook held his own in the Premier League, he admitted the transition from the Championship was hard. “The gulf with the Championship is huge,” he said. “The intensity and pressure, in particular, are massive and the first six months were a real learning curve.

“Once I’d adapted and dealt with the expectations placed on me, I could relax and start to enjoy myself.”

Born in Hastings on 19 April 1991, Cook joined the Albion as a schoolboy following a six-week trial under the auspices of Martin Hinshelwood, the head of the youth set-up at the time.

“Initially, I was only training Tuesday evenings in the Eastbourne centre of excellence but, when I reached 13, we were training twice a week with a game on the Sunday,” he recalled.

“I remember I had a choice to make: Hastings Town, my local team, or Brighton and obviously I was swayed by the facilities, the coaching and being associated with a professional club.”

After Bournemouth lost their top tier status in 2020, Cook captained the side through to the Championship play-off semi-finals in 2021 where they were beaten by eventual winners Brentford.

There was plenty of emotion when Cook finally left the club in January 2022 with manager Scott Parker saying: “I know too well what someone like Steve Cook has done for this football club and the journey he has been on with the club. He has been paramount and done everything, really. I wish him all the best.”

And in an open letter to the club’s fans, Cook wrote: “I’ve been lucky enough to captain the team in League One, the Championship and Premier League and writing this just fills me with immense pride.

“The time has come for me take the next step in my career but I will never forget the staff that helped me improve as a player and person.

“The players that I shared a dressing room with and, and most importantly, the fans that supported and cheered for all those games.

“The journey that we have had is one that will never be beaten, and the relationship we had was undeniably strong. Thanks for everything.”

Upon signing for Nottingham Forest, Cook declared: “You can see the progress the club is making and I’m excited for the new challenge. 

“I thought it was the perfect time in my career to make this move to hopefully come and contribute and help get this club back to where it wants to be.

“The history of the club speaks for itself and I know how passionate the fans are. I’ve played at the City Ground in the past and it’s always been electric.”

Manager Steve Cooper said: “Steve is a fantastic player and brings a good level of experience, both in the Championship and the level above.

“He’s played in a team that has won a lot of games and I think that that’s important. We want our group to be young and hungry along with players of experience that can drive the team forward and that’s what we’re building.”

Having been part of the Forest side promoted to the Premier League in May 2022, his involvement back in the elite division was restricted to 12 games and he was omitted from Forest’s 25-man Premier League squad for the second half of the 2022-23 season.

In the summer of 2023, he switched to Queens Park Rangers in the Championship, telling the club’s website: “Playing football is the most important thing for me but I also pride myself on being a good character around the group.”

He went on: “My time in the Championship has been quite successful, and that success is something I want to bring here. 

“I don’t want my career to peter out, I still really want to be successful and to contest. I still have aims and targets I want to achieve and I’m hoping that the success I’ve had in my career so far continues so that I can help push QPR forward.” 

The Liddle and large story of Dan Burn’s football rescue

WHEN Albion beat Wigan Athletic 2-1 to win promotion to the Premier League in April 2017, few Brighton supporters were paying much attention to the tall defender lining up for the opposition.

“There was a party atmosphere around the place, with the players and everyone on the pitch – so it was a great time for Brighton, but not such a great time for us as Wigan players,” recalled 6’6” Dan Burn. “We were all but relegated to League One, which was a low point in my career.”

By the time he next stepped out at the Amex, in January 2019, he was wearing Albion’s colours, and making his debut in a 0-0 stalemate v West Brom in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Signed on a four-year contract towards the end of the Chris Hughton era, to say Burn’s Albion career had a slow start would be an understatement. He joined the Seagulls on August deadline day in 2018, but was immediately loaned back to the Latics while also nursing a foot injury.

He told the Albion matchday programme: “I’m buzzing to get another crack at the Premier League but I know it won’t be easy. The competition within the squad is very good in my position.

“I’m under no illusions that it’s going to be a very tough ask but, when I do get a chance, I’ve got to show what I can do.”

Hughton, a former Newcastle United boss when Burn was a season ticket holder at St James’s Park, said: “Dan has a wealth of experience from his time with Fulham, Birmingham City and Wigan, amongst others.

“He’s an imposing figure and had an excellent season helping Wigan to the League One championship. He also impressed in an excellent FA Cup run to last season’s quarter-finals.” 

Once recovered from his foot injury, Burn played 13 games, plus once as a sub, for Paul Cook’s Latics before arriving at Falmer in January.

He managed just three FA Cup games under Hughton, but his fortunes changed dramatically with the arrival of Graham Potter, initially slotting in on the left of Shane Duffy and Lewis Dunk in a back three, and later showing versatility and no little ability on the ball as a left-back or left wing back.

“Graham had a meeting with the lads, sat us down and told us the past was past and we just had to go out and prove we could play.

“I’m a good trainer; I train as I play and so always felt I had a chance. I also learn best when I’m out of my comfort zone. Playing left of three or left-back or left wing back, I’ve proved a lot of people wrong, which is what I like to do.”

Burn’s Albion Premier League debut came in the impressive 3-0 away win at Watford that opened the 2019-20 season, and, after Albion supporters had voiced their approval, Burn told the matchday programme: “It’s nice to be appreciated by our fans who are tremendous both home and away and for me to prove to people that I can play at this level.”

It was certainly a special occasion for Burn when Albion travelled to St James’s Park on 14 September 2019. He admitted: “Even coming out the tunnel and listening to Local Hero being belted out of the speakers was emotional for me. As a season-ticket holder for years, I could see my old seat.

“All my family were there, dotted around the stadium, people I used to go to school with, parents of friends. On the day I just had to focus solely on the game and then afterwards I could relax a little bit and go up to see my family.”

Burn was born in Blyth, the seaside town 13 miles north of Newcastle, on 9 May 1992. Because his dad was an ardent Newcastle fan, his son was quickly enrolled as a supporter and, having begun playing football with some pals when he was six or seven, he admitted: “Once I started going with him and watching games I never looked back. I was always out on the back field playing football or playing at school.

“Around 99 per cent of people in Blyth supported Newcastle. Everyone dreamed of playing for Newcastle.”

The dream looked like it might become a reality when he was just nine. While playing for the junior side of Blyth Spartans, he was scouted by Newcastle and invited to join their development centre.

“You have the Academy, where the best players went, and the development centre would run alongside that, where you would train Fridays, and they kept an eye on the players’ progress,” Burn recalled in a matchday programme interview.

“It wasn’t that great to be honest. While I was a good footballer when I joined them, as the two or three years went on, I declined quite rapidly. My body shot up, and I didn’t really catch up with myself football-wise until I was 15 or 16.”

He left the Toon at 11 and reflected: “It wasn’t a particularly good experience being let go by the club you support, with the realisation setting in that you’re probably not good enough to play at that level. I got released around Christmas time too, and it knocked my confidence.”

His chance of making it in the game wasn’t lost, though. He played for Blyth Town and Blyth Spartans, as well as New Hartley Juniors, and was spotted by a scout working for an organisation which selected players who weren’t associated with professional clubs.

Still a sixth former at school, he played for an England representative side against the other home nations and did enough to persuade Darlington’s youth team manager Craig Liddle to invite him for a trial. Burn credits Liddle with giving him the belief he could play at a higher level.

He was given a two-year YTS deal in July 2009 and it certainly beat pushing shopping trolleys for ASDA, which he’d been doing to make a bit of money.

In December 2009, with the League Two club in some trouble, Burn suddenly found himself given a first team chance. At just 17, he made his debut as a first half substitute away to Torquay.

“Although we got beat 5-0, I came off the pitch buzzing,” he recalled. “Here I was, a 17-year-old, and I was playing in League Two. We’d been pumped away from home, facing this horrendous journey home, but I was over the moon when I got back to my car – ridiculous really.”

Burn the Quaker

Unfortunately, Darlo were relegated to the Conference at the end of that season. In January the following season, Burn managed to get a foothold in the side.

His performances caught the eye of Premier League Fulham and a £350,000 fee – a lifeline towards keeping the Quakers going for a little while – took him to London. Somewhat ironically, Burn revealed that Newcastle (at the time managed by Alan Pardew) matched Fulham’s offer “but I’d already been down to Fulham, had a tour of the ground and done my medical, so was happy to sign for them”.

Being 18 at the time, he realised staying in the north-east could have made it difficult to avoid the temptations of nights out with his mates, quite apart from the scrutiny that locals give their local football heroes.

Winning a header in Fulham’s colours

“I would have loved to play for Newcastle but, at that age, at that time in my career, it was the best decision for me to get away from that goldfish bowl where everyone’s analysing what you’re doing,” he reflected. “I just wanted to get away and concentrate solely on my football which was the correct decision.”

Burn spent five years as a Fulham player but with decidedly mixed fortunes, as managers came and went.

He spent most of 2012-13 on loan at Gary Johnson’s Yeovil Town and scored the winner in the 2013 League One play-off final at Wembley when the Glovers beat Brentford 2-1.

“I remember my header going in and losing all control,” he said. “I was running round like a madman!” He added: “For a club like that to be in the Championship was ridiculous but I’ll forever be thankful for Yeovil taking a punt on me.

Wembley winner with Yeovil Town

“I really grew up as a player and learnt what it really meant to be a footballer.”

Loan spell at Bimingham under Toon legends Lee Clark and Steve Watson

Although he signed a new two-year contract with Fulham, he then went to Birmingham on loan (playing under Toon ‘legends’ Lee Clark and Steve Watson) for six months before returning to the Cottage in January 2014.

With Rene Meulensteen having succeeded Martin Jol as manager, Burn made his Premier League debut in a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates, and retained his place against the likes of Chelsea, Man Utd and Liverpool.

By then he was 21 and was just enjoying playing but, when relegation saw Meulensteen sacked, in the Championship Burn sometimes found himself not even getting into matchday squads under Slavisa Jokanovic.

“It was such an anti-climax; I’d been on top of the world playing and now it was the complete opposite.” He admitted speaking to a psychologist about the situation to help him through.

He played 35 matches in 2015-16 as Fulham narrowly avoided dropping into League One but was not retained at the end of the season. He made the switch to newly-promoted Wigan Athletic whose manager Gary Caldwell said: “He is a powerful defender, but he likes to play as well.”

The 2016-17 season proved to be bittersweet: the Latics were relegated back to League One, but, according to Paul Kendrick of Wigan Today: “After a shaky start, Burn barely put a foot wrong on a personal level, with a series of highly consistent displays that ensured he was the landslide winner of the Player of the Year award.”

Under new manager Paul Cook, Burn was an ever-present for Wigan throughout the 2017-18 season when they bounced straight back, collecting the League One title with 98 points, two ahead of Blackburn Rovers.

Burn’s performances earned him a place in the PFA’s League One team of the year, and the new season was less than a month old when Albion made their move for him.

Of course, a significant part of Burn’s three years with the club covered the period when Covid prevented fans from attending matches but Burn scored a truly memorable first goal for the club when there was a partial return of supporters.

In front of 8,000 noisy fans at the Amex on 18 May 2021, Burn, in his 60th match for the club, sealed a remarkable comeback from 2-0 down to secure a 3-2 win for the Seagulls. His 76th-minute winner came after Leandro Trossard (50th minute) and Adam Webster (72nd) had made it 2-2. It was the Seagulls’ first top-flight win over City since 1981.

“That was a real high point for the team and for me personally,” he said.

Burn’s second goal was pretty special too, coming at Goodison Park on 2 January 2022, sandwiched between Alexis Mac Allister’s brace, as Albion beat Everton on their own turf for the first time ever.

It was towards the end of that month’s transfer window that Albion initially rebuffed newly-Saudi-enriched Newcastle’s attempts to sign Burn, but the lure of a return ‘home’ was too great and on deadline day he eventually departed for a fee said to have been £13million.

In an emotional farewell on the club website, he said: “The transfer came as a surprise. I had no desire to leave, but the opportunity to join my hometown club Newcastle United was the only way I would have wanted to leave. While I am excited to begin this new chapter, I am also sad to be ending another.

“Brighton has been a hugely successful period of my career and it’s been a memorable time for me off the pitch. We had my son down here, and I have loved seeing my family grow up as part of the community and living in Brighton & Hove. 

“Newcastle were the only club who could have tempted me away. Second to Newcastle United, Brighton & Hove Albion, the city and those associated with the club will always have a special place in my heart.”

When Burn scored his first goal for Newcastle in a 2-0 Carabao Cup quarter final at home to Leicester on 10 January 2023, manager Eddie Howe described it as an “incredible moment”, telling the media: “I am so pleased for him. This is his club and he has come back here and he is savouring every moment.”

The goal came when Burn ran on to Joelinton’s pass, beat two defenders and slotted a shot into the bottom corner.

“I used to sit in the east stand,” he said. “You always want to score in front of the Gallowgate end. To do that in front of my family was amazing.

“I like to get forward and it’s entertaining watching a guy my size running into the box.”

Brighton’s Brown a guiding light for future footballing talent

BRIGHTON-BORN Steve Brown walked out on the Albion as a schoolboy but later returned as an influential coach of the club’s emerging talent, including a young Lewis Dunk.

Previously, as reserve team coach at West Ham, Brown brought through the likes of Jack Collison, James Tomkins and Junior Stanislas.

Indeed, the former Charlton Athletic defender applied his aptitude for teaching budding young footballers to various settings, including Charlton and at Sussex independent schools Ardingly College and Lancing College (2017-19).

In his two-year spell as Albion youth team coach, between 2008 and 2010, 11 youth players signed professional contracts, and five made first-team appearances, including Dunk, Grant Hall and Jake Forster-Caskey.

In an end of season summary, Brown reported: “We have out-passed and out-played teams but not finished them off, and that is something the players need to learn to do, but the foundations are there.

“We have taken things on board from Gus (Poyet) and the first team, and we’ve tried to adapt that to the players in the youth team.”

He added: “The way the first team manager plays here, everyone has got to know what they are doing and be a very good forward-thinking football player – but at youth level you are going to get inconsistency because they are not at that level yet.”

Brown took on the Albion youth team job when Russell Slade was in charge, shortly after obtaining his UEFA A coaching licence, which he had been working towards at Charlton and West Ham, through the different stages of the badge process.

In an interview with the matchday programme, he admitted: “In some respects I’ve come home. In my playing career I had a couple of opportunities to come here and came very close when Steve Coppell was manager.

“I also had talks when Martin (Hinshelwood) was in charge and the two of us have stayed in contact ever since. So, when he phoned up to offer me the job, I grabbed it with both hands.”

Although at the time he dropped down a couple of levels, he said: “Your coaching philosophies don’t change whether you’re with a West Ham international or a Brighton youth team player. The message that you are trying to get across is the same – you want them to improve.

“It’s also my job here to make the players understand it’s not a cakewalk. They see the professionals and think it’s going to be a natural progression for them but it’s not.”

Born in Brighton on 13 May 1972, Brown went to Coldean Primary School and Patcham Fawcett High School.

His dad, Gary, had been a professional footballer in South Africa before returning to play non-league in Sussex, so it was little surprise his son developed a love for the game.

“You can definitely say that football was in the family genes,” Brown told doverathletic.com.

His performances for the Patcham Fawcett school team led him to be selected for East Sussex and Brighton Schoolboys, and the Albion signed him up on schoolboy forms for two years.

However, when 14, he admitted: “I just fell out of love with football for a time. When you’ve got a squad of 25 boys and only 11 can play, you spend a lot of time just training. I missed the competitive edge of matches and as a result I began to enjoy my football less and less.”

So, he walked away from the Albion and returned to playing for East Sussex and Brighton Schoolboys, as well as Whitehawk, where his dad was first team coach.

Fresh-faced Brown became an apprentice at Charlton Athletic

When he was 16, he was spotted by a Charlton scout, and was taken on as an apprentice. Reflecting on how hard he had to work to get a regular spot in the reserve side, before eventually signing as a professional, he said: “It’s really about how resilient you are.

“Lots of players get rejected once, twice, even three times before someone takes a chance on them. You just have to refuse to give up and learn not to take one person’s rejection as final.”

However, Brown’s career nearly ended before it had begun when he suffered a serious knee injury at 18, forcing him to completely reshape his game and the way he played.

“From that point, decision-making had to become his strength because his body would be permanently affected,” wrote Benjy Nurick in a blog about the defender. “I had a cruciate, the operation went wrong,” he said. “I’ve got nothing left in the right knee now.”

He told Benjy: “I don’t think people appreciated how bad the injury was. I’d say from about 26-27 years of age…from that point onwards, I was icing front and back after training and after games. I wasn’t a pill taker on a regular basis, but I did get put on some quite strong anti-inflammatories.

“I’d finish a match and for anybody that ever sort of said ‘where’s Browny?’ I had an ice pack on the front of my knee and I had an ice pack on the back of my knee and I was laying on the floor of the dressing room!”

Having made his first team debut alongside the likes of Garth Crooks and Tommy Caton, Brown established himself in the Addicks defence and played a crucial role in the club’s 1998 promotion via a memorable play-off against Sunderland at Wembley.

Brown put in a crucial tackle in extra time to ensure the score stayed 4-4 and then scored in the decisive penalty shoot-out, although he admitted: “It was an absolutely horrific experience.

“The pressure was unbelievable and once the ball went in, I didn’t care if anyone else in our side missed. I know that sounds selfish, but I was just so overwhelmed with relief at scoring.”

Brown earned a bit of a reputation as a stand-in goalkeeper too, as witnessed in May 1999, in a game against Aston Villa. After Addicks goalkeeper Andy Petterson had been sent off, Brown donned the gloves and made a number of crucial saves as his side ran out 4-3 winners.

Brown told Laura Burkin for whufc.com: “It was not the first time for me in goal, actually. I had gone in a couple of other matches over the years, against Manchester City and Southampton if I remember rightly.

“But the one with Aston Villa was the one that stands out. As soon as Andy had been sent off, the gaffer asked me and I said yes, no problem. I was quite pleased with myself, there was a dangerous cross and I got my hands to that well and a few corners as well, and I enjoyed it!”

Unfortunately, those heroics were unable to prevent Athletic returning to the second tier. But Brown was skipper when they won promotion as champions in 2000. “We broke a host of records on our way to the title. It was my best year in football,” he declared.

It’s widely felt by Addicks fans that Brown played some of the best football of his career alongside Richard Rufus at the heart of the defence under Alan Curbishley’s managership.

But what did Brown make of the former Albion midfielder as a boss? “He didn’t give out a lot of praise, you had to earn it, but he left no stone unturned in terms of our preparation for games.

“He could throw the odd teacup but was generally a level-headed guy who would work out ways for you to improve if he felt you needed it.”

Brown’s 12-year playing career at Charlton came to an end in 2002 and he joined former teammate Alan Pardew at Reading, making 40 appearances before retiring in 2005.

He told the Reading Chronicle: “I went from one very family-orientated, stable club which had seen some very good times straight into another one that was very much in a similar state.

Reading had come out of League One, was in the ascendancy, had a new stadium, the owner made the club financially responsible, they had Alan Pardew as manager who was doing well. You can leave one football club and walk into a bit of a nightmare…and I didn’t. It was a brilliant move for me.

“We got to the play-offs my first year at Reading. When I turned up, they’d just gotten rid of Matthew Upson who had been outstanding for them, so I had extremely big shoes to fill. And I slotted into his shoes and filled them quite nicely and we got to the play-offs.”

Unfortunately, although Reading had James Harper and Steve Sidwell pulling the strings in midfield, they lost Nicky Forster to injury in their semi-final first leg against Wolves, and went down 3-1 on aggregate.

“If it hadn’t been for the injury to Nicky, I think momentum would have carried us through,” said Brown. “But losing Nicky…he was our number one striker by some distance and losing him left us very short up top.”

A recurrence of that anterior cruciate ligament injury eventually forced Brown to stop playing and after a spell coaching in Charlton’s academy, he linked up with Pardew again after he’d taken over as West Ham manager before the management team changed in July 2007.

As well as working as head of football at Ardingly College, Brown also scouted for Charlton Athletic and covered first team matches as a radio co-commentator for BBC London. That radio work gradually expanded into coverage of Premier League and EFL matches.

On leaving Brighton in 2011, Brown joined his former teammate Forster at Conference South Dover Athletic, becoming his assistant manager. In the summer of 2013, he moved on to become manager of Ebbsfleet United, a role he held for 18 months.

Next stop was a brief stint in charge of Lewes before he moved on to become joint manager and director of football at Margate.

While working at Lancing College, Brown was also a regional scout for Stoke City, searching out potential players for the club’s development squad.