Albion spell helped put young Lingard on path to success

JESSE LINGARD is now in his 30s and plying his trade in Brazil but Oscar Garcia’s Brighton gave the player invaluable experience in the second tier of English football before he became a Manchester United and England regular.

Lingard scored four times in 17 appearances in 2014 as the Seagulls reached the divisional play-off semi-finals which Derby County – Lingard’s next loan club – won over two legs.

He didn’t make as spectacular a debut for Brighton as he did for Birmingham earlier that (2013-14) season when he scored four times in a 4-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

But he did earn a controversial penalty at The New Den, when he was adjudged to have been fouled by Danny Shittu. Albion beat Millwall 1-0, Spaniard David Lopez scoring from the resultant spot kick. “It is shoulder to shoulder, if anything,” Millwall boss Ian Holloway later claimed. “I can’t say that there wasn’t enough contact because Danny is built like a proverbial.”

*Recognised for his contribution in Albion colours*

Lingard’s first goal for the Albion came in a dramatic 4-1 win at already-promoted Leicester City when he headed Stephen Ward’s cross past Kasper Schmeichel.

Having been on loan with the Foxes the previous season, he’d been getting a bit of stick from their supporters so he said: “I had to silence them a bit with my celebration. The goal had been coming and I was obviously pleased to score, especially with it being a header as well.”

Asked why he’d plumped for the loan at Brighton when other clubs were after him, Lingard told the matchday programme: “It’s a club that shares my philosophy on football and it’s very similar to how we play at United, so it was a move that suited me.”

For his part, Garcia described Lingard as “one of the most exciting young English strikers” and “a talent who has already shown he can play at Championship level”.

An extended feature on Lingard’s development appeared in the matchday programme for Albion’s game at Old Trafford in November 2017.

One of the coaches involved in his development, academy advisor Tony Whelan, said: “Jesse has had to be patient throughout his career. As a younger player, he was physically under-developed so he had to play a younger age group.

“That wasn’t easy, but he had the patience, intelligence and trust in the coaching staff to know that those decisions were made in his best interests, that we knew at some point he was going to grow. At some point, all that ability would be able to come out.

*Lingard celebrates with Leonardo Ulloa*

“He’s got a wonderful mindset, so his ability to come on and make an impact on the game is down to the fact he’s resilient, he has a wonderful mentality, and he is a great observer of the game. That comes out all the time in the way he deals with things. And on top of that, he has his excellent technical ability.”

Whelan added: “He’s only of slight build, so he’s developed great technical ability, good passing, dribbling, he’s a really good mover – very fluid, a wonderful mover – and he’s athletic without looking that athletic.”

The coach said: “You don’t get in our first-team squad without being a very accomplished player. He’s also playing for the national team fairly regularly. That’s testimony to Jesse’s abilities as an all-round footballer now.”

Coach Whelan summed up Lingard thus: “From the day he first walked into this football club at seven years of age, he always had a smile on his face. He’s always loved playing, always loved the game, always had wonderful enthusiasm, and in some ways he’s inspired the coaches with his love of the game and love of the ball.

“You never had to ask him to work hard, he was always running around, always energetic, always mischievous, and those are the qualities he brought.”

Having featured for England’s under 17s and under 21s, Lingard made his full England debut in October 2016 in a 2-0 win over Malta, he started five of England’s seven matches at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and over the course of five years won 32 caps for his country.

He scored England’s first and third goals on his penultimate appearance, in a World Cup qualifying 4-0 win over Andorra in September 2021, and his last game for England was against the same country the following month in a 5-0 away win.

In an interview with the Albion matchday programme for Brighton’s home game with United in 2017-18, Lingard reflected on his loan spell with the Seagulls and said: “I wanted to go to the club because I knew they were a good club with a great stadium and great fans – it was the perfect club to go on loan to.”

He added: “The stadium, the staff, the fans, you could see the ambition of the club. I always knew that the club would make it into the Premier League. It was heading in that direction for a couple of seasons.”

Lingard went on as a sub (for Marouane Fellaini) in the 2017-18 season finale when Albion beat United 1-0 courtesy of a 58^th-minute Pascal Gross goal. And he was a half-time replacement for Juan Mata when the following season began with the identical fixture, on that occasion the Seagulls once again the winners, 3-2, with Gross on the scoresheet from a penalty adding to goals from Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy; Romelu Lukaku and Paul Pogba (penalty) for United.

Although Lingard broke into the United first team under Louis Van Gaal and was a regular during Jose Mourinho’s reign, he fell out of favour with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and spent half the 2021-22 season on loan at West Ham.

He had an injury-wracked 2022-23 season at newly-promoted Nottingham Forest making 14 starts and six sub appearances under Steve Cooper and was one of five players released at the end of the campaign.

That spelled the end of his time in English football. He spent a month in the autumn training with Saudi Pro League side El-Attifaq, managed by Steven Gerrard at the time, and he played in a friendly and scored against Al Khaldiya, but a foreign player restriction meant he wasn’t eligible to play competitively and the following February he ventured to South Korea to play for FC Seoul in the country’s capital.

His home debut attracted a crowd of 51,670 – setting a new K League attendance record – and having not played competitively for eight months he struggled at the start. His coach Kim Gi-Dong even publicly criticised him for “a lack of effort and physicality”.

In an interview with BBC Sport’s Sami Mokbel, Lingard spoke of coming to terms with playing in the humidity and dealing with a meniscus injury, and he said: “The tempo is high out here, the games are intense. At the start, I wasn’t fit, but once I found the rhythm I got used to it.”

Lingard said the move to the Far East had enabled him to enjoy his football again. “I’m out here to find peace. Happiness is peace at the end of the day. If you can find that, it doesn’t matter where you are.

He told Mokbel: “I’m still playing football and I’m enjoying myself. I still have many years of playing football ahead of me – I’m 32 but the stats don’t show that I’m 32.

“I can play for a long time. It has 100 per cent been the right choice. It was a fresh start, to get my happiness back playing football, that was the main thing.

“It’s been an amazing experience. Different cultures, the people are amazing, the city is amazing.

“I feel I’ve come on leaps and bounds mentally. I think the move has improved my outlook on life.”

Indeed, Lingard went on to establish himself as a key player for FC Seoul – making 66 appearances and contributing 18 goals – and was eventually made captain.

When he decided to call it a day in December 2025, he wrote on Instagram: “My time in South Korea has been unbelievable – the football, the atmosphere and the passion around this club have been top class.

“The love, support and the appreciation you have shown towards me for these last two years has been truly amazing. I’ll always be grateful for the opportunity to play for such a massive club.”

FC Seoul said in a statement: “He generated an extraordinary level of public attention and emerged as a symbolic figure not only for the club but for the entire K League.”

In March 2026, he pitched up at top Brazilian league side SC Corinthians Paulista, where he has been playing since.

Preparing in Brazil

Technically gifted Davy Pröpper a top talent in Albion’s midfield

DUTCH INTERNATIONAL Davy Pröpper was a mainstay of Albion’s midfield in the club’s first three seasons in the Premier League.

He joined for a reported £11.7million (a record at the time) from PSV Eindhoven and instantly became a regular in the side as a holding midfielder alongside Dale Stephens.

Describing the 25-year-old as “a strong competitor”, Albion boss Chris Hughton said: “There is no doubting his pedigree, Davy has played a number of matches in the Champions League for PSV, as well as international football for the Netherlands.”

The player said he had spoken to Danny Holla (a much less successful Dutch midfielder who played for Brighton between 2014 and 2016) who told him good things about the club and the city.

Pröpper told Nick Ames, of The Observer, he knew it was time to move on from PSV after they’d been eliminated from the Europa League play-offs at the hands of the Croatian side Osijek in early August 2017.

“There were other clubs interested, but not from England, and the Premier League was very important for me. I’d been really close to joining Zenit St Petersburg in the winter break; they wanted to pay a lot of money but PSV didn’t want to sell me at the time and I wasn’t especially disappointed. I preferred to move on in the summer.”

Pröpper succeeded Beram Kayal as Stephens’ regular midfield sidekick and, in a matchday programme interview, declared: “We are working really well as a partnership – Dale’s a great player. My partnership with him is probably the best of my career, although this is the first time I’ve played in a formation where we have two holding midfielders.

*Pröpper hailed his midfield partnership with Dale Stephens*

“We are the shield in the team and maybe we don’t get noticed as much as other players. But we’re happy with that. I think we are underrated as a pair but I also think that not being in the spotlight is a good thing for us. We can just get on with what we do.”

He may have felt underrated, but his former PSV coach, Phillip Cocu, who managed Derby County in the Championship in 2019-20, was full of admiration, telling The Athletic: “He was an absolute quality player in the sense of his technical ability.

“He controls the ball but his vision in the game and his awareness is so high. His endurance is unbelievable. He can go 120 minutes up and down if he needs to.

“He developed excellent vision. He is a very complete player. He has a good size, a good tactical interpretation of the game and his technical part of the game is excellent.”

Hughton’s successor Graham Potter was also impressed. He told The Athletic in March 2020: “He’s a very, very good player. He plays in the Dutch national team in front of Van Dijk and alongside (Frenkie) de Jong. You have to be good to do that. I like him as a person. He’s quiet but, when he speaks, he speaks with intelligence. I think he is enjoying his football and he’s a joy to work with.”

When Van Dijk was asked about his compatriot after Liverpool edged a 2-1 win over the Albion in late 2019, he said: “Davy is a fantastic player. He is very important for our country and a great guy.”

Pröpper almost always looked comfortable playing in England’s elite league and, for example, a hip swerve and pinpoint cross with the outside of his boot for a Pascal Gross goal at Old Trafford in January 2019 was described by Albion writer Scott McCarthy as “an outrageous piece of skill from an outrageously talented player.”

Pröpper admitted: “To line up in midfield against all these great players is something that helps bring the best out of my game and was a reason why I wanted to come to the Premier League in the first place.”

Fans weren’t always convinced, though, some viewing him as a bit languid at times. However,

*Pröpper scores one of his only two Albion goals away at Leicester*

wearebrighton.com declared: “Surging runs forward from midfield became a trademark move. Pröpper was one of our most talented players and would frequently do things that other players couldn’t.”

The one thing missing from his game at Brighton was goals. He had found the net seven times in each of his last two seasons with Vitesse Arnhem, then scored 22 goals in all competitions across two seasons at PSV.

He only scored twice in 121 games for Brighton yet he scored three in 19 appearances for his country. Fourteen of those caps were won while he was at the Albion.

*In action for his country against England’s Dele Alli*

Propper explained: “All the clubs before, we played three in midfield and one holding, I wasn’t holding, so it was more like a ten or eight. That’s changed a little bit but if I have a chance, I need to score.”

Goals aside, during his second season with the club, Pröpper was sure his game had improved. “I can think and act a bit quicker when I get the ball now,” he said. “I realise that I need to know where my teammates are, otherwise opponents here take the ball off you so quickly.

“Obviously the Premier League is very different to the Eredivisie, so it took a period to adapt to the pace of the game here, but I feel comfortable playing in the Premier League and I’m enjoying my football.”

Enjoyment was obviously a decisive factor for Pröpper and having made 110 league and cup appearances, his last season with the Seagulls was a major disappointment. A combination of increased competition in midfield, a niggling Achilles injury picked up in pre-season, illness and the Covid pandemic limited his involvement and led to him falling out of love with the game.

In a passionate farewell to Brighton, Pröpper said: “Football is difficult, people go in separate ways, but I have made a few friends for life here. My time with Brighton I will never forget.”

He reflected: “It was tough coming from Holland to England because it is such a big change; the physicality is at a much higher level. The way the game is played here is completely different in terms of intensity and there was a period of adaptation. But we did well from the off and have always proved that we deserve to be at the top level.”

Although he returned to his former club PSV Eindhoven (left) in the summer of 2021, six months later he quit football at the age of just 30 and his old Albion boss, Potter, said: “We spoke at length with Davy when he was here and supported him through a tough time in his life.

“It is not easy to start the process of thinking ‘maybe football is not the right thing for me.’ It is a big decision to make and I think Davy has made a brave one.

“He was a Dutch guy living in the UK in lockdown, so he didn’t get to see much of his family and friends and that was an added pressure.

“For me, he was a great guy to have around, was always professional and was always trying. But that is life sometimes, these things happen and people want to do different things and I fully respect that.

“He had all our support while he was here and we wish him the best now. I have nothing but good things to say about Davy both as a professional and as a person.”

The player himself said: “During the period that I was abroad, I noticed that I slowly lost the pleasure of football. I found it extremely difficult to muster the discipline necessary to perform optimally and to let my life completely be determined by the busy football schedule.

“The Corona period and the lack of visits from family and friends did me no good then either.”

Explaining that making the decision to quit felt like a relief, he added: “This is how I know it’s the right choice.”

Born in Arnhem, the eastern Netherlands city close to the German border, on 2 September 1991, Pröpper was the eldest of three footballing brothers, all of who were coached by their father, Peter, at the local amateur club VDZ in their formative years. Centre-back Robin has mainly played in his homeland but spent the 2024-25 season with Rangers in Scotland. Mike, also a defender, has included Den Bosch among Dutch clubs he’s played for.

After two years at VDZ, Davy spent the next four years with the academy at Vitesse Arnhem, the club he’d supported as a boy, before turning pro aged 16 in 2008 and making his first team debut two years later.

Pröpper played as a striker in his formative years and only switched to midfield at Vitesse when he was 20. Before that, in common with other Dutch youngsters, he was encouraged to play in different positions, although he said: “In some ways it’s good, but in other ways not so good because you need to keep improving in your best position.

“But I did learn a lot of different things playing in different positions and I think as a midfielder that has helped me.”

It would seem Pröpper had something of a crisis of confidence when his Vitesse career didn’t progress quite as quickly as he’d hoped and he told Ames, of The Observer, in September 2017: “I went to see someone, I guess you’d call him a motivational coach, and it helped me a lot at the time.

“He told me that events were there to be shaped by me, and not about the choices a trainer or somebody else makes. It led to a change in my career; when I didn’t play, I was able to throw the problem away a little bit. I didn’t keep disappointments in my head.”

After 162 appearances for Vitesse and scoring 21 goals, in 2015 he moved up a level and joined PSV Eindhoven, explaining to Hames: “Taking that internal step was the best route for me. I needed some time just to see how it goes and feel comfortable.”

A highlight during his time with PSV was scoring the winning goal at home to CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Champions League that sent the club into the last 16 of the competition for the first time in nine years. He also only missed one league match as PSV won the Eredivisie title for a second season in a row.

Having spent a year out of the game following his decision to quit, Pröpper had a change of heart and tried to revive his career back where it all started, at Vitesse Arnhem.

He trained for eight weeks before deciding to give it another go, telling the club website: “It’s only when you distance yourself or say goodbye to something, you find out what it really means to you. You get an eye for the positive aspects again. That is, of course, football itself, but also the cooperation, performance and being part of a team and a club.”

He reflected: “I have many happy and warm memories of my thirteen years at this club. Vitesse has shaped me and feels like my home in terms of football.”

It helped that there was a familiar face in his old PSV coach Phillip Cocu, but, alas, he mustered only five appearances and he opened up on the club website, saying: “My return at Vitesse unfortunately did not have the effect I had hoped in advance.

“I regret that enormously. Due to various injuries, I have barely been able to make minutes at my club. Since there is no prospect of better either, I have decided to definitely stop playing football from next season. It’s better that way.”

In March 2026, the Albion welcomed Pröpper back to the training ground at Lancing for an under 15s match between the Albion and Vitesse Arnhem.

Pröpper, who was pictured (right) with fellow Dutchman Joel Veltman, became assistant to Vitesse’s under 15s coach Richard van der Lee in June 2025.

Austrian left-back Markus Suttner fell down the Albion pecking order

MARKUS SUTTNER joined Albion only 12 days after his FC Ingolstadt teammate Pascal Gross but to say their fortunes went in different directions would be an understatement.

Gross established himself as a club legend and, although Austrian international Suttner started at left-back as Brighton made their bow in the Premier League, he ultimately played second fiddle to Cameroon international Gaetan Bong in that position.

Albion fans were divided on who was the better option; Suttner was often lauded for the accuracy of his crossing while Bong was viewed as a more aggressive wing back.

Suttner said of himself: “I’m a left-back who can cross and shoot; I have a good left foot for the set-pieces and corners, and I can also help the team with my passion and experience. I want to lead on the pitch.

“I’m a player who worked hard to get to the Bundesliga and I have worked hard again to get this opportunity in the Premier League.

“I want to experience the players and the stadiums here, but most of all I want to have success with Brighton and help us stay in the league.”

Having just turned 30 when he signed for the Seagulls, Suttner added: “At this stage of my career, at my age, it’s the perfect time to play in the Premier League.

“The challenge for Brighton is similar to the one I first encountered with Ingolstadt, with the side having won promotion to the Bundesliga for the first time in their history when I signed.

“Now, this is a new chapter for me and for the club, and to play in the Premier League is one of the best options for any player, so I’m very happy to be here.”

Suttner didn’t have far to travel to link up with his teammates after putting pen to paper in the summer of 2017 – Albion were on a pre-season training camp in Austria at the time, in the Alpine resort of Leogang, near Salzburg, where they played a pre-season friendly against Suttner’s future employer, Fortuna Dusseldorf.

The player told the matchday programme: “At the end of last season, I heard there was some interest in me from Brighton and then a few weeks later I had signed.

“It’s a dream move for me and a new challenge for me to come to the Premier League.”

Born in Hollabrunn, 36 miles north of Vienna, on 16 April 1987, his early football career was on the books of nearby SK Wullersdorf and after a year at football boarding school Stronach-Akademie he joined Austria Vienna, the club he’d supported as a boy, in 2004.

His first professional game was in 2005 against Gratkorn and, in seven seasons with The Violet, Suttner made 260 appearances in Austria’s top division during which time he played in the Champions League and the Europa League.

He won seven caps for Austria under 21s and in 2012 won the first of 20 caps for the full international side, in a 3-2 win against Ukraine. Sixteen of his 20 games were friendlies and four were World Cup qualifying matches. His last international saw him play the first half of his country’s 1-1 draw with Finland in Innsbruck, four months before he joined Brighton.

Suttner held the left-back spot for the opening matches of the season, partly benefitting from Bong suffering with a muscle injury.

The Cameroonian, who’d been a promotion winner with the Seagulls, won his place back in the side just before the October international break and told the Argus: “We are different types of players and everyone knows what I can bring from the two years I have been here – I have given everything on the pitch.

“The manager knows that as well, so it was good for me to have 90 minutes on the pitch to help the team and I’m here when the manager needs me.”

Suttner spoke about the rivalry in an exclusive interview with Andy Naylor, then of the Argus, and said: “We have good competition on the left-hand side with Bong and me.

“I think I have done well in my last games but I think I can also improve in the offence, because normally I have a few assists and goals per season. I hope it will come soon.”

Describing the Premier League as “tough, physical and different tactics from Germany”, Suttner added: “Everybody wants to play every game, that’s normal, but we have a good squad with good competition. We have no problem with each other, what’s best for the team is best for us.”

Expanding on the issues he was trying to overome, he said in a programme interview: “Obviously it’s a different kind of football to what I’ve been used to, and a different country and culture, so I’ve needed time to adapt.

“But I’m getting stronger and stronger and every day I feel you can learn something, in both training sessions and games.”

“I just want to go out and do my best, show my strength in attack but obviously make sure my defensive duties always come first.”

However, after the halfway point of the season, Bong got the shirt on more occasions than the Austrian; Suttner returned for FA Cup ties against Coventry City and Manchester United.

By the season’s end, Suttner had made just 16 league and cup starts plus one appearance off the bench. And his chances of reclaiming the shirt the following season dipped further when, in the summer, Brighton signed Brazilian ex-Red Bull Salzburg and Red Bull Leipzig defender Bernardo.

Now third-choice, Suttner made just one first team appearance, in a 1-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton at the Amex in August, and, in the second half of the 2018-19 season, he returned to Germany on a half-season loan to Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Hughton said: “Markus has been a great pro since he joined us two summers ago, but he hasn’t been able to play the number of games he would have liked, due to the strong competition we have in the left-back position.

“This move will allow him to play regular football in the top division of the Bundesliga.”

Suttner said in an interview with Austrian online sports outlet Laola1.at: “They (Albion) already told me that it will be difficult for me. But after my son was born in September, I did not want to change in the summer – that would have been too much stress. The family comes first!

“From the summer it was clear that I am only third choice in the left-back position. Gaetan Bong played at the end of the season and was in the lead, so he was number two.

“After that I never really got a chance any more. That’s the way football is. I do not regret the move to Brighton, I played Premier League. It’s part of the business that a few players are always exchanged – now it’s just me.”

*Suttner in action for Fortuna Dusseldorf*

On his return to Brighton for pre-season training after playing six games on loan at Fortuna, a new head coach was in place in Graham Potter. Nevertheless, Suttner didn’t kick a ball in anger under the new man, and instead completed a permanent move to the Dusseldorf club.

Potter said: “Markus has trained exceptionally hard and been a pleasure to work with during my time here, but this move gives him a chance to play regularly.

“He will be returning to a team that he knows well, and it is a move that makes sense for all three parties.”

Suttner certainly found plenty of admirers at Fortuna having helped them climb out of relegation trouble to finish 10th in the table. Coach Friedhelm Funkel told the Rheinische Post: “Markus is a top-class footballer and a wonderful person.”

After a season with Fortuna, Suttner returned to Austria Vienna and saw out his playing days making 57 appearances between 2020 and 2022.

Reflecting on a career spanning 17 years, Suttner told the Austria Vienna website: “I am happy to have been able to do this unique job over such a long period of time. I’ll soon be 35 and come out of my career injury-free, which is worth a lot to me. I also don’t want to stand in the way of our young guns. I still feel physically fit, but the anticipation of the new phase of my life is too great.”

Coach Manfred Schmid paid tribute to the player, saying: “His attitude to the sport has made him a leader at each of his stations and he has always been able to demonstrate his qualities. Above all, however, he has grown on me as a person.”

Sporting director Manuel Ortlechner added: “Markus Suttner was and is an absolute leader, and he still proves that every day. He has put his bones on the line for Austria for many years and more than deserves to hang up his boots in the summer.

“After his return, he helped Austria to turn the tide and improve its sporting performance and image. It’s a self-determined end to his career, and you can only take your hat off to that.”

*Suttner playing for his country up against Gareth Bale of Wales*

Champion medal surprise for man on the mic Aspinall

THE starry-eyed teenager who made half a dozen top level appearances for eventual league champions Everton had to wait a long time for his share of that distant glory.

But Warren Aspinall was nonetheless delighted when his contribution to the Toffees achievement in 1986-87 was finally recognised with a medal more than 30 years later.

That’s happened since I last featured Aspinall in this blog, which recalled his early days at hometown club Wigan Athletic and darker days after he had ended his playing days in the blue and white stripes of the Albion (three goals in 24 starts plus 13 as sub) in the 1999-2000 season.

Aspinall is now more often heard rather than seen by Brighton supporters who listen to match commentaries on Radio Sussex, and it was commentator Johnny Cantor, who the summariser sits alongside for the regional BBC radio station’s coverage of all Albion’s games, who instigated a presentation of the belated honour.

“It was JC who pushed it forward and he kept it to himself before surprising me with the news that Everton would be making a presentation,” Aspinall told the matchday programme. “I was shocked but absolutely over the moon.”

The number of games to qualify for a winners’ medal used to be 14, or a third of the season, but the EFL in 2021 decided retrospectively to fall in line with the Premier League which awards medals to players who’ve made a minimum of five appearances.

Aspinall had been unaware of the rule change but Cantor had words in the right places and when Albion played at Goodison Park on 3 January 2023, the former player was finally presented with his medal by Graeme Sharp, one of his fellow Everton forwards back in the day who subsequently became an Everton director.

It’s probably a good job the presentation was made before the game because Albion romped to a 4-1 win that day with goals from Karou Mitoma, full debut-making Evan Ferguson, Solly March and Pascal Gross.

“The medal means the world to me and my family and it now sits proudly on my mantelpiece along with my England under 20 caps,” said Aspinall.

He earned the first of those two caps in the same month that Everton paid £125,000 to sign the 18-year-old from Wigan Athletic, although he saw out the season on loan with the Latics.

He featured in Young England’s 2-0 win over the Republic of Ireland at Elland Road, Leeds, and the following month was in the side that suffered a 4-1 defeat to Scotland at Aberdeen’s Pittodrie ground. Tottenham’s David Howells and Neil Ruddock, then of Millwall, also played in both matches, as did Millwall goalkeeper Brian Horne.

*Teenager Aspinall signs for Everton’s Howard Kendall watched by Wigan boss Bryan Hamilton*

On his return to Goodison Park at the end of the 1985-86 season, Aspinall was on the bench for the last league game (Kendall rested several players because it was five days before the FA Cup Final, which Everton lost 3-1 to Liverpool) and he made his debut in the 3-1 home win over West Ham when going on for two-goal Gary Lineker, who was playing his last league game for Everton before joining Barcelona.

Everton finished as league runners up that season but they went one better the following season, when competition for forward places saw manager Howard Kendall able to pick Sharp and Adrian Heath as his preferred pair, with Paul Wilkinson and Ian Marshall as alternatives. It meant Aspinall’s playing contributions came in the form of nine league and cup appearances as a substitute (he was also a non-playing sub on four occasions). Although first team chances were limited, he bagged plenty of goals for the club’s reserve side, netting 21 in 23 games.

That was enough to convince former Celtic stalwart Billy McNeill, in charge of relegation-bound Aston Villa, to splash £300,000 to take him to Villa Park – where competition for a starting spot was again daunting, with Andy Gray, Gary Shaw, Simon Stainrod and Garry Thompson all striker options.

Aspinall made his Villa debut on 21 February 1987 in a 2-2 draw at home to Liverpool and by the season’s end, while his former Everton teammates were lifting the league trophy, he was part of a Villa side that was bottom of the pile.

McNeill was duly sacked and the picture changed the following season when Aspinall was joint top-scorer as Graham Taylor’s Villa bounced straight back to the top tier as runners up behind Millwall.

“Garry Thompson and I hit it off up front and we had such a good understanding that we kept Alan McInally out of the team for a long time,” he told Villa supporter Colin Abbott. “Garry was good to play alongside because he was like a battering ram and I fed off him.”

Aspinall made his 50th and final appearance for Villa on 7 May 1988 in a 0-0 draw away to Swindon (playing left back for Villa was Bernie Gallacher and in the opposition line-up was Colin Calderwood and Kieran O’Regan).

Already warned by Taylor that he needed to improve ill discipline that had resulted in too many cautions, Aspinall got himself sent off for stamping in a pre-season friendly against St Mirren and Taylor transfer-listed him.

England World Cup winner Alan Ball, in charge at recently relegated Portsmouth, seized the moment and took him to Fratton Park for a fee of £315,000 in August 1988, where his teammates included Mark Chamberlain and Terry Connor. In six years with Pompey, Aspinall also played under John Gregory, Frank Burrows, caretaker Tony Barton and Jim Smith.

Briefer stays followed along the coast at Bournemouth (loan and permanent), Swansea City (loan) and two seasons at Carlisle United.

Keen to return to the south, Micky Adams first signed him when he had taken over as manager at Brentford and he made 48 appearances (plus three as sub) for the Bees but Aspinall then went on loan and then permanently to Colchester United for nine months before Adams brought him on loan and then permanently to the Albion in the autumn of 1999. It was a part exchange for midfielder Andy Arnott.

In only his third game, Aspinall was a delighted scorer of the only goal on his old stomping ground of Brunton Park as Albion returned to Sussex with all the points. The News of the World said: “Former Carlisle favourite Warren Aspinall seized on Billy Barr’s poor back pass to chip keeper Andy Dibble.”

In the Argus, Andy Naylor wrote: “The colourful midfielder then dashed towards the Albion supporters huddled in the seats on a drizzly day in Cumbria before sliding full-length on the greasy turf.”

Aspinall continued his celebration with a finger-on-lip gesture and an ear cupped towards the home support. He told the matchday programme: “I heard the keeper shout for the ball and anticipated the defender’s pass. I think I showed a great turn of pace for a veteran.”

In fact, Aspinall was 32 when he joined the Seagulls and he added experience to a side that went on to finish its first season back in Brighton in 11^th place in the fourth tier

At the start of the following season, when he went on as a sub for Gary Hart in Brighton’s home 2-1 win over Rochdale (Bobby Zamora scored both Albion goals), it was to be his last ever appearance.

Suffering from the niggle of a piece of floating bone in his right ankle, he followed physio advice to have it removed in what was expected to be a routine operation. But while in hospital, he caught the MSRA superbug which ate away tendons and ligaments in his ankle.

“They eventually said I would never play football again as a result. I was finished,” he told The News, Portsmouth, in a graphic account of the trauma. “Yet now I needed an operation to get rid of this infection, which involved me scheduled to stay on a hospital ward for 14 days, attached to an intravenous drip while antibiotics were fed into my body.

“After 13 days, my body broke out in a rash from head to toe. It had rejected the drug. So, I had the operation once more – and it happened again. After 13 days, my body rejected it.

“For 28 days I’d been on that hospital ward, so I was then offered the chance to return home if I underwent an operation to insert two tubes into my heart, one for the intravenous drip to enter and the other to take blood out.

“That sounded good to me – apart from my heart subsequently stopping during the procedure. I died. I’m told it was for a few seconds, but I died on that operating table,’ Aspinall told The News. “But they brought me back, and I was allowed to go home to Hedge End, with a district nurse checking on me every day, even Christmas Day.

“There were two six-inch tubes hanging out of my chest, with the nurse taking blood out of one and putting the drugs into the other.

“I lived. The antibiotics killed the superbug, but my career ended there and then. I was aged 33, with nothing planned, no coaching badges. I had to go into the real world.”

The story of what happened in his post-playing days – battles against gambling and alcohol addictions – have been well documented in various media interviews, including a detailed one with the Birmingham Mail in October 2012, when he spoke openly about a near-miss suicide attempt.

He has been Cantor’s co-commentator on Albion matches for Radio Sussex since 2015.

Last eight in the FA Cup becoming familiar territory

REACHING the FA Cup quarter-finals for the fourth time in seven years is music to the ears of Brighton fans of a certain vintage.

Time was when an exit far earlier in the competition was the more likely expectation and falling victim to non-league giant killers (remember Walton & Hersham, Leatherhead, Kingstonian, Canvey Island, Sudbury Town) was nothing short of humiliating.

But as each season in the exalted company of the Premier League has gone by, the last eight stage of the FA Cup has been well within reach.

As one who goes back a good many years, it was a delightful surprise to reach the quarters twice in the mid-1980s (going all the way to the final in 1983, of course, if you hadn’t heard!).

It still pains me to say that I was one of the many locked out of the 28,800 Goldstone Crowd on 12 March 1983 when Albion played in their first ever FA Cup quarter-final.

Norwich City, under former West Ham FA Cup winner Ken Brown, were the opposition with future England goalkeeper Chris Woods in goal and Mark Barham, who joined Albion towards the end of his career, on the wing.

Jimmy Melia’s Seagulls had already beaten the Canaries 3-0 a few months earlier but the cup match proved a much tighter affair described as “bruising” by several football reporters who noted the physios were called on seven times to treat injuries – Albion’s Norwich-born Mike Yaxley twice attending to Steve Foster.

*Andy Ritchie in what turned out to be his last home game for the Albion*

Nonetheless, it was “marvellous entertainment for all its imperfections” reckoned the Sunday Telegraph’s Lionel Masters, who said: “Brighton full-back Chris Ramsey did more than most to inject a steely resolve. He conducted a feud with (Dave) Bennett, whom he flattened more times than a target a fairground rifle range.”

Alan Hoby of the Sunday Express wrote: “It was a tough, turbulent, physical affair with an orgy of high balls,” while the only goal of the game, from Albion’s Jimmy Case was “one of the few moments of quality in a frantic game,” according to Brian Scovell of the Daily Mail.

The less well-known quarter-final appearance of that decade came on 8 March 1986 when a Goldstone Ground crowd of 25,069 (at a time when the average often dipped below 10,000) saw Chris Cattlin’s Second Division Albion entertain First Division south coast rivals Southampton.

Albion were pleased finally to have got a home game in the competition having had to overcome away ties at Newcastle, Hull and Peterborough (who were eventually beaten 1-0 in a home replay five days before the Saints match).

Saints were managed by Chris Nicholl, Cattlin’s fellow former Burnley youth team colleague, and in the opposition line-up was Case, the talisman of Albion’s run to the final three years previously when he rifled in the winner at Anfield in the fifth round, scored that only goal v Norwich and buried a long-range rocket in the semi against Sheffield Wednesday at Highbury.

England’s Peter Shilton was in goal for Southampton and, most curiously, after a five-week absence from first team action, misfiring Mick Ferguson was selected by Cattlin to lead Albion’s attack. Not one of the 1983 Albion side started for the Seagulls.

Sadly, Brighton, in the upper reaches of the second tier at the time, didn’t do themselves justice. Saints won it 2-0 with first half goals from Steve Moran and Glenn Cockerill – and it turned out to be Ferguson’s last game for the Seagulls. Three weeks later he moved to Colchester United.

Fast forward to 2018 and another strange striker selection by a Brighton manager – this time Chris Hughton leaving top scorer Glenn Murray on the subs bench – proved costly in a quarter-final against Manchester United at Old Trafford.

New £14m signing Jurgen Locadia missed four good chances among 12 second-half Brighton efforts on goal to United’s one and Pascal Gross went close on three occasions. But BBC Sport’s Mike Whalley suggested: “He (Hughton) might have been left wondering if resting Murray caused Brighton to miss their chance of a first FA Cup semi-final since 1983.”

United topped and tailed the tie with Romelu Lukaku opening the scoring early on and Nemanja Matic sealing victory late on when he nodded in Ashley Young’s free-kick.

A year later, it looked like Albion wouldn’t be going beyond the last eight once again when Championship side Millwall led the Seagulls 2-0 at The New Den with only two minutes to go. Cue Locadia, on as a sub, to make amends for the previous season’s misses by making space for himself in the box and firing home an unstoppable shot to pull a goal back for the visitors.

Then, with 95 minutes on the clock, Solly March from way outside the box floated in a free-kick that Lions’ ‘keeper David Martin inexplicably let slip through his grasp to bring the Albion level.

*Goalkeeper Mat Ryan a penalty shoot-out hero at Millwall* *in 2019*

The momentum was in Brighton’s favour in extra time but it took a penalty shoot-out to decide the tie and when Murray missed Millwall might have thought it had turned back their way. But after three successes each, Mat Ryan kept out Mahlon Romeo’s effort, and Lions centre back Jake Cooper needed to bury his spot kick to keep the tie alive for the home side. He blazed his shot over the bar and Albion were through.

There was to be no such drama in 2023 when 18-year-old Evan Ferguson did a whole lot better than his 1986 namesake and stole the headlines by scoring twice against League Two Grimsby, who were playing in their first FA Cup quarter-final for 84 years.

The Mariners had knocked out five teams from divisions above them to reach that stage but they were well and truly put to the sword by Roberto De Zerbi’s impressive Seagulls who ran out 5-0 winners at the Amex.

As well as Ferguson’s brace, Deniz Undav, March and Karou Mitoma were also on the scoresheet and it could have been more; Mitoma missing a sitter and Adam Webster’s effort hitting the bar.

Perhaps by way of highlighting how quickly fortunes can change for young players, it’s interesting to recall that of Ferguson BBC pundit Danny Murphy said at the time: “This kid is a superstar. Honestly.

“He’s got great feet, technical ability. He’s calm, powerful and plays the role really well. You don’t see him out wide, he stays central and is always a target.

“I can’t see a weakness in his game at the moment. For 18 years old, the maturity he shows in his game is phenomenal.”

Murray, having moved into the punditry game himself by then, added: “It was the manner in which he scored those goals, he was so composed. As a young lad just coming into the first team, you can snatch at those chances but he just relaxes in that moment – and that is something that you can’t teach.

“He’s got a good stature and I think there’s big things in the future for him.”

High hopes have followed Billy Gilmour on his football journey

NAPOLI might well be riding high in Serie A but it’s mainly a watching brief for midfielder Billy Gilmour who moved to the Italian club from Brighton in August 2024.

The former Chelsea midfielder has found game-time harder to come by than fellow countryman Scott McTominay, who has shone in midfield as Antonio Conte’s side have been involved in an intriguing Italian title race with Atalanta and Inter Milan.

Most of Gilmour’s involvement has been from the bench apart from during October and November 2024 when he started five consecutive league matches. Stanislas Lobotka has more often been Conte’s pick for the no 6 role.

Nonetheless Conte said: “I’m happy that we have him here, he is a great player. He is an important option for us.”

While some Brighton supporters lamented Gilmour’s departure, it could be seen as a shrewd piece of business considering the Seagulls received a reported fee of £12m plus £4m in add-ons, turning a profit on the £9m paid to Chelsea two years earlier.

Veteran Albion watcher Andy Naylor reckoned Gilmour was a key player, citing Opta stats highlighting Gilmour’s 92.15 per cent passing accuracy in 2023-24 to back up his view. “He helps to control games and dictate the tempo with slick and reliable passing,” he wrote for The Athletic.

Indeed, after Gilmour had once again earned plaudits playing for his country at the 2024 Euros tournament, Naylor declared that the player “is going to become increasingly important to Brighton” even going so far as to say: “The midfielder is the future for his club under new head coach Fabian Hurzeler.” As it happened, that couldn’t have been more wrong.

The arrival of two £25m signings in Dutch international Mats Wieffer from Feyenoord and Danish international Matt O’Riley from Celtic, together with the emerging influence of young Carlos Baleba must have sounded a warning signal to the Scot. And a central midfield starting berth for veteran James Milner meant Hurzeler had something quite different in mind. Not to mention other midfield options of Jack Hinshelwood and Yasin Ayari.

Although Gilmour went on as a sub in the opening day 3-0 win at Everton and started alongside Milner in the 2-1 home win over Manchester United, the growing rumours of his imminent departure to Italy proved true as former Chelsea manager Conte signed him along with McTominay from Manchester United.

Gilmour admitted in an interview with AreaNapoli: “Scott arrived here before me, and we were texting each other, in the days when I was also hoping to move to Naples.

“When Scott told me he was on the plane to come here, all that was left to do was close my transfer. The day I arrived in Naples was something incredible. I got off the plane, ran to do the medical and then went to the stadium.”

*Gilmour and McTominay together at Napoli*

Gilmour added: “My dream as a footballer is to reach the highest levels and win trophies here in Naples. That’s what I will try to do.”

Apart from starting one cup match, and the autumn run referred to earlier, Gilmour’s had to reprise the situation he found himself in at Brighton when he first arrived – he only made six starts plus seven appearances off the bench as Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister and Pascal Gross lorded it in midfield.

Gilmour heard only good things about Brighton from former Chelsea teammate Tariq Lamptey before making the move south, and on arrival there was also a familiar face behind the scenes in David Weir, who he’d known from his days at Glasgow Rangers.

After that low key start to life with the Seagulls, in April 2023 Roberto De Zerbi decided to rest key players for the home game with Wolves and give Gilmour and striker Deniz Undav starts. Albion won 6-0 and the manager confessed afterwards: “Gilmour, I think, was the best player on the pitch and I must admit possibly in the past I made some mistakes with him and with Undav because I didn’t give them many possibilities to play.

“But for me it’s difficult. To play without Mac Allister, Mitoma, Solly March, Moises Caicedo, it’s difficult.”

Once Mac Allister and Caicedo had flown the Seagulls nest, De Zerbi showed his faith in Gilmour, giving him 32 starts and nine appearances off the bench as Albion competed in the Europa League for the first time.

“Billy is a unique player,” reckoned De Zerbi. “We have only one playmaker in our squad and he is Billy Gilmour.”

*Gilmour in action for the Albion v Arsenal*

In early December 2023, he was full of praise for the young Scot, telling the media: “The improvement of Gilmour is incredible. I completely love him, because now he is playing very much like a leader on the pitch.

“Big quality, big attitude, big player. He is improving in the quality of the pass, in the personality, how he can drive and control the game, drive the team. To understand the play before he receives the ball.

“He understood when he has to play a long ball and a short pass because the defensive space starts from how long is the pass. In his reaction, when we lose the ball. I am very pleased for his performances.”

Born on 11 June 2001 in Irvine, Ayrshire, Gilmour grew up in the county’s coastal town of Ardrossan where he went to Stanley Primary School. He moved on to Grange Academy in Kilmarnock which was part of the Scottish FA performance school programme.

When he and fellow graduate Nathan Patterson made it into the full international squad, programme director Malky Mackay told The Scotsman: “Billy is someone I’ve been impatient about for a number of years now. We took him to the Toulon tournament with Scotland under-21s when he was 17 because I had a firm belief this kid is something special.

“He ended up playing, becoming the breakthrough player at a tournament of that esteem, scoring a goal and captaining the team. It was only a matter of time but it’s terrific he and Nathan have been picked for the squad. That makes me more happy than you could ever know.”

At a young age, Gilmour spent three months at Celtic (his dad supported the Hoops) but switched to Rangers (who his mum supported) because it was easier to get to training.

He progressed through the youth ranks and was still only 15 when he was called up to train with the first team squad during Mark Warburton’s reign as manager.

“I came on the scene at a young age and there was a lot of talk, a lot of people putting my name out there, but you have to learn to live with that – and the best way is by playing well and keeping your consistency,” Gilmour told the Albion matchday programme.

It was a disappointing snub by Rangers caretaker manager Graeme Murty that led to his £500,000 departure from Glasgow to London, as recounted by sports writer Ewan Paton in rangersreview.co.uk.

Gilmour was due to become Rangers’ youngest-ever player at 15 years old in a Scottish Cup tie against Hamilton in March 2017; Murty indicating the teenager would be on the bench and would get the chance to fulfil his lifelong dream of playing for Rangers.

But, just hours before kick-off, Murty changed his mind, with Gilmour being left out of the matchday squad.

“I felt like I was going to be on the bench and maybe even come on that game. It works in its weird ways, so it does, football,” said Gilmour.

Two months later, when he was eligible to turn professional aged 16, the incident was in the back of his mind and he opted to move to Chelsea.

“Of course, I would’ve loved to have played for Rangers,” he said. “But I ended up moving on and maybe it’s a wee part of my journey that made the decision a bit easier.”

Remarkably, Gilmour scored in each of his first three games for Chelsea’s under 18 side and he signed a professional contract aged 17 in July 2018.

A year later, it was newly-appointed manager Frank Lampard who gave him his senior debut in a pre-season friendly. His league debut was as a late substitute for Tammy Abraham against Sheffield United and his first start was shortly afterwards in a 7-1 EFL Cup thrashing of Grimsby Town, a game in which Reece James made his debut.

Lampard said afterwards: “I thought Billy Gilmour ran the game from midfield, and Marc Guehi was solid. They’ve been outstanding this year.”

After making 11 league and cup appearances for Chelsea in each of 2019-20 and 2020-21, Gilmour went on a season-long loan to Norwich City where, although he got more games (23 starts, five off the bench), he didn’t enjoy the experience and wasn’t a permanent fixture in the struggling Canaries side that eventually ended up being relegated.

*Gilmour didn’t enjoy his time at Norwich*

“Things had been going so well and then I went on loan to Norwich which I thought would be good for me,” Gilmour told Men’s Health. “It turned out to be a fight, a battle. I learned a lot.”

He continued: “I was just a young kid and it was a low time for me.

“I learned how strong I was. I put a smile on my face, even though I was hurting, especially when I was living on my own in Norwich. Some nights, I’d be sitting there thinking, ‘This is c**p’, but that’s where my family helped me. You can only learn from that.”

Gilmour, when aged just 20, was named man of the match in his first full start for Scotland as they held England to a 0-0 draw at Wembley in a Euro 2020 match (played in June 2021 because of Covid).

“The ease with which he has transitioned into international football implies that he possesses some very special skills,” reckoned Ewan Murray, writing in The Guardian.

“It was his big moment and he didn’t let us down,” said Scotland manager Steve Clarke. “Nobody is surprised by that. Not in our camp.”

But a word that has hung heavy around Gilmour’s neck is expectation. When the permanent move to Brighton came about, Tuchel admitted that Chelsea hadn’t wanted to let him go and would rather he had only left on loan.

He told reporters: “We had high hopes [for him] and he played for us in the first half a year when I was at Chelsea. He played some important matches for us and looked for a new challenge that did not go so well for him with Norwich.

“We expected more, he expected more so it was like, without pointing a finger, but it is difficult also for him and for us to not succeed, to not play at Norwich, to be relegated and then suddenly be a central midfielder for Chelsea and competing for top four and for every title.

“There’s a huge step in between so we were looking. The ideal solution would have been maybe that he goes again on loan as the concurrence is huge for us in central midfield and we felt like he is not the age where he can live again with five or six or seven matches during a whole season to fulfill his own potential so, ideally, it would have been another loan.

“Billy did not want to go on loan, it was a no-go for him so in the end, we agreed to a sale.”

Gilmour’s version of events differed a little, as he revealed in an interview with talkSPORT in September 2023, saying that after his season-long loan at Norwich, he was told he wasn’t part of the first-team plans at Chelsea and would have to be content with playing in the reserves.

That was despite Chelsea exercising an option to extend his contract to the end of the 2023-24 season earlier that summer.

“When I came back from my loan from Norwich, I came back and had pre-season and I just wasn’t in the plans,” Gilmour told talkSPORT host Jim White. “At that point I was thinking, well, I want to be at a club that really appreciates me and I want to be part of the team.

“I want to play first-team football. I’ve had a taste for it. I’ve played for my country, so I want to try and push on now. For me, it was the right time to leave. I spoke with the manager at the time, and he thought the same.

“I want to play football, I want to really settle down and try and find a house and home and be here and give my all.”

It remains to be seen where the young Scot’s career goes next but even though his playing time in Italy hasn’t quite lived up to expectations, the midfielder told broadcaster DAZN: “I am fit and well, I’m enjoying it. Of course, we are doing well as a team, so we want to keep building on that.”

Illness and injury brought Izzy Brown’s dream to an early end

IZZY BROWN was just 20 when he joined Albion on a season-long loan from Chelsea hoping to prove his worth as a Premier League striker.

Sadly, a serious anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury meant that ambition was thwarted after only four starts and eight appearances off the bench.

Then, at the age of 26, a twice-ruptured Achilles tendon forced him to quit the game altogether.

Brown’s ascent to the elite level of English football was rapid. He was only 16 when he made his debut for West Bromwich Albion, becoming the second-youngest player in Premier League history when he went on for the Baggies towards the end of a 3-2 defeat against Wigan in May 2013.

Two months later, Chelsea offered him five times more than West Brom were paying him and he switched to Stamford Bridge to join their scholarship scheme.

The financial cushion they gave him at such a tender age meant retiring from the game early came as less of a blow than it might have done.

“I’m thankful to Chelsea for everything they’ve ever done for me because if it wasn’t for them, I don’t know what my life would be like now,” Brown told Nancy Froston in an exclusive April 2023 interview with The Athletic.

“They put me in a position where, while it’s not that I don’t ever want to work again, it has set me up to provide for my family for quite a few years.”

Brown spent eight years as a Chelsea player although Brighton were the fourth of seven clubs he joined on loan over that period.

Although he scored twice on his Chelsea debut in a 5-0 pre-season friendly win over Wycombe Wanderers, he made only one competitive first team appearance and that was as a sub against his old club, West Brom, in May 2015. Chelsea lost 3-0 and Brown saw only 11 minutes of action when Jose Mourinho sent him on to replace Loic Remy.

Brown had previously been an unused sub on several occasions in the second half of the 2014-15 season, but that summer he was sent on loan to Vitesse Arnhem where he registered just the one goal in 24 appearances.

In the 2016-17 season, Brown had two loans in Yorkshire: scoring three in 20 matches for Rotherham United and then five in 21 for their fellow Championship side Huddersfield Town.

He was involved in the Terriers’ Championship play-off final win over Reading and there were reports they wanted to make his move permanent, with a fee of £8m mentioned.

But Brown thought it wasn’t the right move for him, still harbouring hopes of making it at Chelsea. “I’m still learning and I feel Brighton is the place for me to develop further,” he said.

“There were plenty of clubs calling my agent but Brighton was always my number one choice,” he told the matchday programme. He explained he wanted to learn from manager Chris Hughton, adding: “The facilities here and the ambition of the club was also important for me.”

Hughton said of the youngster: “He’s a very flexible forward player. We brought him in very much as a (number) ten, where he had played for Huddersfield last season.

“In his first loan at Rotherham he played very much off the front, went abroad played off the left, and in his first game for us and in pre-season was on the left. He has that versatility in his game.”

That first league game was the opening day defeat at home to Manchester City and he went off injured (replaced by Jamie Murphy) as Albion went down 2-0. He didn’t re-appear until 1 October away to Arsenal when he struggled as an orthodox striker in another 2-0 defeat.

Thereafter, he only made two more league starts – the 5-1 home battering by Liverpool and a 2-0 defeat at Huddersfield.

Although Crystal Palace in the third round of the FA Cup on 8 January gave him a chance to show what he could do from the start, the game was only six minutes old when he was forced off with the knee injury that brought his time with Albion to a close.

Hughton saw it as a big blow because he had been planning to make much more use of the young striker in the second half of the season.

“You would have seen him much more involved,” he said. “He’d had a slight hamstring injury when he first came which kept him out for a few weeks.

“But certainly I would have seen him play in more games than perhaps in that first half,” said Hughton.

“He is a very popular player here. Before he’d come here, he’d had a couple of other loans and I think that adapted him well going into a new environment.”

Brown himself had said the only player he knew before his arrival was Connor Goldson through his friendship with Jonny Taylor, who Brown had played with at Rotherham.

Deprived of Brown’s services, Hughton brought in Jurgen Locadia from PSV Eindhoven and a familiar face in Leonardo Ulloa, returning to the Amex on loan from Leicester City.

Although both were on the scoresheet when Albion dispensed with Coventry City in the fifth round of the FA Cup, it would probably be fair to say neither were a rip-roaring success. The combination of Glenn Murray and Pascal Gross were the main goal contributors.

Born in Peterborough on 7 January 1997, Isaiah Brown, to give him his proper name, said in an emotional open letter on his retirement: “As soon as I could walk, I always had a football at my feet. That was me, that was my happy place.”

He was talented enough to represent England at under 16, under 17, under 19 and under 20 levels, winning a total of 34 caps.

At Chelsea, he was in the side that won the Under-21 Premier League title in 2013-14 and the UEFA Youth League the following season.

After the disappointment of his time at Brighton being curtailed, he was still recovering in August 2018 when he went back to Yorkshire on loan to Championship Leeds United under Marcelo Bielsa.

But once recovered, he was mainly involved in United’s under 21 side. He only made two substitute appearances for the first team, one in a 1-0 league defeat at QPR and one in the end-of-season play-off final that Leeds lost 4-3 on aggregate to Derby.

The following season once again saw him head out on loan for a season, this time to Luton Town. He scored once in 19 starts, plus nine games as a sub, as the Hatters narrowly avoided relegation from the Championship.

The 2020-21 season once again saw Brown heading to Yorkshire, this time with Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship.

It was a season that saw the club have three full-time managers and a caretaker, finishing bottom of the league and relegated to League One. Brown made only five starts plus 16 appearances off the bench.

With his contract at Chelsea finally coming to an end, his next move was a permanent switch away from the Bridge, and he signed a one-year deal with Preston North End.

Head coach Frankie McAvoy said: “He’s got good pedigree. He’s got great experience in terms of playing in the Championship and an ex-Chelsea player from a young age.

“He’s had quite a few loans over his time, some he’s done well, others maybe latterly not done as well as he hoped, so he just needs to find that self-belief again and confidence. But we’re certainly getting a player with undoubted talent, very offensive and we’re looking forward to working with him.

“He can play across the front, but probably his preferred position is a ten behind a striker or two, depending on how we play.

“He can also play in pockets off right and left, so he adds that bit of versatility to our front players and I think if we can get him up and running, believing in himself, being confident in his own ability then I’m sure he’ll endear himself to the Preston faithful.”

Brown, by then 24, said: “Now I’m getting to that age where I want to develop myself as a player and hopefully be a legend at a club, and I really feel like Preston’s a place where I could do that.”

But less than a month after signing for North End, he ruptured an Achilles during pre-season training – and he never actually played a competitive game for Preston.

“We had a pre-season game against Celtic when I was at Preston and I felt some pain in my Achilles, but it wasn’t too bad,” Brown told Froston. “Then we had a couple of days off, I came back for training and then I just passed the football, like I’d done a million times before, and I heard a pop. I thought someone had kicked me but no one was around me.

“It had snapped. So I had the surgery and it went well, but we noticed there was like a little gap in my Achilles.

“We thought maybe it’s not healed properly, but this was only after two months so we gave it time. Then I went out for some dinner and stepped down a small step and it snapped again.

“So I had two Achilles surgeries in the space of three and a half months. To come back from one is hard. To come back from two is basically impossible.”

On top of those football injuries, he got sick with hand, foot and mouth disease, then had an issue with his nervous system that led to muscle loss and affected the nerves in his feet.

He was subsequently told he had a rare and serious condition called Guillain-Barre syndrome and it was apparent he would have to retire from playing football.

In a revealing interview with Froston, he concluded: “Football was my dream. It still is my dream. But dreams have to end one day.”

In the open letter he wrote on his retirement, he said: “Football doesn’t define me as a person. I’m a father, a son, a brother and a friend, and I will be that after football.

“I’ve lived my dream and memories that will stay with me forever. To every club that I have played for, I really appreciate you all for believing in me and giving me a chance to play the game I love.”

In parallel lines

Nick Turrell's Brighton & Hove Albion blog

Tag: Pascal Gross