Tag: Rangers

‘One of the world’s best’ coached Albion’s goalkeepers

‘I’VE STARTED so I’ll Finnish’ could have summed up Antti Niemi’s season coaching Brighton’s goalkeepers.

Even though the fellow countryman who appointed the former Southampton and Fulham ‘keeper left in ignominy less than halfway through the 2014-15 season, Niemi stuck it out to the end before returning to his native Finland.

Niemi joined Albion in the summer of 2014 as part of the new backroom team put together by former Liverpool and Finland international Sami Hyypia.

“This wasn’t planned and, when Sami called me, I was working in Finland for a few years with two different clubs on a part-time basis,” he told the matchday programme. “It was a surprise.”

Seeing it as a “great opportunity” he added: “I thought about it for a couple of days, but it was not a difficult decision to make in the end. I’m obviously already familiar with the south coast.

Niemi enjoyed Albion coaching environment

“If you look at the surroundings at the training ground and the stadium, it’s a fantastic place to work each day. I seriously love the job.”

At Brighton, Niemi was responsible for the form of newly-arrived David Stockdale, emerging youngster Christian Walton and back-up ‘keeper Casper Ankergren.

Stockdale admitted it was the presence of Niemi — a former team-mate at Craven Cottage — as goalkeeping coach that was a big reason in his making the move to Sussex (as well as a chat with Bobby Zamora).

“Antti looked after me at Fulham when I first went in as a young keeper,” he said. “I know what he is about, what his training is like and what kind of person he is.”

Niemi was also the reason fellow countryman and Finland international Niki Mäenpää joined the Seagulls, although their paths ultimately didn’t cross on the training ground in Sussex because Niemi decided to return home for family reasons.

Mäenpää had been coached by Niemi back in Finland and he was first linked with the Albion when Hyypia was appointed. Although a move from Dutch second division club VVV-Venlo didn’t go through then, it eventually happened in the summer of 2015.

“Seeing as his contract is ending, he is looking forward to a new adventure and Antti has explained to him about Brighton and everything,” the player’s agent, Richinel Bryson, told The Argus.

Born on 31 May 1972 in Oulu, the northern Finnish city where there is no darkness during summer nights, Niemi remembered going to school when the temperature was –42°C one winter.

He completed compulsory military service in his homeland, explaining in a 2003 interview with The Guardian that he found life tough for much of his 11 months at a sports military school.

“I didn’t realise this at the time but, if I wasn’t in football, I would probably be in the army,” he told reporter Joe Brodkin. “I’m very patriotic. It was fun and it’s something I would have considered, although I’m too old now.

“In some ways it’s similar to what we have in the dressing room: being together and having fun, giving stick and taking stick. In the army it was a similar situation. We had something like 20 footballers in there and it was fun. Not at the time but looking back.”

Niemi began his football journey with local side Oulun Luistinseura before moving on to Rauman Pallo and then to the country’s biggest club, HJK Helsinki, where he eventually became first choice ‘keeper and made 101 appearances over four years.

He then swapped from Finland’s capital to Denmark’s fortuitously because the Finland FA president at the time had played in Denmark as a goalkeeper and FC Copenhagen asked him for a name.

“He mentioned me and everything happened in two days,” Niemi recalled in an interview with fulhamfc.com. “I was inconsistent in my first six months in Denmark but did well in my first full season.

“I learned that Rangers had sent a scout to watch someone on the pitch when we played in a league cup semi-final; it was one of those games where I just saved everything and we won. That 90 minutes made them choose to sign me, so it was all about luck really.”

That was luck he would come to rue, subsequently, though, because he had actually agreed to sign for Gordon Strachan at then Premier League Coventry City. Rangers stepped in at the last minute to clinch his signature in 1997 but it was a period of his career that would prove to be frustrating.

Andy Goram was first choice ‘keeper and Theo Snelders was also ahead of him.

He did win the Scottish League Cup (beating St Johnstone 2-1 in 1998) but he only played in one Old Firm game and that ended in a 5-1 defeat, so he didn’t have happy memories of his time at Ibrox where Walter Smith’s successor, Dick Advocaat, was unconvinced of the Finn’s ability under pressure and suggested he needed to move on to prove himself.

Highly regarded at Heart of Midlothian

He switched from Glasgow to Edinburgh to join Hearts for £350,000 in December 1999, manager Jim Jefferies telling The Herald: “Niemi is a fine keeper and is very highly regarded by everyone.”

Niemi reflected: “They were the third best team in the country behind Celtic and Rangers, but I said to myself that sometimes you have to take a step backwards to go forward.

“That was maybe the best decision that I ever made; it felt a bit of a downgrade at the time, but I wasn’t playing and I knew it would be good for me in the long run.”

In two-and-a-half years at Hearts, he became first choice and made a name for himself as a penalty stopper.

The keeper said of himself in a 2021 interview with the Edinburgh Evening News: “The biggest strength I had in my game was quick hands and quick reactions.”

Looking back on his 106 appearances for the Jam Tarts, he revealed: “Hearts have always been THE club for me.”

In an interview with CoffeeFriend.co.uk, he said: “Don’t get me wrong. I was very lucky to play in the English Premier League with Southampton and Fulham but there was something romantic about the place.

“I went there from Rangers where I was second or third keeper and suddenly got the chance to be No.1 and be a big part of the team.

“We finished third, had some European football, memorable derbies. I hope it doesn’t sound cocky but I really can’t remember too many games I let the team down.

“I loved my time there and it’s definitely one of those places I miss now and then.”

Saint Antti

It was Strachan who persuaded Niemi, by then 30, to try his luck in the Premier League at Southampton.

“My decision to move was purely on a football basis,” he said. “I hardly get any more money than I did in Scotland. I was there for five years and for two and half years I was playing regularly. Sometimes I felt I was playing against the same teams and the same players the whole time.”

Saints paid a fee of £2m to secure his services and he made his debut against Charlton Athletic, where he had spent a month on loan before his move to Hearts.

Strachan quickly installed Niemi as his preferred ‘keeper over Paul Jones and at the end of his first season with the Saints he appeared in the FA Cup final against Arsenal at the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff – a game which I watched with my friend Andrew Setten, sitting in front of Geoff Hurst in the best seats in the house!

Arsenal’s Thierry Henry points things out to Niemi

With Arsenal retaining a 1-0 first half lead, Niemi unfortunately tore a calf muscle midway through the second half and, when replaced by Jones, became the first goalkeeper to be substituted in a FA Cup final.

In spite of losing to that solitary goal, Niemi didn’t want to miss the lap of appreciation and took a ride on a team-mate’s shoulders as they trooped around the stadium.

A series of injuries and a couple of operations limited him to 28 Premier League games in each of the next two seasons but in the opinion of goalkeeping coach David Coles (who once played on loan for Brighton), he was among the world’s top five ’keepers and he was the Saints player of the year in 2003-04.

“The Premiership has been every bit as good as I expected and even more,” Niemi said in that Guardian interview. “Everywhere you go it’s a full stadium and the pitches are perfect. It’s a fantastic league.

“I was making some good saves in Scottish football but the spotlight in the Premiership is so much bigger. There are so many cameras and every single game and situation is highlighted, so it’s easier to shine.”

Niemi’s reputation was certainly enhanced after he kept 17 clean sheets in his first two top flight seasons under Strachan at St Mary’s.

But he was also part of the Southampton side that was relegated in 2005, bringing to an end 27 years in English football’s top tier.

“The longer the season went on, the worse the results got and the more it started to affect the dressing room,” he told hampshirelive. “But overall, I can only look into the mirror and blame myself.

“My first two seasons at Saints were great, but during the third one, I just couldn’t get up to that standard any more. It was average at best.”

Niemi saw influential team-mates leave without being properly replaced and he said: “I remember looking around myself at the beginning of the campaign and thinking ‘things here aren’t as well as they should be’. The team had weakened and the contrast was huge.”

After the relegation, Niemi said: “I felt ashamed, simple as. It just felt embarrassing as hell.”

He stayed half a season after Saints playing in the Championship but returned to the Premier League in January 2006 when he moved to Fulham under Chris Coleman.

“Living in London was a big attraction.,” he told fulhamfc.com. “My wife was delighted to get a chance to move to West London and, as I’d played against them many times, I knew that it was a nice club too.”

Niemi switched to Craven Cottage in January 2006

A hamstring injury limited him to nine appearances in those first few months at Craven Cottage but he established himself as first choice the following season and went on to make 63 appearances before a wrist injury led to him calling it a day at the start of the 2008-09 season.

However, at the age of 37, he was persuaded to come out of retirement and followed his former Saints coach Coles to south coast rivals Portsmouth as back-up to first choice David James.

He left Pompey in March 2010 having earned around £450,000 over the course of eight months without having made an appearance, the Daily Mirror reported.

The newspaper said the Finn earned £14,000 a week during his time at Fratton Park and played just twice for the reserves and spent one Premier League match on the subs’ bench.

Having won 67 caps playing in goal for Finland, Niemi became his country’s goalkeeping coach from 2010 as well as working with the Finnish FA in developing the quality of goalkeeper coaching in the country. Alongside those responsibilities, he slotted in club goalkeeper coaching in various locations – including back at his old club HJK Helsinki, at another Finnish side, FC Honka, and the season at Brighton.

Joaquin Gómez, a coach he first met during that season with the Albion, subsequently called on his services at Finnish side HIFK in 2021.

Gómez, originally an academy coach with the Seagulls, stayed on as part of the first team management set-up having worked under Hyypia’s successor, Oscar Garcia., but then left to become head of tactical analysis at Derby County before teaming up with Nathan Jones at Luton Town, and then Stoke City.

In May 2019, on Niemi’s recommendation, he also started coaching Finland’s under 21 team. After leaving Stoke, he was assistant manager at Spanish Second Division side FC Cartagena, assistant coach at Finland’s SJK Seinäjoki and spent a season at Al-Qadsiah in Saudi Arabia.

On persuading Niemi to join him at HIFK, Gómez said: “He’s an outstanding goalkeeping coach and will now also assist me in other areas.

“Antti is the best Finnish goalkeeper of all time, and he has done great work in coaching after his retirement from playing. At HIFK he’ll have a more versatile role than previously, as he’ll be working more with outfield players as well.”

In the summer of 2024, Gómez persuaded Niemi to join him at Greek Super League club Volos and the Finn spoke to Tribalfootball.com about those days spent in Lancing.

“I have seen a lot of passionate people in my lifetime in football but this guy is something else; he has dedicated his life to football. 

“He moved from Spain (to England) without knowing any English, he just wanted to work in English football. He was working as a waiter, he was cleaning the toilets at Brighton, he was coaching kids and eventually somebody saw that this guy is really passionate and he can coach so he got in the first team.”

Niemi continued: “He called me in the summer, he said I had a few days to decide. He is very temperamental; he is very passionate and I am the boring, steady guy who always tells him to calm down! You need that sort of personality; you don’t need a similar sort of personality as you need to balance each other out 

“He offered me the job to be the assistant manager which is different as I have always been a goalkeeping coach and I still am with the Finnish national team but I took it as a challenge, as an adventure. It is going to be a learning curve for me and I am really enjoying it so far.” 

Unfortunately, Gómez was sacked after only five league matches and his next appointment, in January 2025, was as the new coach of Indonesian Liga 1 club Borneo Samarinda.

Fans warmed to ‘indestructible’ Goldson after own goal start

CONNOR GOLDSON’S dad Winston must have had mixed emotions when his son scored the only goal of the game at the Amex on New Year’s Day 2016.

The avid Wolverhampton Wanderers fan in him would have been delighted to see his side leave the south coast with three valuable Championship points.

Unfortunately, Wolverhampton-born Connor was playing for Brighton that day – just his second game in the blue and white stripes.

What made it worse was that the defender had been on Wanderers’ books for five years as a young boy but was released when he was only 13.

Goldson must have been mortified when, in the 32nd-minute of that first game of 2016, he inadvertently diverted Jordan Graham’s cross past David Stockdale in the home goal.

Sure, injury-hit Albion had chances to restore parity or even win, but 11th-placed Wolves hung on to the lead and Chris Hughton’s luckless Seagulls saw a winless run extend to six games.

Albion also lost the next two matches but got back on track with a 1-0 win at Blackburn on 16 January and then pushed hard for an automatic promotion slot.

For Goldson, that fixture marked the start of a run of games alongside Lewis Dunk, and his first goal for the club came in a 2-1 away win at Birmingham City on 5 April, when he glanced in a Jiri Skalak set-piece delivery.

Goldson celebrates his goal at Birmingham with Beram Kayal and Lewis Dunk

He found the net again a fortnight later with a towering header from a corner as the Seagulls crushed QPR 4-0 at the Amex to edge closer to the top two (Burnley and Middlesbrough) with three games to go.

The centre-back partnership was only broken up when Dunk was shown a red card in the penultimate game, a 1-1 draw at Derby, and suspended for the final game of the ordinary league season.

Goldson was alongside returning skipper Gordon Greer for the crucial away game at Middlesbrough on 7 May when the 1-1 draw meant Boro, equal on 89 points, pipped the Albion to automatic promotion by virtue of having scored two more goals.

With Albion forced to endure the play-offs, Goldson’s involvement in the Seagulls’ bid to overcome Sheffield Wednesday cruelly came to a premature end when the centre-back was forced off injured before half-time in the first leg at Hillsborough, and Albion eventually succumbed 2-0.

The injury prevented Goldson being involved in the second leg when Dunk scored but Wednesday somehow managed a 1-1 draw to thwart Albion’s progress.

If that was a blow, it was the least of the troubles the defender would have to overcome the following season.

Frustrating though it was that Brighton brought in Shane Duffy to partner Dunk in the centre of defence, Goldson’s brief spell back in the side in early 2017 came to a juddering halt when a routine scan discovered a heart defect that required surgery.

Then it wasn’t just his football career that was under threat, but his life was in danger if urgent action wasn’t taken to operate on the swollen aorta the tests uncovered.

It has since emerged that Winston suffered a heart attack aged only 35 and Goldson’s grandfather had died of a heart problem.

The required “preventative surgery” took place at the Royal Brompton Hospital, Chelsea, leaving him with a scar down the middle of his chest. His best friend in football and former Shrewsbury teammate, Jon Taylor, told The Athletic: “He thought the worst about not playing again. He was struggling. When I saw him in the hospital it was horrible.”

Taylor was among several former Shrews people Scottish football writer Jordan Campbell spoke to for an extended article about Goldson published by The Athletic in March 2021.

“I made a T-shirt for him before a game which said ‘Stay Strong Con’. That gave him a little bit of a boost but he’s got a great family around him,” said Taylor, who is now at Doncaster. “When he had the op, and he knew he could play again, his mentality was, ‘How quickly can I get back?’. Even as young lads at Wolves we knew his mindset was second to none.”

Campbell reported how once Goldson had come to terms with the situation, he was determined to get back playing regularly, and just 15 weeks after the operation he took part in a pre-season friendly match in Austria. In a changed second half team, he lined up alongside Uwe Hünemeier against Fortuna Dusseldorf.

Physio Chris Skitt, who’d nurtured Goldson through physical issues when he was developing at Shrewsbury, said: “If I talk to kids and they say, ‘What does it take to be a professional footballer?’, I use Connor as the example.”

With a surname that lent itself so readily to the Spandau Ballet classic Gold, the “indestructible” line in the lyrics was a natural for Albion’s singing fans to pick up on.

But at the end of August 2017, on transfer deadline day, it looked certain Goldson would continue his rehabilitation into league football with a season-long loan move to Ipswich Town.

He was manager Mick McCarthy’s main target, but Albion pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute because of the collapse of a separate deal for centre-back cover they’d hoped to complete.

Goldson played in League Cup matches against Barnet and AFC Bournemouth but it wasn’t until December that he finally got his chance to feature in Albion’s debut Premier League season – and he turned in a Man of the Match performance as the Seagulls beat Watford 1-0 at the Amex.

He played in three games in January: FA Cup matches against Crystal Palace and Middlesbrough (2-1 and 1-0 wins), and the 4-0 home defeat to a rampant Chelsea.

Goldson and Duffy in action v Chelsea

As Albion progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup, Goldson once again got a start, alongside Hünemeier, as Albion beat Coventry City 3-1 at the Amex.

His last league game in an Albion shirt was as a 71st-minute substitute for Duffy in a 4-0 reverse away to Liverpool on the final day of the season.

During the close season, Goldson seized on the chance to play for his boyhood hero Steven Gerrard, who had just been appointed manager of Glasgow Rangers. Gerrard drove all the way to Brighton for face-to-face talks with Goldson and explained how he saw him as a cornerstone of the rebuilding job at Rangers.

The often magnanimous Hughton was not going to stand in his way and said on the club website: “Connor has done extremely well for the club in the three years he has been here, but he wants to play regular senior football, and at this stage we cannot give him that guarantee.

“He has been a great professional and a pleasure to work with – and he has shown a great mental strength to come through a very tough time after he underwent crucial heart surgery just over a year ago.”

Determined to seize the opportunity presented to him in Glasgow, Goldson remarkably played in 151 of 159 games Rangers took part in over the next three years; when he made his 150th appearance, it was the quickest any player had reached that landmark in the club’s history.

After Gerrard departed Rangers to take on the manager’s job at Aston Villa, Goldson indicated he wanted to make a move himself, although, at the time of writing, he remains in Glasgow.

Born on 18 December 1992, Goldson grew up on the same Wolverhampton estate as future Wanderers players Leon Clarke and Carl Ikeme.

As the son of a Wolves-mad dad, it was probably not surprising that his early footballing promise was nurtured with Wanderers. The family lived only a 10-minute car ride from Molineux.

“I was with Wolves from the age of eight until I was 13,” Goldson recalled in an Albion matchday programme article, explaining that he was in the same group as Jack Price and Ethan Ebanks-Landell, who both made it through to the first team.

“I was a striker until I was about 10 or 11, simply because I was the biggest and the quickest, but I was then converted into a centre-half,” he said. “When I got to under 14 level, the manager stopped playing me and so my dad and I made the decision to leave for Shrewsbury – and it was the best thing that could have happened to me.”

Shrewsbury fast-tracked Goldson through the groups and he was training with the first team by the time he was 16. He signed professional forms at 17 and made his first team debut the following year.

“I owe Shrewsbury a lot, both the first-team management and the coaches who brought me through,” he said.

In The Athletic feature, Skitt described in detail how Goldson went through a difficult physical development phase which in effect involved “putting him back together”.

The physio was responsible for resetting his body and created a specific programme comprised of core work, gym sessions and remedial work to counter the loss of power growth spurts were causing.

“We even tried to get him boxing to improve his footwork because of his canal boat shoes. He is a size 14 and they are absolutely honking,” said Skitt.

After successfully rebuilding his body, Goldson played 18 games at the start of the 2013-14 season under Graham Turner but only 11 were as a starter, so he went on a two-month loan to Cheltenham.

His loan was extended but he was recalled after first team coach and reserve team manager Mike Jackson (the chap who has taken over as caretaker Burnley manager following Sean Dyche’s sacking) was put in charge at Shrewsbury until the end of the season following Turner’s resignation. Goldson played every minute of the last 21 league games.

Shrews were relegated but the following season, under Micky Mellon, with Jackson as coach, Goldson was a key player as they bounced straight back: he won the club’s Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards and was named in the PFA Team of the Year.

Such recognition led to Brighton signing him, doubtless with half an eye on his replacing Greer, who was edging towards the end of his playing days with the Seagulls.

It was a while before Goldson got his chance and Greer admitted in The Athletic feature that the new boy’s frustration spilled over into a set-to with the skipper in training.

“Training finished and we went into the dressing room to find that the lads had laid out two sets of boxing gloves for a laugh with the Rocky music playing,” said Greer. “As soon it was over, though, it was done, as I liked Connor.”

And to show the hatchet had been well and truly buried, Goldson revealed that after he’d taken the captain’s place in the side, behind the scenes Greer had offered him encouragement and advice. “He’s been very helpful and supportive at the same time,” he said. “There are plenty of people who wouldn’t be like that, so I can’t speak highly enough of him.”

Goldson had to wait until 15 December 2015 to make his Albion debut, when he went on as a substitute for the injured Hünemeier against Middlesbrough. Unfortunately, the visitors emphatically ended Albion’s 21-game unbeaten run, winning 3-0.

That game was watched from the stands by Jose Mourinho, who’d just been deposed as Chelsea boss, catching up on the progress of his former Real Madrid colleague and Boro manager Aitor Karanka.

For the new young centre-back, the rise to playing in the Championship was all a learning experience, and he said: “I’ve been working with Colin Calderwood a lot, even after training, and as a former centre-back himself, he has put on a lot of good drills.”

Little did he know at the time there would be far greater challenges ahead.

‘Weirdo’ makes meteoric rise to Albion’s top football role

DAVID WEIR had something of a meteoric rise to the top football role at Brighton.

Weir, a former Rangers, Everton and Scotland international, became the club’s new technical director in May 2022 having only been appointed assistant technical director in January. He stepped up to the top job in an interim capacity only a month later after Dan Ashworth quit (and was put on ‘gardening leave’ before joining Newcastle).

Previously Weir had been pathway development manager, keeping tabs on players sent out on loan. When Weir’s appointment to the top role was confirmed, chairman Tony Bloom told the club website: “During his recent role as acting technical director he has used his experience, knowledge and ability in supporting  both Graham Potter and the men’s first-team, as we secured a record top-flight finish, and to Hope Powell and the women’s first-team. 

“In that time he has already further enhanced an already excellent working relationship with both Paul Barber and me, as well as our executive team responsible for the running of the club. David will oversee all football operations; including recruitment, analysis, medical and player welfare, across both the men’s and women’s set-up.”

Weir didn’t have long in the role before he was having to help Bloom and deputy chairman and chief executive Paul Barber find a new head coach following Potter’s defection to Chelsea. Weir found himself facing the media when Roberto De Zerbi was unveiled as Potter’s replacement.

However, as Barber said at the time of Weir’s appointment: “It is well known by Everton, Rangers and Scotland fans that David was a leader on the pitch. He has continued to show those qualities off the pitch and has quickly settled into the role.”

When the pathway development manager job was created, who better to entrust the care and progress of promising youngsters than a father of four who played more than 600 matches at the highest level in both the English and Scottish leagues, not to mention 69 games for his country.

Weir had a 20-year playing career, and was still playing for Scotland aged 40, after starting out with his hometown club Falkirk. He was at the heart of Everton’s defence for seven years, including several as captain.

“David has an excellent playing and coaching CV, has excellent contacts throughout the football world and is hugely respected within the industry,” Albion’s head of recruitment, Paul Winstanley, said at the time of his appointment.

“With an increasing number of our younger players going out on loan, this is a particular area in which we feel it is important for us to develop.

“David will be responsible for working with those players individually and collectively, during pre-season and throughout their loan spells to help their footballing development, with the aim of assisting with their graduation to long term first-team football.”

Weir told the matchday programme: “As a former manager and coach, I know the pitfalls that come with loan moves and so I put procedures in place to make sure our players gain the most from their time away from the club.

“It’s also important that we send our players to work with coaches who will enhance their experience – I think a loan move is more about sending them to the right coach rather than any particular club.”

One of the many aspects Weir keeps an eye on is how a player adapts outside the cosseted Brighton bubble.

“The loan process, to a lower league club for instance, should make them appreciate how good they’ve got it here and provide the motivation for them to want to succeed at our club.

“They will have to adapt to new surroundings, maybe bringing their own food, washing their kit or finding a gym to work out in. They have to grow up quickly but I’m available to support and help.”

Weir knows himself what it is like being far from home while trying to get your career started. He went to the United States on a scholarship deal, at Indiana’s University of Evansville, between 1988 and 1991.

Born in Falkirk on 10 May 1970, when the centre back returned to the UK he linked up with his hometown team, playing 134 matches over four seasons, before being transferred to Edinburgh side Hearts.

He was in the 1998 Scottish Cup-winning Hearts side (they beat Rangers 2-1) and featured in a total of 116 games before Everton took him to England in February 1999 for a £250,000 fee.

He was signed by Walter Smith and spent seven seasons with the club as a player, during which time he was club captain under both Smith and his successor, David Moyes.

“I spent ten years in total at Everton, so they will always be a club that means a lot to me,” said Weir. “It’s just a special club for me and one that provided me with many happy memories.”

Everton fan website toffeeweb.com summed him up thus: “Weir brought all the essentials of a great defender: big, strong, good in the air and a hard tackler, he had also shown that he was good at attacking, scoring important goals and taking set pieces.”

Weir cited the 2004-05 season when Everton finished fourth and qualified for the Champions League as one of his highlights.

“It was a team that worked hard for each other, and we had that never-say-die attitude that came from the manager (David Moyes),” he pointed out.

Weir played alongside the likes of Wayne Rooney, Duncan Ferguson, Mikel Arteta and Paul Gascoigne during his time at Goodison Park, and he went back after his playing days were over to coach the academy and reserve teams.

Weir had returned to Scotland in 2007 and, while silverware eluded him on Merseyside, he made up for it in Glasgow, where he won the Scottish Premier League title three times, the Scottish Cup twice and the League Cup on three occasions. A personal high came in 2010 when he was the SFWA Footballer of the Year and the Scottish Premier League Player of the Year.

The previous year he had taken over the Rangers captaincy from Barry Ferguson and in 2011 he became the first player to be inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame while still playing.

Weir was first selected for Scotland in 1997 and was in Craig Brown’s squad for the 1998 World Cup in France. He only scored once – in a World Cup qualifier versus Latvia at Hampden Park in 2001. He retired from international football in 2002, when Berti Vogts was the coach, but had a change of heart and returned when his old club boss Walter Smith took charge two years later.

It was in a Euro 2012 qualifying game in 2010 that Weir became the oldest player to play for his country. His 69 caps make him the nation’s seventh-most capped player.

He finally hung up his boots in May 2012 at the age of 42 and returned to Everton as an academy coach. A year later, he took over as manager of third tier Sheffield United but his tenure lasted only 13 games after a disastrous start in which only the opening game was won.

Undeterred, he became Mark Warburton’s assistant manager at Brentford and, after winning promotion to the Championship in their first season and securing a fifth-placed finish in their second season, the pair left the club after a management restructure.

In the summer of 2015, Warburton took charge of Rangers with Weir as his assistant, and after their departure from Ibrox in early 2017, they joined forces at Nottingham Forest in the Championship. 

Warburton, Weir and director of football Frank McParland were all appointed towards the end of Fawaz Al Hasawi’s ownership of the club – two months before a takeover by Greek shipping magnate Evangelos Marinakis – and lasted only nine months at the City Ground.

It was in July 2018 that Brighton took on Weir to guide the club’s loanees.

Amongst his cohort were his own son, Jensen, who went on loan to League One Cambridge United in 2021-22. The England under 20 international then joined Morecambe for the 2022-23 season.

On 20 December 2021, according to Mail Online, Everton held talks with Weir senior about him rejoining the club in a player development role at Goodison Park, but nothing came of it.

A month later, Albion announced Weir had been promoted to become the club’s assistant technical director, supporting Dan Ashworth.

Pass ‘master’ Steven Thomson’s unhappy year with Brighton

STEVEN THOMSON didn’t enjoy his year playing for Brighton in League One and the former Crystal Palace midfielder seized an escape route to return to Scotland to see out the remainder of his long professional career.

It had been considered quite a coup when Dean Wilkins secured the signing of the Falkirk captain in January 2008. In effect a replacement for the departing Dean Hammond, Thomson was soon a victim of Wilkins’ tinkering with the formation, and over his 41 matches for the Seagulls had a conveyor belt of midfield partners, not to mention a change in manager, as Wilkins’ replacement, Micky Adams, introduced a different style – in vain – to try to galvanise the side during his second spell as boss.

Although Thomson had signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the Seagulls, in January 2009 the disillusioned Scot headed back north of the border.

“I didn’t enjoy it there at all and was keen to try and get myself back up the road,” he admitted in an interview with the Daily Record in 2018.

Having wound down his full-time career at St Mirren, after 18 seasons as a professional, and having moved to London to begin a business career, Thomson linked up with his former Albion teammate Nicky Forster to spend a season as a part-time player with Dover Athletic, where the former Seagulls striker was manager at the time.

In an in-depth interview for the Dover Athletic website, Thomson gave a great insight into his career, revealing the lengths he went to to get a break into the professional game.

Born in Glasgow on 23 January 1978, he explained: “After playing for a local boys club I was invited to go and train with a few clubs, so, at the age of 10, I found myself training with Rangers on a Monday, Celtic on a Tuesday, Hearts on a Wednesday and Hibs on a Thursday.”

When he reached 14, he was advised to choose one club over the others and opted for Rangers. Daunted by the high numbers of youngsters all trying for the same opportunity, aged just 16 he took the bold move to head to Croydon and signed on as an apprentice with Palace.

He progressed from the youth team to be offered a pro contract at 17, worked his way through the reserves and then got some calls up to the first team subs bench when they were still in the Premier League. He also played for Scotland’s under-18 side between 1995 and 1997.

During his brief return as manager, Terry Venables gave Thomson his debut aged 19 in the 1998-99 season. Thomson wasn’t renowned for goalscoring, but Palace fans do remember a particularly sweet strike he succeeded with in a 3-0 Worthington Cup win at Leicester City in November 2000.

Leicester’s back-up goalkeeper Simon Royce, who would later join Albion on loan, was beaten from 35 yards by Thomson’s spectacular shot.

The midfielder’s 121 games spanned the spells of five managers – Venables, Steve Bruce, Trevor Francis, Steve Coppell and Dave Bassett – before he left the club at the end of the 2002-03 season. It would be fair to say he divided opinion among Eagles supporters.

On fans forum cpfc.org, ‘Hairybear’ said: “Thomson was a warrior. Very little ability but did a good job when called upon under Bruce and co. He would never let you down.”

But ‘Baron Greenback’ said: “As well as THAT goal against Leicester, he also scored great goals at home to Sunderland in the FA Cup and Wolves.”

It was the ebullient Barry Fry who took Thomson to Peterborough United, (above) where he played 75 games in two seasons before moving back to Scotland to play for Falkirk in the Scottish Premier League.

When Brighton signed him, his former Falkirk teammate and one-time Albion loanee, Graham Barrett, told the Argus what Seagulls supporters could expect.

“They are getting a fantastic professional and a really good player,” said Barrett. “We have been going really well and he has been a massive part of that.

“He is a box-to-box player, he is comfortable on the ball and he has got a bit of everything.

“He is not particularly big (5ft 8in) but he is also very good in the air for his height.”

Barrett reckoned he would be “a massive influence” if he could continue the form he’d shown in Scotland. “He is great in the dressing room as well, a real leader,” said Barrett.

Thomson made his Albion debut in a 1-1 draw at home to Huddersfield on 19 January, starting at the base of a midfield diamond with Paul Reid and David Martot out wide and Dean Cox at the top of it.

Brian Owen, of the Argus, described him as “a neat and tidy passer who only gave the ball away when trying something ambitious”.

Within a couple of months, the Argus was reporting: “It has not been easy for Thomson since his January move back to England from Falkirk.

“He has had to adjust to playing with a number of different partners and now Adam El-Abd is a long-term casualty with the medial knee ligament injury he suffered at Huddersfield.”

Although mostly recognised as a centre back, El-Abd had been one of the options tried in midfield. Thomson admitted to the newspaper: “I know I can perform better. There is more to come. I am adjusting to playing so many games. In Scotland you just play Saturday to Saturday.

“It has been a big move for my family as well. My wife (originally from London) is a lot closer to her parents now and she has got a lot of family around, which helps with our young son.”

In rather a similar vein to the Palace faithful, Brighton fans were also divided as to Thomson’s merits. ‘The Complete Badger’ declared on North Stand Chat: “The only midfielder of any class we’ve got. A real touch of quality about everything he does in my opinion. Much better than Hammond, and much better than anyone else we’ve got.”

But ‘Napper’ reckoned: “Thomson just seems to have nothing about him, not quick, no killer passes. Just seems to either waste possession or go backwards. I’ve really given him more than enough time, but facts are he just isn’t very good. I’ve been watching him closely for many games now.”

In his end-of-season summary, Andy Naylor, Albion reporter for the Argus in 2008, reckoned Hammond had been a hard act to follow, and commented: “Thomson looks a tidy player who will benefit from playing as a central midfielder in a 4-4-2, not the dreaded diamond.”

After Wilkins was shown the door, new boss Adams recognised Thomson’s leadership qualities, making him vice-captain to skipper Nicky Forster, as well as saying he was going to play him in a role further forward than he had been previously.

“I enjoyed the responsibility at Falkirk and I will be willing to help Nicky as much as I can,” Thomson told the Argus. “The manager has stressed that he wants me to try and push forward a lot more, rather than just sitting in front of the back four, and I am quite happy with that.

“I look after myself off the park, so I’m quite fit. Maybe he thinks I have got the engine to get up and down!”

However, problems mounted for Adams when Forster was ruled out by injury and, as in the previous season, Thomson found himself alongside different midfield partners, including, at one time, the flamboyant Robbie Savage, trying to recover some fitness on loan from Derby.

As the year drew to a close, it became public knowledge that Thomson was unsettled and itching to go back to Scotland, so a deal was lined up for him to join St Mirren as soon as the January transfer window opened.

He joined them on the day they played their final game at Love Street ahead of their move to Greenhill Road, and he went on to make more than 100 appearances for the Buddies.

Their fans’ abiding memory of his time there centre on a surprise 4-0 win over Celtic on 24 March 2010, when Thomson scored twice. The result so shocked the Parkhead bosses that they sacked Hoops boss Tony Mowbray.

On joining Dover in May 2012, Thomson told the club’s website: “I made the decision last year that this would be my final season as a full-time player. I have been studying for four or five years and I’m now fully qualified and have secured a job in London.

“My wife Bryony is from London anyway and she wanted to move closer to her family. I’ve been a footballer for 18 years and now it’s time to enter the real world.”

Thomson now works as a financial advisor, with a stylish looking profile on LinkedIn.

‘Mad Dog’ Kennedy’s eyes weren’t always on the ball!

A Ken shot

IN A ‘10 worst Albion strikers you’ve seen’ list, Andy Kennedy would be a leading contender.

On the rare occasions he scored, he would celebrate with an exaggerated swagger befitting scoring the winning goal in a cup final – all rather out of place in a humdrum third tier league match!

The disdain in which the supporters of Watford hold him is hilariously summed up by Darren Rowe in an article on Blind, Stupid and Desperate.

“If an opposing team wanted to keep him under control, they did not need to mark him, merely make sure that he was offside, which, for long spells of the game, he would be,” opined Rowe. “Andy always seemed to have forgotten to put any studs in his boots. If ever he felt he could get away with it, his legs would give way at the edge of the box.”

In the same online title, author Chris Stride is a little more appreciative, before putting the knife in!

“He had good control, strength, ball skills and packed a powerful shot. In his early days at Blackburn, I saw him score a magnificent 25-yard curler and have an all-round blinding game against Aston Villa in the FA Cup.

andy kennedy - wat“When he signed for Watford I was hoping for more of the same. All we ever got was one long range effort away to Southend in the First Round of the Coca-Cola, and a couple of seasons of strolling around the pitch preserving his hairstyle and energy for (page three model girlfriend) Maria Whitaker.”

A Blackburn Rovers fan, posting in February 2018 under the name Drog on roversfans.com, also shared an amusing recollection of Kennedy’s time at his club.

“My main memories of Walsall though are from an occasion at homely former ground Fellows Park where Andy Kennedy netted a brace in a 2-1 win.

“My travelling companions and I managed to gain admission to the less than Babylonian splendour of something exotically named the Terry Ramsden Suite, after a colourful but ill-fated owner, where I was hoping to perhaps pass my congratulations on to Andy and his then-paramour, a lass named Maria Whittaker whom I greatly admired but sadly she had not made the trip to the Midlands.

“I can’t remember exactly what she looked like but the captions which accompanied her frequent newspaper appearances always made me think she’d make a sparkling conversationalist.”

It seems the shapely Ms Whitaker must have occupied Kennedy’s mind quite a lot. Non-League Paper contributor Liam Watson, once a player with Witton Albion, recalled in a 2013 article: “We also signed the striker Andy Kennedy – long dark hair, good looking fella – and he was knocking off the page three girl, Maria Whittaker, at the time. That was all he talked about.”

Born in Stirling on 8 October 1964 the son of an engineer father and beautician mother, Kennedy went to Wallace High School in the town and first gained football representative honours at under 13 level. It was his performances for Stirling Boys Club that caught the eye of Glasgow Rangers scout Davie Provan.

In those days he was a winger but after going through the ranks at Ibrox and signing professional at 17, he was converted into a central striker. He eventually broke through into the first team in 1982.

He mustered 20 games for the Scottish giants, scoring three times, but also spent some time on loan at Seiko in Hong Kong. Clearly it was time to move on from Glasgow!

In March 1985, Birmingham City were faltering as promotion candidates in the chasing pack at the top of the old Second Division when manager Ron Saunders took on the 20-year-old Kennedy at St Andrews.

Andy-Kennedy           Kennedy displays a more conventional goalscoring celebration for Birmingham

On 8 April, with regular striker David Geddis suspended and Blues trying to end a run that had seen just one win in the previous six games, Kennedy was called up for his debut at home to Sheffield United.

And what a start he made! Not only did he score with a header past former Villa ‘keeper John Burridge, he also set up Wayne Clarke to make it 3-0 and Blues went on to win 4-1.

Kennedy’s good form continued as he scored four in seven appearances and the stuttering Blues went from fourth to second and won automatic promotion back to the elite.

Kennedy was leading goalscorer the following season….but with just nine goals that didn’t say much, as the Blues went straight back down!

Throughout the course of his three-year contract with Birmingham he made 76 league appearances but scored just 18 goals and, in March 1987, was loaned to Sheffield United, where he scored once in nine games.

In the summer of 1988, he was on the move again, this time to Blackburn Rovers for a £50,000 fee. To be fair, the Ewood Park faithful probably saw the best of him as he netted 25 goals in 59 appearances during his two years at the club.

Watford were his next club and he joined for a fee of £60,000 in August 1990. But he failed to make an impact and was loaned out to Third Division Bolton Wanderers. Unfortunately, a back injury curtailed his time with the Trotters and he only managed one game before returning to Vicarage Road.

In his unhappy time with the Hornets, he made just 25 league appearances and scored only four goals.

A KenIt was a ‘phone call from Barry Lloyd‘s no.2 Martin Hinshelwood that heralded his arrival at the Goldstone. He joined Brighton for a nominal fee in September 1992, making his debut as a substitute for Steve Cotterill in a 1-0 home defeat to Reading on 26 September 1992.

“I am delighted to be here with a great bunch of lads and now I am determined to play my part in scoring goals and getting the club promotion,” he told the matchday programme.

A skip through recollections of Kennedy on North Stand Chat hardly stand as a ringing endorsement to his contribution in the stripes, the most complimentary coming from Austrian Gull, who maintained: “He wasn’t always that bad – we’d been spoilt by the beast that was Mike Small and Kennedy could never come close to reaching that level. Wasn’t the most hardworking but him and (Kurt) Nogan were okay. We certainly had a lot worse than Kennedy to come.”

Meanwhile backson reckoned: “Frustrating player. When we played United in the cup at Old Trafford, I seem to remember he was genuinely fouled in the box but went down so damn theatrically, like he’d been shot, it wasn’t given.”

Others recall him through that nickname ‘Mad Dog’ (first coined in a News of the World article about his affair with Ms Whittaker). Gwylan said: “Mad Dog wasn’t that bad – he was just lazy and looked unfit. If he had the attitude of Gary Hart, say, he’d have been an excellent player for us as he had a fair degree of ability.”

Pinkie Brown also observed: “Certainly had ability when he felt inclined. Sadly, as he had a bad attitude and was lazy, supporters saw little of that ability. One of those players who could have gone further had he been more focused.”

Several fans remember how he didn’t react well to observations from the terraces pointing out his shortcomings. Bladders was amused to recall: “One time, when he lazily chased a ball that went out of play, my old man told him to ‘put some bloody effort in Kennedy’. Kennedy then threatened to jump into the South Stand and smash his face in if he gave him any more lip.”

I must say on checking with the record books, I am staggered to discover he scored 10 times in 42 games for Brighton – although I do remember those over the top celebrations.

It’s said he left the club in 1994 after Liam Brady told him he wasn’t good enough to play for the reserves in the Sussex Senior Cup Final.

He ended his English league career with a cameo at Gillingham and at the age of 30 tried his luck in Hong Kong again, this time with Tsing Tao, before returning to the British Isles to play in Northern Ireland with Portadown and Shelbourne in Dublin.

As he was not the sort of player likely to be invited back to the club to reminisce over old times, he appears to have slipped below the radar in recent times.

However, Kennedy has linked up as a coach with the Rangers Soccer Schools programme at home and in North America. In 2005, Kennedy was part of a team of Rangers coaches who ran soccer schools in Canada. According to a Birmingham Mail report in 2015, Kennedy stayed in Canada at Ajax FC.

Twelve goals in 26 games for Scottish striker Alan Young

GARY LINEKER’S former strike partner at Leicester City had a good goals to appearances ratio for Brighton & Hove Albion.

Sadly, Scotsman Alan Young only managed 26 appearances in his one season (1983-84) with the Albion, although his 12 goals meant he finished second top goalscorer behind Terry Connor.

His brief Brighton career got off to a great start with a memorable debut goal, an overhead kick to net against Chelsea at the Goldstone. Young twice scored braces for the Seagulls but his season was injury-hit and, with manager Chris Cattlin bringing in his old pal Frank Worthington for the 1984-85 season, Young was sold to Notts County.

In more recent times, Young courted controversy as a radio pundit sharing his opinions about Leicester, and in 2014 BBC Radio Leicester dropped him from his role supporting commentator Ian Stringer.

alanyoung6 2

Back in September 2013, Young was berated online for his criticism of winger Anthony Knockaert. Foxello, on ja606.co.uk, wrote: “If there’s one thing that annoys me more than just about anything else at this football club, it is that grumpy, nasty egotist Alan Young and his never-ending agenda against certain members of the football club.”

The correspondent bemoaned: “Knocky is now the butt of every joke, and the object of every jibe Young throws out…. It’s almost as if he doesn’t want us to have skilful players who occasionally misplace a pass due to their advanced vision, and just have hoofers and cloggers like in his day.”

So let’s take a look back at ‘his day’. Born in Kirkcaldy on 26 October 1955, Young was football-daft and showed sufficient promise to earn Scottish schoolboy international honours.

His boyhood favourite team was Raith Rovers, whose star player at the time was Ian Porterfield, who famously scored the winning goal when Second Division Sunderland beat Leeds in the 1973 FA Cup Final.

Surprisingly overlooked by Scottish professional clubs, Young also experienced early disappointment in England when Nottingham Forest rejected him. “Nottingham Forert didn’t want me and I left there thinking I was no good,” he told Shoot! magazine.

Nonetheless, when he was playing as an unattached player for Scotland Schoolboys against England at Old Trafford, Oldham Athletic scout Colin McDonald, a former Burnley and England international goalkeeper, noted his promise and persuaded the young forward to head south of the border to begin his professional career.

In five years at Boundary Park he scored 30 goals in 122 games, and, to a large extent, learned his trade from old pro Andy Lochhead, a prolific goalscorer in his day for Burnley, Leicester and Aston Villa.

In the 1978-79 season, Young netted a hat-trick against Leicester which caught the eye of fellow Scot and former Rangers boss, Jock Wallace, who had taken over at Filbert Street and was building a team with his fellow countrymen at its core.

When Young joined Leicester, and played alongside his boyhood pal Martin Henderson, it began a love affair with Leicester that endures to this day.

In three years at Leicester, Young scored 26 times in 104 games, eventually forming a partnership with the emerging Lineker. TV’s favourite football frontman was generous enough to pen the foreword to Young’s 2013 autobiography, Youn9y (written in conjunction with Simon Kimber and published by the historypress.co.uk) and said of him: “He was an old-fashioned, aggressive centre forward. He possessed, though, a delicate touch and finesse that belied his big target man status – the perfect partner for a nippy little goalhanger trying to make a name for himself.”

Screenshot
Leicester strike partner for Gary Lineker

Young scored on his full debut for City in a league cup game v Rotherham and followed it up with two on his league debut at home to Watford.

The only time Young was sent off while playing for Leicester was, ironically, at the Goldstone Ground in 1981, at Easter, which was the second of four games at the end of the season that Albion won to stay in the top division.

Young was dismissed for two bookable offences, the first for clattering into goalkeeper Graham Moseley and the other a clash with Steve Foster, although, in his autobiography, he says Foster play-acted a knee injury, which the referee bought. Foster even teased him about it when he joined the Seagulls two years later. In that Easter 1981 fixture, Young’s teammate Kevin McDonald was also sent off, Brighton won 2-1 – and Leicester ended up being relegated together with Norwich and bottom-placed Crystal Palace.

Back in the old Second Division, Young did his cartilage in a game on QPR’s plastic pitch which he says was the beginning of the end of his career, because his knee was never the same afterwards (years later he had a knee replacement).

He also had the disappointment of losing to Spurs in the 1982 FA Cup semi final, although he maintains if a certain Chris Hughton had been sent off for two fouls on Lineker, it might all have been a different story.

Before the next season kicked off, Jock Wallace, the manager he idolised, decided to move back to Scotland to manage Motherwell and his successor at Filbert Street, Gordon Milne, swiftly chose to pair the emerging Alan Smith up front with Lineker, signalling the exit for Young.

Managerial upheaval was to become a familiar cause of Young’s departures in the years that followed, too. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Ian Porterfield, his footballing hero from yesteryear, had taken over as manager at Fourth Division Sheffield United and, although he didn’t really want to drop down the leagues, the Blades were a big club so Young moved to Bramall Lane.

A year later, though, after Brighton’s relegation from the elite in 1983, striker Michael Robinson was sold to Liverpool so there was a centre forward vacancy – and manager Jimmy Melia chose Young to fill it.

The fee was either £140,000 or £150,000 depending on which account you believe, but Young was happy because he pocketed a £20,000 signing on fee (four times what he had received only a year earlier when moving to Sheffield).

His first involvement with the squad was on a close-season tour of the Balearic Islands (with associated eye-opening tales recalled by thegoldstonewrap.com) but he also picked up an injury that was to dog his season on the south coast.

While Young had a lot of time for Melia, when Cattlin took over it was a different story and, in his book, there are plenty of colourful expletives used to describe exactly what he thought! He also castigates physio Mike Yaxley – “the most useless physio I have ever worked with” – although he says the team spirit was very good…seemingly fuelled by long post-training ‘sessions’ in Woody’s wine bar.

A youngHe said: “The football was very enjoyable there and never more so than when Jimmy Case and I were playing together; I loved playing with Jimmy.”

For a short time in that 1983-84 season, Albion had three Youngs in their squad, none of whom were related. Along with Young the forward, there were centre backs Eric Young and on-loan Willie Young.

When Cattlin decided to bring in his old Huddersfield teammate Worthington the following season, Young was on his way, this time to Notts County. The manager who signed him was the former Liverpool and Nottingham Forest defender Larry Lloyd, but his tenure in the managerial chair was very short so, once again, Young found himself playing for a manager who hadn’t chosen him.

In two years at Meadow Lane, Young scored 12 in 43 games for County. He moved on to Rochdale where the Leeds legend Eddie Gray was in charge, but injury took its toll and he only scored twice in 28 games in the 1986-87 season before retiring at 31. He had scored a career total of 89 goals in 349 appearances.

While there were a few non-league appearances, he eventually landed a job back at Notts County in the early days of community football schemes. He made a success of the job, obtained his coaching qualifications and eventually they combined the community scheme with the centre of excellence.

Brighton fans will be interested to know that among the young lads who emerged during Young’s time there were Will Hoskins and Leon Best. The star player, though, was Jermaine Pennant.

Young has fond memories of Neil Warnock’s time as County manager, because of his interest in the work being done at grassroots level. However, the mood changed when Sam Allardyce took over.

Allardyce initially cut Young’s salary and then showed him the door. “I can’t and I never will forgive Sam Allardyce,” he said.

Away from football, Young has had a tempestuous love life – read the book to gather the detail – and has three sons and a daughter. While he also had spells working for Chesterfield and Leeds, he dropped out of the game and then had a very dark period dominated by heavy drinking in isolation, including a time living alone in a caravan on the banks of Loch Lomond.

Eventually a return to England and his break into radio punditry brought him back from the brink.

In 2013, his autobiography Youn9y was published, the sleeve notes describing the story of “a talented, brave striker who played at the highest level of the domestic game but also experienced human misery at its lowest once his playing career was over”.

The notes add: “Youngy doesn’t just recount the good times of his playing career; he also offers valuable insight and moments of perception and understanding of some of the darkest days of his life.”

After four years as match summariser, in 2014 BBC Radio Leicester dispensed with his services and replaced him with another former Fox, Gerry Taggart.

However, Young still gives his opinions about Leicester on the community radio station Hermitage FM.

Pictures show a shot of Alan on Brighton seafront from an Albion matchday programme; the front cover of his autobiography; other matchday programme action shots, and in the Hermitage FM radio studio from Twitter.