MEADOW LANE, Nottingham, is probably not one of Tommy Elphick’s favourite grounds. When he left the pitch on a stretcher in the 53rd minute on 7 May 2011, it was a great opportunity for the youngster who replaced him – Lewis Dunk – but for Elphick it was a turning point in a fledgling, promising career with his hometown club.
League One champions Brighton drew 1-1 with Notts County that day but, as they looked forward to playing Championship football in the shiny new American Express Community Stadium at Falmer, Elphick was sidelined for the whole of the following season with a ruptured Achilles tendon injury.
Unsurprisingly, others made the most of his absence. Although he briefly returned to first team action in a pre-season friendly v Lewes in August 2012, the level of competition by then made him realise he would need to move elsewhere to get back in the groove.
That’s when he began an association with AFC Bournemouth that continues now as first team coach, retained by the club in spite of the man who appointed him (Gary O’Neil) being replaced as manager.
As a player, Elphick took a step back to make a stride forward, dropping down a division to join the Cherries and ended up reaching the ‘promised land’ of the Premier League before the Albion.
“To say it worked out well for me was an understatement,” Elphick told Nick Szczepanik in an Albion website interview in 2020. Little wonder he is hailed as “the most successful captain in the history of AFC Bournemouth” having led them to promotions from League One in 2013 and the Championship in 2015, when he was ever-present and named Cherries supporters’ player of the season.
En route to that achievement, he finally got to play at the Amex – on 1 January 2014 – but it was in the red and black stripes of the Cherries in a 1-1 Championship draw.
Interviewed in that game’s matchday programme, he admitted: “I’m buzzing for it. I was the first Brighton player contracted to play at the Amex but obviously my Achilles injury conspired against me and I never got the opportunity.
“Having been with the club since a kid, as we went through all the struggles the dream was always to run out at the new stadium at Falmer. It was disappointing that it never happened for me.”
Born in Brighton on 7 September 1987, Elphick played locally for Woodingdean FC before linking up with the Albion academy at the age of 11 after impressing head of youth Martin Hinshelwood.
In his early days with Brighton, he came under the influence of Vic Bragg who he described as “a very astute tactician” whose “coaching drills were excellent and kept us on our toes”.
In a matchday programme article, he said of Bragg: “While he has a heart of gold and is genuinely a nice guy, you didn’t want to cross him on a bad day – but if he did have a word in your ear, it was always constructive.”
It was under Mark McGhee that Elphick made his first team debut (above) in December 2005, going on as a 73rd minute sub away to Reading in a 5-1 mauling after his older brother Gary had earlier been sent off on his full debut.
“I’m Brighton born and bred, I was a fan at Withdean before I played, and even remember doing a bucket collection on the touchline at Priestfield (when Albion were in exiled at Gillingham) in a bid to raise money for some new jumpers for us youth-team players.
“To then go on and make my debut, having come through the system under Dean Wilkins, well it doesn’t get any better than that.
“That was the highlight for me; being one of seven players from the youth-team set-up to make it to the first team.”
Gary didn’t play for the Seagulls again and Tommy had to wait until April 2007 to make his first start, by which time his old youth team coach Wilkins was in charge of the first team. That game also ended in a defeat, 2-0 to Doncaster, and it was only the following season that he established himself as a starter, initially playing alongside Guy Butters and Joel Lynch and later Adam El Abd and Gordon Greer.
A personal highlight was winning the Player of the Season accolade at the end of his first full season (2007-08), and he went on to captain the side on many occasions, as well as being part of the team that won the League One title.
“Brighton are the club who gave me my chance in the game, who shaped me as a footballer and a person,” he said.
As well as McGhee and Wilkins, Elphick’s 182 Seagulls appearances also spread across the reigns of Micky Adams, Russell Slade and Gus Poyet.
The changes introduced by Poyet really struck home with Elphick, who told Spencer Vignes: “From day one there was absolute clarity in terms of what he expected from us, with a few simple rules to start with, which he built on week by week.
“We were in the lower reaches of the table and flirting with relegation, so for him to come in and demand that we play the way he saw the game was unbelievable really.
“A lot of managers would’ve tried to tighten the ship and play a more basic brand of football, but his football was based around possession.
“The style he produced, the football we played and what we went on to do for the next two or three years was phenomenal.”
But Elphick appreciated others too, saying: “I had such a good grounding as a kid and I’m so lucky to have played under some great managers and coaches.”
As a pointer to how things have panned out, he said: “I definitely want to stay in the game, coach, and hopefully manage one day.”
Reflecting on the League One title-winning campaign, Elphick told Szczepanik: “I relished the way we played in that season. I was brought up to play that way in the youth teams under Vic Bragg, Martin Hinshelwood and Dean Wilkins, who all wanted the game played in the right way.
“We lost our way a little after Dean left and we didn’t really have any style until Gus Poyet came to the club and revolutionised it. It was something I was enjoying until I got that injury. But if I hadn’t been injured, would I have ended up at Bournemouth?”
Elphick had signed a new contract with Albion when the move to Bournemouth in League One came up. “In theory it was a step down, but for me it was important to get back playing again,” he said.
The 2011-12 season had been a wipe-out as far as he was concerned because an infection and a repeat of the initial injury ruled out any chance of a swift comeback. He was operated on in Finland by the same surgeon (Professor Sakari Orava) who had performed similar surgery on David Beckham.
It was fully 16 months between the initial injury and playing 45 minutes of a pre-season friendly at Lewes in July 2012. “The idea had been to go out on loan and there were four or five different options, but Bournemouth were looking to have a right go at getting promoted and when I went down to meet the manager, Paul Groves, and the chairman, I was taken by the plans they had for the club,” said Elphick.
“Paul’s assistant, Shaun Brooks, was quite close to Dean Wilkins, and used to come and watch the Brighton youth team, so there was a connection there. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out for Paul and Shaun but that led to Eddie Howe coming back to the club.”
After making 145 appearances for Bournemouth, in 2016 Elphick moved on to Aston Villa, who he had scored against for Brighton at Villa Park in a 3-2 FA Cup defeat three years earlier (below left).
In the summer of 2016, Villa, under Roberto di Matteo, had just been relegated to the Championship and wanted Elphick as their captain as they aimed to bounce straight back to the Premier League.
He was di Matteo’s first signing as Villa manager – and he can thank a very understanding wife that the move went through smoothly.
Elphick cut short his honeymoon to get cracking with his new club, telling the Birmingham Mail: “As soon as I heard about Villa’s interest it’s something that turned my head straight away.
“To be able to come here and represent such a great club with such great history is going to be a real honour for me.”
However, it wasn’t long before Steve Bruce took over from di Matteo and he preferred a different centre-back pairing, meaning Elphick spent most of the second half of the season on the subs bench. I recollect him going on for Villa in the last game of the season when Albion hoped to clinch the Championship title only to concede a late equaliser when a shot from Jack Grealish squirmed through David Stockdale’s grasp.
In January of the following year, Elphick went out on loan to Reading for half a season (but only played four games) and he began the first half of the 2018-19 season on loan at Hull City, playing 18 games under Nigel Adkins.
Because of injuries to others, he was recalled to Villa at the start of 2019 by Bruce’s replacement Dean Smith. He played 14 matches but was not involved in the end-of-season play-off final when they finally earned promotion back to the Premier League (beating Derby County 2-1).
Interviewed by the Birmingham Mail about his three years at Villa, Elphick replied: “Tough, unbelievable, disappointing, anger – I had every emotion but I wouldn’t change it for the world because it’s created who I am now.
“What I saw and experienced at Villa was mental, good and bad. A big club brings different pressures and different pitfalls and you have to experience that to know what you could be dealt with further down the line.
“It was really troubled and there was poison in the brickworks to start with. Steve Bruce did the most unbelievable job at weeding that out and bringing it all together.
“He wasn’t a manager I particularly took a shine to in the way he coached or managed but he taught me a lot about how to bring people together and how to create a group.
“I experienced working under Roberto di Matteo, a Champions League-winning manager, and Steve Bruce, one of the most successful managers in the Championship. Dean Smith was a bit of a trailblazer and did some powerful stuff.”
After two injury-ravaged seasons at Huddersfield Town, when he managed just 14 games for the Terriers, Elphick quit playing to embark on a coaching career that always seemed to be his destination.
He reckoned it was that long spell out injured while at Brighton that helped his move into coaching because he had time to watch and understand football in a way that wouldn’t have happened if he’d been playing every weekend.
He returned to Bournemouth as coach of their development squad, explaining to premierleague.com: “I was delighted to work alongside Shaun Cooper with the 21s. I was very, very lucky to work with such an outstanding coach, and I learned so much. That period also opened my eyes to the time and effort required to do this job properly.
“In truth, academy football probably had a lifespan for me, but it was an invaluable year.”
When Parker lost his job in the wake of a 9-0 humbling by Liverpool, Cooper and Elphick were promoted to work alongside new boss Gary O’Neil.
“There are benefits and negatives to being thrust into that situation,” admitted Elphick. “I would love to have spent more time coaching, experimenting, and finding out who I really am on the grass before going into such a high-pressure situation, but it was an opportunity which had to be grabbed with both hands.”
Elphick told Adrian Clarke: “At the outset, none of us had coached at Premier League level before, but we went in, took the handbrake off and went for it. Thankfully, the three us had a nice blend.”
Elphick absorbed plenty from O’Neil’s way of working and observed: “Premier League football is such a high-level now that as a coach, if you’re put on the spot you need to be able to answer questions or offer advice on all aspects of the game. My intention is to become as well-rounded as possible.”
After helping Andoni Iraola settle in as new head coach, Elphick has relished his supporting role although he confessed: “I’ve always wanted to manage, and down the line I’d like to put my principles and ideas into practice. It’s an itch I will need to scratch, but there is no rush.
“Right now, I just feel so lucky to have experienced contrasting styles in O’Neil and Iraola, and I have learned an incredible amount from both men. I really resonate with Andoni, and the way he wants his team to play with emotion, and he places a lot of emphasis on spirit.
“What I have learned so far is that to be a successful coach you firstly need strong beliefs. Then, you must deliver your messages with consistency and confidence, and of course be authentic, true to yourself.”
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