A PLAYER who was on the brink of signing for Man Utd for £100,000 ended up playing for the Albion in exile.
But for an untimely hernia injury, Andy Arnott would have been an Alex Ferguson signing at Old Trafford.
As it turned out, the moment passed and the opportunity didn’t arise again. He later made 28 appearances for the Seagulls during the 1998-99 season when home games were played at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium.
It was a ground Arnott was familiar with. Born in nearby Chatham on 18 October 1973, he joined Gillingham as a trainee and had only served one year of his apprenticeship when he was taken on as a professional.
Manager Damien Richardson gave him his debut for the Fourth Division club only four games into the 1991-92 season when he was just 17.
It couldn’t have gone better because he scored the Gills’ opening goal in a 2-0 home win over Scarborough.
This was a Gillingham side that included summer signing Paul Clark, who had been part of Alan Mullery’s successful Brighton side in the late 1970s, and Mike Trusson, who’d won promotion from the Third Division with the Seagulls under Barry Lloyd. A young Richard Carpenter was also breaking through.
Arnott scored three goals in 23 appearances by the season’s end although one goal and two appearances against Aldershot were later expunged from the records because the Shots were expelled from the league.
Nonetheless, the youngster’s emergence hadn’t gone unnoticed higher up the football pyramid and the offer of the chance to join United came along, ostensibly so that he could feature in their youth team’s involvement in the end-of-season Blue Star youth tournament in Zurich.
This was the era of the famous ‘Class of 92’ and Arnott found himself playing alongside David Beckham, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt.
“After impressing during his spell with United, Ferguson made a £100,000 offer to Gillingham which was turned down by the then manager Damien Richardson,” Albion’s matchday programme noted.
In action for Gillingham against Albion’s Nicky Bissett
The player then suffered a hernia injury that put him out of the game for a year, putting paid to any further interest from United.
“I was gutted at the time, but it was a case of just getting on with returning to fitness and playing football,” Arnott said.
Back at Gillingham, he played 50 matches and scored 12 goals but then, in January 1996, got a £15,000 move to Leyton Orient. He spent a season and a half with the Os under manager Pat Holland and played in every position to help out the team, including goalkeeper in one emergency.
Arnott played under Micky Adams at Fulham
In the summer of 1997, after Fulham’s promotion from Division Three under Micky Adams, Arnott moved to Craven Cottage for an undisclosed fee (thought to be £25,000).
Within a few months, Mohammed Al Fayed took over the club and sacked Adams.
“All of a sudden Fulham went from being an ordinary Second Division outfit to a multi-million pound club,” he said. “I felt sorry for Micky as he had done a fantastic job, but he did foresee what was coming and sorted out long term contracts for most of the players.”
The new management duo of Ray Wilkins and Kevin Keegan brought in their own players and Arnott found himself confined to the reserves with the likes of Mark Walton, winger Paul Brooker, and forward Darren Freeman.
He scored twice for Fulham Reserves in a 3-0 win over Albion’s reserve side on 21 October 1998, and that persuaded Brian Horton to take him on.
“A few clubs had shown an interest around that time, but Brighton were the first that I spoke to and I liked what I was hearing so I signed straight away,” he said.
Horton signed him by the end of the same month for £10,000, plus another appearance-related £10,000, and said in the matchday programme he was “absolutely tremendous” on his debut. It came in a 1-0 win in pouring rain at Barnet when Charlton loanee defender Emeka Ifejagwa scored the only goal of the game on his debut. “He (Arnott) and Jeff Minton forged a good partnership and I am looking for that to flourish,” said Horton.
In his player-by-player commentary of performances, programme columnist Paul Camillin said: “Brilliant debut. He showed a good array of passing skills and he might have the bite we’ve been lacking.”
It was the wrong kind of bite he displayed in only his fourth game, though, when he was shown a red card in the 55th minute of Albion’s 2-0 win at Horton’s old club Hull City.
Defender Ross Johnson also went for an early bath for a second bookable offence but Albion’s nine men hung on for 35 minutes to complete their fourth successive away League win: the best such run for 62 years!
There’s little doubt Arnott’s arrival coincided with an upturn in the side’s form and in the matchday programme he took time to praise Albion’s loyal followers. “It is a fantastic advantage to have the number of away supporters we do,” he said. “It makes you want to play that little bit more to give them something back. They are absolutely magnificent.”
Arnott and Jamie Moralee
In the absence of Gary Hobson and Ian Culverhouse, Arnott was given the captain’s armband although that discipline was a bit questionable at times. He saw red for a second time, after Jeff Wood had taken over from Horton, for a second bookable offence at home to his old club Orient – Os captain Dean Smith (manager of relegation-threatened Leicester) also went for a second yellow – although Wood and Orient boss Tommy Taylor both slammed referee Rob Styles for his officiating.
Man of the Match
Wood declared: “Too many officials want to stamp their authority on the game early and flash cards like they are going out of fashion.”
Although Arnott saw out the season in the starting line-up, when his old boss Adams took over from Wood, by the time the new season got under way back in Brighton, Adams had signed Paul Rogers and Charlie Oatway as his preferred midfield pair.
By the end of September, Arnott had been snapped up by Second Division Colchester United; initially on loan and then permanently when their new boss Steve Whitton completed a direct swap that saw Warren Aspinall join the Seagulls.
However, Arnott made only four starts plus eight appearances off the bench in that first season and his time with United was blighted by a long-standing groin injury.
“The whole thing has been an absolute nightmare. I have been struggling with the injury for 14 months and despite loads of rest, two operations and four cortisone injections, the problem is as bad as ever,” he told Colchester’s Daily Gazette in January 2001.
“I was really struggling just before Christmas and I visited the specialist who told me I’m pretty near to exhausting my options.
“When it’s at its worst the injury is unbearable, especially when I turn or attempt to hit a long ball.
“I’m still only 27 with what should be many years left in the game.”
Unfortunately, though, he was forced to call time on his professional playing career and dropped into non-league initially with then-Conference side Stevenage, then Dover Athletic, where he was captain, Welling United and Ashford Town.
After his playing days were over, he settled in Rochester and became a project manager for Dryspace Structures while retaining his football links as a coach for Ebbsfleet United’s under 16 team.
INJURIES beset Derek Allan’s promising career but he played 100 games at the heart of Brighton’s defence during turbulent times and remembers warmly “a wonderful club”.
In an exclusive interview with In Parallel Lines, Allan reveals the niggles that affected him and recalls the people who helped to shape his playing career.
The Scot remains involved in the game as an academy coach at Greenock Morton and his only lament is that the sports nutrition and science today’s footballers are able to call on to prevent and cure injury wasn’t available when he was playing.
Born in Irvine, on the West Coast of Scotland, on Christmas Eve 1974, Allan’s first steps towards a professional career came with selection for Scottish schools’ representative sides, being picked at all levels from 12 through to 16.
Ayr United, the club based a 20-minute drive from his home town, took him on as a YTS trainee and he moved quickly through the ranks before signing as a professional at the age of 17.
George Burley, the former Ipswich and Scotland international full-back, was beginning his managerial career with The Honest Men at that time but it was his assistant, Dale Roberts, who’d also played for The Tractor Boys, who helped Allan the most.
“Dale was a huge figure in my early days: a fantastic guy,” said Allan. “He had me out every day striking footballs; he was an incredible guy.” Roberts sadly died from cancer aged 46 in 2003.
After only five appearances for United in the 1992-93 season, Allan was sold to Southampton for £75,000. He explained how the move came about. “I was spotted playing for Ayr at Hamilton Accies on a cold Tuesday night in 1993. Ian Branfoot (Southampton manager at the time) came to watch someone else and took me instead.”
It must have been quite an upheaval to leave home and family to start a career on the south coast, but Allan said it was the making of him.
“It was a huge learning curve for me and I wasn’t really prepared to leave family and friends at that time.
“But that few months after leaving set me up for life. It made me the person I am today.”
Scottish under-18 and under-21 honours were added to his schoolboy recognition but his progress during three years at Southampton was hampered by injury.
“It was the story of my career, really,” he said. “Looking back, I lost 18 months of a three-year contract to injury and it was a crucial time in my development.
“In hindsight, I could have done more myself to look after myself better, although there were no sports scientists back then to help with nutrition, recovery etc.”
That backdrop of injury meant he was restricted to just one first team appearance for the Saints, when he was a late substitute for Matthew Bound in a 1-0 defeat at Manchester City on 1 May 1993.
Ken Monkou was at the heart of the Saints defence at the time and a certain Micky Adams was left-back with Jason Dodd also prominent.
It was in March 1996 when former Saint Jimmy Case, by now rather reluctantly in the hotseat at the Albion, went back to his old club to take the young centre-back on loan in the same week that future captain Gary Hobson was signed permanently from Hull City, and forward Zeke Rowe from Chelsea.
Seagulls’ ex-Saints quartet: Maskell, McDonald, Allan and Case
“I felt at that time Jimmy, with his connection to Saints, and his understanding of the game would be ideal for me,” Allan recalled. “Unfortunately, we all know what happened.”
Nevertheless, he was certainly among familiar faces because Case had not long previously persuaded his old club to part with Paul McDonald and Craig Maskell.
Allan took over the no.5 shirt from Ross Johnson for his debut but was on the losing side as Albion went down 3-2 at Swindon Town.
After an initial eight games, Allan’s move became permanent and he often appeared alongside Hobson in the heart of the defence, although, with a combination of poor results, injuries and frequent managerial changes, he wasn’t always an automatic starter.
The likes of Johnson, the experienced Mark Morris and, for a while, young Kevin McGarrigle provided competition as Albion bumped around the basement.
However, in his first full season with the Seagulls, 1996-97, Allan played 32 matches as the club scrabbled to avoid dropping out of the league, surviving only courtesy of the last-game 1-1 draw at Hereford. By then, of course, Steve Gritt had taken over from Case and Allan rated him highest of the different bosses he played under.
“Steve Gritt was definitely the best for me personally, it’s just a shame the injuries I got stopped me from showing what I could do consistently,” he said.
The off-the-field shenanigans, with rogue directors trying to sell the ground for redevelopment without having a new ground to move to, must also have been a difficult backdrop for any of the side at that time.
Allan said: “It’s easy to see the problems they had at that time and it’s a very different club now. The fans were unbelievable back then and they supported us every week even though we played under some huge pressure.
“I didn’t do myself justice really, playing with injuries and stuff like that, but it’s a wonderful club and fanbase. The fans never really got to see the best of me, which was a shame.”
Towards the end of his time with the Seagulls, he went on the transfer list and didn’t see eye to eye with Brian Horton, who’d returned to the club as manager. Allan declared it was “just the usual disagreements that happen between player and manager” which is now all water under the bridge.
“I actually saw Brian years later and we had a laugh about it,” he said. “He was an angry man, the same as me!”
At the end of his Albion stint, Allan stepped into the Conference with Kingstonian — a “great club with a great manager in Geoff Chapple” — and he made 75 appearances in two years.
Allan was on the bench when Kingstonian beat Kettering Town 3-2 to win the FA Trophy in front of 20,034 fans at Wembley in May 2000. Geoff Pitcher, who later played briefly for the Seagulls in the 2001-02 season, was in Kingstonian’s midfield that day.
“I finished my last season there as Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year,” said Allan. “I think that was the beginning of my thoughts of shifting to getting a new career long term. It was the best decision I ever made.”
Problems off the field meant in 2001 he moved back to Scotland, where he joined Queen of the South on a semi-professional basis for three years. During his time there, they won the Bell’s Cup and the Scottish Football League Division 2 Championship.
After 60 appearances for The Doonhamers, Allan’s last port of call as a semi-pro player was at Scottish Division Two Dumbarton for the 2004-05 season, making five appearances plus one as a sub.
Asked to sum up his career, he issues an upbeat thought, saying: “Great promise, bad luck, brilliant life memories and no regrets. Not many people can say they played for these wonderful clubs. I have memories that will last a lifetime.”
Before those playing days had ended, in 2002, Allan began a new career as a technical recruitment consultant, spending 11 years with NES Global Talent. Since 2013, he has been head of recruitment and talent acquisition for engineering services provider Booth Welsh, part of the global Clough Group.
He obtained the UEFA Advanced Youth A coaching licence in 2014 and is currently the under-18 academy coach at Greenock Morton.
“We have brought through some great young guys who have careers in the game,” he said. “I still love the competitive side and it’s great still to be involved.”
Today, Allan occasionally exchanges messages with former Albion teammates Hobson and Kerry Mayo but he is in more regular contact with McDonald, who only stood down in July 2021 after 18 years as an academy coach at Kilmarnock.
• Pictures from Albion matchday programmes and various online sources.
RUSSELL OSMAN achieved lifelong fame for his appearance in the much-shown 1981 prisoner of war football film Escape to Victory but 17 appearances for Brighton in the latter stages of his career have largely been forgotten.
A cultured central defender who played in the same side as Jimmy Case at Southampton won 11 England caps at the peak of his game when a key part of Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town side of the early 1980s.
He was 36 by the time he arrived on a monthly contract at third-tier Albion in September 1995 and what was happening on the pitch at that time was largely overshadowed by events off it.
News was emerging that the Goldstone Ground had been sold, leading to manager Liam Brady quitting in disgust in November 1995, passing on the reins to Case, who very reluctantly took on the job.
With Steve Foster and Stuart Munday struggling with injury, Brady brought in the experienced Osman to play alongside Paul McCarthy. His debut came in a 4-1 Auto Windscreens Shields game away to Cambridge United, the first of 12 successive games before Munday returned towards the end of November when Osman picked up a hamstring injury.
Meanwhile, Case pointed out in his first programme notes as manager, for the FA Cup game at home to Fulham on 14 December: “There is no secret he would still like to get back into management and we are happy to leave his position as it is on a month-to-month basis.”
Osman was back in the side for the 1-0 Boxing Day win away to Brentford and kept his place for the next two matches. But with Ross Johnson taking on the no.5 shirt, Osman got only one more start: in a 0-0 draw away to Hull City. He made one appearance as a sub in place of McCarthy and was twice a non-playing sub. As he turned 37, he took the opportunity to switch to Cardiff City, which, as the match day programme noted, was a lot closer to his Bristol home.
Born on 14 February 1959 in Repton, Derbyshire, Osman eventually followed in his dad Rex’s footsteps in becoming a professional footballer (Osman senior played for Derby County in the ‘50s), but it was rugby at which Russell excelled during schooldays at Burton on Trent Grammar. So much so that he played for England at under 15 level and captained his country as an under 16.
However, the sports-mad youngster also played football for his village team and when they reached the final of the Derby & District Cup, he was watched by Bobby Robson’s brother Tom, who lived in the area. “He came down and watched the game, we won the final and the next thing I knew I had a call from Ipswich to go on trial,” Osman said in an interview with the East Anglian Daily Times. “The rest is history. They were very good at getting kids to go on trial and they went that extra mile to make sure we were looked after and treated well.”
Osman recalls many aspects and anecdotes of his career on a blog, Golf, Football and Life, and he said he would be forever grateful for the dedication shown by Ipswich’s youth team coach, Charlie Woods, who became Robson’s right-hand man throughout his career.
“Charlie used to drive from Ipswich to my dad’s pub in Repton on a Friday to pick me up and take me back down to Ipswich, putting me up for the night in his and Pat’s house, just so that I could make the game on a Saturday morning,” he wrote. “I doubt that you would get many coaches who would make an eight-hour round trip just to get a schoolboy to a game.”
Osman became an apprentice at Portman Road in July 1975 and signed on as a professional in March 1976. Eventually, he and Terry Butcher took over the centre back roles previously filled by Northern Ireland international Allan Hunter and England international Kevin Beattie.
Osman in action for Ipswich against Arsenal’s Liam Brady, later to become his boss at Brighton
The 1980-1981 season was certainly momentous in Osman’s life. He played in 66 matches (including four for England) over the course of the season as Ipswich won the UEFA Cup, finished runners-up in the old First Division and reached the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
For a large part of the season, Town looked like they would win the First Division title for the first time since 1962 under Alf Ramsey but only three wins from the last 10 matches meant they had to settle for second place, four points behind Aston Villa.
At the end of the season, Robson asked the squad if any of them fancied spending the summer playing more football to help make a feature film. Osman and teammates John Wark, Kevin O’Callaghan, Robin Turner, Laurie Sivell, Paul Cooper and Beattie jumped at the chance and spent five weeks in Budapest making Escape to Victory, directed by the legendary John Huston.
The Escape to Victory football team which featured Osman (back, left)
Osman played the part of prison camp inmate Doug Clure and he has since talked and written about the experience, in July 2021 remembering the experience in an interview with a BBC reporter. Osman recounts how the Ipswich lads and other professionals such as Bobby Moore, Pelé, Mike Summerbee and Ossie Ardiles played football scenes alongside established actors Michael Caine and Sylvester Stallone.
Beattie was Caine’s ‘double’ in the football scenes and Cooper helped Stallone with goalkeeping skills. Turner and Sivell played for the German team and Osman, Wark and O’Callaghan had speaking roles.
“Michael was brilliant, he made all the lads feel at home on set by telling a few funny stories and taking all the tension out of the situation,” said Osman. “I managed to deliver my lines and we were off and running, literally.”
Osman’s first international football recognition came for England under 21s in February 1979 as a substitute for Billy Gilbert in a 1-0 win over Wales at Swansea. In September the same year, he got his first start at that level alongside his Ipswich teammate Butcher (in a 1-0 win over Denmark at Vicarage Road).
The first of Osman’s 11 full England caps came on 31 May 1980, in a 2-1 win v Australia in Sydney which was the game in which Peter Ward made his one and only appearance for the full England side, appearing as an 82nd minute substitute for Alan Sunderland.
Osman was 21 at the time and he went on to play in five competitive matches and five more friendlies, rather curiously only playing for his country on home soil three times, and only being on the winning side twice, both times against Australia.
Osman did make a couple of appearances for the England B side: on 26 March 1980 he played in a 1-0 win over Spain at Roker Park, Sunderland (Joe Corrigan was in goal) and later the same year, on 14 October, he was in the B team that beat the USA 1-0 at Old Trafford.
He had been in Ron Greenwood’s provisional squad of 40 for the 1982 World Cup but was not included in the final 22, Albion’s Foster getting the nod instead as reserve centre back.
Osman’s last international was on 21 September 1983, when England lost 1-0 to Denmark in a Euro 1984 qualifier, by which time his former club manager Robson had taken over from Greenwood, who’d given Osman his first six caps.
Although Ipswich challenged at the top of the First Division in 1981-82, they once again finished four points behind the champions, this time Liverpool, and after Robson left to take on the England manager’s job, the side was gradually broken up. Osman and Eric Gates both left in 1985.
After making 385 appearances for Town, Osman signed for Leicester City for £240,000 where he played 120 games under three different managers: Gordon Milne, Bryan Hamilton and David Pleat.
When the Foxes dropped down to the second tier, it was Southampton, and manager Chris Nicholl, who gave Osman – at 29 – the chance to play at the top level again.
A tribunal-determined fee of £325,000 took him to The Dell where he made his debut in the opening match of 1988-89, a 4-0 win over West Ham. He initially partnered Kevin Moore at the heart of their defence, then later Neil Ruddock.
“At Southampton I played just behind the great Jimmy Case, and what an experience that was,” Osman recalled. “Every day there would be something that made you smile about playing with Jimmy; well, it did if he was on your side anyway. Hard as a rock, cute and clever as a footballer, better than people gave him credit for, a wonderful passer of the ball. Sometimes his playing ability was overshadowed by his extravagances off the pitch!”
The Southampton FC player archive enthusiastically records Osman’s time with the Saints, which was largely successful at first. With Alan Shearer, Rod Wallace and Matt Le Tissier scoring the goals, the side finished seventh in the table. But they couldn’t sustain that success the following season and Nicholl was sacked. Writer Duncan Holley on sporting-heroes.net recalled: “One of the manager’s last actions had been to sanction the signing of Jon Gittens from Swindon and Russell had been displaced for the final run in.”
Nicholl’s successor, Ian Branfoot, picked Osman at left-back for the opening four games of the 1991-92 season but, as Osman told Ian Carnaby in a 2007 interview: “The day Ian Branfoot walked through the door, my Southampton career was over. All those years I’d been a centre-half, but he thought I’d make a good left-back.”
Osman joined Bristol City on loan initially before making the move permanent for a £60,000 fee, and he put down roots in the city. After about a year as a player, manager Jimmy Lumsden was sacked and Osman, as a senior player, was asked to take temporary charge.
However, Denis Smith, sacked as Sunderland boss in December 1991, took over at City in March 1992, with Osman named player-assistant manager. In a 2020 Facebook interview, Osman somewhat sharply said: “Denis Smith didn’t last too long because he wasn’t a very good manager, so they offered me the job.”
That happened in January 1993 and he remained in the manager’s chair at Ashton Gate just short of two years. He steered City to mid-table finishes in 1993 and 1994.
A look through City fans’ forum One Team In Bristol (otib.co.uk) reveals mixed opinions about Osman’s time in charge although some believed he was dealt a raw hand by the Ashton Gate hierarchy. It was said he was dismissed after the directors called him in and said they wanted European football within 10 years. Under Osman’s successor, Joe Jordan (appointed in November 1994), the Robins were relegated.
One significant highlight from Osman’s City reign was leading them to a shock 1-0 win at Anfield in a FA Cup third round replay in January 1994, a result which brought an end to Graeme Souness’ time as Liverpool manager.
Hailed as “the class of ‘94 etching their names into the club’s roll of honour” the achievement was apparently masterminded in the club’s canteen a few days earlier when Osman and his assistant Tony Fawthrop decided to deploy Brian Tinnion just behind the strikers instead of out wide, and he ended up scoring the only goal of the game.
After Osman’s departure from Ashton Gate, his next stop was Plymouth Argyle, where his old Ipswich teammate Steve McCall was a key player in Peter Shilton’s side.
When Shilton left, McCall took charge of the Pilgrims for two months as temporary player-manager, then Osman took over the running of the side for the last few weeks of the season. However, because of an ongoing legal case with Bristol City, Osman couldn’t be given the title manager or receive payment. He was known as ‘adviser of team affairs’. The arrangement didn’t last, though, because Argyle appointed Neil Warnock as manager that summer.
It was three months later that Osman took up Brady’s offer of a return to playing with Brighton. After moving on from the Goldstone in February 1996, Osman signed for Cardiff City as a player.
Team manager Phil Neal left to become Steve Coppell’s assistant at Manchester City in October 1996, director of football Kenny Hibbitt took charge for a month, then Osman ran the side for a month. He took the managerial reins in time for a first-round FA Cup clash with non-league Hendon. The Bluebirds made hard work of a 2-0 win, but earned a second-round tie against Gillingham, which they lost 2-0.
Osman remained working under Hibbitt until January 1998 when, according to one observer, he “departed due to draw fatigue” (over the season, City drew an astonishing 23 matches out of 46, only winning nine times) and was replaced by the returning Frank Burrows.
Direct involvement in the game has since been sporadic. He and Kevan Broadhurst were appointed as caretaker managers of Bristol Rovers until the end of the season on 22 March 2004 but they were only in charge for just over a month as former Oxford United boss Ian Atkins was appointed manager on 26 April.
Osman had a hand in Ipswich taking on Tyrone Mings. Mings was playing for the same non-league Chippenham team as Osman’s son Toby and Osman senior recommended him to Town boss Mick McCarthy, as he explained to the East Anglian Daily Times.
After he left Ipswich, Osman embarked on a co-commentator / pundit career covering Indian football, initially working alongside the veteran commentator John Helm. It involved travelling extensively in India although he was latterly based in a Mumbai studio – until Covid-19 restrictions intervened.
One brief hiatus to that career came in the summer of 2015 when he was invited by his old Ipswich defensive partner, Butcher, to be his assistant at Newport County. Unfortunately, the partnership was short-lived. They were sacked just a few months into the new season after a string of poor results.
Pundit Osman meets up with ex-Albion boss Steve Coppell, boss of Kerala Blasters
Aside from sharing his views on Indian football, ever the all-round sportsman Osman is a keen golfer, cyclist and runner, and espouses the energy and recovery powers of a juicing diet, having fresh vegetable juice and fruit juice smoothies every day.
Osman uses his blog to cover a variety of topics, he has 5,100 followers on Twitter, and, during lockdown in 2020, took part in an interesting online interview with India-based The View and Reviews Show.
Osman shares thoughts about his career and the wider game in an online interview
“I have worked in the media for 20 years now,” Osman said in an interview for Kings of Anglia magazine. “I worked for Eurosport, starting prior to the Euro 2000 championships and I go a long way back with them and the BBC. I also started working in India through a contact I made at Eurosport about 15 years ago.”
Pictures from a variety of online sources, and matchday programmes.
In parallel lines 