Steve Sidwell and Liam Rosenior released by Brighton
The ink is barely dry on the completed Premier League table and we’re already making plans for next season with the news that the veteran duo of Steve Sidwell and Liam Rosenior are to be released at the end of the season.
It will hardly come as a surprise given that between them, they made three league appearances all year and only one start when Rosenior played in the 2-1 defeat away at Plucky Little Bournemouth back in September. But it is still a sad day to lose two players who have played such a big role in the Albion’s success over the last few seasons.
While both have been solid if unspectacular on the pitch – with the exception of THAT Sidwell goal from the halfway line away at Bristol City – it is off it where they have had arguably the biggest influence. Both bought top flight experience to a squad otherwise lacking it and helped install a real sense of professionalism throughout the side.
With the Albion well beaten at Sheffield Wednesday in the first leg of the Championship semi finals in 2016 having seen four players go off injured, it was Rosenior who stood in front of the away end at Hillsborough with a blood splattered shirt urging the travelling support to keep their heads up.
That summed up the attitude of the full back who signed from Hull City on a free transfer in the summer of 2015. He may have managed only 51 appearances across three season at the Amex, but it says much about Rosenior that he left with so many well wishes from Albion supporters. At 33, his career might not yet be done as a player but it would be no surprise to see him make a fantastic manager in the future given the way he eloquently comes across in the media.
As for Sidwell, he arrived on-loan in January 2016 for a second spell at the Albion. The first had seen this young 18-year-old with flame coloured hair arrive from Arsenal and begin tearing up the second tier, most memorably with two goals in the final 90 seconds of a game with Burnley which rescued a 2-2 draw from a seemingly hopeless position for Steve Coppell’s side. It was pretty obvious that with that sort of talent he was going to be too good for Brighton and so it proved, a big money move from Highbury taking him to Reading.
He returned with slightly less hair and much more experience, becoming a key component in Chris Hughton’s midfield, especially after arriving on a permanent basis in the summer of 2016. With Beram Kayal spending large parts of the season injured, he had a huge role to play and none more so than when scoring from the halfway line against Bristol City.
If Rosenior will be remembered for his chin up gesture and the great attitude that showed he had, then Sidwell’s response to netting the best goal of his career was equally classy as he ran across to the bench to hold aloft the shirt of Anthony Knockaert who was absent after the death of his father.
Sidwell is another who you suspect will turn to coaching if his playing days are over and just like Rosenior, has all the tools to make a brilliant manager of the future. Wouldn’t it be great if one day the two of them were in the dugout for us, when Chris Hughton has moved onto bigger and better things?
