Who remembers Ali Al-Habsi playing for Brighton?

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of one of the most celebrated footballers ever to come out of the Gulf States signing for Brighton & Hove Albion, I had planned to write all about Ali Al-Habsi. And then I forgot.

Which is ironic. Because how many people actually remember Al-Habsi in an Albion shirt? Not many, probably. Hopefully, this piece which the author finally remembered to write two weeks after the decade landmark passed will jog your memory.

Al-Habsi first rose to prominence with Wigan Athletic. After joining the Latics in 2010, he became a Premier League cult hero for his part in helping Wigan constantly defy the odds by avoiding relegation and ultimately winning the FA Cup in 2013.

Joel Robles was selected ahead of Al-Habsi when Roberto Martinez’s side beat Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley. But the Latics would not have got there without Al-Habsi keeping clean sheets in the third round against Bournemouth and semi final against Millwall.

Without the often unbelievable shot stopping ability of Al-Habsi, they also would have been relegated from the top flight long before it eventually happened in that same 2012-13 season they pulled off one of the biggest shocks in the FA Cup final history.

For the 2013-14 Championship campaign, Al-Habsi found himself vying with Scott Carson for the number one shirt at the DW Stadium.

When Carson stole a march on his rival and was installed as undisputed first choice by Uwe Rosler at the start of the 2014-15 season, Al-Habsi found himself sitting on the bench. Not somewhere a goalkeeper of his quality should be.

It was a freak injury in training to David Stockdale at the end of October 2014 which led Brighton to the door of Ali Al-Habsi.

With Sami Hyypia reluctant to pitch an 18-year-old Christian Walton into what was fast turning into a Championship relegation battle, Brighton were after an experienced goalkeeper to come in and cover for Stockdale.

Al-Habsi was the perfect fit. A proven Premier League – let alone Championship – goalkeeper who was ready, available and wanting first team football.

A month long loan covered the exact time Stockdale was required to rest a fractured finger picked up when a Danny Holla shot rebounded off a post and forced said finger into an unnatural position, cracking a bone.

And so on October 31st 2014, Ali Al-Habsi became a Brighton player. “Ali was available and I decided to take a good, experienced keeper for the time being,” Albion boss Sami Hyypia told The Argus.

All very nice. Except Brighton had not really done their homework. Or maybe they had done their homework and decided to completely ignore the one, two, three reasons as to why signing Al-Habsi was a bizarre idea. Which we will get to in a minute.

Al-Habsi made his Albion debut on Saturday 1st November, a 3-2 defeat away at Plucky Little Bournemouth. His first act as a Brighton player was to watch Gordon Greer head an own goal past him.

His second act was to see an acrobatic Marc Pugh volley be deflected in off one of his new teammates. His third act was watching Lewis Dunk concede a penalty with the sort of needless, reckless challenge which was the future Brighton captain’s calling card 10 years ago.

There was nothing Al-Habsi could do about any of the goals he conceded. It was as decent a first appearance as you could hope for a goalkeeper letting in three on their debut.

Al-Habsi even played a part in the second Brighton goal, a piece of pinpoint long distribution which ended up releasing Sam Baldock for a clinical finish beyond Artur Boruc.

But Al-Habsi’s first game also happened to be his last. The Albion already knew about his next non-appearance, reason number one why his signing was rather peculiar.

Wigan made it a condition of the loan agreement that Ali Al-Habsi could not face his parent club when the Latics visited the Amex three days after Brighton were beaten at Bournemouth.

Walton took over and recorded a clean sheet as the Seagulls ran out 1-0 victors, ending an 11 match winless run stretching back to the end of August.

Al-Habsi would have expected to replace Walton for the Albion’s next game at home to Blackburn Rovers. Walton though kept his place.

What nobody at the club had seemingly considered when signing Al-Habsi is that Championship rules meant you could only name five loan players in a matchday squad.

This being the time when Tony Bloom was cutting the playing budget and David Burke was at the height of his reign of terror, Al-Habsi took the number of temporary players in the Brighton & Loan Albion squad to six.

Hyypia decided to use Joe Bennett, Gary Gardner, Elliott Bennett, Greg Halford and Joao Teixeira against Rovers, leaving Al-Habsi as the loan ranger to miss out.

The ludicrous number of loan players already at Brighton and the rules governing their usage was reason number two why signing Al-Habsi was strange.

And reason number three? The Gulf Cup. After the 1-1 draw with Blackburn, Al-Habsi jetted off to captain Oman in Saudi Arabia.

Why sign a player on a one month loan when just one week after his arrival, he is off to an international tournament? The old wives’ tale goes Brighton had not realised the Gulf Cup was taking place and Al-Habsi would therefore be absent for the majority of his loan spell.

It is the sort of myth and legend WAB can very much get behind. Or how about this one? That the Albion thought Oman would be eliminated after the group stage and Al-Habsi therefore back for the trip to Norwich City on Saturday 22nd November.

The boldness of gambling on such an eventuality was shown when Oman instead went through to the semi finals. As Group B winners. With Al-Habsi conceding just once in three group matches.

Al-Habsi was now guaranteed two more games at the Gulf Cup. A semi final against Qatar the day after Brighton faced Norwich. And a third place playoff on Tuesday 25th November.

Stockdale was therefore brought back at Carrow Road before the initially prescribed four weeks resting to fully heal his fractured finger was completed.

A ridiculously entertaining 90 minutes saw Brighton take a decent point from a 3-3 draw against the promotion pushing Canaries.

Given Stockdale’s questionable start to life at the Albion and questions over whether he was fully fit, you could have argued Al-Habsi represented the better option once he returned from the Gulf Cup.

That he was worth another month so that he might actually play for Brighton and contribute towards trying to keep the Albion out of the relegation zone.

Hyypia though did not agree. A point hammered home when Brighton signed yet another loan player – Darren Bent – before Al-Habsi had even arrived back in England after Oman were beaten by Qatar in the semis and United Arab Emirates in the third place playoff.

That was, unsurprisingly, the end of Al-Habsi’s very, very brief Seagulls career. Perhaps the best bit of the whole Ali Al-Habsi at Brighton thing is the comments the man himself made upon joining Brighton.

“I want to play games, having not played in the league for Wigan this season, and I want to help the team climb the table,” Al-Habsi said.

“Given the fantastic football the team plays, I’m surprised to see Brighton in this position, but the results will come.”

“The club has a great manager, brilliant players and fantastic support, so we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and things will turn around.”

“I made the decision to join as soon as I took the call because this is a top football club. The main target is to play every game and keep clean sheets, which is always the best feeling.”

Which worked out well. The Streets won’t forget Ali Al-Habsi playing for Brighton. Or maybe they will?