Blink and you missed the Brighton career of Aaron Mooy

Favourite memories of Aaron Mooy in a Brighton shirt? Go on then, have two. And neither of them have anything to do with what happened on the pitch during his 12 months with the Albion.

Instead, both pertain to the club’s announcement of his initial signing on loan from Huddersfield Town in August 2019 and then that move being turned permanent in January 2020.

Or in the first case, accidental announcement. For a spectacular cock up meant Brighton inadvertently revealed their capture of Mooy by uploading a photo of him in full Albion kit to the club website to accompany the news the club had signed Romaric Yapi from Paris Saint-Germain.

Easy mistake to make of course, confusing those two. One was a 28-year-old Australian midfielder with a shiny bonce as distinctive as Russell Slade, who had been an established Premier League player for two seasons thanks to his efforts at the John Smith’s Stadium or whatever Huddersfield were calling their ground at the time.

The other, a 19-year-old French right back nobody had previously heard of (but who very quickly got the best song of any Albion player ever with “If you’re Yapi and you know it clap it your hands.”)

130) Announcing the #DeadlineDay signing of Romaric Yapi on the website but uploading a photo of the yet-to-be-confirmed Aaron Mooy in a Brighton kit instead pic.twitter.com/3oEiEl4jkY

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) August 8, 2019

An even more incredible moment occurred when Brighton purchased Aaron Mooy outright for £5 million in the January transfer window.

The Albion decided to celebrate the news by using a load of flame emojis in every tweet related to Mooy at exactly the same time as Australia was suffering its worst ever bushfires which destroyed 20 percent of the country’s forests.

133) Celebrating the signing of Australian midfielder Aaron Mooy with loads and loads of flame emojis when half of Australia has been on actual fire for weeks pic.twitter.com/PGbKejMFuR

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) January 24, 2020

Both moment of course made The List. And whilst that guarantees Mooy a small place in Brighton history, it was quite telling of his Albion career that two unintentionally wonderful moments are chief amongst his highlights.

Mooy arrived with many Seagulls supporters wondering why Graham Potter wanted him. Brighton were well-stacked in midfield at the time and there were much more pressing positions to strengthen ahead of the 2019-20 campaign, such as the full back positions and up front.

By January, that opinion had shifted and Albion fans were hoping and praying that Mooy would become a permanent Seagull. On occasions through his first four months at the Amex, he was a joy to watch. A player who made football look effortless.

Then he did sign and it looked like Brighton had a bargain, paying just £5 million to Huddersfield. Mooy penned a contract through to the summer of 2024, although nobody knew at the time that it had a rather interesting release clause which allowed him to leave if a Chinese Super League club paid £4 million for his services.

Shanghai SIPG duly met that fee just eight months after all those ill-advised fire emojis appeared on the Albion Twitter account.

But such had been the decline in Mooy’s performances post-signing permanently that his departure to China was met with little more than a shrug of the shoulders.

His time at the Amex was very much a tale of two halves. Six months good, six months not so good. Had you missed those first six months, you could even forget that Aaron Mooy ever played for Brighton.

The question of where Mooy was going to fit in when the Albion signed him was a justified one. Davy Propper, Dale Stephens and Yves Bissouma were all central midfield options whilst it was well known that Potter was hot on young Steve Alzate.

In terms of Mooy playing as a number 10, that would involve dislodging a certain Pascal Gross. Der Kasier was yet to ascend to the legendary status he now holds, but even so nobody thought Mooy would be a better option.

It turned out Potter had a cunning plan which was first used when Spurs came to the Amex in October 2019. Everyone remembers the day for Aaron Connolly scoring twice, but it was also the game when Potter used a 4-2-2-2 formation for the first time which totally outsmarted Mauricio Pochettino.

Gross and Mooy were played in tandem, two number 10s in the same system. Gross assisted two goals and Mooy gave what was heralded at the time as one of the best individual performances from a Brighton player in the Premier League.

There was something about North London clubs that Mooy liked. He was brilliant as Brighton won 2-1 away at Arsenal in December, following that up a few weeks later with a virtuoso performance against Plucky Little Bournemouth.

Mooy scored the second goal in a 2-0 win against the Cherries, a finish which had a touch of Dennis Bergkamp about it.

He brought down a lofted pass from Leandro Trossard on his chest, poked the dropping ball through the legs of a Bournemouth defender and then bent an effort inside the far post.

Mooy could well have won Goal of the Season had Alireza Jahanbakhsh not gone and scored that overhead kick against Chelsea four days later.

His only other goal in 32 Albion appearances was also against Bournemouth, the consolation in a 3-1 defeat at the Vitality Stadium towards the end of January.

Mooy only managed one further goal involvement for the Seagulls after that, setting up Trossard as Brighton won 1-0 at Norwich City in lockdown.

Potter’s continuing switching of formations did probably not help, given Mooy’s best performances always came in that 4-2-2-2 which seemed to suit him down to the ground.

With Potter wanting to move to 3-5-2 for the 2020-21 season to fit Ben White into the starting XI alongside the emergence of Alexis Mac Allister and the signing of Adam Lallana, the interest from Shanghai came at a good time for Mooy.

Not only did it guarantee him regular football, but a move to China meant he was closer to Australia. That in turn reduced the travelling he had to do when summoned for Socceroos duty.

Having a young child at the time, spending four days on a plane travelling to the other side of the world every time an international break rolled around was probably not in the best interests of his family.

The significant wage he would have received at Shanghai could also set him up for life. Hence why he can afford to retire at 32, going out at the top having won a domestic treble at Celtic.

There was one other highlight not yet mentioned to do with Aaron Mooy and Brighton. And in keeping with everything said so far, it is again internet-based.

We are of course referring to The GIF. You know the one. His bald head appearing popping up seamlessly behind the buttock of a woman lying on the beach.

The WAB Twitter account would bust it out whenever Mooy did something good. And when he went off the boil from February 2020 onwards, whenever he was vaguely involved. It was a GIF too good not to share, no matter the form of the Australian midfielder.

If Mooy is off to China, I will be gutted for no other reason than it means no longer being able to post this on a semi regular basispic.twitter.com/3QVy43nSZk

— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) August 28, 2020

In keeping with the online disasters which followed Mooy during his time at Brighton, his departure did not go smoothly on social media either.

There had not been a single rumour about Mooy moving to Shanghai until somebody in the Albion’s media department mistakenly uploaded a farewell post to Instagram.

From a premature signing announcement to a premature departure announcement, The Streets won’t forget Aaron Mooy playing for Brighton. Lots of other people probably will, though.