Oscar Garcia: A very, very underrated Brighton manager

Oscar Garcia was a very good, very underrated Brighton manager. He took a team with a central midfield partnership of Keith Andrews and Jake Forster-Caskey into the Championship playoffs, which tells you everything.

His reign will always be one surrounded by what ifs. What if he had come along at a different time, when Tony Bloom was not dallying with austerity as financial fair play was introduced to the Championship?

What if Garcia had the backing in the transfer market received by Gus Poyet before him or Chris Hughton afterwards?

What if he had remained at the Amex for longer than one season, his resignation one day after the 2013-14 campaign had been completed coming seemingly because Garcia knew the budget for 2014-15 would mean struggling to compete.

Poyet of course had the same fears, leading to his famous “hitting the roof” interview when Brighton had been beaten by Crystal Palace in the playoff semi finals of May 2013.

Garcia had too much class to go about making his point using the same hand grenades as Poyet, but his resignation statement was telling.

“The club has been aware of my thoughts for several weeks,” the Spaniard told the club website. “During this time, I have had discussions with both the chairman, Tony Bloom, and chief executive, Paul Barber.

“I have enjoyed my time with the club but, although I do not have any immediate plans, I have decided to move on. The club will always have a place in my heart and I hope very soon they will be competing at the top level in English football.”

The focus of Poyet’s explosive last act as Brighton manager always centres on his assertion the Albion had hit the roof. Lost in amongst all the drama came his warnings about what Bloom cutting the budget whilst still wanting to finish in the top six would mean for Brighton.

“It is not like a click of fingers and you finish in the top six every year,” Poyet said. “Financial fair play is coming next year. It is going to hit everybody, including us. And we got a few problems.”

And it was into those problems that Oscar Garcia arrived as Brighton boss in June 2014. A product of the famed La Masia academy at Barcelona, he went onto win eight trophies including four La Liga titles as a player at Camp Nou.

Amongst his teammates were Pep Guardiola, Michael Laudrup and Ronald Koeman. Johan Cruyff was his manager. As a player, Garcia had been tipped to become a successful coach for his footballing intelligence, knowledge and calm demeanour.

Some even believed that one day he would go onto follow in the footsteps of Cruyff and Guardiola and take over as Barcelona boss.

Garcia’s managerial career had begun with Barcelona Under 19s, with whom he won league, cup and European titles in 2010-11.

His first senior appointment came in May 2012 as Maccabi Tel Aviv head coach. Garcia ended their 10-year wait to win the Israeli Premier League title in his one season in charge before resigning in May 2013 due to personal reasons.

He was out of work for one month before Bloom came calling. Garcia’s footballing philosophy formed at Barca looked the perfect fit for a Brighton squad built by Poyet to outpass opponents.

His own experiences at Camp Nou – where giving academy players first team opportunities is ingrained into the culture – suited the Albion at a time where Bloom’s cost-cutting meant Brighton were going to need more young players coming into their Championship squad.

Forster-Caskey, Rohan Ince and Solly March benefited from that and the faith of Garcia. Those three teenagers played 34, 33 and 29 times respectively in the 2013-14 season.

Because of his links with Barcelona, Garcia arrived amid much expectation. But it was never going to be easy. The Albion lost Dean Hammond, Wayne Bridge and Vicente from their 2012-13 squad, significantly weakening it.

David Lopez was only convinced to sign a new contract a couple of days before the 2013-14 season kicked off away at Leeds United having originally decided to leave the club. Liam Bridcutt and Ashley Barnes would both be sold in January.

Amongst the signings given to Oscar Garcia by Brighton over the course of the campaign were Kemy Agustien, Leroy Lita, Craig Conway, Jonathan Obika and David Rodriquez.

It was a group of players which screamed mid table mediocrity at best. And yet come the final seconds of the final day of the regular season, Garcia led the Albion into the top six.

The campaign was slow to get up and running. Defeats to Leeds and at home to Derby County in the first two league matches of the Garcia Era had a League Cup second round elimination at the hands of Newport County sandwiched between them.

Back-to-back wins away at Birmingham City and against Burnley at the Amex looked like they had belatedly kick started the season, only for Brighton to win just one of their next nine Championship games.

At the end of October, the Albion sat 15th in the table having scored just 11 goals. Only Yeovil Town, Charlton Athletic and Bolton Wanderers had managed to put the ball into the opposition’s net on fewer occasions.

Brighton were having a lot of possession but not really doing much with it. The Albion were over reliant on Leonardo Ulloa, whose supply line was blunted by frequent injuries to Will Buckley, Kazenga LuaLua and Andrea Orlandi.

Then November arrived and suddenly, something clicked for Brighton. A 3-1 win at Doncaster Rovers, a 3-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers at the Amex and a 1-0 win away against FA Cup holders Wigan Athletic were enough to win Garcia the Manager of the Month award.

A good point away at Plucky Little Bournemouth in which Ashley Barnes scored an absolute screamer rounded off a four-game period which turned the season around.

Highlights from that point on included beating eventual champions Leicester City 3-1 at the Amex and 4-1 at the King Power Stadium.

There was a first ever win at the Riverside courtesy of a late Matthew Upson header 11 days before Christmas and a 2-0 win away against Bolton inspired by a superb Buckley brace.

A slight wobble came through three consecutive defeats at the end of March which looked like it might prove fatal to Brighton’s top six hopes, eerily similar to what happened to Poyet’s Albion as the 2011-12 season headed towards its conclusion.

Poyet responded by losing his marbles, including abandoning the dugout before the final whistle during a Good Friday defeat at Burnley.

Garcia was much more measured in how he reacted to the wheels starting to come off Brighton’s playoff push. He steadied the ship and an eight game unbeaten run to finish the campaign culminated in that Ulloa goal away at Forest.

Oscar Garcia had led Brighton to the playoffs against all the odds, making something of a silk purse out of a sow’s ear along the way.

The Albion went onto face Derby in the semi finals, where the 13 point game between the sides in the Championship standings was made readily apparent.

Brighton did okay in the first leg, losing only 2-1. They were hammered 4-1 at Pride Park, however, not helped by injuries to Gordon Greer, Orlandi and Lopez.

Less than 24 hours after the second leg defeat, Garcia resigned. He was not the only one departing the Amex. Tomasz Kuszczak, Stephen Ward, Upson, Andrews, Orlandi, Lopez, Buckley and Ulloa all moved on that summer.

When their replacements were the likes of Aaron Hughes, Joe Bennett, Gary Gardner, Greg Halford, Danny Holla, Adrian Colunga and Chris O’Grady, Garcia opting to leave suddenly made sense.

Not even a head coach of his talent could have that sort of squad competing in the Championship. Let alone Sami Hyypia.

Chris Hughton did not improve things by much in his first six months in the job either. The Albion survived relegation to League One by default due to Blackpool, Wigan Athletic and Millwall somehow being worse, rather than Brighton winning their way out of the mire.

That 2014-15 of struggle showed Bloom that winning promotion to the Premier League could not be done at the same time as relying on free transfers and loan players.

Hughton was backed with a proper budget, just as Poyet had been. At the same time as Hughton put those funds to good use by taking Brighton into the top flight in 2017, Oscar Garcia was busy winning back-to-back league and cup doubles in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg.

If there is a parallel universe out there in which Garcia becomes Brighton manager in the summer of 2012 or 2015, with a promotion-challenging budget, one can only imagine the success he brings to the Albion.

Despite the brevity of his reign and the view a lot of Seagulls supporters have of it merely being a stop-gap between Poyet and Hughton, Garcia remains a hugely popular figure with the Albion fanbase.

He does though deserve more credit for what he achieved on the pitch. Brighton in 2013-14 were nowhere near good enough to challenge for a place in the Premier League.

That Garcia had the Albion in the playoffs and three games away from the top flight is testament to his managerial abilities.

A very, very underrated Brighton manager.