Revell, Revell, how could they know? Alex Revell, I love you so

Nobody knew it at the time, but Alex Revell’s signing from Braintree Town in the summer of 2006 marked an historic turning point in the modern day history of Brighton.

£8,000 was the amount paid to the Ryman Premier Division champions for the services of their top scorer. It would turn out to be the last “cheap and cheerful” four-figure transfer fee paid by the Albion before Tony Bloom silently began investing in the background.

It turned out to be spectacularly good value, too. By time time that Revell departed for Southend United 18 months later, he was worth £150,000 having netted 18 goals in 70 games for the Seagulls.

Two words spring to mind when you think about Revell in a Brighton shirt. One is “bargain”, which he undoubtedly was given that we sold him for nearly 20 times as much as we’d paid.

The other would be “workmanlike”. Revell was one of the hardest working players you’ll ever see in an Albion shirt. Craig Mackail-Smith used to get labelled as “a £3.5m Alex Revell” which was designed to be a knock of Mackail-Smith. If anything, it was actually a compliment to Revell.

He’d run through a brick wall if you asked him to and that is ultimately why someone with limited ability managed to carve out such a decent career in the Football League.

After Southend, he played for Swindon Town, Wycombe Wanderers, Leyton Orient, Rotherham United, Cardiff City, Wigan Athletic, Milton Keynes Dons and Stevenage Borough.

Throw in a spell with Cambridge United before he dropped into non-league, and you’ve got a record that reads 593 games as a professional and 120 goals for 12 different clubs.

He also managed to score one of the greatest goals that Wembley has ever seen. That came for Rotherham in their 2014 League One play-off final win over his former club Orient, a stunning looping volley from a full 35 yards that dipped perfectly over O’s keeper Jamie Jones.

Thinking about it, perhaps describing Revell as limited is a little harsh as he did manage to score his fair share of the spectacular while playing for the Albion.

Take his debut for example. That came on the opening day of the 2006-07 season away at Rotherham. 43 minutes had passed when Revell found himself presented with a sight of Neil Cutler’s goal and he made no mistake, curling a sublime effort from the edge of the box into the the far corner.

You could see how much it meant to Revell as he was booked for an over exuberant celebration which involved leaping into the away fans.

Dean Cox suffered the same fate and then picked up a second yellow card two minutes later to mark his full debut in some style.

Luckily, the Albion were rarely troubled against a limited Millers outfit despite playing the whole second half with 10 men, holding on for a 1-0 victory on what turned out to be our last ever visit to Millmoor.

Revell had to wait eight games for his next goal as the Mark McGhee era transitioned slowly into the Dean Wilkins era. By the start of November, he had just three to his name before a purple patch saw him score seven times in nine games in the run up to Christmas, including a brace against promotion chasing Swansea City.

There would be only one more goal in the final five months of the 2006-07 season as he finished the campaign with 11. A not-too-disrespectful total given he’d been playing four divisions lower a year previously.

Still, it was fairly obvious that scoring goals was a problem for Wilkins’ Albion. With Bloom now putting up money for players from the shadows, Nicky Forster arrived for £75,000 ahead of the 2007-08 season.

Many Albion fans thought that would be curtains for Revell. He was now behind Forster, Bas Savage and Jake Robinson in the pecking order, so it says much about Revell’s attitude that he was actually first choice alongside Forster for the opening few months of the campaign until injury struck away at Hartlepool United at the end of October.

He’d only scored twice by that point, but the signs were there of a decent partnership alongside Forster. When Revell returned from the sidelines after a month out, the goals finally started to flow and at one point he netted five in three games.

Included in that haul was his first professional hat-trick. That was when Bournemouth came to Withdean on New Year’s Day 2008 with Brighton’s 3-2 win being the last time that we managed to beat the Cherries in a league game; perhaps Graham Potter should give Revell a call and ask him out of retirement for a one-off appearance when Eddie Howe and his side come to the Amex in December?

Given the form he was in, it came as something of a surprise that he was sold to Southend just a month later. But Revell had suddenly found himself surplus to requirements at Withdean.

Why? Because Bloom had just funded the Albion’s biggest transfer fee for 30 years. A certain Glenn Murray was arriving for £300,000 from Rochdale.

The last of Brighton’s basement bargains was replaced by the first significant signing from Bloom’s chequebook. It’s worked out pretty well for all parties since.