Brighton, Arsenal and their ‘Special Relationship’
For over 20 years, one man linked Brighton and Hove Albion and Arsenal together – Liam Brady. This apparently gave Brighton a special relationship with Arsenal, allowing the Albion to take some of the Gunners’ hottest young prospects on loan.
Brady spent two years as Brighton manager between 1993 and 1995. When working under the Archer-Bellotti-Stanley regime became too much, he resigned and six months later, found himself appointed as Academy Director at his former club Arsenal.
As Brighton manager, Brady was able to call on the contacts he’d made in seven years playing for the Gunners to sign young players. As one of the most revered players in Arsenal history having won every honour going in English football while with the club, his former employees would be only too happy to help.
When Brady returned to Highbury, his friendship with Dick Knight meant that the Albion could push to the front of the queue when Arsenal wanted to loan a young player out to gain first team experience.
Or that was the theory at least. In total, Brighton signed eight players on loan from Arsenal in a little over 20 years following Brady’s appointment as Barry Lloyd’s successor in the Goldstone hot seat.
But how many of those were actually any good? We’ll let you be the judge of how special the special relationship between Brighton and Arsenal really was.
Mark Flatts
Mark Flatts was the first Arsenal player that Brady brought on loan to Brighton, arriving at the Goldstone in January 1994. Although a winger, Brady used Flatts as a centre forward and he impressed with his skill on the ball and he pace.
Flatts scored once in 10 appearances but his contribution extended far beyond goals as he played a big part in helping the Albion move away from the Division Two relegation zone.
He returned to Highbury after two months at the Goldstone, where he remained on the fringes of the Arsenal first team. Further loan spells with Bristol City and Grimsby Town follows.
Flatts left the Gunners in the summer of 1996 and despite all the promise he’d shown during his brief spell in Hove, he was unable to find another Football League club, dropping into non-league with Kettering Town and Bishop’s Stortford.
Paul Dickov
Flatts’ place in the Albion front line was taken by another young striker signed from Arsenal, Paul Dickov. The diminutive Scottish forward had been scoring goals for fun in the reserves at Highbury and he brought that form into the Albion’s first team, netting five times in eight games.
His tenacious, fiery style and ridiculous work rate made him an instant favourite of the Goldstone crowd despite the brevity of his time in Hove. A striker crisis at his parent club saw George Graham recall him early and a month after returning to Arsenal, Dickov was sat on the bench as the Gunners won the European Cup Winners’ Cup with a 1-0 win over Parma.
Dickov continued to be a bit-part player at Arsenal until he moved to Manchester City for £1 million in 1996. He’s most famous for his two spells with the Citizens, but also played for Leicester City, Blackburn Rovers, Crystal Palace, Blackpool, Derby County, The Leeds United and Oldham Athletic.
Valur Gislason
So forgettable was Gislason that only a couple of pictures of him in a Brighton shirt exist – and those are as part of team photos. The midfielder was signed by Steve Gritt in 1997 and his arrival was greeted with great fanfare given that he’d played for Iceland at under 16, 17 and 19 level.
This was of course in the days before Iceland became a footballing powerhouse, leaving Gislason to achieve the impressive feat of looking crap in arguably the worst team that Brighton have ever had. Gritt declined to extend Gislason’s loan spell beyond a month and he returned to Highbury after seven appearances in the stripes.
Unsurprisingly, Gislason failed to make a senior appearance for Arsenal and was released four months after his loan at the Albion came to an end. Gilason signed for Strømsgodset in Norway before returning to Iceland where he represented Fylkir, Valur, Haukar and Vatnaliljur. He even managed to win five senior caps.
Graham Barrett
On paper, striker Graham Barrett looked like an excellent signing. He’d captained Arsenal to the FA Youth Cup in 2000 and had scored on his senior debut for the Republic of Ireland a few weeks before Martin Hinshelwood brought him to Brighton on a season long loan.
Things didn’t get off to the best of starts when Barrett was sent off on his Albion debut, a 4-2 defeat away at Portsmouth. He scored only once in 31 games as Brighton were relegated from the Championship, moving to Coventry City on a free transfer at the end of the 2002-03 campaign after Steve Coppell decided against making a move to bring him in permanently. Coppell instead opted to sign Leon Knight, which worked out pretty well.
Steve Sidwell
Easily the most successful of all the Arsenal loan players to sign for Brighton, Coppell signed 19-year-old Steve Sidwell in November 2002 having worked with him at Brentford the previous season.
It became very obvious very quickly that Sidwell as a cut above not just the other midfielders in Brighton’s squad, but a lot of midfielders in Division One as a whole.
He netted five times in 12 games with the highlight being a brace against Burnley in his final appearance. The Clarets had led 2-0 as the match entered the 90th minute, only for Sidwell to go berserk and score twice in 90 seconds to rescue a precious point.
Dick Knight tried to sign Sidwell permanently but this was the era when Reading would outbid the Albion for any player that we wanted to sign and so he ended up moving to the Madjeski Stadium.
Sidwell’s Brighton story wasn’t done there however and 13 years later, he returned to the Albion. He played a further 56 times as a vital part of Chris Hughton’s side who won promotion to the Premier League, famously scoring from the halfway line against Bristol City.
Sidwell retired in the summer of 2018 and has since taken up a coaching role in Brighton’s academy. He remains a popular figure with Albion supporters, many of whom would allow him to have sexual relations with their spouses if the song is to be believed.
Joe O’Ceaurill
It often gets forgotten just how much dross Dean Wilkins signed during his first few months as Brighton boss. Take five points if you can remember who Alistair John, Sam Williams and Nick Ward were.
Then there was Joe O’Ceaurill. The young right back was signed from Arsenal to replace Andy Whing who had returned to Coventry City following the expiration of his own loan spell.
O’Ceaurill was thrown in at the deep end, making his debut away at West Ham United in the third round of the FA Cup when Carlos Tevez made Kerry Mayo look like a man who’d had his legs tied together.
O’Ceaurill fared a little better down the right and went onto make seven starts and two substitute appearances for the Albion. He somehow went onto earn two full caps for the Republic of Ireland at the end of the 2006-07 season before joining Barnet that summer.
He’s had something of a nomadic life since, rattling through – deep breath – St Patrick’s Athletic, Harlow Town, Boreham Wood, Forest Green Rovers, Bishop’s Stortford, Tooting & Mitcham United, Haringey Borough, Enfield Town, Heybridge Swifts, Dover Athletic and Staines Town.
Gavin Hoyte
Two years on from O’Ceaurill’s nondescript loan spell at Withdean, another right back arrived on loan from Arsenal – Gavin Hoyte, signed by Russell Slade to cover for the injured Whing.
Hoyte was at least more memorable than O’Ceaurill, although perhaps not for the right reasons. The highlight of his first month with Brighton was a straight red card picked up for booting a Wycombe Wanderers player off the ball in a ridiculous 4-4 FA Cup draw at Adams Park.
Despite that wonderful dismissal, Gus Poyet extended Hoyte’s loan when he succeeded Slade as boss. So desperate for a ball playing right back was Poyet that he would rather keep on a certified madman than play Whing, although it was a short lived reprieve – Poyet brought in Inigo Calderon as soon as the January transfer window opened with Hoyte returning to the Emirates Stadium.
Hoyte stayed at Arsenal until 2012. He’s since had a decent lower league career with AFC Wimbledon, Dagenham & Redbridge, Gillingham and Barnet.
Chuba Akpom
Brighton haven’t signed a player on loan from Arsenal since Chuba Akpom. That may be because both clubs are now competing in the Premier League, or might be because Akpom was enough to put the Albion off bringing anyone else in from the Emirates for life.
Not only was Akpom shit, but he didn’t look like he gave a toss either. While Fikayo Tomori came in from Chelsea and gave everything to the promotion cause when called upon, Akpom strutted around with an attitude and ability level on a par with Leon Best.
He played 10 times for Brighton, scoring a big fat zero. Akpom can now be found playing in Greece with PAOK.
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