Graeme Souness says Solly March is ready for the top six

The sports section of The Sunday Times made for interesting reading this week if you were a Brighton & Hove Albion supporter.

Graeme Souness used his column to select ‘one to watch’ from each Premier League club. This, Souness explained, was the player who had “caught my eye and has the potential to improve. Most are ready to play for a top six side, some already do, while a few may need a mid table move before taking the next step.”

You would think that selecting the Brighton player most ready for the top six would be a formality. If there was a book open and a Ladbrokes sign up offer available, you would bet it on any sane pundit picking Lewis Dunk.

In which case, you would have lost your money. For the Brighton player who Graeme Souness named as his one to watch was none other than boo boys favourite Solly March.

This will raise more than a few eyebrows among Albion supporters, especially those who have adopted the winger as their current hate figure.

We’ve never understood the March hate. Alongside Dunk, he is the only genuine Sussex-born-and-bred player to have progressed from the Albion youth team to become a Premier League regular – and he scored the goal which sealed promotion to the top flight against Wigan Athetic in April 2017.

Most football supporters reserve special fervour for home grown players, the local-boys-turned-good. But not Brighton fans.

March isn’t the only youth team produce to have suffered. Jake Forster-Caskey represented England from Under 18 to Under 21 level but was regularly slated by the time he became a first team regular under Oscar Garcia in the 2013-14 season.

Joe Gatting was the subject of much mockery for not scoring regularly in a Brighton side which hardly scored at all under Mark McGhee and then Dean Wilkins in 2006.

Aaron Connolly is starting to go the same way as the glow of that two-goal first Premier League start against Tottenham Hotspur begins to fade. Never mind that he, like Gatting, is a teenage striker playing in a team that doesn’t do goals.

Graeme Souness can see something in Solly March that a lot of Brighton fans can’t. The question is, what is it? And how has he come to the conclusion that it would be enough for March to interest the top six in the near future?

March’s biggest problem has always been consistency and that is perhaps where a lot of the March hate comes from. One week he can be genuinely unplayable and the next, well you’d be better off selecting a Primark mannequin out on the wing.

The second half of last season was a case in point. At Millwall in the FA Cup Quarter Final, March almost single handedly dragged the Albion to Wembley.

The free kick which David Martin decided to inexplicably throw into his own goal took the headlines, but March was outstanding from the minute he was introduced from the bench just past the hour mark.

He followed up being Brighton’s best player in that game by being Southampton’s best in the Albion’s next Premier League match. As the Saints won 1-0 at the Amex, March looked like a bloke who had never played football in his life.

Fast forward a month and March was again the game changer from the bench against Newcastle United. Chris Hughton threw him on with Brighton losing 1-0 to the Toon after the worst half of football we saw at the Amex last season – and there was plenty of competition for that accolade.

45 minutes later and the Albion had the 1-1 draw which ultimately guaranteed Premier League football for 2019-20. A week on and March gave the Arsenal defence nightmares as he led Brighton’s comeback from 1-0 down, winning the penalty which secured a first ever point away at one of the big six at the same time as ending the Gunners’ Champions League hopes.

In the early days of Potterball, March looked set to thrive as a left wing back in the new manager’s 3-5-2. We should have known better; March has again been a frustrating source of inconsistency, his cause not helped by a groin injury which required surgery and ruled him out for the whole of December.

On his good days, March has proven himself easily talented enough to play Premier League football. The only problem is that those good days only happen every one in three, four or five.

If he could produce a modicum of consistency, then Graeme Souness and his assertion that Solly March would be good enough for the top six would be wholly accurate.

There’s still time for March to develop consistency. He’s been around for so long that it is easy to forget he is still only 25, three years younger than Dunk who people still talk about in terms of potential.

In terms of games played, March is even further behind in his development. He’s played 175 career games with 101 starts, an average of 25 appearances and 15 starts per season.

That low average has been down to some horrendous luck with injuries. The worst came at Derby County in December 2015 when March snapped his cruciate knee ligament, leading to 11 months on the sidelines.

He was booed off as he left the field on a stretcher while clearly in agony by the classy Derby fans for good measure.

That injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for March. He had been outstanding for Hughton’s promotion pushers in the first half of the 2015-16 season and had established himself in Gareth Southgate’s England Under 21 squad.

Southampton were one of several top flight clubs said to be interested. March seemed destined to reach the Premier League, even if Brighton didn’t.

Once March returned, it looked obvious that the injury had knocked March’s confidence – and it might explain why he still looks less-than-comfortable when it comes to the physical side of the game.

Speaking about the knee, March told The Independent in an interview in October 2017, “It’s always in the back of my mind, and I think it always will be.”

“You try and protect it and look after the knee – things like if a tackle is coming in and you know you’re not going to win the ball, just stay out of it.”

“Not bottle a challenge: but just if you know you’re not going to come out with the ball, or if they’re coming in at a certain angle, maybe take your feet off the ground so they don’t get stuck and it doesn’t twist. Just be smarter about things.”

Had that injury not derailed March’s blistering progress, cost him a year of his career and had an understandable impact on the mental side of his game, then March might have already made the move to one of the top six.

He is clearly of interest to the big boys having been linked with a move to Arsenal last season. Being English makes him a valuable commodity in terms of home grown player quotas and he has proven on occasions to have the required talent.

If Souness has been lucky enough to catch March only on his good days, then it is little wonder he rates him so highly. Top six scouts are likely to base their view on a much broader sample of performances, taking into account those shockers as well as his match winning turns.

Consistency is the key for Solly March – if he can discover that, then Graeme Souness suggestion of a top six move won’t look so far-fetched. And Brighton will have a very, very good player on their hands.