Rags to riches: The similar stories of Brighton and 80s Wimbledon

Commentators on the current success story at Brighton often look for a comparative story. These usually come from the present or the recent past and invariably tend to focus on the Albion and the similarities with either Brentford or Southampton.

The Bees are the contrast and compare option for the here and now, with the most popular thread being how two modest clubs who have spent most of their history in the lower divisions are competing in the upper reaches of the Premier League thanks to Tony Bloom and Matthew Benham.

Bloom and Benham’s personal history and animosity makes for compelling reading, as does the impact the data and recruitment modelling from their respective companies, Starlizard and Smartodds, has had on English football.

As for the recent past, Southampton are often to go-to reference for how Brighton’s future might play out over the coming years.

The Saints enjoyed success recruiting and selling on a succession of players from 2012 onwards all whilst achieving four successive top 10 finishes.

Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Morgan Schneiderlin, Dusan Tadic, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Adam Lallana, Ricky Lambert, Nathaniel Clyne and the rest all came and went without it ever impacting on Southampton.

But eventually, all those transfers caught up with the Saints. ““Doing a Southampton” is now the term given to any club who constantly finds themselves selling their best talents to bigger clubs, eventually resulting in them falling back into the relegation scrap.

Many pundits and fans of other teams believe it is only a matter of time before this run of Brighton mining gold to replace gold comes to an end. They think it inevitable the Albion will “do a Southampton.”

And yet there is in many ways a success story that has far greater comparability with Brighton’s rags-to-riches tale than either Brentford or the Saints.

That story is the remarkable rise of Wimbledon, who went from non league to the top flight through the late 1980s and 1990s. The Dons would have played European football were it not for the ban on English clubs during that period.

Upon the recent death of John Motson, it was his famous line “the Crazy Gang have beaten the Culture Club” from when Wimbledon defeated Liverpool in the 1988 FA Cup final which was played over and over again.

Every year when another FA Cup comes around, reporters discuss whether or not Wimbledon’s win was the biggest shock in final history. It has achieved almost mythical status.

And yet, on that day in 1988 it clearly was not a massive surprise. Wimbledon finished seventh in the top flight during the 1987-88 season and sixth the year before.

In modern day terms, it was akin to the level of shock we would have seen this year if Brighton had overcome Manchester United and then beaten Manchester City in the final. A surprise yes, but certainly not on the scale of say when relegated Wigan Athletic defeated City in 2013.

The reason that Wimbledon’s 1988 win is considered a shock is because they had been playing non league football just 11 years earlier.

It is this rise from the bottom to the top which is more reminiscent of the Brighton story than either Southampton or Brentford.

The Wimbledon Story
In the days before automatic promotion from the Conference, Wimbledon had to rely on the archaic re-election system whereby a vote was held to decide whether the sides near the bottom of the old Division Four should be replaced by a club in non league.

Despite being clearly significantly better than many of sides in Division Four – as evidenced by Wimbledon making the fourth round of the FA Cup in the 1974-75 season – they were constantly denied a place in the Football League by the vote.

That was until the 1977-78 campaign, when Wimbledon were finally elected to replace Workington. The Dons yo-yoed between the bottom two divisions until the arrival of Dave Bassett in 1981.

What followed was almost unprecedented in English football as three promotions in four years took Wimbledon from the bottom tier to the top in less than half a decade.

Wimbledon were tipped by most commentators to go straight back down once they reached Division One. It ended up being quite the reverse.

They topped the table in September and as already mentioned, ended up finishing sixth in that 1986-87 season. Bassett was poached and replaced by Bobby Gould but not even that could stop Wimbledon.

1987-88 brought a seventh place finish and the FA Cup, which should have seen Wimbledon play in Europe. The tragedies of Heysel and Hillsborough and the ban placed on English clubs put paid to that.

Missing out on Europe was not the only major negative impact Hillsborough had on Wimbledon. The subsequent requirement for top division clubs to have all-seater stadiums meant the Dons having to leave their Plough Lane home, a typical non league ground totally unfit for the new standards.

Repeated attempts to develop a new home floundered whenever presented to Merton Council and the club was forced to live a nomadic existence – mainly as (frankly unwelcome) tenants at Selhurst Park.

In resource terms, Wimbledon were always punching massively above their weight even before becoming homeless. But with no ground, their finances became even more stretched with a fanbase dwarfed by most other clubs in London, let alone Division One.

Wimbledon could only survive by selling their best players every year. This happened from the moment they entered the top flight, whilst their wage bill was continually the lowest in Division One and then the Premier League when English football went through its 1992 rebrand.

Dons players were ripe for cherry picking by other top flight clubs during their time in the top division. Newcastle United took four players off Wimbledon’s hands – Dave Beasant, Andy Thorn, Carl Cort and Warren Barton.

Terry Phelan, Keith Curle and Brian Gayle moved to Manchester City. Chris Perry, Ben Thatcher and Neil Sullivan joined Spurs. John Scales and Oyvind Leohardsen went to Liverpool. Aston Villa signed John Fashanu and Kevin Gage. Arsenal bought Nigel Winterburn, Leeds United purchased Vinne Jones and Dennis Wise moved to Chelsea.

All those departures meant Wimbledon were in receipt of substantial transfer fees, money which had to be used to keep the club afloat. They continued to successfully replace those who had left through shrewd recruitment of cheaper players.

Apart from the occasional foray in Scandinavia, this was mainly done from a combination of Football League clubs, non league football and teenagers released by other teams.

A few key players stayed with Wimbledon throughout their successful period. Robbie Earle and Lawrie Sanchez were the Dons’ equivalents to Lewis Dunk and Solly March.

Wimbledon also had a strong youth system and were more willing than most to give young players a chance. Dunk was in fact at Wimbledon up to the age of 10; he only joined Brighton when the Dons made their controversial move to Milton Keynes as the travelling between Sussex and Buckinghamshire would have been too much.

Despite all those players sales, their lack of money and no ground to call their own for most of their 12 years in the top division, the table below shows Wimbledon achieved seven top half finishes.

To misquote Les Miserables for Wimbledon fans, “There was a time when the world was a song, and the song was exciting, and then it all went wrong”.

Eccentric, controversial but also often brilliant chairman Sam Hammam sold the club to a Norwegian consortium and in 1999, manager Joe Kinnear was forced to resign through ill-health.

Relegation followed in 2000 and still with no ground and no success with Merton Council, Wimbledon made increasingly farcical attempts to morph into a bigger club with a larger catchment area through the franchise football model.

There were attempted moves to Cardiff and Dublin before finally relocating to Milton Keynes. Here we are today with both Milton Keynes and AFC Wimbledon starting next season in League Two.

Brighton and Wimbledon
So what are the significant correlations to the Brighton story? You might have picked up on the numerous similarities already.

First, there is the rags to riches element. The Wimbledon story goes from the non league to the top flight in just nine years. Brighton went from one game from falling into the Conference to the Premier League in 20 years.

Both clubs have lived a long nomadic existence with no home to call their own, Brighton before their rise to the top flight and Wimbledon during it. There have been frustrating battles and processes seeking to agree new grounds with respective local councils.

Neither Brighton nor Wimbledon’s rise would have bee possible without fantastic, visionary chairmen. Dick Knight and Tony Bloom need no introduction. For the Dons, Hammam as equally brilliant. At least until the point he began pushing the franchise football bandwagon.

Above all else, there are the similarities in how Brighton and Wimbledon thrived once in the top division via their transfer models, punching well above their weight with a comparatively low salary base.

Both employ a process of continually identifying diamonds at a low price from markets other Premier League clubs do not look and then selling them on for huge fees to bigger clubs, although there is a slight difference in motive.

For the Albion, it is more about accepting offers at the appropriate time and reinvesting the money in new talent. For Wimbledon, it was a necessity to survive.

None of their respective success would have been possible had both clubs not had outstanding track records appointing managers to do the right job at the right time.

Gus Poyet, Chris Hughton, Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton have their equivalents of Dario Gradi, Dave Bassett, Bobby Gould and Joe Kinnear with Dons.

At this point, any Newcastle fans who have found their way to WAB are probably choking on their cornflakes. So too any younger Brighton supporters only familiar with Kinnear’s bizarre spell in charge at St James’ Park,

But Kinnear’s achievement in keeping Wimbledon at the top level despite the club being homeless and broke through the 1990s put him to my mind alongside Sir Alex Ferguson as the best Premier League manager of that decade.

There is an argument to be made that to date, the Albion’s achievements – fantastic as they are – remain somewhat short of those of Wimbledon.

Yes, the style of football played by Brighton with Potterball and particularly DeZerbiBall leaves what Bassett and Kinnear produced in the shade.

But with less resources, less supporters and over a quicker period, Wimbledon achieved seven top half finishes in the Premier League and that FA Cup win. Brighton in contrast currently have two top half finishes.

However, if I were writing this in 10 years time then I would fully expect the Albion story to have exceeded Wimbledon in longevity and achievement. Brighton have a number of intrinsic advantages which mean, unlike the Dons, it should not go wrong for a long time.

The infrastructure was put in place before the Seagulls reached the Premier League so that they could survive once there, from the Amex through to the training ground in Lancing. Wimbledon in contrast effectively made it to the top division whilst playing at a Withdean equivalent.

Brighton also benefit from a huge fanbase, something Wimbledon never had due to the saturation of London clubs and their spending almost 80 years as a non league outfit between 1899 and and 1977.

And there is Brighton’s development system. Yes, Wimbledon managed to produce top class players through their youth teams. But nothing to the scale the Albion have, where young talent from across the world arrives in Sussex with a pathway to the Premier League clearly mapped out.

Most importantly, Brighton have Bloom himself (and I was tempted to write his name over and over again just to underline his importance).

Thanks to Bloom, the Albion are propped up by a robust and scientific identification process for finding players, managers and support staff.

Goodness knows how Wimbledon managed it for 21 years from non league until relegation from the top division. But Starlizard are always re-evaluating and enhancing their algorithms, which should promise a longevity neither Wimbledon (or Southampton for that matter) were likely to manage.

Peter Finn