Unpopular opinion: Glenn Murray is the greatest striker in Brighton history

After 111 goals in 287 matches, the Brighton & Hove Albion career of Glenn Murray appears to be over. Murray has moved on a season long loan to Watford and with his contract up next summer, it seems unlikely we will ever see him pull on an Albion shirt again.

Which means that now seems like as good a time as any to try and assess where Murray sits in the hierarchy of Brighton’s greatest ever strikers.

This is sure to be an unpopular opinion, but over here at WAB Towers we have decided it is number one. There has simply never been a centre forward whose goals were so important for Brighton or who can match the achievements of Murray during his seven years and two spells with the club.

It is generally accepted that there are five men who vie for the title of Brighton’s greatest ever striker. In chronological order, they are Tommy Cook, Kit Napier, Peter Ward, Bobby Zamora and Murray.

Most Albion fans would have Ward and Zamora at one and two; the order of which is normally decided by age. If you are young enough to know all about Bonus Buy Slots for online casinos like those available at https://www.bets.io/category/buy, then you will most likely favour Zamora.

If you remember the terraces of the Goldstone Ground and a time when curly perms and mullets were acceptable fashion, Ward is probably your man.

Murray though outranks both of those in our book, as well as Cook and Napier.

Here is why we believe that Glenn Murray is Brighton & Hove Albion’s greatest ever striker.

Murray’s goal scoring record
The obvious starting point for judging a centre forward is how many goals they scored. In that regard, Murray’s 111 goals is only bettered by Cook, who netted 123 times in 209 appearances.

Cook’s goals though came in Division Three South, the third tier of English football. Murray has banged them in across the third tier, the second tier and the top tier.

The level at which Murray has played for Brighton has never mattered. He has always found a way to find the back of the net.

Of the other players considered to be the Albion’s best ever striker, Napier scored 99 times in 291 appearances; Ward managed 95 goals in 227 games; and Zamora notched 84 in 156.

In terms of strike rate, Cook leads the way with a goal every 1.69 matches. Zamora is next, scoring once in every 1.77 games, Ward once every 2.33, Murray once every 2.58 and Napier once every 2.93.

Again, all Cook’s goals came lower down the pyramid whilst 77 of Zamora’s 84 came in his Withdean spell when Brighton were in the bottom two divisions. Only Ward’s strike rate compares to Murray’s when you consider the level of football they were playing out while with the Albion.

Murray fired Brighton to two promotions
Ward and Zamora are the two most revered forwards who Brighton have had because of what their scoring exploits led to. Ward was the swashbuckling young striker who fired Alan Mullery’s Seagulls from the third tier into the top flight for the first time in the club’s history.

Zamora’s goals meanwhile secured back-to-back promotions from bottom tier to second tier just five years after Brighton had avoided relegation to the Conference on goal difference.

It seems to get overlooked that Murray also has two promotions on his CV, perhaps because they were separated by a spell at Crystal Palace.

His 22 goals in 2010-11 fired Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named’s Brighton to the League One title. In the five seasons that Murray was away, Brighton could never make it past the Championship play off semi finals.

Chris Hughton brought Murray back to the Albion in the summer of 2016 and 46 games and 23 goals later, Brighton were a Premier League club. Murray was the difference between nearly making it to the promised land and actually getting there.

Brighton’s reliance on Murray
Now this is where the argument for Glenn Murray being the greatest striker in Brighton history kicks up a notch. In the Albion’s first two seasons in the Premier League, it was Murray’s goals that single handedly kept Hughton’s team in the top flight.

He scored 14 times in 2017-18 and 15 times in 2018-19. Those totals accounted for 36% of the Albion’s goals – no top flight club had ever been so reliant on one player scoring for them since Sky Sports invented football in 1992.

Of the other four contenders for the crown, Ward is the only other to have played in the top flight for Brighton. He scored a hugely important 18 times in the Albion’s debut Division One campaign in 1979-80, accounting for 34% of that season’s top flight goals.

Ward moved to Nottingham Forest after 14 games of the next season, although he only had two goals to his name by that point in time. Perhaps most tellingly, Mullery ended up replacing Ward by saying: “In the five years I was at Brighton we went from the Third Division to the First Division with this kid Peter Ward scoring goals for fun.”

“But once we got in the big league, it changes completely. You had to get people who scored you goals. Michael (Robinson) was the player who got us those goals.”

Even in the big league, Murray has been the man to get Brighton goals.

Murray’s record in the top flight
Ah yes, Michael Robinson. Another who should maybe enter the debate given his record, the striker was signed from Manchester City by Mullery in the summer of 1980.

Robinson’s 37 notched over three seasons between 1980 and 1983 remains the most that any Brighton player has managed in the top flight with Murray back in second on 25.

The importance of Murray’s 25 goals far outweighs that of Robinson’s. Robinson was ably supported in 1980-81 by Gordon Smith who scored 10 times; in 1981-82, Andy Ritchie top scored for Brighton with 13; and in 1982-83, Robinson’s seven league strikes put him just one ahead of Smith and Gerry Ryan.

Murray in comparison carried the burden of scoring Brighton’s goals on his own. In 2017-18, Pascal Gross was Murray’s biggest helper with seven and in 2018-19, it was Shane Duffy on five.

Murray’s scoring record in 2018-19 was particularly impressive when you consider the relatively low amount of chances that Brighton created for him.

To notch 15 goals, he had to score 24.1% of the opportunities which came his way, making him the third most clinical striker in the top flight that season ahead of the likes of Mo Salah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sergio Aguero. Only Anthony Martial and Sadio Mane were more deadly than Murray.

Murray’s lost years
Okay, we know that you cannot base an argument on who is the greatest at something on what might have been. But just imagine for a second that Poyet You Know Who had not let Murray walk away so easily in 2011 and Murray had spent those lost five years playing for Brighton instead of Palace, Reading and Plucky Little Bournemouth.

Brighton would probably have made it to the Premier League much sooner than 2017. Murray would have surpassed Cook’s 123 goal record; if you take the 59 goals he scored during his five seasons away and presume he scored them for Brighton instead, Murray hits 170. It would take a sensational effort from a future Brighton striker to get close to that sort of total.

If Murray had not left in 2011, this would not even be a debate. Glenn Murray would be the greatest striker in Brighton history.

Murray’s journey to legendary status
At risk of sounding like a terrible X Factor contestant, it is perhaps Murray’s journey which is the most extraordinary aspect of his Albion career.

It would be rewriting history to suggest that he was universally loved during his first spell with the club. There were the constant rumours about him wanting to return up north, the injury problems and the time he did not clap the away end at Brentford early in the 2009-10 season.

Murray was often perceived as lazy which, looking back, seems like a ludicrous accusation to throw at him. It was only in the League One title winning season that Brighton fans really began to appreciate what a player he was.

And then it was all undone by that move to Palace. Cast your mind back to Selhurst Park, Friday 10th May 2013 when Murray was being stretchered off after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in the play off semi final between the Eagles and the Albion.

As Glenn Murray was removed from the field of play and set for nine months on the side lines, Brighton fans cheered his demise and sung “30 goals, that’s your lot”.

It was one of the most unedifying things that Albion supporters have ever been involved in – but that was the hatred that Murray’s free transfer to that lot up the A23 had caused.

Had you said that night that seven years later, Murray would be Brighton’s second-highest scorer of all time and one of the most popular players that the club have ever had, you would have either been punched in the face or locked up in an asylum. Possibly both.

Not many players could win over the fans of a club once in 2009, leave for their bitter rivals in 2011, return in 2016 and go onto achieve legendary status by 2020. Murray did though.

And that is why he is WAB’s greatest Brighton striker of all time. We loved Zamora growing up as kids, our parents loved Ward; Napier and Cook scored goals for fun. But there is only one Glenn Murray – and it has been a pleasure to watch him in the stripes.