Not sure you're on the same wavelength as the OP was imagining.
Neil McNab played over a 100 times for the Albion. He very much 'made it' as an Albion player.
Yes, that's my opinion too. I'm a bit puzzled looking at his Wiki entry though - we apparantly bought him for £220K, but after three years flogged him off to Manchester City for a mere £35K. Obviously no slouch there - as player of the season he lead them back to the top flight and they made a decent profit selling him on for £125K.
Living far from Brighton, when there wasn't the media coverage as there is today so I was fairly out of touch - did something go seriously wrong with his time at the Albion? I remeber being pretty pleased when we signed him.