Best Albion talent released

[Easy 10]

Paul McCarthy was already at the club and recommended that we take a look at Keane in a trial, and we set one up. Then we told young Roy he had to pay his own travel to get to the trial, so he didn't come. Shortly afterwards he had a trial at Forest ....

Christ almighty.

indeed.

 

[Life After Bobby]

Russell Martin.

Blimey, didn't realise he was at Norwich now

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I seem to remember that Russell Martin left as we did not let him study/take A-Levels.

Lee Johnson (now at Bristol City) has had a decent career since we let him go.

 

[cuthbert]

Andy Crosby.

 

[BrianWade4]

Showing ignorance here - intrigued - where did he end up ?

 

[seagull_special]

was james hayter released - if so he has become a pretty well established championship striker

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Wright had a trial when Chris Cattlin was manager and impressed, but the way I heard it is that we already had (I think) Dean Saunders, Terry Connor, Justin Fashanu and others on the books so it was felt we didn't need any more forwards.

 

[BigGully]

Wright had a trial when Chris Cattlin was manager and impressed, but the way I heard it is that we already had (I think) Dean Saunders, Terry Connor, Justin Fashanu and others on the books so it was felt we didn't need any more forwards.

I think you might be a little ahead of the years there.

I would knock a year or two off, maybe when Mike Bailey was manager.

 

[Da Man Clay]

Paul McCarthy was already at the club and recommended that we take a look at Keane in a trial, and we set one up. Then we told young Roy he had to pay his own travel to get to the trial, so he didn't come. Shortly afterwards he had a trial at Forest ....

The second half of that isn't true (I've read his Autobiography). He was ready to come over and the night before we called him up and said we'd heard he was too short and not to bother. He had a trial with Forest after being spotted playing for an Irish club and the scout was due to be there watching someone else.

 

[The Large One]

Ian Muir I think.

That is the chap. Thanks very much.

Went on to become their all-time leading goalscorer, and the first person named in their Hall of Fame.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Ian Muir, is definitely the right answer, if the question is about players that we RELEASED [ie were actually ON our books].

In terms of triallists, etc, I am led to belive that at various times we chose not to trial, or rejected after trial, Roy Keane, Ian Wright, Trevor Steven and Jon Aldridge.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I thought Ian Muir was a very good player. Wasn't at all surprised he went on to do well.

 

[Icy Gull]

There haven't been many that have gone on to better things have there? If we are talking about contracted players being released not trialists who we didn't take on.

 

[Billy in Bristol]

Perhaps thread should be about players who grew up in Sussex, played football at schools level and went onto other clubs...

Paul Ifill
Marcus Tudgay
Lionel Messi

okay that last one was patently untrue...I got it third hand from a scout in Ireland!

 

[Gritt23]

The second half of that isn't true (I've read his Autobiography). He was ready to come over and the night before we called him up and said we'd heard he was too short and not to bother. He had a trial with Forest after being spotted playing for an Irish club and the scout was due to be there watching someone else.

I beg to differ. These people do tend to write multiple autobiographies these days, and I've certainly been shown one (by a Man U fan I used to work with) in which he was all set to come over, but we would pay for his flight.

Maybe we did have concerns over his height and perhaps THAT is why we weren't prepared to go the extra yard and pay for his travel. Quite easy for someone to tell a story a slightly different way and yet both versions are true.

 

[murraymints4brighton]

Didn't Roy Keane have a trial at the Albion ? I'm sure I heard from somewhere he came over from Ireland, but we wern't interested.

Correct, was deemed "too small" though. I think Ian Wright wins this by a country mile... (awaits Complete Codger to exclaim "Kuipers")

 

[thedonkeycentrehalf]

Although not the best, Kevin 'Rooster' Russell went on to have a long lower league career after we let him go as a youngster.

 

[TonyW]

Wasn't released though was he?

Well he kinda, sorta was.

We didn't offer him a full contract, Gregory did.

 

[BigGully]

Ian Muir, is definitely the right answer, if the question is about players that we RELEASED [ie were actually ON our books]..

Interestingly I think Ian Muir was initially released on a free from QPR to us in the first instance, probably no more than 19yrs old.

I think we tend to forget just how skint all the clubs seemed to be in the 80's.

Maybe this is the reason why they wouldn't take too much of a risk or time with players with some ability but not positioned to make an immediate impact in the first team.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Interestingly I think Ian Muir was initially released on a free from QPR to us in the first instance, probably no more than 19yrs old.

I think we tend to forget just how skint all the clubs seemed to be in the 80's.

Maybe this is the reason why they wouldn't take too much of a risk or time with players with some ability but not positioned to make an immediate impact in the first team.

Probably you're right. I don't think holding onto Muir was really any kind of risk though.

The few hundred people who regularly watched the reserves at the Goldstone, could all see the guy's quality, and were all crying out for him to be given a chance. I think Lloyd just wrote him off as 'too small'.