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Withdean's international flavour is a real tongue-twister
I mentioned last week that we shouldn't worry about the pre-season results! Here are the latest – Bognor Regis Town 2 Albion 2. And Saturday - Eastbourne Borough 3 Albion 2. One could feel a little apprehensive just looking at these scores AND we lost against Whitehawk. But manager Gus Poyet isn't worried, so nor should we be – yet!
There are reasons. In each game at least 22 Albion players have appeared. Poyet has had completely different teams either side of half-time. He has played Albion youngsters and a varied bunch of trialists. With new signings also coming in the first team squad is still a work-in-progress.
But we are getting to the nitty-gritty time in pre-season.
Poyet said after the Eastbourne game "We will take the games more seriously from now on … I will be picking the team, so there is now competition for places … against Sunderland we will take the selection seriously … we have things we need to improve on but we now have time to work on that so it's nothing to worry about … together in Portugal we will have a lot of training sessions and time to work on plenty of defensive work, so it's going to be a fantastic week … we have had no news of Kazenga LuaLua yet … I would like to see a minimum of three players come in, maybe four … Gary Hart is also still in my plans … "
One thing is certain. We will have an international flavour to our squad. There are going to be several tongue twisters! Apart from Kazenga LuaLua we have Radostin Kishishev, a Bulgarian international who has signed a one-year deal. There is an Argentinean pair, Agustin Battipiedi (who scored against Borough and has been signed up) and Cristian Baz. Next there are trialists Erik Midtgarden (Norwegian) and Filipe Morais (Portuguese). Add these to our existing Peter Brezovan (Slovakian) and Inigo Calderon (Spanish) and we are close to putting out a truly international team! I'm working on an Albion ditty to include Kishishev, Battipiedi and Midtgarden. Don't hold your breath!
Making way for these new players two defenders go out on loan. Left-back Jimmy McNulty has re-joined Scunthorpe United for six months. He recovered well from the severe kidney injury but had only limited chances to get back into the team. The second is James Tunnicliffe who has joined Bristol Rovers on a season-long deal. The tall 21-year-old also had few chances of regular games and a loan to Rovers makes good sense.
Veteran keeper Michel Kuipers has gone to Crawley. Unfortunately his replacement Peter Brezovan has fractured his wrist and will miss the start of the season! That leaves young keepers Michael Poke and Mitch Walker to fight for the place starting on the 7th August!
Did you see The Damned United (BBC2 Sunday), the film about Brian Clough and his 44 days at Leeds? There were the fleeting glimpses going backwards to his Brighton days. Clough and Peter Taylor came to us on 5 year contracts on the 1st November 1973. They stayed overnight at the White Hart, Lewes (is there a plaque there?) before deciding they were dealing with "a bunch of amateurs and layabouts".
Clough's quote was "Of course I'm bigger than Brighton – I was bigger than Derby too". There was a big clear out of players and big signings but they only just avoided relegation. Clough didn't last to the following season. He was off to Leeds and the start of the infamous 44 days. He later admitted he had let Chairman Mike Bamber down but happily Taylor stayed and saw us through to better times.
My recollection of Clough was through "Sir" Norman Gall (488 matches for the Albion). Norman, a family friend, made a mistake in an away game that lead to a goal. Clough told Norman after the game that he wouldn't be playing for him again. He did of course and went on to make the most Albion appearances of any player.
As it happens I'm catching up on birthday book reading of "He SHOT, He SCORED" the Peter Ward biography and have reached young Ward's signing by Taylor in May 1975 for 4,000. His debut was in March 1976 when he scored in 50 seconds against Hereford. Happy days!
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Weather for Horsham
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: -1 C to 3 C
Wind Speed: 6 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -7 C to 2 C
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