Marked for Harry Mitchell
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad5 Apr 2038
Zadok Yohanna damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Yankuba Minteh
15 goals and a season average of 7.76 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market5 Apr 2038
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Georginio Rutter and Brighton agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.21, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
A performance of 9.11 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match3 Apr 2038
Wolverhampton made Brighton work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.41, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad15 Feb 2038
A one-man rearguard from Nils Ramming
There were 8 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Diego Coppola is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.59 with 18 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
Age has not caught Diego Coppola yet — 9.20
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.20 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Babis Kostoulas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Market15 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Brighton is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Feb 2038
Evan Ferguson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match13 Feb 2038
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Diego Coppola. 1‑0 against Nottingham Forest, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings15 Feb 2038
Ninety minutes of Jack Hinshelwood at his very best
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Brighton.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings1 Feb 2038
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 10.00, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad1 Feb 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Yankuba Minteh
12 goals and a season average of 7.70 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings1 Feb 2038
Georginio Rutter, 35, rolls back the years — 8.44
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.44 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 Feb 2038
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad1 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Brighton is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match30 Jan 2038
Yankuba Minteh among the goals in a wild afternoon
8 goals in one match, Yankuba Minteh on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Brighton and Arsenal.
Market1 Feb 2038
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Brighton hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market11 Jan 2038
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Diego Coppola was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Babis Kostoulas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Loan watch11 Jan 2038
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Brighton, and 4 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
Match9 Jan 2038
0‑2 to Crystal Palace, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad11 Jan 2038
The manager makes an example of Matt O'Riley
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad11 Jan 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Georginio Rutter
4 goals and a season average of 7.45 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Player ratings11 Jan 2038
Shots: 12, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2038
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Brighton have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2038
388 appearances across 14 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Player ratings4 Jan 2038
Diego Coppola, 34, rolls back the years — 9.01
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.01 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad4 Jan 2038
Defences have started doubling up on Diego Coppola
15 goals and a season average of 7.50 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Market4 Jan 2038
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Market4 Jan 2038
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Brighton they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Player ratings4 Jan 2038
Ninety minutes of Babis Kostoulas at his very best
Marked 9.25. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Brighton.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
A brace, and Yankuba Minteh takes the afternoon — 9.50
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yankuba Minteh provided it, and the 9.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Age has not caught Diego Coppola yet — 8.71
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.71 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Aug 2037
Words at Brighton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Babis Kostoulas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match22 Aug 2037
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yankuba Minteh. 3‑1 against Newcastle United, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings24 Aug 2037
Marked 8.36 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad24 Aug 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Harry Mitchell commits to Brighton for another 5 years.
Squad24 Aug 2037
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Romano Floriani Mussolini, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Feb 2037
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Georginio Rutter commits to Brighton for another 2 years.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Diego Coppola was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad9 Feb 2037
9 goals and a season average of 7.60. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad9 Feb 2037
Babis Kostoulas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match7 Feb 2037
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Boardroom9 Feb 2037
91% of the income goes out in wages at Brighton
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
14 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
The chances came and went for Evan Ferguson
12 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Player ratings9 Feb 2037
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
39 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Squad26 Jan 2037
A one-man rearguard from Nils Ramming
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
Defensive actions: 29, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
Diego Coppola, 33, rolls back the years — 7.87
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.87 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Diego Coppola was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Babis Kostoulas falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings26 Jan 2037
A performance of 9.28 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match24 Jan 2037
A 2‑0 win over Wolverhampton, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Jan 2037
Defences have started doubling up on Babis Kostoulas
8 goals and a season average of 7.38 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match17 Jan 2037
Diego Coppola had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Aston Villa were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
Age has not caught Diego Coppola yet — 8.09
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.09 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad19 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Words at Brighton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Babis Kostoulas is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
A performance of 8.47 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.38, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings19 Jan 2037
13 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Squad19 Jan 2037
7 goals and a season average of 7.32. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad19 Jan 2037
Eiran Cashin gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Jan 2037
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brighton this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jan 2037
Words at Brighton training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Evan Ferguson is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad12 Jan 2037
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Market12 Jan 2037
The name of Harry Mitchell has come up in conversations Brighton were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Match10 Jan 2037
Brentford left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad12 Jan 2037
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniel Atkinson and Brighton agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings12 Jan 2037
Shots: 13, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Player ratings12 Jan 2037
Shots: 10, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.
Player ratings12 Jan 2037
Shots: 11, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.