Recalling Brighton and Hove Albion’s pivotal summers – and wondering what Brian Clough could have done for us...

But before that we have the apparent vacuum which we all call the close season, that time of the year when the gardening doesn’t get neglected, ror the wife for that matter, and DIY jobs are even sometimes done voluntarily.

But down the years the close season has seen the backdrop to significant, perhaps even pivotal, moments in the club’s history.

Some 49 years ago, the summer of 1974 saw our footballing nation in relative mourning as England had failed to qualify for the World Cup Finals in Germany, but down on the coast Brighton was still buzzing from the appointment of OBE (Old Big ‘Ead) Brian Clough the previous November.

Cloughie hadn’t exactly ‘hit the ground running’ – a midweek 4-0 home defeat in an FA Cup replay (played in the afternoon due to the three day week, and it was rumoured half the youths in Brighton and Hove school system played truant that day) versus Walton and Hersham, followed three days later by an 8-2 home drubbing by Bristol Rovers in front of the TV cameras. But chairman Mike Bamber had given him a decent transfer war chest in Third Division terms and there was much optimism among supporters.

That lasted until reigning league champions Leeds United came knocking, wanting to replace the England-bound Don Revie with Clough.

To be fair it didn’t take a lot of head turning, but significantly for the Albion, Leeds and Cloughie himself, his assistant manager Peter Taylor elected to stay loyal and stick with Brighton.

The rest is history. Cloughie lasted 44 days at Elland Road, a saga which ended up on the silver screen, Taylor was clearly the ultimate conduit between him and the players and without him he crashed and burned, forced out by player power.

Taylor for his part stayed for two years on the coast and is credited by many as laying the foundations which later saw Alan Mullery lead two successful promotion seasons as Brighton reached the top flight in 1979. Mullery was even credited with kick starting the rivalry with Palace.

Taylor did eventually rejoin Clough, this time at Forest, in the long hot summer of 1976, resulting in Mullery getting his first job in management, and Leeds fans eternally wondering ‘what might been?’ as the Clough and Taylor partnership went on to win one League Championship, three League Cups and two European Cups with Forest.

Never mind Leeds fans... I and many others have often wondered what Clough could have achieved with Brighton had he stayed loyal to Mike Bamber, a man he later described as the ‘best chairman he ever worked with’, in the summer of 1974?

More close season shenanigans next week…….