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Premiership Football News: Gus Poyet

Dreams by the Seaside: Soccerphile speaks exclusively to new Brighton and Hove Albion manager Gus Poyet.

Andy Greeves

Gus Poyet was a rare breed as a footballer. He was one of few players who went about his business on the park with a smile on his face and also someone for whom winning or losing could impact on his weekend, in the just the same way as a supporter.

While the commitment of the modern day footballer cannot be questioned, few have a the kind of deep attachment with their clubs that Gus Poyet did. If passion alone can bring success then the former Uruguay international will have no problems his new role as a Football League manager with Brighton and Hove Albion. The former Spurs and Chelsea man is no illusions that he will need to bring a whole host of other attributes to turn round the ailing fortunes of the Sussex club.

Brighton find themselves just three points outside the relegation zone in League One, though the 'new manager factor' was instant last weekend, as the Seagulls beat Southampton 3-1 in the boss' first match in charge. With a new 23,000 all-seater stadium currently under construction, Poyet has joined a club with aspirations far higher than simply clinging on to a place in their current division. Brighton & Hove is the 12th largest conurbation in the UK and with the club having taken over 30,000 supporters to the Division Two Play-Off Final in Cardiff in 2004, the local demand for a success club is definitely there.

"The aim of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club is to establish themselves in the Championship as soon as possible," says Poyet. " It is hard to give an exact time scale on this and who knows whether it will happen in one or two seasons, but certainly that is the aim. I have an initial contract here for one season and when I spoke to the board here at Brighton, they were very forthright in the view they want Championship football and hopefully one day, Premier League football too."

Match one in charge of the Seagulls gave Gus Poyet positive signs that his and Brighton's dreams of a brighter future may not be as unlikely as possibly first feared. Victory at Southampton, who had only lost one home league match before Poyet's visit, was a massive early scalp and an excellent learning brief for the manager and his assistant, former Tottenham team-mate Mauricio Taricco.

"I learned very simply from the victory over Southampton that we have a squad here that can win football matches," reflected Poyet on the victory. "My job here is to bring the squad together and get us playing a good style of football that can make winning football matches a regular thing for us. This one result is just a start, you can't read anything into it, but of course I hope for more results and performances like that. The win has set the standard for our season."

Poyet admits his first week in charge of the Seagulls was "a total whirlwind" and for both him and Taricco, there is an element of refreshing their football knowledge. Poyet has been out of the game since leaving the post of assistant manager at Tottenham last Autumn, while Taricco has been retire from football since leaving West Ham in 2004. The pair are also living together temporarily and community to Brighton everyday, so it's a case of the two former team-mates getting to know each other again too.

"I'm living in Kent at the moment, commuting over to Sussex everyday," says Poyet. "I am looking to move to the Brighton area. What I have seen of Sussex is very good. It is a pretty county and I would like to live near the sea. The work is very intense at the moment, in that I start at 7am and don't really stop working until midnight. It is quite a lonely experience and there certainly is that feeling of being thrown in the deep end to begin with, but that is natural. As things settle down, day-to-day management of the club will become slightly more straightforward."

Poyet's short and medium term future is very much focused on doing the very best for Brighton and Hove Albion. He has a twelve month contract with the club presently and will look for an extension to that deal, should success come over the coming months. He makes no secret of the fact that he'd like to manage at the top level and especially in the English Premier League - a division he holds such happy memories of.

"Yes of course I think of one day becoming a Premiership manager," he says. "I think if you are a manager and you do not aspire to one day manage in the top league, you are in the wrong profession. It's my long term aim as a manager, there's no doubt about that. It would be fantastic if it could be with Brighton. Time will decide my fate, it terms of how well I do here, opportunities that come along etc etc."

In his coaching role with Tottenham Hotspur, Poyet saw the side win the Carling Cup in his first season and he hopes experiences like that will rub off on him and make him a good manager.

"The special moments in football, like winning the Carling Cup with Tottenham, stands you in good stead to do well in management," smiles Poyet. "Decisions had to be made from the sidelines to win that trophy that day. We (the coaching staff) had to prepare the team well, deliver the right messages before the game and half time and of course, get your message across and change things while a game is going on - with the noise of 90,000 people in the background. Those big moments make or break you and I can take lots of positives from that into my current job and my future."

As one of the games most likeable characters, there are few football supporters who will begrudge Gus Poyet every success with Brighton. If he can get the Seagulls playing the brand of football he wants, the club will become popular with the neutrals too. Poyet believes in playing like he used to - lively, passionately and with great style.

Andy Greeves

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