“Not a very good one.” This was Jason Steele’s answer to the club’s media team when he was asked what kind of headspace he was in when he joined Brighton in 2018.
To the uninitiated. The former Team GB goalkeeper spent the 2017-18 season with his native Sunderland and in his own admission “I didn’t do myself any favours.”
Steele became a prominent scapegoat for the Black Cats’ problems that season, despite only making 15 appearances in the Championship as they were relegated to League One – a period of time covered candidly by the Netflix documentary Sunderland Till I Die produced by James Corden’s production company ‘Fulwell 73’.
It wasn’t plain sailing for Steele at the Seagulls either. Initially, he was signed as third choice goalkeeper behind Maty Ryan and David Button ahead of the 2018-19 campaign.
Steele only made his debut for Brighton in the third round of the FA Cup that season in a win away at Bournemouth on account of Ryan being at the Asia Cup and Button was deputising in league matches.
It would be Steele’s single appearance for his first two seasons at the club. But he persevered. Despite opportunities to go on loan to Championship and League One teams, he told the Albion’s official podcast recently that he decided to stay because he believed he would eventually get his chance.
And Steele did get his chance, eventually. His comeback and the way in which he turned his career around means I find it hard not to be a cheerleader for Steele and his personal redemption story. His is the classic underdog story, one that many sport fans are suckers for.
When Steele was third choice – and that discounts the presence of prominent Brighton goalkeepers out on loan like Robert Sanchez and Christian Walton, who always seemed likely to overtake him in the pecking order – it would have been easy to cast him as just making up the numbers.
Steele seemed to have an incredibly unrealistic chance of playing much football. Even less likely seemed his prospects of ever getting the number one spot.
What Steele brought to the Albion in those first few seasons was never seen by fans. It was his attitude and personality on the training ground which impressed a succession of Brighton managers – starting with his first, Chris Hughton.
Hughton was only ever complimentary of Steele, saying when making the decision to select Button as number one whilst Ryan was at the Asian Cup: “Jason was a close call. He is one that’s also pushed and pushed really hard.”
Graham Potter also took a shine to Steele. Young Sanchez might have usurped Ryan to become Albion number one in 2020, but Steele was very much Potter’s undisputed back up.
Potter once spoke of Steele’s importance off-the-pitch to the first team squad, saying: “I think his role around the club, his role in the dressing room, his role with the boys has been brilliant. I’ve got to say that he is very supportive of them, he has been really supportive of Rob (Sanchez).”
“He puts his own personal ambition to one side for the team which is not so easy to do and is actually quite rare. I have the utmost respect for Jason in that regard.”
Steele’s likeable character has impressed beyond just those picking the team. Former teammate Glenn Murray said in Steele’s interview for the official podcast: “Everyone warmed to him right away, without doubt.”
When Steele signed a new contract with the Albion in the 2023, technical director David Weir said: “Jason is key player for us, on and off the pitch.”
“His attitude, leadership and what he brings to this club every day has been a massive part of our progress throughout his time here.”
It was when Roberto De Zerbi took charge that Steele’s Brighton career hit new heights. After finally making his Premier League debut at the age of 31 under Potter when Sanchez was suspended – more than three years after joining the club – De Zerbi surprised many by picking Steele ahead of Sanchez in the league of his own free will.
De Zerbi’s reasoning was that Steele better suited the style of build-up play that he wanted the team to play. Steele kept a clean sheet in a 4-0 win over West Ham United and has been a regular ever since.
All this being said, the 2023-24 season has been a difficult one for Steele. A quick peruse on social media or internet forums and you will quickly see that he has become a bit of a lightning rod for the frustration of Brighton fans.
And I don’t think I need to tell you that the goalkeeping stats give plenty of justification for that frustration – but as has already been said, Steele’s role is far more that just as a traditional goalkeeper.
After a rare clean sheet this season from a 0-0 draw at home to Wolves in which he made some important saves, Steele said: “We’re aggressive, so when I see my skipper going out full pelt, I’m going with him, I’m backing him up.”
“I can easily go back on my line and hide, and say ‘Come on then, let’s have a one-on-one,’ but I’m backing my teammate up and probably made it harder for the opposition striker if anything.”
“I’m happy we kept a clean sheet, although I think I said last time that stats don’t mean anything to us. We’re about winning as a team. I’d rather have won 3-2, trust me.”
As the football website Breaking The Lines wrote back May 2023: “Those of more traditional views may argue that a goalkeeper should simply be the one to keep the ball out of the back of their net.”
“But it is incomprehensible to suggest that such a quality is the only one a goalkeeper needs in the modern game. Steele has completely flipped this narrative and shown that he is in fact the opposite.”
This of course isn’t the first time Steele has been through challenging periods in his career, as the aforementioned time at Sunderland demonstrates.
Relegation that year was in fact his second consecutive from the Champuonship, after a three-season spell at Blackburn Rovers culminated in demotion to League One.
As such, his move from back-to-back relegations into the third tier to Premier League came as a surprise to many. Some Brighton supporters cynically wrote it off as a way for the club to get around home grown players rules.
Steele said of joining Brighton: “First and foremost, I had to become a good husband and a good father again because I hadn’t been that for a year.”
“I had been locked away in a room, not being myself and I had to make sure I got back to that and that is way more important than football. That was my first priority, get confidence to be myself again and I think this place allowed me to do that.”
Over time, Steele became much more than that besides. So much so that his current manager clearly rates him very highly, saying in November that he was “one of the secrets” to Brighton’s success last season.
And despite Steele’s challenges this season, De Zerbi has persevered with him alongside new signing Bert Verbruggen in a goalkeeper rotation system which plenty have derided.
Verbruggen’s £17 million arrival – the most expensive goalkeeper in Albion history – was seen by many as the beginning of the end of Steele’s Brighton career. That Steele has persevered and played so much this season says a lot about his character and newfound confidence.
Whilst De Zerbi hails Steele’s importance to Brighton, the goalkeeper repays the favour by stating just how crucial De Zerbi has been for his career.
“He changed my life last season, there’s no doubt about that, by having trust and faith in me,” Steele said in a post-match interview earlier in the 2023-24 campaign. “So, whatever he wants from me I’ll give him no problem.”
Whilst some have written off Steele as not being good enough following another error in Brighton’s recent FA Cup defeat to Wolves, his career shows such is the life of a goalkeeper.
And Jason Steele is so much more though than just another traditional goalkeeper. So, whatever happens, expect him to have an important place at the club for some time to come.
Phil
