Few Brighton players have ever dominated a division in the way Anthony Knockaert did the Championship through the 2016-17 season. It made Knockaert one of the most popular men ever to pull on the stripes and has seen his retirement greeted with universal praise from Albion supporters.
Knockaert deserves all that love which has gone his way. His arrival in January 2016 turned Brighton from a solid promotion hopeful into a team capable of beating anyone in the second tier. Culminating in Premier League football coming to the Amex 18 months later.
Through the first half of the 2015-16 season before Knockaert’s arrival, Chris Hughton went into away games aiming not to lose. Liam Rosenior was deployed down one of the flanks.
Nine of the opening 11 matches on the road that season through the club-record 21 game unbeaten start were drawn.
But then came Knockaert. Hughton switched to two out-and-out wingers away from home. From mid-February onwards, the Albion won six of their final nine games on the road to come within a couple of goals of automatic promotion.
No Brighton fan needs reminding of the impact Knockaert had in 2016-17. 15 goals. Eight assists. Championship Player of the Season. Left backs across the division waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat having relived the nightmare that was facing Le Petit Magicien.
Every time Knockaert got the ball, you expected something to happen. More often than not, it did. When on his game gliding down the right wing, he was unstoppable.
There was his brace away at Wolverhampton Wanderers which all but guaranteed promotion, turning Good Friday 2017 into Bloody Great Friday.
Knockaert gave brilliant performances in both victories over Sheffield Wednesday that year. It felt as if he was on a one-man crusade to avenge the Albion’s playoff semi final defeat to Wednesday from the previous campaign.
Brighton’s promotion push was meant to be found out when Norwich City came to the Amex in October. One of the first tough tests the Albion had faced. Or so we were told. Instead, Knockaert was dazzling as Seagulls crushed Canaries 5-0.
Perhaps most poignant of all were the events of November 2016, when Knockaert’s father passed away. First, Steve Sidwell celebrated his stunning strike from the halfway line against Bristol City by holding up Knockaert’s shirt in tribute whilst Le Petit Magicien was back in France on compassionate leave.
Then Hughton took a group of players across the English channel to attend the funeral. Knockaert wrote in his retirement message on social media: “A very special mention must go to Brighton and my time there, which remain the best years of my career.”
“I cannot thank the club and their fans enough for that. The amount of love and support that I received from everybody associated with the club when my father passed away was immense.”
“No words will ever be able to do justice to when the team travelled over for his funeral to be with me and my family in our darkest time.”
“It meant so much and this gesture will remain just as important to me as any of the success we achieved together on the pitch.”
Knockaert paid his own moving tribute when scoring for the first time since the passing of his father, holding a picture up to the West Stand and kissing it during the Christmas mauling of Queens Park Rangers.
Whilst Knockaert’s goals, assists and all-round excitement would have made him a fan favourite in any case, the way in which he wore his heart on his sleeve equally endeared him to Albion fans.
His passion shone through. His joy at winning promotion was equal to lifelong Brighton supporters. He loved the club and the club in turn loved him.
Sometimes though, that passion came through the wrong way. Knockaert desired wins and always wanted to be the main man, the centre of attention. When Brighton didn’t win and he wasn’t the star of the show, that led Knockaert to become frustrated.
Such frustrations manifested themselves in the Premier League, where he found the step up in class challenging. There was no shame in that; plenty of dominant Championship players have struggled after winning promotion to the top flight. See Taarabt, Adel.
Knockaert effectively ended his own Brighton career with a straight red card after trying to snap the leg of Bournemouth’s Adam Smith into pieces.
Smith bore the brunt of Knockaert’s anger after Le Petit Magicien gifted the Cherries their second goal of five in that heavy April 2019 Amex defeat.
Hughton turned a blind eye. Knockaert had enough credit in the bank with him. But Hughton was sacked a month later. It was telling that one of the first things Graham Potter did as Brighton manager was to move Knockaert onto Fulham.
Glow Up did not even give Knockaert pre-season to prove himself. He was out the door, considered too difficult to manage by a bloke with a supposed degree in emotional intelligence. Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Jurgen Locadia considered better wide options.
The Bournemouth sending off was not Knockaert’s first moment of petulance-turned-violence. A reckless lunge on Leighton Baines in a 2-0 defeat at Everton 13 months earlier was another example of total head loss from Knockaert.
Yet football fans tend to love a flawed genius more than a sublime, squeaky clean player. That Knockaert had such moments of madness in him seemed to add to his aura, making him even more popular. Unless your name is Potter.
Knockaert finished his Brighton career with 27 goals in 159 games for the club. His final goal was easily the most memorable, providing an apt way to sign off as an Albion player.
You know the one. Selhurst Park. 25 yards out. Stunning effort bent into the stanchion of the Crystal Palace goal. A first win in Croydon for 14 years. A first double over the Eagles for 24.
It was Knockaert in a nutshell. A single moment of individual brilliance to win a game of football. Followed by him celebrating wildly, as if it were the best moment of his life. Whilst lapping up the adulation of supporters who adored him.
Happy retirement, Monsieur Knockaert. Thank you for the memories.
