KNOCK HAS THE KNACK
SOARING SEAGULLS Brighton hero relishes his return to top flight
ANTHONY KNOCKAERT never doubted he would make a Premier League return after turning his back on the top flight at Leicester.
The Brighton winger’s form during the Seagulls’ promotion surge this season led to him being named Championship Player of the Year.
And he can help Brighton complete a stunning campaign by ensuring they clinch the title at Norwich on Friday.
It is the second time Knockaert has experienced the high of going up after helping Leicester into the big time three years ago.
But the Frenchman’s Premier League dream turned sour when he found himself on the fringes of Nigel Pearson’s side the following season, making just three league starts.
Knockaert turned his back on the King Power Stadium and arrived at Brighton following a spell at Standard Liege.
Now, the 25-year-old is determined to make the most of his second stab among the elite.
Ambition
He said: “I am never going to regret the choices I made because I wasn’t playing too much in the Premier League with Leicester and it was, for me, time to go somewhere else and see something else.
“I always believed in my quality and when I had the chance to come to this club I came straight away because I knew the ambition that the club had.
“It was an easy decision to take and obviously now it’s a perfect decision.
“I came in January last year and we nearly did it. We have done it this year so it’s been a great time and it’s going to be even better in the next few years.”
The disappointment of missing out on automatic promotion on the final day of last season – and then losing the play-off semi-final – was a massive blow to Chris ® Hughton’s side. But Knockaert reckons the spirit within the Brighton squad helped them overcome it together.
And the winger believes that band-ofbrothers mentality was summed up by the way the boss and his players travelled to France to support Knockaert following the death of his father in November.
He said: “I was talking to a player about that, my dad passing away, and I told him, ‘If I was playing for any other club in the world, I don’t think they would have done that’.
Friends
“Coming all the way from England to France and cancelling training to come to my dad’s funeral was a thing that I will never forget. I still don’t even know how to say thank you to them.
“Now they are not just some team-mates but friends forever and this football club, I owe them a lot.
“That’s why I give every single bit of my life on the pitch. They deserve it because this club is something special and you cannot see that in any club in the world.”
Knockaert led the celebrations after they beat Wigan on Monday to seal promotion.
He added: “We worked so hard over the last two years and we deserve it, we were so unlucky last year.
“We wanted to bounce back and now we can enjoy it.
“We are one win away from the title. It would be amazing. All the people in England were expecting Newcastle to be champions before the season and we are so close now to doing it.
“We need to enjoy this and we’ll see what happens next year. I don’t think it’s the moment to talk about the Premier League now. We have a long time before that.
“I’m over the moon for all the people involved. It’s a family club and if there is one club that deserves it over the last two years, it was Brighton.”