Following the appointment of Sami Hyypia as Brighton & Hove Albion manager on Friday, seagulls.co.uk asked Indpendent football reporter and Seagulls season-ticket holder Nick Szczepanik to dust of his contacts book, track down some of his sportswriter colleagues and provide an insight into the club's new boss. Here's the first part of Nick's findings, with part two to follow tomorrow.
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If you can find a single person on Merseyside with a bad word to say about new Albion manager Sami Hyypia, they must be an Evertonian. Nobody associated with Liverpool - fans, former players and even the media – has anything but praise for the big Finn, on or off the pitch.
Hyypia won everything except the Premier League in his decade at Anfield, the highlights being the 2005 Champions League victory over AC Milan in Istanbul and the 2001 knockout treble of League, FA and Uefa Cups.
Praised by former teammates such as Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher, he is the legends' legend. But his cool and dedicated professionalism also impressed those who came into contact with him away from the pressures of a matchday.
Although he finally left Liverpool for Bayer Leverkusen in 2009 as one of the towering figures in the club's recent history, not many people expected him to make the impression he did when he he first arrived in May 1999. He certainly took the local media by surprise.
“I remember when he signed, at the same time as Stephane Henchoz,” said Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph, who was then with the Liverpool Echo. “He only cost two-and-a-half million quid from Willem II in Holland, so it was assumed that he'd been brought in mainly as a reserve - you don't buy first-team players that cheap. And within about two games he was turning heads, and Jamie Carragher was being moved to full-back. Yet now the decision seems to be the only logical one. At the time, it was simply that no-one knew how good Sami was.”
David Anderson of The Mirror had even less reason to expect greatness from Liverpool's new man. He recalls: “I'd seen him play for Finland against Northern Ireland – it was a rare Irish win - and I didn't think he was that great. But he became a legend, a hero of the treble-winning season - a totally dedicated, professional club man who eventually became skipper. His partnership with Henchoz was as good as anything Liverpool have had, on a par with Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen.”
Tim Rich of The Independent agrees. “He was regarded initially with suspicion, especially since the club Gerard Houllier brought him from, Willem II, was hardly one of the leading lights of the Dutch Eredivisie, and yet he fitted in wonderfully. In his partnership with Stephane Henchoz, Henchoz was the one who tended to make any mistakes while Hyypia cleaned up. He was probably one of three greatest defenders Liverpool ever employed, a signing which earned Gerard Houllier forgiveness when the likes of Bruno Cheyrou, Salif Diao and El-Hadji Diouf arrived.”
Hyypia was originally recommended to Houllier by Anfield legend Ron Yeats, who was then working as the club's chief scout, and knew a thing or two about centre-back play as one of the defensive rocks on which Bill Shankly built the great Liverpool side of the 1960s.
“We got a fax in from someone saying we should take a look at this lad and the first time I saw him I couldn’t believe how good he was,” Yeats said later. “I thought I’d better go and see him again and he didn’t disappoint the second time. He was strong in the air and a great tackler but the thing that really struck me was how good he was on the ball. He very seldom gave it away. He reminded me of myself in many ways - but I wasn’t as good in possession as Sami.”
Original article
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If you can find a single person on Merseyside with a bad word to say about new Albion manager Sami Hyypia, they must be an Evertonian. Nobody associated with Liverpool - fans, former players and even the media – has anything but praise for the big Finn, on or off the pitch.
Hyypia won everything except the Premier League in his decade at Anfield, the highlights being the 2005 Champions League victory over AC Milan in Istanbul and the 2001 knockout treble of League, FA and Uefa Cups.
Praised by former teammates such as Fernando Torres and Jamie Carragher, he is the legends' legend. But his cool and dedicated professionalism also impressed those who came into contact with him away from the pressures of a matchday.
Although he finally left Liverpool for Bayer Leverkusen in 2009 as one of the towering figures in the club's recent history, not many people expected him to make the impression he did when he he first arrived in May 1999. He certainly took the local media by surprise.
“I remember when he signed, at the same time as Stephane Henchoz,” said Chris Bascombe of the Daily Telegraph, who was then with the Liverpool Echo. “He only cost two-and-a-half million quid from Willem II in Holland, so it was assumed that he'd been brought in mainly as a reserve - you don't buy first-team players that cheap. And within about two games he was turning heads, and Jamie Carragher was being moved to full-back. Yet now the decision seems to be the only logical one. At the time, it was simply that no-one knew how good Sami was.”
David Anderson of The Mirror had even less reason to expect greatness from Liverpool's new man. He recalls: “I'd seen him play for Finland against Northern Ireland – it was a rare Irish win - and I didn't think he was that great. But he became a legend, a hero of the treble-winning season - a totally dedicated, professional club man who eventually became skipper. His partnership with Henchoz was as good as anything Liverpool have had, on a par with Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hansen.”
Tim Rich of The Independent agrees. “He was regarded initially with suspicion, especially since the club Gerard Houllier brought him from, Willem II, was hardly one of the leading lights of the Dutch Eredivisie, and yet he fitted in wonderfully. In his partnership with Stephane Henchoz, Henchoz was the one who tended to make any mistakes while Hyypia cleaned up. He was probably one of three greatest defenders Liverpool ever employed, a signing which earned Gerard Houllier forgiveness when the likes of Bruno Cheyrou, Salif Diao and El-Hadji Diouf arrived.”
Hyypia was originally recommended to Houllier by Anfield legend Ron Yeats, who was then working as the club's chief scout, and knew a thing or two about centre-back play as one of the defensive rocks on which Bill Shankly built the great Liverpool side of the 1960s.
“We got a fax in from someone saying we should take a look at this lad and the first time I saw him I couldn’t believe how good he was,” Yeats said later. “I thought I’d better go and see him again and he didn’t disappoint the second time. He was strong in the air and a great tackler but the thing that really struck me was how good he was on the ball. He very seldom gave it away. He reminded me of myself in many ways - but I wasn’t as good in possession as Sami.”
Original article