The livewire Frenchman arrived with a good reputation, mainly from his time at Leicester City, and he lived up to it as he lit up many matches at the Amex and on the road with his brilliant close control and skill — with the famous, ‘We’ve got Knockaert’ chant quickly becoming a favourite amongst the Albion faithful.
His role in the club’s return to the top flight for 34 years cannot be overstated, and ‘Knocky’s’ presence both on and off the pitch will certainly be missed.
The winger arrived in January 2016, in the second half of a season where Albion narrowly missed out on automatic promotion, and soon provided Seagulls supporters a taster of his capabilities.
He made a quick impact with two assists in only his third appearance for the club, a 2-1 victory over Huddersfield Town, before netting his first Seagulls goal in a 3-0 win over Brentford.
A fine individual effort followed in a dramatic 2-2 draw with eventual champions Burnley, when in typical Knockaert fashion, he quickly switched the ball from left to right and saw a deflected strike beat Tom Heaton.
Three goals in two appearances — the 5-0 and 4-0 drubbings against Fulham and Queens Park Rangers — helped Albion maintain the pressure on Burnley and Middlesbrough at the top of the table, but the Seagulls would ultimately have to settle for a place in the play-offs.
It looked as though the Frenchman’s season had come to an end in the 2-0 semi-final first leg defeat to Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough, as the winger was stretched off on the hour mark.
He was one of four forced withdrawals through injury, alongside: Connor Goldson, Steve Sidwell and Tomer Hemed, but remarkably, he was deemed fit to play in the second leg at the Amex.
The winger took to the Amex pitch reinvigorated after making the unlikeliest of rapid comebacks, and playing through the pain of an ankle injury, he was at the forefront of a tremendous first-half display against Wednesday, with the need to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
He saw a free kick cannon off the post in the first half, and summed up a season of ‘so close-yet so far’ from a personal and team perspective, with a 1-1 draw consigning the Seagulls to another season of Championship football.
What followed in the 2016/17 campaign was vintage Knockaert, where both team and individual accolades deservedly came the Frenchman’s way.
His importance to the promotion-winning squad in that unforgettable season was clear from the statistics alone, with 15 goals and nine assists in 44 appearances.
What was perhaps even more remarkable is how the Frenchman coped with the adversity of the very sudden loss of his father Patrick in November of that year, and used it as added motivation to drive the team towards their ultimate goal.
The diminutive winger made an electric start to the season with three goals in his first four games, as the Seagulls comfortably swept aside Nottingham Forest and Rotherham with two 3-0 victories, before finding the target in a 2-2 draw at Reading.
He then scored in a 1-0 win over early frontrunners Huddersfield, starting a 19-match unbeaten run that eventually came to an end with a 2-0 defeat away at Preston North End the following January.
Another goal followed in a first-ever win at Hillsborough, as Albion alleviated the pain of a two-legged play-off defeat to Sheffield Wednesday with a 2-1 victory in South Yorkshire.
Albion and Knockaert then made the Championship stand up and take notice of their desire to right the wrongs of the previous season, with a neat finish in a 5-0 win over promotion favourites Norwich City.
His popularity amongst his teammates was clear to see without even being on the pitch, as Steve Sidwell and the rest of the Albion squad lifted aloft a shirt with Anthony’s name emblazoned on the back after the former’s stunning long-range strike away at Bristol City.
The players’ thoughts were with the man they came to love, with the winger away in France following the passing of his father.
A month later he struck the equaliser in a memorable 2-1 comeback victory at Birmingham City, before Glenn Murray clinched what had seemed an unlikely win in stoppage time to send the away end in the Midlands into raptures.
The winger scored another crucial strike in a 3-0 win over QPR, and ran straight to the dugout amidst the celebrations to lift a photograph of his late father, re-emphasising his desire to win promotion back to the Premier League in his memory.
Typically, it was Knockaert who put Albion on the brink of promotion with a brace away at Wolves on Good Friday, and as he slid across the greasy Molineux turf he knew that just three more points three days later on Easter Monday could be enough to seal a return to the top flight.
A nervy 2-1 victory over Wigan Athletic followed, sparking incredible scenes at the Amex, with Knockaert central to the celebrations both inside the stadium and the ones that followed. Promotion was confirmed when Huddersfield failed to take all three points at Derby later that day.
He was the man of the moment, after winning the club’s Player of the Season award, having already been named as the Championship Player of the Season by the EFL, and fronted the campaign to launch the club’s first-ever Premier League home kit, as he confidently walked out onto the stage at the promotion parade on Hove Lawns.
The winger was a regular in the Premier League the following campaign, making 33 appearances in all, scoring his first goal that season in a 1-1 draw with Everton.
He would find the net again in a 2-2 draw with AFC Bournemouth, and in a 4-1 win over Swansea at the Amex.
The 2017/18 campaign may not have seen Knockaert perform to his best, but he had a strong finish to the campaign (after a three-game, five-week hiatus, due to a red card at Everton).
Last season he gave an indication as to why, speaking openly about his battle with depression in September, and urged others who are affected to step forward and not be afraid to speak out when coming to terms with the illness.
He scored two further Premier League goals: a consolation strike in a 2-1 home defeat to Tottenham Hotpsur, before an unstoppable long-range winner away at Crystal Palace in March earlier this year.
The goal proved to be his last in an Albion shirt, and claimed the Goal of the Season prize at last season’s Players’ Awards Dinner.
In a final touch of class, the winger dedicated his award to Fan of the Season winner, Sam Harwood, who overcame cancer and now volunteers for a children’s cancer charity.
Thanks for the memories Knocky, it’s been a pleasure.