Oscar García could be forgiven for looking more than a little bemused as he took charge of the Albion for the first time in a pre-season game at Whitehawk in July 2013.
What the former Barcelona midfield player and B team coach made of the sloping pitch and the sheep grazing on the hillside above the Enclosed Ground after the Nou Camp was anybody’s guess. But at least there were no missiles flying overhead.
Oscar, of course, arrived with a fascinating backstory of success at his previous club, Maccabi Tel Aviv, despite occasional airborne attacks from Hamas. His tales of breaking off training as the sirens wailed made for great tabloid copy. And the broadsheets revelled in his Barcelona background and his ‘Cruyffista’ label as a footballing disciple of the great Dutchman, Johann Cruyff.
Needless to say, his history at the Catalan club raised expectations in Sussex on his arrival. The anticipation of a Barca-style Brighton could never have been realised, though. For one thing, Kemy Agustien was no Andres Iniesta and Leroy Lita was definitely no Lionel Messi.
For that reason his single season at the Amex is unfairly regarded by some as a hiatus in the club’s progress between the Gus Poyet years and the arrival of Chris Hughton. But that underrates the Catalan’s contribution to the Albion story.
Now coaching Celta Vigo back in Spain, Oscar took over an Albion squad and club bruised by the 2013 play-off defeat by Crystal Palace and everything that followed. But despite the loss of Wayne Bridge and Dean Hammond, he got Albion to the play-offs again.
Although he had a strong squad on paper, including Leo Ulloa, Andrea Orlandi, Bruno, Ashley Barnes, Matthew Upson and David Lopez, injuries took their toll and loan signings such as Stephen Ward, Keith Andrews and Jesse Lingard were brought in, and Dale Stephens bought from Charlton in January.
We will never know what might have been had that team somehow achieved promotion, just as we do not know – yet - if he could have matched or bettered that achievement elsewhere in British football. His second try, at this weekend’s opponents, Watford, was cut dramatically short by illness.
But he left behind a positive impression on all who met him, especially among the media. Poyet had annoyed fans with frequent suggestions that he would like to manage former clubs such as Chelsea. Oscar had already said in Israel that he wanted the Barcelona job one day but downplayed that during his stay in Sussex.
He first made his name – usually just ‘Óscar’– when, between 1993 and 1999, he lived every Catalan boy's dream, representing the Blaugrana under Cruyff, Bobby Robson and Louis Van Gaal, playing alongside Ronald Koeman, Michael Laudrup and Pep Guardiola, finishing top scorer in 1995/96 and featuring for Spain in the 1996 Olympic Games squad.
Cruyff remained his biggest influence. "It's a philosophy I've always had, possession of the ball for the maximum time, being positive rather than negative," he said. "Guardiola's style was an evolution from Cruyff."
However, Oscar was squeezed out by expensive signings, moving on to Valencia, Espanyol and Lleida, before almost signing for West Ham United in 2002.
On retiring, he helped his mentor Cruyff coach the Catalan national side before being entrusted with Barcelona's under-19 team, winning league, cup and European titles in 2010-11. He signed his first contract as a head coach with Maccabi in May 2012 and won the Israeli league title in his first season.
He gave his official reasons for leaving rather than taking Maccabi into the Champions League as ‘personal’ but you did not have to work hard to read between the lines of an interview he gave to Mike Walters of the Mirror.
“The people were calm, but now I know what I have to do if the sirens start (he assumes the brace position). And there was one club in Jerusalem who signed two Muslim players and some radicals set fire to the club offices.
“I was very proud that Maccabi won the title and I enjoyed it very much, but some things there are not normal for a coach. There is no pressure for me here at Brighton, there are no missiles in the sky. The only pressure is trying to win matches, and if you succeed the rewards are fantastic.”
The Independent noted that “at least the usual doubts about whether he is up to an evening of horizontal sleet at Stoke do not apply. Nothing he experiences will be as fearsome as Hamas missile attacks on Tel Aviv. ‘One game had to be stopped in the middle, missiles landed on the beach,’ he said. ‘The local people had promised me that the army always intercepted them’."
The Cruyff influence went deep, he explained. “We were lucky to have Cruyff as our manager and we did not just learn about football from him. We learned a whole philosophy. Now we try to teach what Cruyff taught us. From nine years old, I learned to play only one way at Barcelona and that is to keep the ball.
“I’d seen a few Brighton games on TV, I knew some of the players and about the new stadium. I always wanted to come to England as a player and this was a good opportunity.
“The Championship is an amazing league, crazy, maybe the hardest in Europe. It is a good challenge for me. I had a good feeling. The atmosphere, the competitive spirit – you always see two teams that want to attack, to win and not sit back.
“Will his lack of experience here count against him over the 46-game Championship marathon? ‘They said the same about me when I went to Maccabi, they said the same about Guardiola when he took over Barcelona. You have to start somewhere.”
After joining Albion on June 26 2013, he started with that game at Whitehawk, which ended in a 3-0 win and featured goals from Barnes, Orlandi and a promising young winger named Solly March. He gave league debuts to March and Rohan Ince and, despite a shaky beginning in the league, soon established an effective possession-based style.
Albion fans expecting an influx of Spanish signings steeped in tiki-taka were to be disappointed, though. “It's not as important where a player comes from as his attitude, mental strength, abilities,” Oscar said at the time. “And it's important that you have a base of local players because they give you a little more."
The highlights of the season were the home-and-away victories over promoted Leicester, including a 4-1 victory at the then Walkers Stadium. And, of course, Leo Ulloa glancing home Craig Mackail-Smith’s cross in the dying seconds of the campaign to beat Nottingham Forest at the City Ground and put Albion into the play-offs at Reading’s expense.
On May 12 2014, after semi-final defeat by Derby County, he offered his resignation, and returned to Maccabi. He resigned again in August and a week later replaced Giuseppe Sannino at Vicarage Road, described by the Evening Standard as ‘Watford taking a Cruyff turn’.
A club statement read: “Watford Football Club is delighted to confirm the appointment of Oscar Garcia as Head Coach, the Hornets having won the race against several high-profile English clubs to secure his services. [Leeds United were thought to be among them.]
“Oscar's recent Championship experience, taking Brighton & Hove Albion into last season's Championship promotion play-offs, was a key factor in his appointment.”
Oscar was technically Watford head coach for 27 days, between September 2 and 29, but in fact he was in charge for only a 1-0 defeat at Charlton. He was admitted to hospital with chest pains before a 1-0 win at Blackpool and missed draws with Bournemouth and Blackburn. He stepped down with two games to go before the Albion were due at Vicarage Road.
But his influence may yet be felt when the Hornets arrive at the Amex. He coached a young Gerard Deulofeu, now with Watford, at Barcelona B and worked on his match discipline.
"He is the kind of player who needs to speak with the coaches a lot," he said. "I asked him, 'Who is the best player in the world for you?' And he told me, 'Messi'. So, I showed him videos of Messi getting the ball back, running to help the team in defence and pressing a lot.
"Deulofeu wants to try his best for the team and not for himself, but he's a very confident player. Maybe another young player would play a [safe] pass and not try to do what only he can do. He is brave, because he played the same way for the Barcelona first team."
After leaving Watford and recovering from that health scare, Oscar went on to win back-to-back Austrian league and cup doubles with Red Bull Salzburg in 2015/16 and 2016/17 before coaching Saint Etienne in France and Olympiakos in Greece.
He is now a head coach in La Liga for the first time after succeeding Fran Escribá at struggling Celta Vigo last November. Results have been steady rather than spectacular, not exactly helped by having to visit former club Barcelona for a torrid debut.
“Oscar is happy at Celta, even though he's concerned about the delicate situation in which the team is,” said Noelia Deniz, a Spain-based journalist who covers Barcelona. “He has been fine for a while, with no more health issues worrying him.
“He was and is still a name that would pop up every now and then among fans for FC Barcelona's coaching job. He commentated on matches on TV for a while, so he was not out of sight. People knew about him even though he was not in a dugout.
“He is a man of principle and when it was known that he was heading to Vigo, people welcomed him. He says that for now people treat him kindly.” And every Albion fan will hope that they continue to do so and that he steers Celta to safety.