Martin Hinshelwood, whose association with the club goes back 36 years, is Glenn Murray’s guest in the latest edition of the Brighton & Hove Albion podcast.
The Hinshelwoods’ history with the club spans three generations. Martin’s great nephew is Jack and Martin talks about the family’s pride after the teenager made his Premier League debut and followed his father Adam into Albion’s first team.
Martin had a brief spell as manager after Albion’s promotion to the Championship in 2002 and two spells as Albion’s caretaker boss. He reveals that when he first joined the club as a coach, after his own playing career with Crystal Palace was ended at 26 by knee trouble, he often worked unpaid, supervising a group of scouts who scoured Sussex looking for talent that might one day be part of Albion’s squad. He talks about the game when there were seven youth team players in the first team.
He helped oversee the development of several players who had long careers in the game including current captain Lewis Dunk and Dean Hammond, who won a Premier League winners’ medal at Leicester City.
Martin, 70, still does some scouting work for the club and is a regular visitor to the American Express Elite Performance Centre. “I love football, and this is a fantastic football club,” he said.