'Portsmouth were releasing me, I was heading to non-league': Brighton and ex-Ipswich and Bristol City man Adam Webster on saving his career - and planning for Europe

Text messages have been exchanged with Gary Waddock, of course, warm words centering on heartfelt thanks over how a Pompey caretaker boss saved a drifting footballer’s Premier League ambitions.

Certainly by Adam Webster’s own admission, in April 2015 he was heading out of Fratton Park on a free transfer, with non-league football and a new job as a personal trainer the likely destination.

With one League Two start in two-and-a-half months under Blues boss Andy Awford, the out-of-favour 20-year-old was grimly realistic over a bleak footballing future.

Then, with Awford having been dismissed, assistant manager Waddock stepped up to oversee first-team duties for the remaining four matches, aided by Paul Hardyman.

Much to supporters’ surprise, Webster was immediately recalled at centre-half for a visit to Stevenage and proceeded to conjure up a magnificent man-of-the-match display, irrespective of a 1-0 defeat.

That sliding doors moment at the Lamex Stadium reinvigorated the fading Blues career of the lad from West Wittering, who would eventually total £24m in transfer fees.

Now aged 28, he has racked up more than a century of Premier League appearances for Brighton, while registered a sixth-placed finish last season.

Next week sees the Seagulls kick off their Europa League campaign against AEK Athens in a group which also contains Ajax and Marseille.

And the debt Webster owes Waddock is never far from his mind.

‘Maybe I proved some Pompey managers wrong, but it’s very easy to say “I should be playing”. In reality, there probably were times when I shouldn’t,’ he told The News.

‘I’m not sure some of them would have expected me to go on and play 111 Premier League games, but they had their reasons for not selecting me and I also had to look at myself for those performances.

‘At that stage of my Pompey career, I needed to change things, otherwise it was going to be too late. Fortunately I did, I had the luck which I really needed.

‘When Awfs got the sack, I wasn’t buzzing, after all he had previously given me my chance in the Academy, but I believed this could now be the opportunity for me – and it was.

‘It was a massive moment in my career. If I didn't play well in those final four games, that was it. I was out of contract, I wouldn’t have received a new one, leaving me searching around non-league and needing to get another job to supplement part-time wages.

‘Then Gary Waddock told me “You are playing in my first match”. Stevenage was do or die, all or nothing, the biggest game of the season, the biggest game of my career.

‘I haven’t bumped into him since, but texted him at times. I’m so very grateful for what he did and have sent some nice messages over the years thanking him.

‘I recall Gary texting me when I got my move to Brighton. My response was “Literally, a lot of this is down to you”.’

At the age of 17 years and 11 days, Webster was handed his Pompey first-team debut against West Ham in January 2012.

Previous boss Steve Cotterill’s high regard for the first-year scholar had already seen him blooded as a substitute in a friendly at Real Betis four-and-a-half months earlier.

Now with Michael Appleton at the helm, the former Chichester High School pupil was sampling Championship football, coming off the bench for Greg Halford with 15 minutes remaining – and the Blues down to 10-men following David Norris’ dismissal.

Asked to play at right-back rather than his favoured centre-half role, Webster would go on to make 16 squads during the final 23 matches, totalling three appearances.

By the end of the season, fellow youngster Ashley Harris had followed his first-team pathway, soon joined by Sam Magri and Jed Wallace, albeit purely as unused substitutes.

The promising crop’s Academy emergence was assisted by Pompey’s devastating financial problems, with administrator Trevor Birch required to sell off all senior players by August 2012 – or liquidate the club.

For the opening match of the 2012-13 campaign, Appleton named nine teenagers in his starting XI for a Capital One Cup fixture at Plymouth.

Only Webster, Harris, goalkeeper Simon Eastwood and 35-year-old assistant manager Ashley Westwood had ever played first-team football before as they lost 3-0.

The Brighton defender added: ‘If I could go back and give advice to myself as a kid, it would be to back myself more, because no-one else is going to do that for you. You have to be completely confident in yourself and your ability.

‘At Pompey there was Jed Wallace, he would give the ball away every single time he had it – and then put one into the top corner of the net. He doesn't care if it might go over, he’ll shoot because he thinks it will go in.

‘I wish I could be a bit more like that, trust the process, work hard, give everything and back yourself.

‘I was never that confident, that’s the thing that has held me back, I’ve not had enough self-belief. Never enough “I am here, now I’m going to show you”.

‘I don’t know why, I honestly don’t know. After signing for Ipswich, I was thinking “These are established Championship players and I'm from League Two”. I doubted myself.

‘But it didn’t take me long, I showed pretty much straight away I should be playing there and had the respect of everyone in the team.

‘I didn’t even play that much at Portman Road, 53 times in two seasons because of injury, then I earned a move to Bristol City, played the whole season, smashed it and joined Brighton in the Premier League.

‘When I look back, though, most of my self-doubt was at Pompey. There are also times when it creeps back in too.’

Webster’s Fratton Park career arrived at its crossroads in April 2015.

Now aged 20, he had totalled 46 Pompey appearances, primarily at full-back, while spent a successful loan spell with Football Conference side Aldershot.

At the season’s start he was Awford’s first-choice right-back, before a switch to a back three a month later saw him dropped to the bench, with Crystal Palace loanee Alex Wynter preferred as a right wing-back.

There were sporadic reappearances at right-back, but Webster was largely restricted to bench duty, while became a target for social media abuse from some fans.

When Awford was sacked with three weeks of the campaign remaining, caretaker boss Waddock made the bold decision to recall the youngster – at centre-half.

Stevenage represented only the third time in his Pompey career that he had made the starting XI in his preferred position, yet he shone.

Retaining his place for the final four matches, those end-of-season performances convinced incoming boss Paul Cook to table a new deal as Webster survived a large-scale player clear-out.

And, 12 months later, he had leapt from League Two to Championship Ipswich in a June 2016 deal which earned the Blues £750,000 and Matt Clarke in part exchange.

Now he’s starring for Brighton in the Premier League, with a trip to Marseille in European competition on October 5.

He said: ‘We started last season in the Premier League really well, being in the top four after six games – then Graham Potter left for Chelsea.

‘We were gutted. This is the man who had brought in almost every one of those players, apart from Lewis Dunk and Solly March. Now he had gone to Chelsea and you’re wondering who would be replacing him.

‘Roberto De Zerbi came in and has been incredible, taking us to another level, and is without doubt one of the best managers in the world. He will become boss of a very big club in the next couple of years, I’m sure.

‘When I signed for Brighton in August 2019, I didn’t have finishing sixth in the Premier League and competing in Europe in my head, to be honest. It just goes to show how far we’ve come in such a short space of time.

‘Pompey played AC Milan when I was there, but I was only 13 and not at the game. Fans still talk about that match and hopefully it will be like that when we play in Europe.

‘A lot of players compete in Europe after qualifying with clubs in smaller countries, whereas we achieved it after finishing sixth in the Premier League, which is such a hard thing to do.

‘We actually had a lot of games where we dropped points and potentially could have been challenging for higher. It’s incredible when you think about it.

‘The other week I was speaking to the psychologist at Brighton about it and she asked “How do you reflect on it?”. In truth, I probably hadn’t properly considered what we had achieved. This was a club with possibly one of the bottom five budgets in the Premier League finishing sixth, incredible.

‘We’re aiming to do better this season, though, I’m aiming to do better. I’m 28 now, getting old, but I know how to look after myself and hopefully have a few more years left.’

Webster’s contemporaries in Pompey’s under-18s included Jack Whatmough, Ben Close, Jack Maloney, Bradley Tarbuck and Nick Awford.

Yet it’s a player from two years below in the Fratton Park youth ranks who he remains closest to – Conor Chaplin.

Much to the eternal irritation of Pompey supporters, Chaplin also had to leave the south coast to further his career and is now thriving with Ipswich in the Championship via Coventry and Barnsley.

Another reminder that it can take time for young talent to flourish.

Webster added: ‘Everyone loves Chappers, you cannot not love him! He had an incredible season last year, I’ve always known he’s had that in him.

‘Similar to me, he’s had a few moves, been to a couple of places, but is now on an upward trajectory and it’s so good to see.

‘He had to leave Pompey because he needed to play and last year scored 29 goals and got five assists for Ipswich in a promotion season – I do keep track of him, to be fair!

‘When he was at Barnsley and Cookie wanted to sign him for Ipswich, he wasn’t sure whether to drop down into League One. I will be honest, I told him not to! My advice was to stay in the Championship.

‘He took the risk, though, and while it didn’t really pay off with Cookie, he obviously had such a good season last year and loves it at Portman Road.

‘As I well know from my time at Ipswich, it’s a brilliant club, with the fanbase now back on side. When I was there, crowds averaged 16-17,000, now it’s 26,000, that’s a huge difference.

‘Me and Chappers got close in my final Pompey season in 2015-16. Ever since we’ve been going on holiday together every year, we speak on the phone every day, and he was best man at my wedding last year.

‘We went on holiday to Portugal this summer and discovered our old Pompey team-mate Enda Stevens was in the same hotel! That’s football, you never know what’s around the corner.’