Former Premier League manager Gus Poyet has shed fresh light on the moment he learned of his sacking during a live BBC broadcast. Poyet was a pundit during coverage of the Confederations Cup match between Spain and Nigeria, just weeks after what would prove to be his final game as Brighton boss.
Poyet, a Uruguay international midfielder who played in the Premier League for Chelsea and Tottenham, took his first senior management role when the Seagulls took a chance on him in 2009. He won promotion to the Championship in the 2010-11 season and delivered back-to-back top-half finishes.
Brighton finished fourth under Poyet in the 2012-13 campaign, just four points shy of automatic promotion. Fierce rivals Crystal Palace got the better of them in the play-off semi-finals, but the manager was primed to return for another promotion push the next season.
Or so he thought. Instead, the south coast club decided to move in a new direction, and Poyet was taken by surprise when BBC presenter Mark Chapman let him know he was no longer employed as a football manager – though Brighton contested his story at the time.
“The commentary was starting at 7.30pm, so I switched my phone off at 7.20pm, when we did the last touches of our make-up,” Poyet told The Athletic “There was nothing to indicate that I was going to be sacked. So I switched off my phone without any fears.
“We did the pre-match analysis, then when the match started at 8pm, they said, ‘Now you can relax’,” Poyet added. However, the tone changed after he noticed Chapman tapping his earpiece just a couple of minutes after kick-off.
“He said, ‘You know you’ve just been sacked?’ We weren’t live on air, it was two minutes after the game had started at 8pm. I said, ‘No’. He said, ‘Yes, it’s on the Brighton website’. So then I asked (production) staff if I could get a copy. I then asked permission to get out of the studio to call my lawyer and he told me.”
Poyet recalled how the half-time conversation between himself, fellow pundit Efan Ekoku and presenter Chapman had next to nothing to do with the on-field action. “The BBC thought it was perfect!” he added.
He wasn’t out of the management game for long, though. Sunderland came calling in October 2013 after a nightmare start under Paolo Di Canio, and Poyet helped lift the team from 20th up to 14th and reaching the League Cup final.
He was unable to see out his second season at the Stadium of Light, though, losing his job after a 4-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa left the Black Cats just one point outside the relegation zone. The 57-year-old has managed in six countries in the decade since, including a spell in charge of the Greek national side, and is currently in charge of K League side Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.
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