'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.