Sometimes, the margins between being a success or being a flop are finer than we might think. These days, everyone knows how good a player Alexis Mac Allister is, but there was a time when he felt he wasn’t even good enough to be Brighton’s backup player.The Argentine admits he considered leaving the Seagulls due to a lack of game time under former head coach Graham Potter. The 24-year-old has become a vital player for the Albion in the past year or so and he is also a World Cup winner after helping his national team to World Cup glory in Qatar. That’s why it seems surreal to think he was on the verge of leaving the club just over a year ago.Mac Allister had started just two Premier League games in his side’s opening 16 fixtures on the 2021/22 season. He was an unused substitute on five occasions and was a fringe player. After enduring a difficult couple of years following his move from Argentinos Juniors in January 2019, which included getting used to a new country, club, culture, and language during the pandemic in 2020, the Argentinian international began to have doubts about his future with the Seagulls.##NAJAVA_MECA_7031425##But thankfully for Alexis and Brighton fans, he became a regular under Potter, the same has been the case under new head coach Roberto De Zerbi, and his future looks very bright.”It was challenging for me. The first year was tough. Coming here, a new language, a new culture, different football. I am grateful to the people who supported me through that first year because it was a tough one. I just trained hard because I knew my moment was going to arrive.”The key moment was the Boxing Day match against Brentford. Alexis got a chance to impress and he took it with both hands.”There was a moment when I was thinking about leaving. It was December 2021 and I was not playing. I said that if I see in January that I do not have my opportunity I think it is time to leave and look for another opportunity in another place. I remember that Graham Potter played me against Brentford. Since that game I have played all the games. It was the moment when I felt it was my opportunity and I took it.”Rafa: ‘I won’t train Liverpool because Klopp is there’Although Mac Allister signed for Brighton more than three years ago, he only made his Premier League debut in March 2020. He spent the second half of the 2018/19 season on loan at boyhood club Argentinos Juniors, and the first half of the following campaign with Boca Juniors, before linking up with the Seagulls.It only shows how important time and patience are for any player arriving at a new club. Now Brighton have a World Cup-winning midfielder playing for them.
