Kamari Doyle The Southampton Starlet Who Found The Grass Not To Be Greener At Brighton.

Two years ago, Kamari Doyle appeared to be on the cusp of a breakthrough at Southampton Football Club, but he believed that transferring to Brighton to stay in the Premier League would be preferable to staying at St Mary’s in the Championship. With the Saints already relegated, Kamari Doyle, despite being just 17, skipped the U18 squad and became a regular in the Premier League 2 U21 side, starting 13 games in the second half of the season. This led to a position on the bench for the trip to the Amex Stadium in the final weeks of the season, where he came off the bench to gain 6 minutes under his belt, as well as the last game of the season a week later against Liverpool, but this time had to be content with just watching.

But he had showed promise and Southampton supporters wondered whether he might well be a surprise package the following season under Russell Martin.

In August 2023, only a week after his 18th birthday, he returned to first-team action, coming off the bench at halftime in a car crash defeat in the Caraboa Cup at Gillingham, with Russell Martin evidently hanging out a few players to dry. But he was again on the bench for a couple of the Championship fixtures later that month, and although he was then back in the U21 team and playing games, it appeared that he was unhappy with his lot at St Mary’s, rejecting down an extension to his contract at St Mary’s and in the January of 2024 he decided he wanted to move to Brighton. Saints received a reported £1 million as an initial transfer fee plus add ons.

In essence, his situation had not improved; he was still playing in Premier League 2 as he had at St Mary’s, but he appeared to believe Brighton would provide a better prospect of first-team football. However, when he approached the age of 19, his expectations faded, and he was loaned out to Exeter City for the season. Initially, he performed admirably at St James Park, but as the season went, he found himself on the bench more than in the starting lineup, prompting Brighton to recall him last month, believing he was not receiving adequate playing time.

But he wasn’t back at the Amex long, he was soon sent out on loan again, this time to local rivals Crawley Town, also in League One, so far the results have been mixed, he was initially a sub in his first 2 League One games and his debut in the starting line up saw him hauled off after 63 minutes.

Since then things have got better, a goal after coming off the bench against Stevenage saw him restored to the starting line up for the two games that have been played after, although again he was taken off in both, albeit in the last 10 minutes this time.

So has Kamari found the grass greener at Brighton than Southampton ? The answer is not so far !

The full details of his transfer to the Seagulls were not disclosed and it is unclear how long that he has left on his contract.

When he arrived all the talk was of him breaking into the Brighton first team, but he is nowhere near that at the moment and he might now be thinking that he might well have made a mistake in leaving.

He will look at his former team mate Tyler Dibling and perhaps think that could have been him, had he stayed at Southampton and battled for a place in the first team.

His future at Brighton is now far from certain and it seems the rough and tumble of League One doesn’t suit him as much as the Premier League might have.

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