We’ve got tiny Cox, we’ve got tiny Cox, we’ve got tiny, we’ve got tiny, we’ve got tiny Cox”
Between 2010 and 2017, there’s a good chance you heard Leyton Orient supporters yelling out that song from the terraces if you ever visited Brisbane Road.
They were not only proud and boisterous about their small stature, but they were also playing music for their cunning little playwright who had kept everything moving for his entire six-and-a-half years in East London.
After being released by Brighton and Hove Albion, Dean Cox came to Orient with a mission to accomplish. He departed the O’s as a club hero, experiencing many magical moments along the road.
Dean Cox fails to impress Gus Poyet at Brighton and Hove Albion
After coming up through the ranks with the Sussex side, Cox became something of a regular for the Seagulls during his early years with the club, with over 150 appearances in all competitions across six years. While coaches of yesteryear would have said the 5ft 4in technician was too small to cut it in the professional game, he more than proved them wrong, as he went on to thrive for Brighton, who were a League One club at the time.The club that played their home games at the Withdean Stadium, which has a 400-meter running track encircling the pitch, was not the well-equipped squad that we see adorning the Premier League of today.
Albion meant the world to Cox at the time because he had grown up there, and the opportunity to play for the club he had always loved was a dream come true.
Albion had potential future stars with Glenn Murray andamong their ranks, and Cox was the key player connecting the attack and midfield. However, when Gus Poyet took over as manager on the south coast, things went south quickly.
The national of UruguayCox, a player who would have given his best to play in the blue and white shirt, wasn’t part of his intentions to add his own mark to the side he inherited right away.The playwright explained in an interview with Sussex Live that it was understandably difficult to hear that you aren’t well enough to play for your boyhood club: “Gus Poyet made it quite clear I wasn’t in his plans.” At the time, that was pretty soul-destroying. I had devoted myself fully since I was six years old. It was difficult to accept that, at 22/23, I wasn’t good enough, even though I felt I was.
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