Jake Forster-Caskey is going through an awkward stage in his career, playing more for his country than his club.

The best Albion's England under-21 international midfielder can hope for tomorrow at the Amex against MK Dons, where he has just spent a month on loan, is a place on the bench.

Championship action for Albion for Forster-Caskey so far this season has been limited to a few minutes at the end at Fulham back in August.

For most players of his age - he was 21 in April - this would not matter too much. They would be grateful to be on the fringes amid a diet of development squad football.

Forster-Caskey is different. He made his debut for Albion just after his 16th birthday. He has already played more than 80 first team games for the club under four different managers, another 25 by going on loan to MK Dons and, before that in his teens, to Oxford.

He is also different because his stepfather is better placed than most to offer parental guidance on his plight.

Nicky Forster made more than 600 league appearances for eight clubs, the majority with Reading, Brentford and Albion. He was an England under-21 international as well.

Throughout his career Forster was a free-scoring, straight-talking striker. He is a manager now, at Staines, following stints in charge of Brentford and Dover, but his outlook hasn't changed. He still tells it as he sees it.

Forster said: "Jake's slightly different to a lot of youngsters, because he played a lot of football at a fairly high level at a very young age.

"A lot of lads in the development squad - which Jake is just about to come out of in terms of age - are happy just to be involved and when they are not they can accept it.

"Jake finds it very difficult to do that and I quite like that, because I think there has got to be a hunger inside players and I question it sometimes in the development squad.

"The transition between youth team and first team football, especially as you go up into the Premier League and Championship, is too big a step but I also feel sometimes youngsters can be in a comfort zone, a bit of a bubble that is unrealistic.

"At times they can't see whether their career is still progressing, the graph still going upwards.

"Jake does evaluate himself, look to see whether he is still going the right way. When he doesn't play he is not afraid to knock on the manager's door and ask questions that managers sometimes find difficult to answer.

"That is not to say Jake is a thorn in the side or disruptive. He's not. He certainly wants to know why he is not playing.

"At times the modern player will be disappointed, unhappy, frustrated, and the first call they will make is to their agent. Well could you phone the manager? I always think that one-to-one approach is the way to go about things, not just hide behind an agent.

"That is probably the reason Jake was allowed to go out on loan in the end (to MK Dons), because he was saying: 'Listen, I want to play.'

"I respect that in Jake. It's difficult because he is still young and he has to balance that. How hard do I push to be playing? Any player that trains week in, week out wants to be involved in something that means something end of the week. The development squad games just don't come close to that.

"These boys in the development squads get paid very well and at the end of three years they have made 15 appearances in league football. I don't think you can class yourself as a valid first team member or be on a par with anyone else until you have made 50 appearances.

"Jake, to be fair to him, made 50 appearances by quite a young age. At 18 or 19 he went on loan to Oxford, came back and played some games in the Championship under Gus (Poyet).

"He's played games under all the managers. This is probably the longest period he has been out of the team and he has gone back out and played a number of games at MK Dons.

"He's still chipping away at appearances. On top of that, Jake has the learning curve of playing for England and going away to tournaments.

"To go and stay in foreign countries, eat foreign food, to have different time zones, it develops you as a player and a human. I think he has done well over the last few years to keep that graph going up. Too many stagnate and then drop down.

"Too many players that on the face of it had a very promising career at Brighton come out of the bottom end of the development squad and just down the leagues and out of the game."

You will struggle to find any evidence at the Amex that Forster, 42, ever played for Albion. He was captain and scored 40 goals in 98 league appearances from 2007-10, the most precious against Stockport at Withdean on the final day of the season in May 2009 to keep the side revived by Russell Slade in League One.

Other players celebrated at the stadium made less of a contribution but Forster's departure from the club was acrimonious.

Nine months after saving Albion from relegation, at the age of 36, he became embroiled in a dispute with Poyet, played out in the public eye, over his future with his contract running out and no indication whether or not he would be offered a new one.

Forster said: "A lot of people see it slightly differently than it actually was. It was quite simple really. I wanted some clarity, Gus couldn't give it. My age was a problem for him and so he needed to defer the decision to the end (of the season).

"People see players as being greedy and not committed to the club but when you have got three months of pay in front of you and a mortgage to pay, children to support, it's only fair that you would like some clarity, especially when you feel you are doing well.

"Gus and I fell out but it was purely football, part and parcel of the professional game. When I see Gus now we sit and chat and there is no issue between me and Gus at all.

"I think people within the club felt they had to snub me a little bit, because Gus was a phenomenally powerful figure at that time. He ran everything."

The ugly divorce and the frustrations for his stepson have not diminished the affection for Albion felt by Forster, who played at Championship level for Birmingham, Reading, Ipswich and Hull.

He said: "Brighton wasn't the highest level I played but in terms of goals per game it was one of my most successful and I was captain. The biggest privilege in all my career was being the captain of Brighton.

"I love every single one of the clubs I played for but Brighton have the most special place in my heart. Reading and Brentford fans might be a bit saddened to hear that but there is something about Brighton. I just loved every minute of being there. It was disappointing to leave like I did but I had to push Gus to make a decision on me.

"I'd like to go back in some capacity at some stage, even if it's just as a guest for the day. It's a real shame I never got to play in the new stadium and it would have been lovely to have shared the pitch with Jake. There are some regrets but in life sometimes you have to put your family and yourself first."