Micky Adams is a Blade by football upbringing.

He was raised amid steelworkers on a Sheffield housing estate as a fan of United.

But it was as a terrier on the touchline that he kick-started the Albion revival which ultimately took them to the Premier League.

Now, in his new book, Micky Adams: My Life In Football (bitebackpublishing.com, £20), the former Seagulls boss has shared some behind-the-scenes tales from his two Withdean stints.

Perhaps even more interesting, he explains why he was like he was.

The spark for that competitive fire which defined a brief era at Withdean lay in a harsh upbringing.

He reveals how his dad was a tough task-master. Very tough. He recalls being belted when he got home late one evening.

And he tells how being minder to his own brother, who had cerebral palsy, could also lead him into scrapes at times.

He terms the relationship with his dad as a complicated one, recalling great times and also being hit – and seeing his mum being hit.

As he recalls, his dad’s mood swung dramatically depending on the results of the pigeons he raced every week.

And he wonders why he stood up at his dad’s funeral and gave a warts-and-all speech when just saying the nice stuff would have been the more diplomatic approach.

“I wanted it to be an open and honest book,” he said.

“The early stuff brought back memories that you don’t really want to talk about.

“But all managers have got a bit of fire in their belly, no matter where it comes from. Those are the influences that make you the man you are.”

Adams doesn’t recognise Brighton and Hove Albion these days.

The Argus:

Micky Adams in full cry at Withdean

The club he dragged out of the basement has changed enormously since his days in the temporary plastic shelters acting as dugouts at Withdean.

That is not a bad thing. The former Seagulls boss marvels at what Tony Bloom, his staff and the fanbase have done.

He never really believed the stadium would be built.

Now he works there on matchdays in a Premier League role which makes him essentially, wait for it, the referee’s ally.

The training ground is a bit different. too. Chris Hughton won’t be taking his squad for a kickabout in Preston Park any time soon.

But, in his book, Adams reveals how the revival he stirred on the Sussex coast made him wonder whether he was too hasty to leave and take up a Premier League role at Leicester.

He told The Argus: “I’ve been to Premier League games at Brighton – and what a stadium it is! But it’s a football club I don’t recognise.

“We are talking about the Gillingham days, Hove Town Hall, talking about Falmer and thinking it would never happen under my stewardship.”

And winning the title while, unknown to many, he was going through a divorce and trying to help his dad Keith fight a life-or-death battle back in Sheffield after a second major heart operation.

Adams looked indestructible at the Withdean fortress.

But he revealed: “It was a particularly tough time from the personal point of view.

“The backing I had, particularly from Dick Knight, saw me through it.

“There was one occasion he could have sacked me.

“It was the year we won the league. We didn’t start the season well but he told me I was still his manager.

“We galvanised, stuck together and, with the help of the team I had, we got promoted.

“It just goes to show what you can do when people are pulling together.

“The problems were self-inflicted in terms of the divorce.

“But my dad was suffering ill health and he was a major part of my life.

“I put that team together with help from Dick.

“Maybe I should have stayed and I could have got another promotion under my belt.

“Having said that, the week I left we had nowhere to train. That is how much the club has changed.

“I had the chance to go into the Premier League as an English manager.

“These days, English managers have to fight their way through the lower echelons.

“Foreign is best. You have to be sexy. Lots of foreign owners want certain managers and that is up to them.

“But I feel sorry for the up-and-coming English managers.

“They have to fight their way through – like Chris Hughton did.

“And look at the job he is doing!”

The Argus:

Albion fans are aware that Adams and Knight have differing versions of how Bobby Zamora ended up at Withdean.

But the manager reveals his successful switch to a 4-4-2 system at about the same time had some input from the chairman.

He added: “Dick was more than a chairman. He had strong opinions on how to play. He was keen on discipline and on representing the city in its best light.

“We had tried 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 but Bobby came in and we needed a system that suited us.

“When we went up were playing 4-3-3 or 4-5-1 but, in the end, it’s all about players really.”

Darren Freeman and Michel Kuipers feature in a couple of more light-hearted moments from Adams’ first stint at Withdean.

The Argus:

His ill-fated return in 2008, and how it came about with Dean Wilkins being eased aside, is also dealt with.

In fact, it feels like one drama after another as ghost writer Neil Moxley keeps the story flowing at a perfect pace.

There was La Manga with Leicester, of course. Plus strife at pretty much every club he has managed, as well as the family-related stuff.

“I never looked for conflict,” he says. “It just seemed to happen.

“When I was faced with certain things, I could have sat quiet. But my personality was that I faced them head-on.”

Adams’ varied managerial career now appears to be at an end although he has not totally ruled out taking up the right challenge.

There was a time he was linked with Whitehawk.

He might have taken it too had the approach been made. But not now.

Instead, he works as a Premier League delegate, checking all is running smoothly on matchday.

He says part of the job entails “giving the referee feedback” which is a little ironic.

There was plenty of feedback heading the officials’ way from the Albion bench back in the day.

“Some of them deserved it as well!” he says now, looking back.

He spends matchdays at the stadium he used to toast with the words: “Falmer, my a***.” Yes, they did actually get it built.

“I’m full of admiration for Tony Bloom and his family and the people there.

“It’s unbelievable what they have done.”