When Wimbledon relocated to Milton Keynes in 2003 and subsequently became MK Dons, the controversy was immense, the dismay widespread.

And yet moving the 1988 FA Cup winners out of South London has inadvertently been of huge benefit to Albion.

The switch enabled them to land a Brightonian prospect whose early schoolboy years coincided with decay and another distressing switch, from the Goldstone to groundsharing at Gillingham.

On Monday at the Amex in the Premier League, Lewis Dunk will make the 199th start of his flourishing career at the heart of the defence against Stoke (his 200th is scheduled to be against Manchester United at Old Trafford five days later).

All apart from three of those appearances - during a brief loan spell at Bristol City - have been for Albion. The form of Dunk, 25, (below) is so good that momentum is building for him to be included in Gareth Southgate's England squad, with Ian Wright among his vocal admirers.

The Argus: Fate dealt Albion a helpful hand after former assistant manager Martin Hinshelwood had rejoined the club as head of youth, a rebuilding role during the re-establishing era at Withdean.

Hinshelwood, now on the scouting staff at Stoke, revealed: "We knew about him, because he was playing for Brighton primary schools, but he had already signed for Wimbledon.

"Then Wimbledon became MK Dons and they had to release all their players from under 14's down.

"For us at Brighton, luckily, Dunky was one of those boys and we signed him on. He was an under-12 then.

"It was unfortunate for Wimbledon but he could have been anywhere now.

"When he went to Wimbledon, no disrespect to what was going on at Brighton, the youth set-up was not the greatest.

"It took a while for us to improve it. That was probably one of the reasons he went to Wimbledon in the first place but once Wimbledon went belly-up we came in and that was it.

"There were another five or six boys at that time who he was playing with (for Brighton schools) who had already signed with us, which helped, Grant Hall, Connor Wilkins and one or two others. They were a good, young group.

"You sign them because you see something in them, hoping one day they will end up in the first team.

"Of course, it doesn't happen with every kid but he was dominant in his position. Even then he had good feet, good touch."

The Argus: Dunk made his first team debut for Albion under Gus Poyet as an 18-year-old, ironically against MK Dons (above).

Eighteen months later, he was called up to Stuart Pearce's England under-21s squad for European Championship qualifiers against Iceland and Belgium but did not feature.

Hinshelwood, a midfielder with Crystal Palace before he moved into coaching and management, said: "He was unlucky when he got called up the under-21s a couple of times and missed out there, never played. If he keeps doing what he's doing you can see him in the England squad.

"I know people keep talking about it, ex-Palace people like Mister Wright! At the end of the day he has got to be a Premier League player.

"He's been a Premier League player for six months, he's got to be one for the next six years or more. If he keeps up his performances, other things will happen for him.

"He's been excellent on the pitch and off the pitch as well."

Selsey-based Hinshelwood, 64 (below), Stoke's head of scouting in the south for 17 to 21-year-olds, is less confident about youngsters up and down the country developing in the way Dunk has through the current system of under-23s football.

The Argus: He said: "Go to any game, go to speak to any scouts in the country, they will say it's a waste of time, because it's not real football.

"It's back, it's square. You want boys to play but they are not going to do it in the first team in front of 50 or 60 thousand.

"You want them to express themselves but I don't think they are taught enough about the game.

"Sometimes they need a little bit of a rollicking or 'you need to do this you need to do that', not 'never mind, keep playing'. It becomes very false.

"At Stoke the other week Charlie Adam played at Blackburn (for the under-23s). He said 'I want a game but I'm not coming off, I want 90 minutes'.

"Steve Sidwell played for us in a game at Arsenal and he was outstanding, just talking to the boys, because you learn from the pros at the club and also those you are playing against.

"There are not enough now that want to play in it, so the learning curve has gone out of the kids. Since under-21s it has gone to under-23s but I'll go on a Saturday and watch an under-18s game and there are probably six kids who were playing in the under-23s.

"I don't know how you change it. Abroad they've got B teams. I can't see that happening in England but it's men's football.

"Some kids will probably be at Brighton for six years as a pro and play in the under-23s. They haven't been tested enough in men's football."