£30m For Squad Players

[Simster]

JJB, I think you make some good points and find it baffling at the number of Albion fans who seem to want to slaughter you for what amounts to some fairly sane concerns. I honestly don't care what you think of our players though, because personally I trust Poyet to know which players can cope at the next level.

As for the stadia, the day that provincial teams like yours and ours start building for 40-50,000 is a sad day IMO. You managed perfectly well in a stadium that only ever saw 30,000 in attendance once or twice in its history! Equally, we had 34-35,000 a handful of times but the Goldstone was able to generate a great atmosphere with only half that in attendance. There is literally no justification for such over capacity nonsense and all it would take is for one relegation to leave fans rattling around in hopelessly oversized stadium, draining all atmosphere. Even West Ham (who are much bigger than BHAFC or SFC will ever be) will see this very problem when they move to the OS.

I hope the Amex never ever increases beyond 35,000 under any circumstances. If Middlesbrough can reach a Europa Cup Final with that sized stadium, and can get Fulham can get to a Europa Cup Final with a stadium barely any bigger than the Amex as it is, then 35,000 would do me.

 

[JJB]

Erm no the stadium was paid for independently from any money the club makes through ticket sales etc.
Given the fact the stadium was paid for with a zero interest loan that doesn't have to be paid back for years i'd persume all money generated by the stadium will be put back into the club.

So he's not looking for any ROI on the £95million he's put forward for the stadium? I find that very strange.

 

[JJB]

Simster, you see sence. We regularly got in excess of 30,000 in the prem and averaged 28-30,000 in the Championship, other than the year we went down. Personally think that when we get back to the premiership (thats gonna cause some controversy no doubt) we would be able to average 40-42000 should we have a stadium that size, although that's a long way off. We should be in the Championship next year with yourselves, unless we manage to cock it up and should we be there, I think we'll start to average 28,000+ again.

 

[Simster]

Simster, you see sence. We regularly got in excess of 30,000 in the prem and averaged 28-30,000 in the Championship, other than the year we went down. Personally think that when we get back to the premiership (thats gonna cause some controversy no doubt) we would be able to average 40-42000 should we have a stadium that size, although that's a long way off. We should be in the Championship next year with yourselves, unless we manage to cock it up and should we be there, I think we'll start to average 28,000+ again.

This is Pompey fan talk.

Lets be frank here. Southampton's record attendance pre-St Mary's was under 31,000. As a club you're capable of pulling in 40,000 for the odd game but you'll never average those figures. Think about it, that puts you in the realm of Aston Villa, Man City and Everton - all clubs based in the biggest cities in the country.

 

[tonymgc]

So he's not looking for any ROI on the £95million he's put forward for the stadium? I find that very strange.

Nope & he's put forward another £15 mil to fund the Academy which is the next big project for the club once Falmer is completed.
At the end of the day Tony Bloom is a fan in the lucky position to have enough money to try & make his dream of making Brighton a Premier League club come true. This is one place where we are very lucky, He's a local lad come good who's family have been involved with the club for years & years.

He has a five year plan & given the way he's already been responsible for the clubs restructuring from head to toe i wouldn't be surprised if it did happen.

 

[JJB]

This is Pompey fan talk.

Lets be frank here. Southampton's record attendance pre-St Mary's was under 31,000. As a club you're capable of pulling in 40,000 for the odd game but you'll never average those figures. Think about it, that puts you in the realm of Aston Villa, Man City and Everton - all clubs based in the biggest cities in the country.

Is that this season? I thought our Record Attendance was against Arsenal at over 32,100. Admittedly we're not likely to average that, I expect with our large catchment area we would be able to attract between 35-38 on a regular basis. Although we could have taken 50+ to Wembley as the demand was there, how many of them were going for the day out, I don't know say 7-10,000. If you put us in the premier league now, not taking the playing staff into consideration, we would be a medium sized club because we do have a reasonaly large fan base. I don't know much about Brighton but it has been mentioned to me in the past that they have attracted large crowds in the past.

 

[Jim in the West]

I never said anything about big names. As individuals your players arn't as talented, as some other squads, however as a unit they are superior, which has shown.

This type of statement really does wind me up! I've seen around half our matches (home and away), and I can't remember seeing many more talented players in most positions. Show me a better keeper than Ankergren? Better full backs than Painter and Calderon? Better centre backs than Greer and El Abd? Better wingers than Bennett and Noone? Better central midfield than Bridcutt? Better centre forward than Murray? OK, I am biased, but there are precious few, in my opinion. The names that come to mind are those in Seagull27's post - Pilkington, Lallana and Mackail-Smith. Possibly Lewis in goal (although he's made quite a few cock-ups recently). Just because we play well as a team doesn't mean we haven't also got very talented individuals.

 

[JJB]

Nope & he's put forward another £15 mil to fund the Academy which is the next big project for the club once Falmer is completed.
At the end of the day Tony Bloom is a fan in the lucky position to have enough money to try & make his dream of making Brighton a Premier League club come true. This is one place where we are very lucky, He's a local lad come good who's family have been involved with the club for years & years.

He has a five year plan & given the way he's already been responsible for the clubs restructuring from head to toe i wouldn't be surprised if it did happen.

That may well be true, but I can assure you. He is looking to get something out of it as well. That is a very bold step putting £15million into an academy project, but one that will no doubt help your club. Like your chairman, our chairman also has a 5 year plan and the start of that is part of the reason we lost £7.7million. We didn't just rebuild the side, we are also in the process of upgrading our already premier league class facilities and completely changing the structure of the club. It is very interesting what Cortese is doing, creating an English Marinillo and incorporating Barcelona's youth policy of having teaching staff and facilites on the training ground so the Academy lads get more playing time at Staplewood, I'm sure you'll be looking to have something of similar quality. Projects like this and yours are not only going to help their respective clubs, but potentially help the country as well in the future.

 

[JJB]

This type of statement really does wind me up! I've seen around half our matches (home and away), and I can't remember seeing many more talented players in most positions. Show me a better keeper than Ankergren? Better full backs than Painter and Calderon? Better centre backs than Greer and El Abd? Better wingers than Bennett and Noone? Better central midfield than Bridcutt? Better centre forward than Murray? OK, I am biased, but there are precious few, in my opinion. The names that come to mind are those in Seagull27's post - Pilkington, Lallana and Mackail-Smith. Possibly Lewis in goal (although he's made quite a few cock-ups recently). Just because we play well as a team doesn't mean we haven't also got very talented individuals.

Sorry, but my mate is a Leeds fan and like me has the same opinion on Ankergren. He is rubbish, if a cross goes into the box he's flapping all over the place and his distribution is awful. The best keeper in the division is Smithies and he will be off in the summer. Calderon I'll give you is a quality player and would be playing for us had he not mouthed off on facebook about his move as Cortese pulled out straight away (not the first time, same thing happened with Elliot Ward, he likes to keep things under wraps and as soon as something becomes public knowledge, he pulls away). I don't know a lot about left backs in this division, only that Dickson is much much better than Harding and could be up there as one of the best, certainly was last season. Jose Fonte is the best CB in the division by a mile, and along with him i'd say Clarke at huddersfield is quality. Better Wingers? Lallana, Ox-Chamberlain has improved drastically, Pilkington, Boyd. Best CM at the moment is Kilbane at Hudders, although had he not got injured, would have been Damien Johnson. Center Forwards, obviously Mackail-Smith but also Lambert. He hasn't scored the goals he did last year but he was injured the first half of the season and didn't get fit until around xmas time. We had to play him as he was such an influence. The amount of assists he picks up is ridiculous. Last season I think he was top of the assist list as well.

However as a unit, you were streaks ahead of everyone else.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

We're going to have a full sized indoor training pitch, a pitch made of exactly the same technology as the pitch at Amex (which coincidentally cost 600k on its own) as well as about 10 other training pitches for the first team, youth and development squad. The idea being that we make the £15m back (it will probably end up being 20-30m) by taking in every decent prospect within Sussex.

I'm not sure what you mean by get out of it, he believes this City has the ability to host a Premiership team, that is his aim.

 

[Gary Leeds]

I first heard this 'rumour/comment' about three weeks ago, but fearing I would get absolutely slaughtered I did not enter as a thread.

Just out of interest was it mentioned at a tour of the Amex about 3 weeks ago? I know somebody who has said he was at a tour of the stadium about 3 weeks ago and that the figure of 50 million was being banded about for players and staff. I wrote it off as pure fantasy at the time but maybe it could be near the mark

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Sorry, but my mate is a Leeds fan and like me has the same opinion on Ankergren. He is rubbish, if a cross goes into the box he's flapping all over the place and his distribution is awful. The best keeper in the division is Smithies and he will be off in the summer. Calderon I'll give you is a quality player and would be playing for us had he not mouthed off on facebook about his move as Cortese pulled out straight away (not the first time, same thing happened with Elliot Ward, he likes to keep things under wraps and as soon as something becomes public knowledge, he pulls away). I don't know a lot about left backs in this division, only that Dickson is much much better than Harding and could be up there as one of the best, certainly was last season. Jose Fonte is the best CB in the division by a mile, and along with him i'd say Clarke at huddersfield is quality. Better Wingers? Lallana, Ox-Chamberlain has improved drastically, Pilkington, Boyd. Best CM at the moment is Kilbane at Hudders, although had he not got injured, would have been Damien Johnson. Center Forwards, obviously Mackail-Smith but also Lambert. He hasn't scored the goals he did last year but he was injured the first half of the season and didn't get fit until around xmas time. We had to play him as he was such an influence. The amount of assists he picks up is ridiculous. Last season I think he was top of the assist list as well.

However as a unit, you were streaks ahead of everyone else.

Ankergren is rubbish? Err, how many clean sheets have we kept? And didn't he also help Leeds to promotion last year? You're talking bollocks.

 

[The Large One]

Quite a level of guesswork going into JJB's posts.

And he has a very English approach to football, which is of course very limiting.

 

[Perkino]

Bloom is not putting any money into transfer fees, he has given the club back the £12m we had previously spent on the Amex and agreed to cover the costs of the stadium meaning that the money that the football club turnover from their new stadium can go towards running the club and transfer fees.

He has also agreed to spend about £20m on training facilities which will be another interest free loan

 

[Codner pharmaceuticals]

Good Job financing that with your crowds.... The one thing that isn't great about your stadium is it's size. Heck, even we won't be spending that much, yes we've spent in league 1, but we had to rebuild a squad from nothing. Harding, Fonte, Jaidi, Hammond Puncheon, Lambert and Barnard (off the top of my head) were all brought in otherwise we'd have been playing academy players. I would expect you to spend at most £2-3million in the next window as you have a squad that isn't full of top quality players, but that work hard for each other and are a top quality unit. I think you just need a couple of players tbh, a forward now Murray seems to be off and a bruising CM.

do you know the percentage of premier league income that comes from crowd? Let's just say I sat next to the chief finance officer of Villa when a full house was announced. I said that he must be pleased. He just shrugged and said that most of the income was from tv money anyhow...

 

[LamieRobertson]

JJB...the only thing uve made sense about is us being the best unit...ye..its a team game..well done...the rest is bllx...maybe when yur little team get promoted u might hav a tad more credibility..the rest of the stuff u talk about is all if/buts/maybes...fact we r promoted...fact u arent at the mo...

codnor..spot on!

 

[cuthbert]

Bloom is not putting any money into transfer fees, he has given the club back the £12m we had previously spent on the Amex and agreed to cover the costs of the stadium meaning that the money that the football club turnover from their new stadium can go towards running the club and transfer fees.

He has also agreed to spend about £20m on training facilities which will be another interest free loan

This is what he has said, and it makes sense, it is the only way to give the club a secure long term future. I'm glad I'm not the only one who does not expect Tony Bloom to dip into his pocket for players.

 

[Seagull27]

Sorry, but my mate is a Leeds fan and like me has the same opinion on Ankergren. He is rubbish, if a cross goes into the box he's flapping all over the place and his distribution is awful. The best keeper in the division is Smithies and he will be off in the summer. Calderon I'll give you is a quality player and would be playing for us had he not mouthed off on facebook about his move as Cortese pulled out straight away (not the first time, same thing happened with Elliot Ward, he likes to keep things under wraps and as soon as something becomes public knowledge, he pulls away). I don't know a lot about left backs in this division, only that Dickson is much much better than Harding and could be up there as one of the best, certainly was last season. Jose Fonte is the best CB in the division by a mile, and along with him i'd say Clarke at huddersfield is quality. Better Wingers? Lallana, Ox-Chamberlain has improved drastically, Pilkington, Boyd. Best CM at the moment is Kilbane at Hudders, although had he not got injured, would have been Damien Johnson. Center Forwards, obviously Mackail-Smith but also Lambert. He hasn't scored the goals he did last year but he was injured the first half of the season and didn't get fit until around xmas time. We had to play him as he was such an influence. The amount of assists he picks up is ridiculous. Last season I think he was top of the assist list as well.

However as a unit, you were streaks ahead of everyone else.

I'll give you that Fonte is probably the best CB, though our two are not far behind. Again, Smithies is probably the best but believe me when I say we wouldn't be where we are without Ankergren. He is not only a brilliant keeper, but is completely vital to our style of play. He is the best keeper I've seen with the ball at his feet and using him as a passing outlet is what starts off most of our attacking play.

Bennett is easily in the same league as Pilkington and Lallana - 442's best player of the year remember? - and had he been here for the whole season, Lua Lua would have been just as influential for us as Chamberlain for you, at a similar age. I'd forgive you for not noticing Bridcutt as he is one of those players who is often unnoticed by opposition teams because of the role he plays, but once again has been one of our best players and is the backbone of the 'Unit'. Wingbacks, we have two of the best.

And I'd rather have Glenn Murray in my team than Lambert any day. In my opinion, Murray is a far better all round player and adds so much more than just his goals. He is a Premiership quality player who never really had the mentality, and maybe opportunity, to get there. I think that now, if he does all the right things, he could.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I can't understand why some are pandering/giving the time of day to this stuck up SCC twat to be honest!

 

[surrey jim]

Begs the question of where you heard this rumour? I doubt it would be particularly prudent for Bloom to tell anyone his spending plans

My thoughts exactly.