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[Football] Dunk to Chelsea?

















Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
13,305
Central Borneo / the Lizard
Really? he's great - of course - but Lawrenson, Ward and Vicente, who immediately come to mind, were all better players.

Vicente played for us in the middle of the championship, i don't think he comes into the conversation. He was brilliant earlier in his career, but not at that level when he was at the Albion. Lawrenson and Ward were brilliant, but of their time. Ward did most of his best for us in division 2, Lawro wasn't at his peak when at Brighton anyway, but regardless I'm certain that today's Premier league is way better quality than division 1 of 1980, players are fitter, better on the ball, play at a higher speed and intensity, are more tactically drilled, have the absolute best fitness, diet and conditioning regimes, have come through academies and train at state of the art facilities, and play against many of the best in the world every week. I don't think the division 1 teams of the early 80s would cope with today's Premier league sides.

Which is why I think the absolute best XI of Brighton players of all time would all be from the present.
 


Commander

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Apr 28, 2004
13,378
London
Vicente played for us in the middle of the championship, i don't think he comes into the conversation. He was brilliant earlier in his career, but not at that level when he was at the Albion. Lawrenson and Ward were brilliant, but of their time. Ward did most of his best for us in division 2, Lawro wasn't at his peak when at Brighton anyway, but regardless I'm certain that today's Premier league is way better quality than division 1 of 1980, players are fitter, better on the ball, play at a higher speed and intensity, are more tactically drilled, have the absolute best fitness, diet and conditioning regimes, have come through academies and train at state of the art facilities, and play against many of the best in the world every week. I don't think the division 1 teams of the early 80s would cope with today's Premier league sides.

Which is why I think the absolute best XI of Brighton players of all time would all be from the present.

Definitely, which is why you can't really compare them. If those players had been playing today they'd have had all the advantages of modern footballers, same as if Dunk played in the 80s he'd have probably been playing with 8 pints inside him.
 






Wardy's twin

Well-known member
Oct 21, 2014
8,729
Dunk has delivered at a consistently high level for the last 5-6 years. Let's not forget even in our worst year he was top goal scorer. So imo easily the best player ... Vicente was clearly the best footballer and we saw glimpses of it. In the Chelsea friendly he absolutely destroyed them oh to have him now even if it were for some small cameo appearan es from the bench.
 




blue-shifted

Banned
Feb 20, 2004
7,645
a galaxy far far away
Vicente played for us in the middle of the championship, i don't think he comes into the conversation. He was brilliant earlier in his career, but not at that level when he was at the Albion. Lawrenson and Ward were brilliant, but of their time. Ward did most of his best for us in division 2, Lawro wasn't at his peak when at Brighton anyway, but regardless I'm certain that today's Premier league is way better quality than division 1 of 1980, players are fitter, better on the ball, play at a higher speed and intensity, are more tactically drilled, have the absolute best fitness, diet and conditioning regimes, have come through academies and train at state of the art facilities, and play against many of the best in the world every week. I don't think the division 1 teams of the early 80s would cope with today's Premier league sides.

Which is why I think the absolute best XI of Brighton players of all time would all be from the present.

I agree on the whole, but I'm not sure how todays players would cope with balls, boots and pitches from the 70' or 80's. I think it's fair to say, Ward, Horton etc never had to opportunity to get to the level that we see now. I also agree with those that make the points that the Premier League is an extraordinary concentration of international talent in the wasn't 40 years ago and that the vast majority of improvements made have been in terms oh physicality not skill

The bigger point to me is that the constant assumption that the best players have to be attacking ones
 




Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
13,305
Central Borneo / the Lizard
Definitely, which is why you can't really compare them. If those players had been playing today they'd have had all the advantages of modern footballers, same as if Dunk played in the 80s he'd have probably been playing with 8 pints inside him.

Absolutely, but if we're saying the best ever player for Brighton I'll say Dunk for those reasons, if it's best ever relative to all the other players at the time it's possibly Lawro, most influential for Brighton could be Ward or Zamora or Murray, best ever at some point in his career maybe Vicente or Lawro or Bobby Smith, most iconic can add Bruno and Foster to the list.

What I like about Dunk is he would feature in every single one of those lists, and as a homegrown lad who could spend his whole career with us, I don't think we'll see better
 


Peter Grummit

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2004
6,772
Lewes
Evening Standard also saying Chelsea quoted £50m for Dunk and that he's keen on the move (which doesn't surprise given that they were his boyhood team). Also says they've cooled on Ake and the £40m buyback clause.

Lawrenson was better than Dunk but Lewis is our mainstay and has been a brilliant servant. I would be very sad and worried if he moved in January but couldn't blame the guy. He could commute to Chobham easily from his Hurstpierpoint gaff.

Sent from my SM-A105G using Tapatalk
 


BLOCK F

Well-known member
Feb 26, 2009
6,627
Ward was nothing special when it came to the top level. Vicente barely played for us nd according to Lawrenson he never played for us too.

Wardy scored 18 goals in season 1979/80 when we were a struggling team, who finished 16th in the old 1st Division, and from memory, he didn't often take penalties which was Nobby Horton's job.
His finishing was sublime and some of the goals I saw him score were breathtaking. The sheer anticipation from the crowd when he had the ball was something to behold.
Given that the pitches were often mudbaths and yesteryear's strikers were often kicked all over the place by hairy arsed defenders, I have to dispute your claim!
Sadly, he was buggered about by wretched Clough after leaving the Albion.
Oh for a striker of his calibre today!
P.S.Wouldn't mind a Nobby Horton either!
 
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middletoenail

Well-known member
Jul 2, 2008
3,579
Hong Kong
50m would be a great deal. If you take your Albion tinted glasses off, he's not one of the best defenders in the world.

He has no pace, he's literally an oil tanker. Whilst that's not a problem in the Championship or lower Premier League, it is when you play against the best.

I don't want to sell, but we would be crazy to turn down the sort of money being talked about for him.
 






Cowfold Seagull

Fan of the 17 bus
Apr 22, 2009
22,072
Cowfold
Evening Standard also saying Chelsea quoted £50m for Dunk and that he's keen on the move (which doesn't surprise given that they were his boyhood team). Also says they've cooled on Ake and the £40m buyback clause.

Lawrenson was better than Dunk but Lewis is our mainstay and has been a brilliant servant. I would be very sad and worried if he moved in January but couldn't blame the guy. He could commute to Chobham easily from his Hurstpierpoint gaff.

Sent from my SM-A105G using Tapatalk

Cobham not Chobham, two different places.

Brought to you by Mr. Pedant lol.
 








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