Get behind McGhee he is seriously in credit with this club

[Uncle Buck]

2 wins out of 25 isn't actually setting our fans alight so if that is doing well, what is everyone's definition of doing average and doing badly

Bad fan.....

 

[Ernest]

Magoo makes Martin Hinshelhead look like 'The Special One'

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

Well here's what the teams that are considered to be at "our level" have brought in.


Transfers In Transfers Out

Burnley

Daniel KarbassiyoonFree Mo Camara Free
Duane Courtney 25,000 Lee Roche Free
John Spicer 35,000 Matt O'Neill Free
Jon Harley 75,000 John Oster Free
Wade Elliott Free
Garreth O'Connor Free
Wayne Thomas Free
Gifton Noel-Williams Free
Karl Birmingham Loan
Keith Lowe Loan


Coventry City

James Scowcroft Free Kevin Pressman Free
Clayton Ince Free Trevor Benjamin Free
Matt Heath UnDis Scott Shearer Free
Andy Impey Free Steve Staunton Free
Paul Watson Free Craig Pead Free
Youssef Sofiane UnDis
Richard Duffy Loan
Stephen Bywater Loan
Willo Flood Loan
Lilian Nalis Loan


Crewe Alexandra

Juan Ugarte Free Clayton Ince Free
Luke Rodgers Free Neil Sorvel Free
Mat Bailey Free Colin Murdock Free
Eddie Johnson Loan Andy White Free
Ross Turnbull Loan Ryan Austin Free


Hull City

Daniel Coles 200,000 Richard Hinds Free
Curtis Woodhouse 25,000 Clayton Donaldson Free
Steven McPhee 220,000 Jonathan Walters Free
Keith Andrews Free Nathan Peat Free
Mark Lynch Free Anthoni Pecora Free
Sergio Leite Free Aaron Wilbraham Free
John Welsh Loan Junior Lewis Free
Chris Brown Loan


Leicester City

Nils-Eric Johansson Free Jordan Stewart 125,000
Peter Gilbert 200,000 Matt Heath UnDis
Joe Hamill UnDis Ian Walker Free
Elvis Hammond 225,000 Stephen Dawson Free
Iain Hume 500,000 Chris Makin Free
Paul Henderson Free Keith Gillespie Free
Momo Sylla Free David Connolly 2,000,000
Rab Douglas Free Peter Canero UnDis
Lilian Nalis Free


Luton Town

Rowan Vine 250,000 Dave Bayliss Free
Markus Heikkinen Free Curtis Davies 3,000,000
Dean Morgan Free Lee Mansell Free
Carlos Edwards UnDis


Millwall

Steve Claridge Free Dennis Wise Free
Sammy Igoe UnDis Peter Sweeney UnDis
Don Hutchison Free Joe Dolan Free
Jamie Vincent UnDis Danny Dichio 160,000
Carl Asaba Free Steve Claridge Free
Paul Jones Loan Bob Peeters Free
Philip Ifil Loan John Sutton UnDis
Ady Williams Loan Paul Ifill 800,000
Jermaine Wright Loan Darren Ward 1,100,000


Plymouth Argyle

Rufus Brevett Free Matt Villis Free
Taribo West UnDis David Worrell Free
Nuno Mendes Free Graham Coughlan UnDis
Bojan Djordjic Free Peter Gilbert 200,000
Anthony Barness Free Steven Milne Free
Matt Derbyshire Loan Taribo West Free


Stoke City

Mamady Sidibe Free Chris Greenacre Free
Peter Sweeney UnDis Richard Keogh Free
Carl Hoefkens 250,000 Ben Foster 1,000,000
Marlon Broomes Swap Clive Clarke 275,000
Bruce Dyer Free Lewis Neal Swap
Hannes Sigurdsson 225,000 Carl Asaba Free
Sambegou Bangoura800,000 Wayne Thomas Free
Martin Kolar Loan Jay Denny Free
Junior Loan Gifton Noel-Williams Free
Luke Chadwick Loan
Paul Gallagher Loan


Sheffield Wednesday

John Hills Free Lewis McMahon Free
Graham Coughlan UnDis Zigor Aranalde Free
Burton O'Brien UnDis Matt Hamshaw Free
Frankie Simek Free Ross Greenwood Free
Ritchie Partridge UnDis James Quinn Free
David Graham 250,000 Chris Carr Free
Maurice Ross Free Luke Foster Free
Chris Eagles Loan
Leon Best Loan

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Ground: enough said. We obviously struggle on this front, but at times I do wonder if our atmosphere, pitch and player facilites are as great a hinderance to the team as they are made out to be. Is our atmosphere or facilites that much worse than say Watford, Cardiff, Luton, Burnley, Plymouth, Crewe?

Can't believe you've asked that question.

Withdean was a lovely place to be on Saturday afternoon in the blazing sunshine, but the atmosphere from the home fans was nonexistent and the facilities are genuinely shocking. McGhee must find it nigh on impossible to attract quality players to a club with such a set-up.

It's ridiculous to compare your current situation with that of the likes of Cardiff, Plymouth, etc. They aren't even remotely similar. The facilities at Ninian Park aren't great, but they are in a different league to Withdean. As is the atmosphere. And the crowds are usually double the size. As for Home Park, that's a great ground these days. Maybe you haven't been there for a while, if at all?

There was a decent interview with McGhee in the South Wales Echo on Friday, where he talked about how difficult it is to attract players to Brighton, both because of the finances and the facilities. And it didn't sound like he was grizzling, he was just being realistic.

Mind you, while I have a great deal of sympathy with McGhee's position, I have to say that this season's Albion side does look particularly weak by this division's standards. Most fans know and appreciate the main reasons for the situation, but it doesn't look like the manager worked any more miracles this summer all the same. For instance, I'm amazed the Coca Cola money was spent on CKR when it seemed clear that you needed a decent target man. That was an odd decision.

So, from an outsider's point of view, I certainly wouldn't say that McGhee is blameless for the current League position. But he's obviously working under incredible restrictions, even by comparison to the managers of the likes of Crewe and Luton. It must be one hell of a job.

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

Crewe have the lowest wage bill in the division by some distance according to Dario Gradi. Kenilworth Road isn't exactly fantastic and Withdean will be nearly the same size when the new seats are put in.

 

[London Irish]

Crewe have the lowest wage bill in the division by some distance according to Dario Gradi. Kenilworth Road isn't exactly fantastic and Withdean will be nearly the same size when the new seats are put in.

I would agree with you that those are the two teams on our level in this league - to suggest the others are is nonsense. Crewe are on our level in terms of results this season and Luton are the isolated surprise package you get every year.

Re. TLB's point knocking CKR - we couldn't afford the wages of a Championship level targetman (they come in about £500k signing fee) even if we could have blown all our available cash on the signing fee! We have these long agonising debates on NSC about how running costs like PAYE bills cripple us, all convenietly forgotten when it comes to threads like this

 

[enigma]

Would have won the league if he had stayed - but he is still scum according to some

Agreed- potentially the best manager of the lot.

 

[Ex Shelton Seagull]

Mark McGhee has stated on a couple of occasions that we must consider ourselves to be the equal of teams like Leicester & Coventry to name but two. That's why he claimed that we must concentrate on picking up points from those types of games and avoid being defeated.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Thing is most grounds nowadays have a roof and are closer to the pitch. Regrettably withdean falls short on both.

Witness the noise we make when we play away. Maybe thats why we have only lost one away from home in the league

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Re. TLB's point knocking CKR - we couldn't afford the wages of a Championship level targetman (they come in about £500k signing fee) even if we could have blown all our available cash on the signing fee!

Absolute nonsense. Are you seriously trying to tell me that Championship-level targetmen get a £500,000 signing-on fee when they leave one club for another? You're having a laugh!

Our entire 'fees' budget this summer (transfers and signing-on fees) was around the £600,000 mark - a fact that has been well-publicised locally. For that, we managed to bring in Darren Purse (WBA), Jeff Whitley (Sunderland), Phil Mulryne (Norwich), Neil Cox (Watford), Jermaine Darlington (Watford), Kevin Cooper (Wolves) and Andrea Ferretti (Parma) on permanent deals, and Jason Koumas (WBA), Glenn Loovens (Feyenoord) and Michael Ricketts (Leeds) on loan. Do you think they all got big signing-on fees?

I was just looking at the list of players Ex-Shelton Seagull posted. Do you honestly believe that Stoke City paid Mamady Sidibe half a million to move from Gillingham? Yeah, right!

You're living in dreamland. £500,000 signing-on fees? At this level?

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

You're living in dreamland. £500,000 signing-on fees? At this level?

Dont question LI. He knows all

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Dont question LI. He knows all

As time goes by it becomes increasingly apparent that he knows f*** all.

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

Here's the McGhee interview from the Echo I mentioned:

Cardiff City and their fans may not think it, but the Bluebirds have something very large in common with Brighton and Hove Albion. It comes down to the two words both sets of fans are sick of hearing - new stadium.

The difference is Brighton have a big decision on the very near horizon and a more secure footing should the dream die.

'Our stadium plans have been going on for seven years, planning permission ongoing for five years and a public inquiry for the last two years,' said Seagulls manager Mark McGhee.

'That public enquiry has cost £2m, but it ends on October 31 and there are two possible outcomes, yes or no. If it is yes then we move on trying to persuade the government to let us build it, (Brighton's proposed site is designated as an area of natural beauty - McGhee disagrees), but if we don't?


'The reality is if the stadium doesn't go through we will be restricted to a certain level of football in the long-term, but the survival of the club is not in doubt because the chairman has kept the club debt free.


'We have players in our first team who are earning hundreds of pounds rather than thousands because of the way we structure players' deals. Adam Virgo, for example, wasn't paid big wages when he was here, but when he left for Celtic we made sure he was all right by us. So we may always be skint and scraping around to pay bills, but we are not really in debt.'


In the interim, it leaves McGhee and City boss Dave Jones facing similar problems in attracting new players, albeit that Cardiff can still offer their targets far bigger contracts than Brighton, according to McGhee.


'A new stadium is so important in attracting players to the club,' he said. 'Cardiff have a bigger ground than us but it is antiquated and when you travel to places like the Walkers Stadium, The Stadium of Light or Pride Park it makes you think what things could be like.


'If Dave Jones or I are trying to persuade players to come to the club and we are bidding against Reading for instance, the player takes one look at the Madejski and there is only one winner. But if we were on an even playing field in those terms players would come here or go to Cardiff instead.


'We'd think of ourselves as a similar sized club to Cardiff, but there are differences. Our wage bill is under £2m a year. Last year it was the lowest in the division although that's not the case this season because we managed to sell two players for a few million in the summer.


'Everyone knows the good times at Cardiff are gone where they were spending millions, but no-one believes they're really skint because they're still able to attract people like Darren Purse and Jason Koumas, players we couldn't imagine getting.'

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

As time goes by it becomes increasingly apparent that he knows f*** all.

Oh no he does. Remember he said early season results don't matter so thats alright then!

 

[London Irish]

Absolute nonsense. Are you seriously trying to tell me that Championship-level targetmen get a £500,000 signing-on fee when they leave one club for another? You're having a laugh!

Our entire 'fees' budget this summer (transfers and signing-on fees) was around the £600,000 mark - a fact that has been well-publicised locally. For that, we managed to bring in Darren Purse (WBA), Jeff Whitley (Sunderland), Phil Mulryne (Norwich), Neil Cox (Watford), Jermaine Darlington (Watford), Kevin Cooper (Wolves) and Andrea Ferretti (Parma) on permanent deals, and Jason Koumas (WBA), Glenn Loovens (Feyenoord) and Michael Ricketts (Leeds) on loan. Do you think they all got big signing-on fees?

I was just looking at the list of players Ex-Shelton Seagull posted. Do you honestly believe that Stoke City paid Mamady Sidibe half a million to move from Gillingham? Yeah, right!

You're living in dreamland. £500,000 signing-on fees? At this level?

Yawn - Sidibe isn't the goal-scoring targetman that fans here want, they want big goalscorers like Parkin.

Many of those players you've mentioned would have been cheap because of Bosman but you've explained youself in your original post why they don't come to Brighton. Not just fees but wages and prospects (stadium). But talk out of both sides of your face and contradict yourself why don't you, you're very good at that

 

[London Irish]

As time goes by it becomes increasingly apparent that he knows f*** all.

One f***ing win and the sheepshagger gets all lairy - this is going to fun

 

[London Irish]

It must be one hell of a job.

No it isn't - it's really easy. Look at all those players McGhee could have signed - it must be true, you've listed them all

 

[The Laughing Bluebird]

But talk out of both sides of your face and contradict yourself why don't you, you're very good at that

Alternately, I could take the London Irish route and talk out of my arse instead.

As regards Championship targetmen, you said, and I quote, "they come in about £500k signing on fee."

Which is bollocks. End of.

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

McGhee out

What the hell is that about.

McGhee is seriously in credit with this football club and don't forget it.

We had no right whatsoever when we went up from Div 1 in McGhees first season, no one expected us to and McGhee achieved this. Remember the day out in Cardiff, one of the best days of my lifetime for sure.

McGhee kept us up last season against all the odds, we had no right to stay up. McGhee is managing a championship club with div 2 facilities and resources.

We are punching 1/2 divisions above our weight in the present circumstances. McGhee put his faith in this club before he knew whether we would be in the champiosnhip or Div 1 this season when he resigned.

Ok we are having a bad run, 2 defeats in a row, so what. We need a bit of luck and the confidence will come back. McGhee has stuck with us and all the Falmer saga. The chips are down, time to repay Mark's faith in this club now and stop all this nonsense about McGhee out.

We could get noone better than Mark is our position, be thankful for this and give him a standing ovation tomorrow.

Gareth, it is my considerable pleasure to agree wholeheartedly with you on this occasion. (But only because I could't find an Iraq war angle, mind.)

 

[London Irish]

Alternately, I could take the London Irish route and talk out of my arse instead.

As regards Championship targetmen, you said, and I quote, "they come in about £500k signing on fee."

Which is bollocks. End of.

That's right - that's actually cheap for the kind of regular goal-scoring centre forward we need. Even someone like Freddy Eastwood would cost more, that's why we pulled out of the race to get him without making enquiries.

BOSMAN SIGNINGS are cheaper, yes, you goon, but they want the kind of wages we can't afford!

It's incredible that you keep posting articles like the Echo one which sets out the facts about why McGhee finds it so hard to bring the quality striker we need to this club, but then in the next schizophrenic breath you claim he is at fault for not bringing a quality striker to Brighton

Which TLB am I talking too now? I can't cope with you both