Mendoza
NSC's Most Stalked
Why Albion missed the play-offs
By Andy Naylor
Comment | Read Comments (3)
The measure of success in the money-mad world of football is linked more than ever before to financial clout.
Finishing runners-up in the Premier League and losing the Champions League final will count as failure for Manchester United or Chelsea with their vast wealth. Survival in the top flight, on the other hand, is a triumph for the likes of Wigan.
Where does that leave Albion in League One? What should be regarded as success?
advertisementIn the Championship, Withdean puts them at such a disadvantage that staying up would be the realistic aim. In League One, the pitfalls of competing in a cramped temporary home are, with the exception of a couple of fallen giants like Leeds and Nottingham Forest, minimised.
The playing field levels out. Albion are, until Falmer is built, about where they should be in football's pecking order.
And so, as the dust settles on Dean Wilkins' first full season as manager, finishing a place outside the play-offs in seventh should be treated as a success but of the qualified rather than unqualified variety.
Considerable progress has been made. Compared to last season's modest showing, the Seagulls ended 11 places higher, gained 16 points more, had five extra wins and suffered six fewer defeats.
Most noticeably, Withdean has been turned back into something of a fortress again. If Albion's away form had not deteriorated, a top six finish would have been attainable.
It still was but, in two critical periods of the campaign, when opportunity knocked the door slammed shut.
A play-off place was not lost with a home defeat by relegated Port Vale at the beginning of April or the late goals conceded at Cheltenham at the start of February.
It was lost during a turbulent spell mid-season, when the team unravelled and had to be pieced back together.
When Albion cruised to victory at Swindon in mid-December, with a line-up which included Dean Hammond, George O'Callaghan and Bas Savage, they were seventh in the table.
They were together in the side only onc more, at Millwall on Boxing Day, where grievances over both delays and chairman Dick Knight's hard-line approach in contract talks were aired by O'Callaghan and Savage.
They did not play for the club again but the mood of discontent rumbled on into and through January, the saga over Hammond's future ending with an acrimonious move for the influential captain to Colchester.
The instability was devastating. Between Boxing Day and the close of the January transfer window, Albion took just five points from a possible 18, lost at home to Mansfield in the FA Cup and went out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at Swansea with a severely weakened side. Rather than building on an encouraging first half of the season, rebuilding became necessary during January.
Alex Revell and Nathan Elder were also sold, Glenn Murray, Steve Thomson and Jonny Dixon all signed in an unfamiliar spending spree.
The new players and new-look team gelled in the nick of time. Albion had slipped to 16th and were in danger of being sucked into a relegation battle when they came from behind to beat Cheltenham at home.
That turning point was the springboard for the play-off challenge to be revived during a hectic and profitable March, when nine matches were packed into 29 days. This was the second critical period of the campaign. Key players in Matt Richards and Adam El-Abd were lost in successive games through injury.
The loan transfer window was still open but Albion showed limited ambition on and off the pitch. Bringing in Ian Westlake from Leeds and Therry Racon from Charlton merely maintained numbers.
Consecutive goalless deadlocks at Forest and Leeds were regarded as a triumph but draws get you nowhere these days and the defeats which followed, against Port Vale and at Southend, effectively ended Albion's challenge.
The nagging feeling is that, when a second chance arose to reach the play-offs, they did not go all out for it.
The Seagulls could live to regret this conservatism. You cannot pick and choose when you are going to be in contention, football does not work like that. You have to seize the moment.
The bar has been raised. Fans, based on this season's near-miss, will now be expecting a play-off spot next season but it is dangerous to assume that will automatically follow.
Discount Leeds' 15-point penalty and the gap between Albion and the top four was double figures, so there is a lot of ground to make up on the teams who miss out in the play-offs, not to mention relegated Leicester and Paul Ince's thriving MK Dons.
Much will depend on Wilkins' overhaul of the squad. He needs a left-back, central midfielder and please, please, at least one winger to provide much-needed width, as well as back-up for the prolific combination of Murray and Nicky Forster.
Following this week's clearout, Wilkins now has the chance to really stamp his mark and mould his own squad.
The target then must be promotion, either next season or the one after, so that Albion move into Falmer in the Championship.
By Andy Naylor
Comment | Read Comments (3)
The measure of success in the money-mad world of football is linked more than ever before to financial clout.
Finishing runners-up in the Premier League and losing the Champions League final will count as failure for Manchester United or Chelsea with their vast wealth. Survival in the top flight, on the other hand, is a triumph for the likes of Wigan.
Where does that leave Albion in League One? What should be regarded as success?
advertisementIn the Championship, Withdean puts them at such a disadvantage that staying up would be the realistic aim. In League One, the pitfalls of competing in a cramped temporary home are, with the exception of a couple of fallen giants like Leeds and Nottingham Forest, minimised.
The playing field levels out. Albion are, until Falmer is built, about where they should be in football's pecking order.
And so, as the dust settles on Dean Wilkins' first full season as manager, finishing a place outside the play-offs in seventh should be treated as a success but of the qualified rather than unqualified variety.
Considerable progress has been made. Compared to last season's modest showing, the Seagulls ended 11 places higher, gained 16 points more, had five extra wins and suffered six fewer defeats.
Most noticeably, Withdean has been turned back into something of a fortress again. If Albion's away form had not deteriorated, a top six finish would have been attainable.
It still was but, in two critical periods of the campaign, when opportunity knocked the door slammed shut.
A play-off place was not lost with a home defeat by relegated Port Vale at the beginning of April or the late goals conceded at Cheltenham at the start of February.
It was lost during a turbulent spell mid-season, when the team unravelled and had to be pieced back together.
When Albion cruised to victory at Swindon in mid-December, with a line-up which included Dean Hammond, George O'Callaghan and Bas Savage, they were seventh in the table.
They were together in the side only onc more, at Millwall on Boxing Day, where grievances over both delays and chairman Dick Knight's hard-line approach in contract talks were aired by O'Callaghan and Savage.
They did not play for the club again but the mood of discontent rumbled on into and through January, the saga over Hammond's future ending with an acrimonious move for the influential captain to Colchester.
The instability was devastating. Between Boxing Day and the close of the January transfer window, Albion took just five points from a possible 18, lost at home to Mansfield in the FA Cup and went out of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy at Swansea with a severely weakened side. Rather than building on an encouraging first half of the season, rebuilding became necessary during January.
Alex Revell and Nathan Elder were also sold, Glenn Murray, Steve Thomson and Jonny Dixon all signed in an unfamiliar spending spree.
The new players and new-look team gelled in the nick of time. Albion had slipped to 16th and were in danger of being sucked into a relegation battle when they came from behind to beat Cheltenham at home.
That turning point was the springboard for the play-off challenge to be revived during a hectic and profitable March, when nine matches were packed into 29 days. This was the second critical period of the campaign. Key players in Matt Richards and Adam El-Abd were lost in successive games through injury.
The loan transfer window was still open but Albion showed limited ambition on and off the pitch. Bringing in Ian Westlake from Leeds and Therry Racon from Charlton merely maintained numbers.
Consecutive goalless deadlocks at Forest and Leeds were regarded as a triumph but draws get you nowhere these days and the defeats which followed, against Port Vale and at Southend, effectively ended Albion's challenge.
The nagging feeling is that, when a second chance arose to reach the play-offs, they did not go all out for it.
The Seagulls could live to regret this conservatism. You cannot pick and choose when you are going to be in contention, football does not work like that. You have to seize the moment.
The bar has been raised. Fans, based on this season's near-miss, will now be expecting a play-off spot next season but it is dangerous to assume that will automatically follow.
Discount Leeds' 15-point penalty and the gap between Albion and the top four was double figures, so there is a lot of ground to make up on the teams who miss out in the play-offs, not to mention relegated Leicester and Paul Ince's thriving MK Dons.
Much will depend on Wilkins' overhaul of the squad. He needs a left-back, central midfielder and please, please, at least one winger to provide much-needed width, as well as back-up for the prolific combination of Murray and Nicky Forster.
Following this week's clearout, Wilkins now has the chance to really stamp his mark and mould his own squad.
The target then must be promotion, either next season or the one after, so that Albion move into Falmer in the Championship.
