Where do your LOYALTIES lie?

[BensGrandad]

The Albion. We need the money (all those extra T shirts that will be sold at the club shop) and it will encourage floating fans to look forward to the new stadium.

The increased revenue from the spin off of the JPT will do us more good than England scraping through by default. A wembley final and promotion plus a 3rd Round FA Cup tie against hopefullya giant is possible for us this season so lets go for the lot and tick them off as we win or lose but still keep the aim in sight until May.

 

[sams dad]

Deffo the Albion.
All this mickey mouse cup stuff is bollocks and is starting to really piss me off. For f*** sake we're a third division club who play in a shit hole and now we have the chance of getting to Wembley.
Bring it on I say, lets have a great day out and a bit of positive energy around the club for a change.

"Oh I cant get excited about a mickey mouse competition" Well f*** off and support Man U or Chelsea then.

Well said , that man

 

[wigman]

Albion for me , all the time!

 

[Barrow Boy]

Albion, always has been, always will.

 

[crodonilson]

Steve McLarens White and Red Army!!



(Although I would go for promotion over qualification)

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

Even though England are already way screwed, I'd much rather they got the Euro 2008 than Albion won some waste of time losers tournament.

 

[Nemesis]

The England under-achievers or watch the club I've supported all my life at Wembley?

 

[El Presidente]

Given a chance to watch England stumble through the group stages then go out in the quarters, or see the Albion at Wemberlee, it has to be the latter for me

 

[pasty]

I am equally disappointed when either lose a game or get knocked out of a tournament, until the next day that is, when all is forgotten and life goes on.

I couldn't choose between them

The disappointment factor always decide it for me. If England lose, the disappointment lasts about 10 minutes. If Albion lose, it's about 20 minutes. So in answer to the poll, Albion.

 

[blue'n'white]

Deffo the Albion.
All this mickey mouse cup stuff is bollocks and is starting to really piss me off. For f*** sake we're a third division club who play in a shit hole and now we have the chance of getting to Wembley.
Bring it on I say, lets have a great day out and a bit of positive energy around the club for a change.

"Oh I cant get excited about a mickey mouse competition" Well f*** off and support Man U or Chelsea then.

Hear hear - how very true
I couldn't have put it better myself
Quite honestly there is no choice for me
I am not bothered about England being there- of course I would support them but you all know what would happen - we get there by the back door. We then screw up one of the group matches and have to "valiantly" draw the last match and then we go out to the Germans on penalties - it's called tradition !!!

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

This thread makes pretty depressing reading. For the country that gave birth to football we seem to have some of the most apathetic fair weather supporters of a national team around. With such a provincial outlook is it any wonder out national team has been underachieving for so long?

 

[DJ Leon]

I think I'd choose 3 points on Saturday over qualification for England.

 

[blue'n'white]

This thread makes pretty depressing reading. For the country that gave birth to football we seem to have some of the most apathetic fair weather supporters of a national team around. With such a provincial outlook is it any wonder out national team has been underachieving for so long?

I don't think you're right - I don't think anyone on here is a fair weather supporter of our national team as that means you only support them when they do well. I am sure we all would delight in England not only getting there next year but also in winning the damn thing BUT we're realists and as football fans you know what you get from the national side. Our "provincial outlook" has nothing whatsoever to do with the way that the team performs - the fact of the matter is that we don't have a terribly good team at the moment and we have a poor manager. Partly this is because of the insistence of the Premiership clubs on buying in foreign talent and not developing young English talent. I sat down earlier in the summer absolutely thrilled with the way that the under 21s were playing in their tournament but the senior team seems very dull and lacklustre by comparison. Face facts - we need a huge clearout at senior level before we're going to do well again.

 

[DJ Leon]

This thread makes pretty depressing reading. For the country that gave birth to football we seem to have some of the most apathetic fair weather supporters of a national team around. With such a provincial outlook is it any wonder out national team has been underachieving for so long?

So the underachieving is down to the fans? Yeah, right.

 

[Statto]

Albion shade it for me. I really want England to go to Euro 2008, but Ive never seen the Albion play at Wembley. Albion till I die

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

I don't think you're right - I don't think anyone on here is a fair weather supporter of our national team as that means you only support them when they do well. I am sure we all would delight in England not only getting there next year but also in winning the damn thing BUT we're realists and as football fans you know what you get from the national side. Our "provincial outlook" has nothing whatsoever to do with the way that the team performs - the fact of the matter is that we don't have a terribly good team at the moment and we have a poor manager. Partly this is because of the insistence of the Premiership clubs on buying in foreign talent and not developing young English talent. I sat down earlier in the summer absolutely thrilled with the way that the under 21s were playing in their tournament but the senior team seems very dull and lacklustre by comparison. Face facts - we need a huge clearout at senior level before we're going to do well again.

Have to agree with most of that, and I know we're in a complete mess as a national team, but the hypothetical question of which meant more - England qualifying for a major tournament or Brighton winning the this Paint Pot trophy - seemed a no brainer to me. Regardless of how badly we may do once there, England not getting to a major international competition is massive embarrassment and if I had to chose between Brighton winning this particular cup (The League or FA Cup would be a different matter) or England going to 2008 there's simply no contest.

Of course, it's all hypothetical and England are long since buggered, so bring on a cup triumph for the Albion!

 

[Shizuoka Dolphin]

So the underachieving is down to the fans? Yeah, right.

I didn't make my point well enough - I've only just got up so I'm still half a sleep!

No, the team being shite has caused the underachieving, but what struck me from a lot of comments on this thread was how little people seemed to care about England qualifying. This is a hypothetical scenario so I would have thought the prospect of a summer tounament minus England (sure we all remember how badly 1994 sucked) would hold more weight than the Albion winning this particular competition.

 

[blue'n'white]

I care and I am sure everyone else here cares about how England do. Every tournament I want them to qualify and I'm pleased if they do. But then the journalists get hold of it and screw it up - the weight of expectation on the heads of the team is so much that it's inmpossible to please anyone unless we win. In FIFA rankings we're currently 11th in the world so why can't the press of this country accept that we are the 11th best team in the world rather than building up the expectations of every fan in this country to believe we're number 1. Personally, national pride aside(and I am patriotic) from a pure footballing point of view the tournament is sometimes better when the English either are not there or have been knocked out as I can enjoy the FOOTBALL rather than worrying how England are going to do.
Any way Shizuoka you've just got up but I am off to bed - sayonara !!

 

[Al Bion]

Club before country for me.

I must be really ancient having already seen the Albion play three times at Wembley but I am starting to get excited at the possible chance that we may play there again this season. Although the F A Cup Final and play-offs were much more important matches I think I'd still be just as excited and looking forward to the day even though it's seen as a lesser competition.

If we did get to Wembley the boost to the team's morale and interest created would lead to higher attendances at Withdean, creating more atmosphere, which could see us then pushed up into the play off places or even higher.

There's just the small matter of winning a few matches first...

 

[Brovion]

This is getting off-topic a bit but I think this thread answers another question. Regardless of which club they support fans don't want quotas on foreign players - they just want to see their team be successful. If the majority of Albion fans would rather see us win the JPT than England qualify for a tournament how do you think Arsenal fans feel about the Champions' League? Do you think they give a toss that none of their team are English?