[Albion] Are we just a bit ‘meh’?

[BadFish]

I was expecting mid-table until Mr Chairman spunked over £200m on new signings. That does tend to raise expectations somewhat.

How long do we need to be patient for? Or rather, how long is it before our best players get poached and we have to start all over again? If we are only mid-table wage payers still, it won't take much to entice the likes of Baleba, Hinshelwood, Buanotte, Joao Pedro, JPVH away.

We have to be patient for as long as it takes. Because our players will be poached.

You make it sound like we spent 200m on new players on top of what we had. That 200m was to replace players we sold. Add to that the money that teams around us have spent and you can see a top ten in the premier league of incredibly good football teams. Top six even more so and top 4 more than that.

Personally I am sticking with patience and enjoying this period of success. Why would you do anything else? f*** that, we are not Spurs or Man U.

 

[chickens]

I hold my hands up to being ridiculously optimistic about our potential, but the games tend to bring me back to reality.

We’re currently mid-table and deserve to be mid-table. We’re a flawed work in progress, and our early position probably flattered to deceive.

I wonder how long it will be before other club’s fans use “the best run club in Europe” as a dig, as opposed to a genuinely meant compliment. I think we’re in danger of believing the hype, and the old saying of pride before a fall rings true.

I can’t help but be proud of the team and club though. Even when we go full Corporal Jones after conceding a late goal.

 

[mejonaNO12 aka riskit]

We've won some games I expected nothing from.

We've drawn some games I expected more from

Football, innit. Unless you are a team getting regular CL footy, year in year out, the inconsistencies are the reality of the PL. The reason? All the footballers are good at football. Sometimes clichés are there for a reason. There's no easy games.

This weekend, arsenal drew at Fulham. City fail at Palace. Forest beat United.

There's probably only 2 or 3 teams who have completely satisfied fan bases at the moment. Maybe Liverpool, Chelsea (as they couldn't have anticipated it working so well this season) and probably Forest.

Then everyone else is either under achieving (be that failing in a title challenge) or is in the mid table scrap. Even teams like Brentford, and Bournemouth, where all fans on the outside will be looking at it and saying "wow. They are doing brilliantly" will have fans bemoaning "dropped points" (whatever that means) and where they could have been if they had beaten X,Y and Z.

Meh is normal.

Thankfully, our meh is mitigated by the fact we all know why those inconsistencies exist. It's a new manager and a very very young squad (I believe the second youngest in the league).

I'm delighted with where we are, personally.

 

[jcdenton08]

The average age of the Chelsea squad is 23, hardly mature experienced pro’s.
I didn’t really see it coming although they are being managed exceptionally well.

No one is saying we should win the thing although we should be doing much better than we are with the players available.

I didn’t actually mention what I thought our expectations should be although I will go with TB’s European places.

Chelsea are shopping in different markets to us, because they have consistently paid very high fees (not least to us for our best players) and pay among the highest wages in world football. Their two central midfielders alone cost over £200m.

I don’t know why we “should be doing much better than we are with the players available”, because we simply don’t know how good our players are as they’re young and inexperienced. Ayari has an (average) season loan in the Championship, some Swedish football and his appearances for us, for example.

The whole point is that we develop players with high numbers generally from clubs currently beneath us in the pecking order, give them a chance to develop, then sell them.

I think you are overrating our squad, not understanding our modus operandi and being strangely harsh on the manager.

 

[Justice]

Chelsea are shopping in different markets to us, because they have consistently paid very high fees (not least to us for our best players) and pay among the highest wages in world football. Their two central midfielders alone cost over £200m.

I don’t know why we “should be doing much better than we are with the players available”, because we simply don’t know how good our players are as they’re young and inexperienced. Ayari has an (average) season loan in the Championship, some Swedish football and his appearances for us, for example.

The whole point is that we develop players with high numbers generally from clubs currently beneath us in the pecking order, give them a chance to develop, then sell them.

I think you are overrating our squad, not understanding our modus operandi and being strangely harsh on the manager.

15 games in and what’s our style? It’s not high pressing or a high line, possession stats aren’t great and we struggle to play two decent halves of football, labour on the ball and seem to be utter bottle jobs when it comes to holding on to a lead.
We haven’t won a pen this season as we simply aren’t creating enough it the opposition’s box.
VAR saved us from a loss against Saints, Wolves enough said about that and then we go and repeat it on Sunday, shambles.
Unfortunately the buck stops with the manager.
The latest set of recruits aren’t £3m from the Colombian second division we have paid a lot of money for them with the possibility of little or no resale value so in that respect the sellling model isn’t as clear cut as it was.
Higher standards need to be set.
Someone’s going to say Man City everyone’s giving City a game these days let’s not get carried away with that. The importance of winning against teams below us is the difference maker to another successful season or a mid table meh finish.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I hold my hands up to being ridiculously optimistic about our potential, but the games tend to bring me back to reality.

We’re currently mid-table and deserve to be mid-table. We’re a flawed work in progress, and our early position probably flattered to deceive.

I wonder how long it will be before other club’s fans use “the best run club in Europe” as a dig, as opposed to a genuinely meant compliment. I think we’re in danger of believing the hype, and the old saying of pride before a fall rings true.

I can’t help but be proud of the team and club though. Even when we go full Corporal Jones after conceding a late goal.

This is an interesting point and I think when/if it happens it will actually back up the 'best run club in the league' claims.

I know people who talk about Brighton winning trophies/challenging for the Champions league/Europe without any hint of irony or piss taking. none of them are Brighton fans and while they're mostly not old enough to remember the horror of the 90's clearly, they're old enough to know Brighton pre premier league and championship.

Yet, because of the success of the club over the last few years they take it as entirely natural that Brighton should be in a position to be challenging for trophies and Europe.

So in that sense if other fans take the piss out of us for falling into lower mid table it's surely a sign of the clubs success that they consider that Brighton failing.

 

[Professor Plum]

Negativity is contagious. Shame on the OP for starting another moany, pointless thread designed to make people feel even worse. After the match I had to walk for 30 minutes in the freezing, teeming rain, in the dark, surrounded by excitable buoyant Leicester fans, cackling about their good fortune. I felt worse than I’ve felt in years following an away match. I really don’t need this shit to make me feel even more despondent.

It’s football. It’s a league table. By very definition, constant triumph is not available to any team outside one or two elite members of the league. Stay rational. Try keeping your self-harming thoughts to yourself, or at the very minimum, be a bit more self-aware and intelligent about their possible impact,

This sort of kneejerk defeatism is the very last thing we need when going through a disappointing phase.

 

[jackalbion]

15 games in and what’s our style? It’s not high pressing or a high line, possession stats aren’t great and we struggle to play two decent halves of football, labour on the ball and seem to be utter bottle jobs when it comes to holding on to a lead.
We haven’t won a pen this season as we simply aren’t creating enough it the opposition’s box.
VAR saved us from a loss against Saints, Wolves enough said about that and then we go and repeat it on Sunday, shambles.
Unfortunately the buck stops with the manager.
The latest set of recruits aren’t £3m from the Colombian second division we have paid a lot of money for them with the possibility of little or no resale value so in that respect the sellling model isn’t as clear cut as it was.
Higher standards need to be set.
Someone’s going to say Man City everyone’s giving City a game these days let’s not get carried away with that. The importance of winning against teams below us is the difference maker to another successful season or a mid table meh finish.

Ok then, sack him and get who in as manager? There were no options in the summer, we could have kept De Zerbi but the constant cult of personality would mean he'd be on the brink of leaving, linked with every job on the planet, or that despite us signing some of the best young players in the world, he'd sit there and have a paddy about not being able to sign some 26 year old clogger from Hellas Verona who ends up walking into the middle of the pitch and giving away a goal. We've struggled with Longevity with the management in the last few years, maybe Huerzler is a bit inexperienced, but he will obviously learn from this capitulation.

 

[Justice]

Ok then, sack him and get who in as manager? There were no options in the summer, we could have kept De Zerbi but the constant cult of personality would mean he'd be on the brink of leaving, linked with every job on the planet, or that despite us signing some of the best young players in the world, he'd sit there and have a paddy about not being able to sign some 26 year old clogger from Hellas Verona who ends up walking into the middle of the pitch and giving away a goal. We've struggled with Longevity with the management in the last few years, maybe Huerzler is a bit inexperienced, but he will obviously learn from this capitulation.

Big Ron Atkinson

 

[Justice]

I hold my hands up to being ridiculously optimistic about our potential, but the games tend to bring me back to reality.

We’re currently mid-table and deserve to be mid-table. We’re a flawed work in progress, and our early position probably flattered to deceive.

I wonder how long it will be before other club’s fans use “the best run club in Europe” as a dig, as opposed to a genuinely meant compliment. I think we’re in danger of believing the hype, and the old saying of pride before a fall rings true.

I can’t help but be proud of the team and club though. Even when we go full Corporal Jones after conceding a late goal.

Sometimes I wish we would just play football and shut up, the Saints game was destined to fail TS live from the Amex with all the best run club platitudes. We then got saved by VAR to the worst team in the league.