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“Be careful what you wish for Brighton fans” - How the football world owes us an apology



Skaville

Well-known member
Jun 10, 2004
10,235
Queens Park
How do you know Hughton wouldn't have made signings last summer that would have us pushing for Europe this season and instead because of this change we've basically just replayed last year, with improved performances that haven't really been matched with the same improvement in results.

We don't. We can guess, have a gut feeling, but none of us know.

Tony knows. That’s why he called time on Hughton and gave Potter a new contract after a few months.
 




neilbard

Hedging up
Oct 8, 2013
6,280
Signing crap? Potter has signed Webster, Maupay, Trossard and Mooy - all regulars. Compare that to Locadia, jahanbakhsh, Andone et al.

10th biggest spenders in Europe and we are hanging on by the skin of our teeth, easy to post this shite when we are now probably safe, Potter ain't the messiah.

Webster decent but can be a liability at the back, Maupay decent purchase from Brentford to be fair has done well, Trossard erratic performer hasn't always made the starting line up, Mooy another bargain basement buy at £5M.

I'm amazed how we are the 10th biggest spenders in Europe, it's a scattergun approach by Potter same as his team selection..:shrug:
 


Guinness Boy

Tofu eating wokerati
Helpful Moderator
NSC Patron
Jul 23, 2003
37,342
Up and Coming Sunny Portslade
I don't agree.

Firstly, the team isn't safe yet. Let's not jump the gun.

.

While the rest of your post is reasonable, this is superstitious nonsense.

36 points has been enough to stay up the last three seasons. And can you really see Watford getting 9 points in 5 games, Bournemouth 10 in 5 and Villa 10 in 6? REALLY?

We are not mathematically safe but we are safe and it has been done with (at times) style, (at times) pragmatism and much of the same psychological and moral courage we saw under Hughton. The OP is absolutely spot on, with the exception that the person owed an apology is Tony Bloom.
 


Albion100

New member
Jan 4, 2013
487
Patcham
Are we much better than last year? There have been so many games this year that have been just as slow and "boring" as last year. I don't think lots of performamces have been better and at times we have looked a lot worse.Yes we have the same number of points with 6 games to go but how do we know we wouldn't have been the same with CH.

End of the day Potter may be a better manager, only time will tell, but i still believe that CH did nothing wrong and we were wrong to get rid of him.
 


Albion100

New member
Jan 4, 2013
487
Patcham
I recall learning last year that a young player would have to train with the first team squad for literally months before being even considered for a place in the match day 18 under CH. And then along came Potter. And Lamptey. I’m pretty sure Lamptey would have been behind Montoya, Schelotto, Webster, and maybe others, for the right back position. But here he is under Potter, played in all positions on the right flank in just three games, and already a MOTM. It was the right time to change, CH did a good job was devoid of new ideas and fluidity, GP was the perfect appointment, we’re watching better football, more youth, and regularly getting results against top 8 sides. We are in a completely new era, and thank goodness they had the balls to make the big call. They had to act fast to get Potter, and they did.

So which young players should CH have brought through last season?
 




Guinness Boy

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Jul 23, 2003
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Are we much better than last year? There have been so many games this year that have been just as slow and "boring" as last year. I don't think lots of performamces have been better and at times we have looked a lot worse.Yes we have the same number of points with 6 games to go but how do we know we wouldn't have been the same with CH.

End of the day Potter may be a better manager, only time will tell, but i still believe that CH did nothing wrong and we were wrong to get rid of him.

"Albion100"

Classic Palace in disguise user name.
 


Shooting Star

Well-known member
Apr 29, 2011
2,883
Suffolk
I don't agree.

Firstly, the team isn't safe yet. Let's not jump the gun.

Secondly, there were many Albion fans of the same opinion. Chris did do an incredible amount for the club and I would not have had a problem with him starting the next season with a re-vamped team.

They may be proved wrong in the long term, but I never felt antipathy to what is merely opinion then or now. It is just their view- and there was reasonable cause for them to think that way.

I can't see why someone needs to apologise for simply having a benign opinion. If that is the case then I would spend most of my life in a sorry state where football is concerned.

Very much agree with this. There is never any guarantee a new manager will be an improvement on the old. None of us could have foretold how Potter's appointment would go. The "in Bloom we trust" ethos is something most of us (including myself) ultimately fell back on, but he's only human, as shown by the Hyppia hiring. We shouldn't be smug over things entirely out of our control.

I am elated at how well we are doing now and the beautiful football we have rediscovered, but let's not forget how we had struggled pre-lockdown. GP was encountering many of the problems CH had, and harnessed some of CH's solutions (i.e. Wolves, Sheff Utd away).

I do much prefer GP's style of football, but let's retain a dose of humility that a) we're not safe just yet, and b) the lockdown benefited us hugely as a chance to restart. Full props to GP and the players for embracing that opportunity. :albion2:
 


Acker79

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Nov 15, 2008
31,921
Brighton
do we think that this quality of player would have signed for hughts?

I don't know. That is the point, none of us do.

Tony knows. That’s why he called time on Hughton and gave Potter a new contract after a few months.

No he doesn't. He took a gamble based on the information he had at hand at the time, that doesn't include absolute factual knowledge of what happens if he doesn't make the change.


All we can say is that the change doesn't appear to have cost us our place in the premier league this year.
 




SUIYHP

The King's Gull
Apr 16, 2009
1,908
Inside Southwick Tunnel
Anyone who actually put the effort in to even look into Brighton last season would at least understand the reason why TB sacked Chris even if they disagreed with it. The malice that some ‘pundits’ held towards us was a little alarming. Almost a seething rage that Brighton would even DARE try something different...how DARE a team like Brighton (f’king BRIGHTON!!) sack Chris Hughton to the point we were even implied of RACISM on some fronts...it beggars belief. We aren’t safe yet, but honestly this season has been a far better experience overall and I’m glad in hindsight that TB took the gamble.
 


Guinness Boy

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Jul 23, 2003
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Very much agree with this. There is never any guarantee a new manager will be an improvement on the old. None of us could have foretold how Potter's appointment would go. The "in Bloom we trust" ethos is something most of us (including myself) ultimately fell back on, but he's only human, as shown by the Hyppia hiring. We shouldn't be smug over things entirely out of our control.

I am elated at how well we are doing now and the beautiful football we have rediscovered, but let's not forget how we had struggled pre-lockdown. GP was encountering many of the problems CH had, and harnessed some of CH's solutions (i.e. Wolves, Sheff Utd away).

I do much prefer GP's style of football, but let's retain a dose of humility that a) we're not safe just yet, and b) the lockdown benefited us hugely as a chance to restart. Full props to GP and the player's for embracing that opportunity. :albion2:

Again, this is all "if my Auntie had balls she'd be my Uncle".

No chance at all of three teams below us getting to 37 points. 5 games left to get points ourselves. And a manager, CEO and Chairman who have taken the biggest disaster in any of our lifetimes (except those still alive who saw WWII) and used it to our advantage.
 


rogersix

Well-known member
Jan 18, 2014
8,202
I don't know. That is the point, none of us do.

we've got a very shrewd guess tho'

No he doesn't. He took a gamble based on the information he had at hand at the time, that doesn't include absolute factual knowledge of what happens if he doesn't make the change.


All we can say is that the change doesn't appear to have cost us our place in the premier league this year.

the lack of a time machine is what makes it a very good decision by TB
 
















Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
7,367
To understand the reaction of the ex pro pundit community to Chris's sacking you have to consider a number of their motivations.

The first is that, for the large majority of his tenure, Chris Hughton did do an excellent job as Brighton manager. Given the facts about his full term as Brighton manager, he would have every right to be shocked and disappointed at his sacking. Only those who saw a lot of the later matches would fully understand that the downturn was looking permanent and irretrievable and would understand that it was only the late timing of the collapse that had allowed the club to avoid relegation. Those who watched closely saw that, if nothing changed, the drop had been merely delayed, not avoided. It was my impression that the reaction of good football journalists rather than pundits was more understanding of the reasons for the change.

Secondly, Chris Hughton is, and has for a long time been, a genuinely decent and honourable man, liked and respected by a huge number of people in the game. He had already been treated fairly shoddily by Newcastle and people, especially those who knew him, felt sympathy for him and disapproved of any sniff that he may not have got a fair crack of the whip. Add in the fact that he was a champion for both the truly under-represented BME football manager community and the self imagined under-represented 'proper British' manager community and you could understand why a lot of people may want to voice negative opinions about his sacking.

A less fact based motivation is that the large majority of the pundit community is made up of ex pros who have played for teams in the top six or eight teams in the country. Many of them are of the view that football needs a strong Man United/Liverpool/Arsenal/Everton (insert whichever teams they used to play for and those that they saw as their rivals). They do tend to be of the view that this elite closed shop cannot and should not be challenged by new money arrivistes. To be fair to them. this kind of conservatism is also common in football fan circles and is responsible for the throwing around of terms like 'plastics'. However, this attitude is not shared by successful entrepreneurs, who are more likely to want to challenge orthodoxy, and less likely to believe that they cannot bend situations to their will. We see Tony Bloom as one of us, but his business success would certainly suggest that he has this streak in him. He is respected in football circles, but sometimes his ambition will conflict with this conservatism.

Finally, I think that we have to accept two underlying truths about the sacking, 1) that it was done in, what seemed from the outside, a fairly ruthless way. Thanks and goodbye. No pre-announcement, so that Chris could say goodbye, no negotiation about a mutual parting of the ways that may have allowed him to save face. As fans who have the interests of the club at heart, we can understand that there may have been reasons for this and we are more ready to forgive ruthlessness in the interests of the greater good than outsiders would be. 2) That, on previous evidence, the odds seemed stacked against Tony Bloom. The fact that Graham Potter arrived, instilled his way of playing and achieved a complete turnaround in a group of players who were not used to expansive football, is fairly unheralded. We all saw, and probably feared, the Palace experience with De Boer. There seemed a good chance that we may have followed suit. The fact that we haven't is a great testament to the ability, determination and application of the whole group, players, staff, coaches, owners and administrators.

I wouldn't be too harsh on those who predicted failure, or even those who wished it on us. There is a bit of me that knows that, had it been similar circumstances at another club, (Leicester and Ranieri anyone?) I may have reacted in a similar way. It looks like we may have now survived to fight for another season. If we do, it will have been another struggle against the odds, just done in a different way than we did under Chris. Opportunities that did not seem possible before Chris's sacking now may seem to open up. However, it is worth remembering that Chris Hughton's best season in the Premier League saw the Norwich board seeming to think that they had become a fixture in the league and that they could now look up with confidence. It's never the case for clubs of our size. In a couple of months time, if we have survived, we will be once again appearing in the list of favourites for relegation for 2020/21. It will once again take a mammoth effort from all to ensure that we don't follow where Norwich went that year and are heading again this year.
 






neilbard

Hedging up
Oct 8, 2013
6,280
While the rest of your post is reasonable, this is superstitious nonsense.

36 points has been enough to stay up the last three seasons. And can you really see Watford getting 9 points in 5 games, Bournemouth 10 in 5 and Villa 10 in 6? REALLY?

We are not mathematically safe but we are safe and it has been done with (at times) style, (at times) pragmatism and much of the same psychological and moral courage we saw under Hughton. The OP is absolutely spot on, with the exception that the person owed an apology is Tony Bloom.

What a load of sanctimonious claptrap, the people who are owed an apology are the supporters, its been dire at times this season, how soon people forget when we are virtually safe.

Villa @ home, Palace @ home, Southampton @ home, Leicester @ home, Sheffied Utd @ home all defeats.

West Ham @ home, Burnley @ home, Wolves @ home, Chelsea @ home (decent), Watford @ home all draws..

Yes we have played well at times but not enough times, unless you attended the Spurs, Everton or Chelsea games this season which sadly I didn't then you would have been a tad peeved.

The two hundred and twenty mile round trip to watch the Albion this season has been a tad disappointing to say the least.:shrug:
 


GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,186
Gloucester
do we think that this quality of player would have signed for hughts?

Yes. Hughton was a far higher profile than Potter.

Whether Hughton would have had a better season with two or three top additions to the team (particularly midfielders who could boss the midfield, get into the penalty area and chip in with a fair few goals) we'll never know. You don't know; I certainly don't; even Uncle Tony doesn't - he backed his hunch that the change to Potter would be the best thing, and it seems to have worked out OK - but nobody will ever know what would have happened if Hughton had gone again with the right additions. You may have an opinion, but that's all it is.
 


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