Be honest - are you truly excited about today?

[Guinness Boy]

I just replied to a blog post on TSLR about the disappearance of amusing articles on the Albion in which I admitted I was neither reading nor writing Albion blogs at the moment because I'm just so damn ambivalent and m'eh about the club currently.

You may think the most depressing times on NSC are the transfer window binfests or when people (including me on one thread) argue about immigration, but for me it was the two Paul Barber threads this week.

Where we currently are - at least in my mind - is in a position where we play entertaining football in great facilities with owners and a board who are the envy of many other clubs. BUT - we are losing £1 million a month for the privilege with no real prospect of this changing in the near future. The fans are being asked to buy more of stuff that we know is overpriced just to maintain the status quo. And if we actually want to start scoring and winning games we will either have to buy even more of the stuff or move on two brand new players who appear not to interest Sami in the slightest (and I don't even mean Kemi).

Or in other words I awoke this morning not bouncing out of bed with excitement but thinking 'here we go again, another £40 spend on a 1-1 draw'.

You?

 

[Wiggy Power]

As long as I see good football again I will come away content. A win would be great but it's the matchday experience I look forward too. UP THE ALBION!

 

[Albion Robster]

Me too.
I resent spending money at The Amex now, I rather spend my beer tokens in the local boozer before going to the game.
Spending £4.10 on a Pie is not realistic anymore...it's The Amex on the south coast, not bloody Wembley in the capital city of the country!

 

[scooter1]

I'm looking forward to a game of football again, that's for sure.
I spend what I spend, it's what i can afford on what I want to buy. Everything else around the club is beyond my control, but it's the club I've supported since I was a teenager, and considering where we've been, we're in a pretty good place now

 

[Bozza]

I am quite excited, yes. My postings yesterday were like someone approaching the end of term. In reality I think it was the reality of yet another international break culminating and that I had another Amex Saturday to look forward to at last.

However if I use NSC traffic as a measure of Albion fan engagement then a lot of people can't be arsed right now. The site has been very quiet.

 

[Insel affe]

I am expecting either another draw or a narrow defeat today, I feel that Sami is still building his squad and it won't fully understand the system until the later part of the year when I expect us to go on a little run. I have a feeling that next year will be the one when things fall into place and I fully expect a very good season, I have nothing to back this up just a hunch. Having said that I also expect us to beat Tottenham and somehow get to the semis, but today meh.

 

[Guinness Boy]

I am quite excited, yes. My postings yesterday were like someone approaching the end of term. In reality I think it was the reality of yet another international break culminating and that I had another Amex Saturday to look forward to at last.

However if I use NSC traffic as a measure of Albion fan engagement then a lot of people can't be arsed right now. The site has been very quiet.

Not just here. I can't be arsed and the point of the TSLR article was that other sites like We Are Brighton have gone quiet too. I'm not down on the club in any way and at 3 me and the boy will sing our hearts out but I find the outlining of our financial position in black and white, combined with our inability to win, quite depressing. Sami may well do something about the latter but I read PB's comments as stating there is nothing we can do about the former.

 

[Icy Gull]

I haven't been to a game for over a month so yes I am genuinely excited. I keep hearing how entertaining we are to watch in defeat and draws so that has peaked my interest. I am going in the expectation that a draw is the best I can hope for, I hope I don't come away too pissed off if that or a defeat is all we get.

My current expectation for the season is merely to avoid relegation so my mindset is not that we have to win games, as it has been for an number of seasons now.

I can do nothing about our financial predicament, so I'll stick my head in the sand on that one.

 

[The Merry Prankster]

I'm excited as always (hope springs eternal). The depressing part of the OP for me is that realistically we cannot eat enough pies to afford those one or two extra special players to get us to the PL. Given that Tony isn't going to splurge I think our only realistic chance of going up is if FFP actually works. Therefore I am expecting to be watching expensive Championship football in a PL ready environment for the foreseeable future.

 

[Crispy Ambulance]

Not massively excited, no. I think, come 5pm, the result will reflect that they're a very good top 6 side and we're hovering above the bottom 3. As the game is interspersed between the excitement of the Burgess Hill cup ties at Sutton last week and Dartford next, coupled with the transport issues, I'm going more in hope than expectation.

 

[MissGull]

Me too.
I resent spending money at The Amex now, I rather spend my beer tokens in the local boozer before going to the game.
Spending £4.10 on a Pie is not realistic anymore...it's The Amex on the south coast, not bloody Wembley in the capital city of the country!

Your excitement is measured by the cost of the pies? Ever wonder if you are going to the wrong place?

 

[Beach Hut]

Come on everyone, it is the match day experience we all crave isn't it ?

I enjoy the game, always do and a meeting the Mrs afterwards so a meal out in Brighton so what could be better ?

 

[FOOTSKI]

I am really looking forward to the game. We have a good side and i think we will have a good game against a side that want to win.

Winning games is what it's all about but I like clubs playing football rather than having a back eight. We see so many teams sitting back against us and it's boring, come to the amex and play and we the fans will go home entertained.

 

[BobbySmith]

Yes, excited and have been for over 50 years, if you are not excited, then you have a choice, don't go ! I am
Sure you could go shopping ?

 

[Buckeejit]

If I saw the name 'Paddy McCourt' in the starting line-up my excitement would be at a very high level...

 

[Guinness Boy]

Me too.
I resent spending money at The Amex now, I rather spend my beer tokens in the local boozer before going to the game.
Spending £4.10 on a Pie is not realistic anymore...it's The Amex on the south coast, not bloody Wembley in the capital city of the country!

Your excitement is measured by the cost of the pies? Ever wonder if you are going to the wrong place?

It's a very valid point given PBs comments about people expecting money to be spent on players while moaning at the prices at the same time. I think Paul is absolutely correct and therefore I can only forsee a future of waiting ages to pay over the top money to a student on their first day who can't pour a pint just to maintain where we are now. It's going to end up like Groundhog Day, possibly without The Zutons.

 

[LamieRobertson]

Start of a run of seeing Brighton on 4 consecutive saturdays for me..which is brill..looking forward to it

 

[Acker79]

Not massively excited, either. Last season I was ambivalent because the football was boring, despite good results. This season I feel ambivalent because I find the football frustrating. I feel like people are being bamboozled by the number of shots we have and are ignoring how so many of them are not the right choice, how many of them are just long range hit and hopes.

I also found the paul barber threads a little depressing, dampening my enthusiasm a bit more, and I'm not sure why, whether it's that they needed to be posted because of fan complaints, whether it's because they were just so (understandably) dully written, whether it was that it didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know, whether it was that it was another indication of how football is about money, or that it was (effectively) a board member posting on NSC because he didn't like the criticism - something we mock parish for on the palace board (though, at least barber didn't get drawn into a tit for tat argument).

 

[Blues Rock DJ]

It's always exciting to see the Albion win regardless of circumstances - I wish the atmosphere at the Amex was better though and we weren't experiencing an ever increasing amount of empty seats.

you haven't been excited much recently, then ! Giving it a swerve this week....

 

[Diego Napier]

Not just here. I can't be arsed and the point of the TSLR article was that other sites like We Are Brighton have gone quiet too. I'm not down on the club in any way and at 3 me and the boy will sing our hearts out but I find the outlining of our financial position in black and white, combined with our inability to win, quite depressing. Sami may well do something about the latter but I read PB's comments as stating there is nothing we can do about the former.

I can sympathise with (but not share) your downbeat mood but isn't PB pointing out the harsh financial realities of every club in the football league, certainly all those in the Championship, and not just us?

I know it's obvious but finance really has become the be all and end all. The Premiership has turned into a club, the wealthiest 4 or 6 or possibly 8 teams are permanent members who will never leave, the rest are just annual guests. Top teams buy up so many talented young players (Chelsea can afford to have have 22 players out on loan); Manchester United can afford to splurge £140M on a few players (after their owners take £40 profits out of the business); Arsenal can built a 60k seater stadium and pay for it in 5 years; Manchester City have the backing of billionnaires etc. that it's little wonder that the football world has become so distorted. The top teams employ many different professional at considersable cost to ensure their business model preserves and enhances the status quo. The knock-on effect to the lower leagues is inevitable. Unless we have a revolution similar to that in American football or hive off the top Premier League teams into an European super league or people stop watching football on Sky then things won't change.

Goodness me, I started to feel a bit down too; hey, it's match day! UTA!