Brighton & Hove Albion - a most remarkable football club

[Mackenzie]

Personally i do think its time for a change ...but only after the last three matches..as i perhaps have been more patient than some (quite a few)....but what i am finding hard to take is this almost hate for a man who perhaps only a year ago was almost seen as untouchable (note i don't think anyone is beyond criticism) how times change.....Bloom a man who has transformed this club in terms of a stadium and appointing 2 managers who have given us a promotion and 2 play offs with a chance to be promoted to the Premier league....we are now experiencing our worst season for a while ...but we've had a heck of a lot worse and yet you would have though from so many posts that he has never presided over any success at Brighton. Perhaps its time for some to stop throwing there toys out of the pram.

Absolutely. Tony Bloom is a shrewd fella, this is hurting him as much as us. I'd have sacked Hyypia weeks ago (I think he's hopeless), BUT I'm happy to trust his judgement. Sorry Attila, Harty and the rest.

 

[Peter_Taylor]

I think people are misinterpreting me.

I don't believe Hyypia should still have his job, and I'm struggling to believe he still has. Hell, I even spent £4.99 on www.HasHyypiaBeenSackedYet.com

BUT, if he isn't sacked (and it doesn't seem to be imminent) and he does go on to turn it around, it WOULD be another remarkable chapter in the life of our football club. Massive risk though.

I think you are right. I would go further and say that this is another key point in the history of the club. I think that it goes further than who is manager at the end of the week, or even what division we are in at the end of the season, it is a struggle for the SOUL of the football club. We will know pretty soon who actually does run this football club is it Tony Bloom or will he eventually bow to the pressure of a growing and increasingly hostile band of supporters.

If he toughs it out and SH eventually puts a run of victories together then he will be able to take stock at the end of the season and make strategic decision for the future of the club. However, if he gives way after sticking his neck out time and time again in support of Sami then every decision he makes in future will be subject to equal scrutiny and criticism. The supporters target will move on to Burke and Barber and on and on. The doomsday scenario may be that Bloom thinks enough is enough and flogs the club. Hey, that may be the making of the club and we would end up with proper fans' representation on the board.

 

[ROSM]

But surely what we fought for, was the right to be a NORMAL club - for the right to only have to worry about our team being shit, and the manager needing to be sacked, rather than worrying about the club's very existance. Well, we've got that.

You are right of course. There are so many clubs up and down the country who are squeezing their fans until the pips squeak and bombarding them with marketing 101 style campaigns

In that sense we are normal. Doesnt make it right though. And is something I desperately hoped we wouldn't become. I believed that a lifelong fan with sound business sense such as Tony Bloom who is a god to all albion fans (quite rightly) would not do that

 

[narly101]

I will be going to the Boxing Day game, primarily for the very simple reason that I have never in my life seen the Albion play football on Boxing Day. If Sami is still in charge in the new year, however, I too will cease attending matches. It's no longer an enjoyable day out for me.

 

[martin tyler]

Amazing work by the club to take a team on an upward spiral on the way to the Prem with 30k crowds to a team on it's way to League 1 and losing half your support in a few months, most remarkable

Spot on. The club seem to have disengaged with fans and what we want.

 

[martin tyler]

Just a shame the club seem to have outgrown the fans they used to rely on.

This and its quite sad to see

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Amazing work by the club to take a team on an upward spiral on the way to the Prem with 30k crowds to a team on it's way to League 1 and losing half your support in a few months, most remarkable

I wonder if thats the plan and Barber is being bonused as such., Wouldnt surprise me at all.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

Well a few more will carry on voting with their feel like ROSM. In fact its quite sad hearing long standing, grizzled veteran Albion fans thinking of throwing the towel in

Im close mysellf I will admit all the while that ****wit is in charge.

 

[martin tyler]

Bozza. Hyypia was sacked by Leverkusen after one win in 12. He now has 4 in 33. The German fans I was talking to a couple of weeks ago when I was there were saying exactly the same things about him as we are. This isn't a recent phenomenon. HYYPIA OUT: Board not being 'special' if he stays, Board being STUPID!

This is spot on. He has a 12% win ration in that time. That should be enough to get anyone sacked. Not sure what the board are watching as i do not see any light at the end of the tunnel. The only thing special about the board currently is that thy appear to have gone blind or they are to pig headed to admit they have made a mistake.

 

[Biscuit]

We were playing like a Premier League side under Poyet, and if he had had Ulloa all season I think we would have made it. How we've managed to go from "We're ****ing brilliant" to where we are now is almost unfathomable.

Fans will put up with Barber's marketing talk when things are going well on the pitch, but as soon as you take your eye off what's important (i.e the TEAM) the whole house of cards fall down. Poyet knew that. That's why he wanted out if the on-field investment wasn't where he wanted it to be. We hit the ceiling, good and proper.

Someone, at some level, is being extremely stubborn. It's time they woke up and smelt the coffee. If we're struggling to operate under FFP in the Championship, you just wait and see us sink without trace in League One.

 

[spanish flair]

That's the thing that frustrates me the most. We could have been different, like we so often have been in the past. The first season at the Amex was fantastic, the atmosphere was great, it certainly felt as if we could be THAT club who didn't conform to the detestable standards of modern English football... until PB came along.

I feel now, that we are no longer fans or even customers, but just little BHA bank accounts that Barber feels he has the right to draw from at will.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Paying you would leave an audit trail. He's far to clever for that.

You could almost have said that this is remarkable as the club that killed the goose laying golden eggs via its ham fisted current strategy

Because for now having given way to much of my life on albion matters these last 20 years, I too am out, primarily due to the product on the pitch and the marketing and comms strategy off it.

Ten years ago, on the first Saturday afternoon of the close season, I bumped into a bored-looking ROSM in Currys. My worry is that the next time that happens it won't be the close season.

Right now, the club is machine gunning itself in the foot.

 

[Simster]

Personally, I've never really had a problem with this idea that the club becomes more "customer focussed", I really haven't. Because in reality, that simply means being aware of how the supporters feel and doing things to improve value for money.

But nothing about this club shows it being customer focussed at all. Utterly turd business in the summer, followed by bland nose-tapping "a team you will pleased with" arrogance, and 3 months on with 99% of season ticket holders wanting the manager out, and the club dead bats everything. They've not met the disgruntlement with anything approaching empathy. It is disgraceful to be honest. WTF are these people being paid their absurd salaries for?

 

[Lincoln Imp]

Everything you say is true, but it stops short of going on to any dissection of our current on-field travails. They are squarely the result of Sami's lack of nous. For a few games, the 'bedding in' excuse was reasonable. Then for a few more, there were a couple of results that were plain unlucky. But not now - its gone on too long. THREE wins in TWENTY games, and no signs that he has what it takes to halt the slide.

Sorry, enough is enough.

And likewise, everything you say is correct. Unfortunately though, Sami is the result of a shambles not the cause of it.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

But surely what we fought for, was the right to be a NORMAL club - for the right to only have to worry about our team being shit, and the manager needing to be sacked, rather than worrying about the club's very existance. Well, we've got that.

If they only thing you're worrying about is the manager needing to be sacked I am deeply jealous.

 

[Birdie Boy]

I would love to finish mid table. You can start blooding youngsters.

Are we not already? have you seen the midfield!

 

[portslade seagull]

Paying you would leave an audit trail. He's far to clever for that.

You could almost have said that this is remarkable as the club that killed the goose laying golden eggs via its ham fisted current strategy

Because for now having given way to much of my life on albion matters these last 20 years, I too am out, primarily due to the product on the pitch and the marketing and comms strategy off it.

Feel much the same ROSM can't see any reason for me to renew my ST after 28yrs and have missed the last 2-games and will give Reading a miss as well ( Unless Hyppia leaves or is sacked b4 then )

 

[Ernest]

Feel much the same ROSM can't see any reason for me to renew my ST after 28yrs and have missed the last 2-games and will give Reading a miss as well ( Unless Hyppia leaves or is sacked b4 then )

Missed the last 2 matches myself and don't feel I'm missing a lot now, the heart has been ripped out of the club

 

[somerset]

Well a few more will carry on voting with their feel like ROSM. In fact its quite sad hearing long standing, grizzled veteran Albion fans thinking of throwing the towel in

Im close mysellf I will admit all the while that ****wit is in charge.

I have been watching regularly since mid seventies ( a few gaps here and there)..... but no more.....I feel sorry for the newer fans, they have had all their 'new-stadium' hopes dashed.

 

[Goldstone1976]

Our back story is remarkable for sure, and if Sami is kept on and gets us to mid-table mediocrity, that would be another, much smaller, chapter in the book as it would give us bragging rights over clubs that get rid of the manager at a drop of a hat (or even, given our run of form, at the drop of every single stitch of clothing).

I can't believe TB doesn't see our league position is unacceptable (he'd have to be just plain stupid, which we know he isn't). Nor can I believe that he'd just accept us walking into L1, still less that there is a grand plan to get relegated, as some have postulated. The only explanations I can see for the current lack of action are:

1 TB believes that Sami will turn it round &/or
2 TB doesn't want to pay Sami off &/or
3 irrespective of 1 and 2, TB believes that he should give Sami every last opportunity to turn it round, even if he doesn't think it will happen. You know - common decency.

Personally, I don't think Sami will or even can turn it round. I don't think he can motivate the players any longer, irrespective of formation, team selection or tactics. Sami needs to go; the sooner the better.

While I'm expressing opinions, I might as well go the whole hog:

David Burke out too - the ratio of good players to bad brought in isn't high enough for my liking, and it seems that the ratio has worsened since Gus left, indicating, to me, that a decent amount of kudos for the good players we did bring in belongs fairly to Gus.

Paul Barber in though. He's done what I understand to be his job pretty well as far as I can see. I attach little blame to him for the on-the-pitch woes, although it does seem that there was antipathy between him and Gus, which may have played a part in Gus' departure, so he may well have had an indirect effect on the on-the-pitch situation. Also, I'm not at all convinced that a replacement for PB would be any better than PB himself - indeed it's quite likely s/he'd be worse.