Brighton & Hove Albion - a most remarkable football club

[Knotty]

I've nothing against FFP, I just don't want to hear about it every five bloody minutes.

It's cold, uninspiring, and very very dull.

Great, adhere to it, and occasionally - very occasionally - let us know.

Of course we want our club to be run properly but it's not like any other business. It's a club first, business second.

The sooner this is realised, the better.

And, if they do want to keep referring to us as customers, the 'customer' is always right.

Therefore, Hyypia out.

Without the business being run properly the club might not exist. FFP has to mentioned in response to those who want us to spend, spend, spend.

We were customers from the moment we bought our first match ticket or teddy bear from the club shop and "the customer is always right" is a saying that is so frequently wrong that it is meaningless.

I would, however, agree that on the subject of 'Hyypia out', the customers are correct on this occasion.

 

[sydney]

yes Bozza , we are a remarkable club.......but we have changed tack in the last three years , the skipper has questionable knowledge although his commitment cannot be faulted or questioned in any way....he is a busy man and has to go on shore leave regularly, the rap-scallions he leaves to do his bidding whilst he is away are akin to a cluster of barnacles upon a narwhal's bollii....ie they are ill equipped to view a smooth passage forward.......and perilously close to a big load of arse...!!

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Wigan are a remarkable club. I think they made a mistake getting rid of their last two experienced managers

A mistake that just could make a difference ?

Wigan are non league + a rich guy = still tinpot

 

[drew]

I've nothing against FFP, I just don't want to hear about it every five bloody minutes.

It's cold, uninspiring, and very very dull.

Great, adhere to it, and occasionally - very occasionally - let us know.

Of course we want our club to be run properly but it's not like any other business. It's a club first, business second.

The sooner this is realised, the better.

And, if they do want to keep referring to us as customers, the 'customer' is always right.

Therefore, Hyypia out.

I'm sure on the other side of the coin the club will say that if people stopped banging on about the budget available for the team then they wouldn't have to keep pointing out the constraints of FFP!

The business side of the club is inextricably linked to the playing side.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Every club makes bad managerial appointments. Adams Mark 2 and Hinsh apart, everyone since the appointment of Horton has made some sort of positive contribution on the road to the 2013/14 Play-Offs. The fact that Hyypia has been an unmitigated disaster is by no means a historical landmark.

It is the board's reaction to his implosion that could be the historic factor.

Adams & Hinsh had decade + of coaching/managing/training teams experience. With Hyppia it's like lending a just passed 17 year old your Ferrari

 

[Soul Finger]

I'm sure on the other side of the coin the club will say that if people stopped banging on about the budget available for the team then they wouldn't have to keep pointing out the constraints of FFP!

The business side of the club is inextricably linked to the playing side.

Totally missing my point.

 

[Mellor 3 Ward 4]

Very obviously not going to happen though, is it? This isn't like the early days of Poyet where even though we weren't getting the results, you could see what he was trying to do, the passing culture he was trying to instil. This is mayhem with no structure or logic.

This is the point isn't it.

He's completely clueless. We are a shambles, and sleepwalking to League 1.

The players look lost, the formation is disjointed, tactics are baffling, he has no idea as to his best team (yet keeps the same midfield three on Friday that he realised after 20 minutes at Derby wasn't working!)

When he came, he put Kaz in the middle, played two full backs as wingers, and watched how teams picked us off. "I'm not changing" said Sami, "the players just need to learn the system."

Well he changed the system, because our players were unable (or unwilling) to learn the system, but its become even more apparent that he hasn't got a clue. He continues to pick Gardener (which meant recalling a league one left back at the expense of Joe Bennett) and leaves out Ince who was our best midfield player at Derby.

FFS Tony, hold your hands up and admit you've made a mistake - most employers have employed someone they later regret, Fans would respect you more if you just admitted Sami was a mistake. Nice guy, but a mistake.

Oh, and Jones and Burke have to go too - I'd keep Barber, as far as finances are concerned, he's doing what he has to do, but tell him to keep his mouth shut a bit - I thought his programme notes smacked of 'sit down, shut up'. Burke has made far too many (expensive) mistakes if you add up Kemy, Baldock, Toko, Colunga etc etc. It's an unbelievable situation that we sign 7 players in the summer, yet NONE were on the pitch on Friday night.

We're going nowhere except League 1 under Sami.

 

[Hotchilidog]

May I ask why you think Barber seems to be doing his job well? Would genuinely like to see things from your point of view.

From where I'm sitting - judging by the growing ill feeling amongst the fans, decreasing attendances, league position, recruitment policy, playing squad, corporate nonsense and so on - he is doing a terrible job.

From my point of view Barber has done his job by meeting the FFP target and overseeing the transformation of the business from a withdean sized one to an Amex sized one.

Attendances are low because the team is shit. The last time I checked barber wasn't the man scouting the players, picking the team and devising the tactics, other people are employed to do that and it is they who are failing.

Whilst some fans are alienated, only a cursory glance at this board will confirm that. However I am somewhat mystified as to how the club has broken it's contract with the support other than serving up a shit team this season. I've been (un)fortunate to get to quite a few away games and I prefer the Amex everyday. If people do make a complaint to Barber he appears to go above and beyond in responding to concerns and he does at least explain himself even if you take issue with his answer. Although I wonder for how much longer he will consider this a worthwhile pursuit given the ridiculous amount of lack he seems to get.

We are no longer a cottage industry, we are now in the business of football. On the pitch we are quite laughable at the moment, off it I'd say we are in pretty good shape.

It's not the business decisions that are wrong at the Albion right now, it is the FOOTBALL decisions that are going astray, and it those decisions that need taking care of. Everything else is just missing the point. Having a go at Barber is going to do nothing to make JFC, Ince and Gardner an effective midfield or Chris O'Grady a 20 goal striker.

The budget is another red herring, it's how that budget is spent which is the problem, and it is not Paul barber deciding who we spend our budget on, it appears to be Burke and the manager with Bloom and Barber signing off.

Also can someone define the corporate nonsense? What is it, it doesn't seem to affect me. I go to the game have a beer, a pie, a lousy 90 minutes and then an enjoyable post mortem afterwards. All of which is done without encountering 'corporate nonsense'.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Despite all the bickering and in-fighting going on right now, I'd hope there is one thing that we can all agree on: Brighton & Hove Albion is a pretty remarkable football club.

Our back story is pretty much unrivalled in British football, and almost certainly beyond these shores as well. The demise of the Goldstone, the triumph at Edgar Street, the Gillingham exile, the return to Brighton, the almost endless campaigning which finally resulted in the Temple of Bloom, the fairytale opening day comeback to beat Doncaster and the oh-so-close attempts to reach the promised land of the Premier League. Remarkable, truly remarkable.

Is another chapter of remarkable-ness being written right now? When almost every other football club would have parted ways with Sami Hyypia by now, the Albion seem to be standing firm. Showing loyalty in the face of adversity, considerable fan pressure and giving him every chance possible to turn it round. It would be one hell of a comeback if Hyypia did manage to drag us out of this most boggy mire.


(Looking forward to the insta-replies suggesting that Paul Barber has paid me to write this)

Shame the fans have turned into unremarkable premiere moaning whinger types!

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

Bozza, you can't make out your face in all of the photos and many of the ladies we merely removing their clothes as it was so hot, I'd try to brazen this one out if I were you, not resorting to this. Seriously though I do agree but I, like many, wish to make a choice on my time as well as my money and for me, even after Withers etc, I'm probably out, but wise words

 

[Thunder Bolt]

Shame the fans have turned into unremarkable premiere moaning whinger types!

You've never whinged once, have you?

 

[Return of the Rev]

You've never whinged once, have you?

Never about the team and only managers i could not stomach were poyet and bazzer the true visionary!

 

[Seagull73]

So right...this is now turning into a " everything about the club is shit" debate?

For the last two seasons, we have missed out on promotion to the premiershite by in effect 4 games...for various reasons, two managers decided to walk away, one of them believing that he had been undermined by the appointment of someone he obviously didn't get on with and probably seeing the FFP " ceiling" as a hinderence to buying players he thought he needed to get us there, and the second walked away from the club without really telling us the reasons ( although if truth be knows, as good as he was, the majority of fans hated his style of play and we're starting to shuffle their feet)

We then appoint a manager who had pedigree, champions league etc and who it was thought would help.

It has been said many times by the management of the club that losses were unsustainable and under FFP, which the club signed up for, we were going. To have to tighten our belts. Over that period, Along comes a Premiership side who offers us what we assume was decent money for two players bridcutt and Buckley, then our prize asset who many though papered over the cracks last year, is sold for stupid money, before that a hard working player who scored important goals , who took stick from sections of the crowd also goes.

The management took the decision to rip up the spine of the team from last year and then replaced Orlandi, Rodriguez, Lopez, PIG, with players who it appears are more in our price range. Under this Sami was asked to work and to use loanees and bit part players who other clubs do not want.

Now, after all that you can look at the season and yes we have some shocking results, and our position does not lie, BUT to throw all of the results at sami's door is not fair. Players have not stepped up to the mark...we can all see it. It's there in front of us. Bent is a great signing but needs service. Who would have though Elliott Bennett was not half the player he was when he left us? Toxi blows hot and cold, and hola seems to be out of contention now we are playing the loanees before contracted players ( some say we have to or we won't get loanees come here).

If Sami is to go, and it may be that he is, then ok. The problem is the club has chosen to go down the route of financial stability, and that is life until our youngsters step up. The thing is that is not going to be for a few years. The " premiership ready" comment was always going to come back to bite us on the bum...and it has.

The problem the club have is expectation...and that is never going to be achieved if the expectation is that we are going to be a premiership team with loanees and players who are untested in England. You can lay that at the door at the management of the club, but suggesting as some on here are that Bloom should feck off is rediculous in the extreme.

So, in other words, Tony Bloom / Paul Barber were lying when they said that we would have a squad capable of challenging for the play-offs? Because that's what they said.

 

[Hungry Joe]

So, in other words, Tony Bloom / Paul Barber were lying when they said that we would have a squad capable of challenging for the play-offs? Because that's what they said.

No, on paper we have a squad good enough for a top six finish. What we don't appear to have is a manager capable of playing a system that works, selecting the best eleven available, having enough tactical nouse or the requisite motivational skills to get anywhere near delivering on that promise. The problem isn't TB appointing Hyypia in the first place, although in hindsight it is questionable, or the rallying noises made before the season start, it's his apparent intransigence in dealing with the calamity that Hyypia's appointment has turned into.

 

[Seagull73]

No, on paper we have a squad good enough for a top six finish. What we don't appear to have is a manager capable of playing a system that works and motivating the players enough to get anywhere near delivering that promise. The problem isn't TB appointing Hyypia in the first place, although in hindsight it is questionable, or the rallying noises made before the season start, it's his apparent intransigence in dealing with the calamity that Hyypia's appointment has turned into.

OK, so the recruitment work done by Burke and his team is ok as well?
This situation is all Hyypia?

 

[Hungry Joe]

OK, so the recruitment work done by Burke and his team is ok as well?
This situation is all Hyypia?

Of course it isn't, where have I said that?

 

[Seagull73]

Of course it isn't, where have I said that?

I'm not having a go at you personally, you just happened to respond..!
However, you said on paper that our squad is capable of top six - which would suggest that the recruitment isn't that bad?

 

[Hungry Joe]

I'm not having a go at you personally, you just happened to respond..!
However, you said on paper that our squad is capable of top six - which would suggest that the recruitment isn't that bad?

Not taken personally, but I have made plenty of posts/started threads that have made my views clear on the deeper issues as I see them, including Burke, Barber & Co. Appreciate you may not have seen them.

I believe the squad we have is capable of a top six finish in terms of quality. That's not the same as saying the recruitment policy is right. Not one of the seven Summer signings played against Millwall. That would suggest the recruitment policy is deeply flawed.

 

[Cloughie]

From my point of view Barber has done his job by meeting the FFP target and overseeing the transformation of the business from a withdean sized one to an Amex sized one.

Attendances are low because the team is shit. The last time I checked barber wasn't the man scouting the players, picking the team and devising the tactics, other people are employed to do that and it is they who are failing.

Whilst some fans are alienated, only a cursory glance at this board will confirm that. However I am somewhat mystified as to how the club has broken it's contract with the support other than serving up a shit team this season. I've been (un)fortunate to get to quite a few away games and I prefer the Amex everyday. If people do make a complaint to Barber he appears to go above and beyond in responding to concerns and he does at least explain himself even if you take issue with his answer. Although I wonder for how much longer he will consider this a worthwhile pursuit given the ridiculous amount of lack he seems to get.

We are no longer a cottage industry, we are now in the business of football. On the pitch we are quite laughable at the moment, off it I'd say we are in pretty good shape.

It's not the business decisions that are wrong at the Albion right now, it is the FOOTBALL decisions that are going astray, and it those decisions that need taking care of. Everything else is just missing the point. Having a go at Barber is going to do nothing to make JFC, Ince and Gardner an effective midfield or Chris O'Grady a 20 goal striker.

The budget is another red herring, it's how that budget is spent which is the problem, and it is not Paul barber deciding who we spend our budget on, it appears to be Burke and the manager with Bloom and Barber signing off.

Also can someone define the corporate nonsense? What is it, it doesn't seem to affect me. I go to the game have a beer, a pie, a lousy 90 minutes and then an enjoyable post mortem afterwards. All of which is done without encountering 'corporate nonsense'.

In a nutshell; the "corporate nonsense" is where you have business people making football decisions and it is what people are blaming for the Poyet/Garcia departures. The general consensus is that the Suits are making the footballing decisions (recruitment, contract extensions managerial appointments et Al) and therein is the issue.

 

[Norman Baker suck my lozenge]

Paid ? Looks more like your family has been threatened.........

This