Brighton & Hove Albion sign Sheffield United winger Jamie Murphy on a four-yeat deal

[One Teddy Maybank]

The game vs Birmingham at the Amex is my absolute favourite Amex game, whereas the Amex game vs Millwall last season my worst ever Amex misery.

I reckon the Hughton era has been far better than the Sami one.

To be fair, it wasn't difficult Hyypia was just dreadful.

 

[Machiavelli]

Absolutely not.
The previous 4 months are easily the next worse, but at least things happened.

Sure it was usually bad things involving the opposition playing the ball into space where fullbacks once were.
But stuff happened, we had an occasion good game and a fair few shockers.

The Hughton 4 months was devoid of anything that even resembled football, let alone excitement.
Naturally v Leeds is the exception that proves the rule.

vs Leeds and, even more so, vs Ipswich.
Would you go that far?
ps I'm not totally against your analysis on the SH vs CH reigns

 

[Thunder Bolt]

CJ backs-up Chairman shocker - hold the front page! ;-)

Seriously, the purse strings were a little too tight for my liking last season... about £15M in player sales received, about 1 fifth of that spent on poor quality acquisitions.

We haven't received all the money from player sales yet. The wages BILL last season was £20M without transfers.

 

[Justice]

Absolutely not.
The previous 4 months are easily the next worse, but at least things happened.

Sure it was usually bad things involving the opposition playing the ball into space where fullbacks once were.
But stuff happened, we had an occasion good game and a fair few shockers.

The Hughton 4 months was devoid of anything that even resembled football, let alone excitement.
Naturally v Leeds is the exception that proves the rule.

Not sure Mourhino would of done much better with what he had available. Last season was all about staying up not playing perfect football.

 

[Mowgli37]

But you can't say in relation to next season 'with COG and Baldock playing together...', when Hughton refused to play that formation all of last season.

I was defending the players, not the manager. I don't see your point. Yes, it is likely that they won't be played together and assuming no striker comes in (though I'm sure one will) that would be Hughton's fault for not playing to the strength of his squad.

 

[NooBHA]

Strange how I completely agree.

We became a well organised defensive unit, even when we NEEDED goals.

One dullest of dullard performance after the next, as we slowly flirted ever more with relegation.
Hughton never did anything other than reign in the full backs and play even more holding midfielders.

It was like watching Poyet on prozac.

It may well have been boring to watch under CH but he knew that he needed to keep clean sheets to pick up points, given that the strikers were not scoring. Enough points to stay up. That preserved championship status which gives us a platform to move on from.

if we had been relegated we would never be able to attract decent players for this coming season, so job done as far as I'm concerned. lets wait and see who he brings an and see where this season takes us.

 

[JBizzle]

I was defending the players, not the manager. I don't see your point. Yes, it is likely that they won't be played together and assuming no striker comes in (though I'm sure one will) that would be Hughton's fault for not playing to the strength of his squad.

I think that part of the problem was the relative lack of strength in the squad, no?

 

[Mowgli37]

I think that part of the problem was the relative lack of strength in the squad, no?

I'm not for a moment suggesting that an attack force of O'Grady, Baldock and Colunga would be enough to get us up, I was defending them against the accusation of being rampantly shit.

 

[Diego Napier]

Didnt he score something like 16 goals im the championship for barnsley?

For God's sake man! Don't let facts get in the way!

It's the opinion of the NSC Brain's Trust that he's sh*t at Championship level.

 

[Stat Brother]

This is all academic anyway.

If Hughton starts the first 4 months of the season, how he finished the last 4 months, he'll be gone by November anyway.

 

[GT49er]

But you can't say in relation to next season 'with COG and Baldock playing together...', when Hughton refused to play that formation all of last season.

But COG and Baldock were playing together when Baldock got injured and out for the rest of the season.

 

[durrington gull]

I'm not for a moment suggesting that an attack force of O'Grady, Baldock and Colunga would be enough to get us up, I was defending them against the accusation of being rampantly shit.

Lge1 strikeforce - woeful

 

[chaileyjem]

Lge1 strikeforce - woeful

COG hasn't played in L1 for 4 years. Colunga doesn't play in L1 , he plays in La Liga. Baldock was L1 last season. He scored more than Calum Wilson. Who is now a Prem League striker. Gulp.

 

[Bombadier Botty]

Advance apologies: Jamie Murphy sounds like he could be a hit, but maybe we don't do hits.

 

[severnside gull]

This 1901 issue comes up on here more than the cup final money but i never quite grasp it. I'm not underestimating it but we always need a good season, and new ideas to help with season ticket renewal and keep ticket sales high , let alone 1901 renewals. Every year. Our match day / ticket revenue is one of the highest in the league but even the relatively small falls in recent seasons of ST holders from a peak of 22.5K to a likely 20K this season have had impact on the bottom line.

But the argument that its only now and because of the "1901 renewals" that the board have woken up or should wake up to the idea that a good season on the pitch might somehow involve digging deep and investing in the squad and that might in the end sell a few tickets. I guess the chairman worked that out a while ago in his 6 long years at the club . Probably at that point in the year, every year, when he sits down to write that £10m-15m cheque to underwrite the losses mostly caused by the eye watering salaries of the first team squad.

You're probably right but given that 1901 club members pay an average 2 to 3 times as much as standard STH's (plus the £500 enrolment fee for the majority) the loss of a couple of thousand of them with resultant lounge closures and further job losses is probably enough of a potential jolt to get the money men worrying.

That's not trying to big-up 1901 members btw. The vast majority seem to be normal fans rather than your archetypal "corporates" and therefore more likely to give up the somewhat dubious benefits of membership than those relative few whose seats are paid for by a company.

 

[Hampster Gull]

For God's sake man! Don't let facts get in the way!

It's the opinion of the NSC Brain's Trust that he's sh*t at Championship level.

Good point. I wll ignore the fact Ulloa scored 16 for us in his best year and fall into line.

COG OUTTTTTTTT

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

Good point. I wll ignore the fact Ulloa scored 16 for us in his best year and fall into line.

COG OUTTTTTTTT

Leo scored virtually a goal every 2 games for us.

COG's record at Championship and below is worse than a goal every 4 games.

 

[Hampster Gull]

Leo scored virtually a goal every 2 games for us.

COG's record at Championship and below is worse than a goal every 4 games.

I would take Ulloa any day over COG. That said COG has proved he can score at this level. Could be an important cog as part of wider team of strikers.

 

[JBizzle]

I'm not for a moment suggesting that an attack force of O'Grady, Baldock and Colunga would be enough to get us up, I was defending them against the accusation of being rampantly shit.

Fair enough. You could go one step further and say the difference between Murray and Ulloa and O'Grady is that the former two had Lopez, Buckley, Lua Lua, Noone, E. Bennett, Bridge, Vicente, Barnes etc to cross the ball. O'Grady had a an albeit promising Teixeira, a converted striker, a diminished Lua Lua and a pushed up right back for support.

I genuinely think Ulloa and Murray would have struggled in this team (although probably not to the same extent as they're both better players that O'Grady). One of the real issues with having no real width or creativity is your strikers immediately look sh!t.

 

[Ninja Elephant]

LuaLua is rubbish and so is COG.

Get rid of both of them asap and replace them with footballers of talent and quality. Anyone can see Colunga is a good player, but we need to be smarter about how he is used. LuaLua and COG are just rubbish footballers, they won't be a part of a team pushing for promotion from this league.