For those who wanted Poyet "out" now is the time...

[KZNSeagull]

He's absolutely turned around the season with two sublime bits of business - the signing we've needed for so long, Ulloa, and the absolute rock at the back, Upson. We've been a different team since. Players like Lopez and Orandi now have a genuine outlet to aim for and are looking like genuinely class widemen as a result. He's completely learnt from last seasons failings, packing loads of uneccessary loan signings into the midfield and hoping for the best. Instead, we're consistent and really seem to gel now, with players like Hammond making significant contributions.

We're not looking as vulnerable away from home in spells under pressure because we're so much better in the air now - partially due to the support from Ulloa but mainly due to Upson. It's unfortunate for El-Abd, but we've looked vastly more comfortable without him in the side.

Ulloa is an absolute class act, his finishing is great, his hold up play is outstanding and he is basically a better version of Glenn. The song lyric is there, 'we won't mention Murray anymore' - all the millions of posts droning on about wanting him back, we no longer miss him because we've finally replaced him, which is what we've needed to do since moving in to The Amex.

Where we are now doesn't mean the doubters know nothing about football, but it does mean they (and I!) should show more faith. But at Christmas time we were underperforming. Failure to be in the play-offs with this squad would have been an underachievement, and it did look as though we were going to have no more points to show for than last season. Some of the performances pre-Ulloa were dire, well below what is capable with this squad. But credit to the man, he got his signing and we've played some superb football ever since - turning it around when it looked like we'd thrown it away in the away games at Bristol, Barnsley and Bolton.

There's still loads of things I can't stand about Gus - 2 prime examples this week; wading into the Suarez thing again and pimping himself out to Leeds for no reason. But you cannot deny that he's played an absolute blinder in the last couple of months, and where we are now is about where we should be with a squad of such quality (which he has successfully assembled and deserves credit for).

Hats off to him.

Your account been hacked?!

Spoilt it though with pimping comment - he says that every time we play Leeds. He likes them, but so what - he is still with us.

Otherwise a good post.

What we need is some of those that genuinely believed that Poyet should go (as I am not convinced that you did) to come out of the woodwork. But as I said before, they are being VERY quiet now.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

I recall making a few comments:
1. If we didn't make the playoffs we should maybe look for a new manager. Stand by that one.
2. He should have ensured we kept Murray. Finally, after 18 months, he has found a replacement, but it was too long coming so I also stand by that comment.
3. He should not have let Cook go. With another full-back problem on our hands I also believe that was a fair statement. Cook has done very well at B'mouth and would have been a good squad defender.

Having said that, Gus HAS got us into the playoffs (well done, Gus), he has found us a very good striker, and he doesn't rely so much on the boring tippy-tappy now that we have Ulloa.

I don't agree with any of that. We wanted progression so 8th (for example) would have represented that. I think Gus getting us into the play offs with a game to go (and 4th place is ours to lose) is an amazing achievement and shouldn't be underestimated.

Why can't we stop talking about Murray now? Last year, he barely scored for Palace and nobody mentioned him. Suddenly, when he got goals this season, everyone looks back and says Gus was wrong. I remember very few comments last season. Now we have a much better, more mobile version of Murray who was worth the wait. If we paid £2 million for Ulloa in January, how much is he worth now?

As for Cook, he plays centre back for Bournemouth, which is the position he wanted to play here. He didn't want to stay as back up so we allowed him to join Bournemouth. He didn't want to be a squad defender, he wanted to be first choice and he wasn't ready to do that in the Championship yet.

As for boring tippy tappy football, out of interest were you bored when we won League 1 with 4 games to spare?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Everybody out

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I recall making a few comments:
1. If we didn't make the playoffs we should maybe look for a new manager. Stand by that one.
2. He should have ensured we kept Murray. Finally, after 18 months, he has found a replacement, but it was too long coming so I also stand by that comment.
3. He should not have let Cook go. With another full-back problem on our hands I also believe that was a fair statement. Cook has done very well at B'mouth and would have been a good squad defender.

Having said that, Gus HAS got us into the playoffs (well done, Gus), he has found us a very good striker, and he doesn't rely so much on the boring tippy-tappy now that we have Ulloa.

Fair enough on all points.

 

[bhadebenhams]

Wilkins IN Poyet OUT

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I don't agree with any of that. We wanted progression so 8th (for example) would have represented that. I think Gus getting us into the play offs with a game to go (and 4th place is ours to lose) is an amazing achievement and shouldn't be underestimated.

Why can't we stop talking about Murray now? Last year, he barely scored for Palace and nobody mentioned him. Suddenly, when he got goals this season, everyone looks back and says Gus was wrong. I remember very few comments last season. Now we have a much better, more mobile version of Murray who was worth the wait. If we paid £2 million for Ulloa in January, how much is he worth now?

As for Cook, he plays centre back for Bournemouth, which is the position he wanted to play here. He didn't want to stay as back up so we allowed him to join Bournemouth. He didn't want to be a squad defender, he wanted to be first choice and he wasn't ready to do that in the Championship yet.

As for boring tippy tappy football, out of interest were you bored when we won League 1 with 4 games to spare?

This is a fair point too.... jeeze, where am I?

 

[Triggaaar]

I recall making a few comments:
1. If we didn't make the playoffs we should maybe look for a new manager. Stand by that one.

Ridiculous comment. If a couple of bad decisions had gone against us, or if the opposition had scored the odd wonder goal, we'd have missed out - that wouldn't have changed the fact that Gus is a good manager.

2. He should have ensured we kept Murray. Finally, after 18 months, he has found a replacement, but it was too long coming so I also stand by that comment.

Firstly, you don't know how hard he tried to keep Murray. The owners may have simply said no, we're not paying that much, and Gus could do nothing about it (we just don't know). Secondly, 18 months is not too long. He got CMS, which we all thought was a great signing, and getting decent strikers in for a reasonable price is really really difficult. He'd have liked Rhodes, but £8m is ridiculous, so we had to wait until we could afford a good striker.

3. He should not have let Cook go.

I don't really know there, too early to tell. B'mouth are a division below, so we don't know how Cook would have done for us.

Clubs that should be expecting to be in the playoffs with the cost of their squad are clubs like Leicester, Bolton and Blackburn. We're nowhere near the top 6 spenders, so to suggest Gus leave if we don't make the top 6 shows nothing but ignorance.

 

[Triggaaar]

Fair enough on all points.

I don't agree with any of that.

This is a fair point too.... jeeze, where am I?

 

[Withdean Wanderer]

You're trying to cover your own mistakes by suggesting the Lopez looked poor when you started that ridiculous thread. Of course all our players benefit from having Ulloa in the side, but Lopez is an excellent player with or without Ulloa.

- nope. Lopez was SHITE when he started out in the side and I don't disagree with my opinion at the time. But since the Newcastle game he's kicked on and been superb. Not trying to cover any mistakes, I've already put my hands up on this one - Dave is great, I was wrong.

It sounds like you're trying to patronise Gus - like you're speaking from a position of authority and greater knowledge. Are you giving him his appraisal this week?

Sorry, I forgot that I'm only allowed to make posts slating everyone and anything in capital letters.

But how does any of that effect how our team have performed, and how high we'll finish? It doesn't. Gus is 'the radio', so what, who cares, get over it.

Those two examples don't. There's loads fair few other niggly things that I don't particularly like about the man , but the fact is I want him to do well for Brighton & Hove Albion and at the moment he's doing so - happy days.

Good.

Response in bold.

 

[KZNSeagull]

3. He should not have let Cook go. With another full-back problem on our hands I also believe that was a fair statement. Cook has done very well at B'mouth and would have been a good squad defender.

The lad didn't want to stay and we didn't stand in his way. Good management - always a bad idea to keep unhappy players.

This is a fair point too.... jeeze, where am I?

 

[BensGrandad]

I recall making a few comments:
1. If we didn't make the playoffs we should maybe look for a new manager. Stand by that one.
2. He should have ensured we kept Murray. Finally, after 18 months, he has found a replacement, but it was too long coming so I also stand by that comment.
3. He should not have let Cook go. With another full-back problem on our hands I also believe that was a fair statement. Cook has done very well at B'mouth and would have been a good squad defender.

Having said that, Gus HAS got us into the playoffs (well done, Gus), he has found us a very good striker, and he doesn't rely so much on the boring tippy-tappy now that we have Ulloa.

That quite good 3 comments all totally wrong.

1 He never said or suggested that we would make the play off just wanted us to progress better than last season, which we have done.
2. When he let Murray leave he had Ulloa in his plans not his fault that the legal side took longer than he or anybody else expected.
3. Cook was way down the line and the move was a good move for both him and the club. He was no more a right back or us under Gus than El Abd and Gus has brought in 2 or arguably 3 better players for that position in Calderon, Bruno and Lopez.

 

[Woodchip]

Wheres porky pie?

I'm wondering what's happened to @Withdean Wanderer starting posts after every match. Too busy bum loving McGhee?

 

[vegster]

If we had converted just 6 of our 18 draws to wins we would have been up by now. It's terrible how his management has led to such highs and lows, frenetic and rabid debate, fans turning on each other and huge stress levels and the occasional epic performance.

It's not good enough, what we needed at the end of this season is the final table to read P 46 W15 D16 L15 F 46 A 46

 

[Triggaaar]

- nope. Lopez was SHITE when he started out in the side and I don't disagree with my opinion at the time. But since the Newcastle game he's kicked on and been superb. Not trying to cover any mistakes, I've already put my hands up on this one - Dave is great, I was wrong.

I don't agree that he was shite when he started, it just took time for him to shine. He's a foreign import, they often take a bit of time to adjust.

Those two examples don't. There's loads fair few other niggly things that I don't particularly like about the man , but the fact is I want him to do well for Brighton & Hove Albion and at the moment he's doing so - happy days.

Indeed, happy days. You don't need to be mates with Gus, you don't need to like the things he does. Same with players - many players are absolute tools, but if they're footballing geniuses, who cares.

 

[Sussex Nomad]

I'm wondering what's happened to @Withdean Wanderer starting posts after every match. Too busy bum loving McGhee?

Harsh, give the Nigel a chance.

 

[Alex Alex Dawson oo! oo!]

3. Cook was way down the line and the move was a good move for both him and the club. He was no more a right back or us under Gus than El Abd and Gus has brought in 2 or arguably 3 better players for that position in Calderon, Bruno and Lopez.

Quite. He's a centre half who made a total of three appearances for the Albion (incl x2 as a substitute) between 2008 and 2012 under three different managers - and certainly wouldn't be available for the play-off semi finals (maybe the final if we get there) because, like Dunk and the other two, he as a prior engagement in London on May 6th with some blokes wearing wigs.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

I don't agree that he was shite when he started, it just took time for him to shine. He's a foreign import, they often take a bit of time to adjust.

I'm not even sure it matters if he was shite or not at that time. He had just come over from Spain and was playing football in England for the first time. At the time of that thread, he must have played 6 or 7 games for us. Even if he was proved right, the thread was ludicrous. I don't understand the need to slag players off from some of our supporters. To my mind, we should support any player giving their all for our team and hope they improve, even if we don't rate them. I genuinely think some fans can't wait to criticise Gus and some of the players (Barnes would be a classic example) and almost hope that they fail so they can slag them off. This just seems odd to me but each to their own I suppose.

 

[Mtoto]

If we had converted just 6 of our 18 draws to wins we would have been up by now. It's terrible how his management has led to such highs and lows, frenetic and rabid debate, fans turning on each other and huge stress levels and the occasional epic performance.

It's not good enough, what we needed at the end of this season is the final table to read P 46 W15 D16 L15 F 46 A 46

That's down to chance as much as anything, which is what the doom-mongers tend to forget when they start calling for Poyet's head after a couple of games without a win.
We have conceded exactly the same number of goals as Cardiff (joint-lowest in the division) and scored three less. Yet those three goals somehow equate to a 14-point difference with one game to play. It's a good example of what nonsense it is to claim that "the table never lies" at the end of the season. Pure chance can still play a significant role in a team's precise finishing position, even after 46 game.
Our record is that of a very good, and still improving, team with an excellent manager which has not (yet) got all it deserves but may well do so in the space of the next four games. Chance will have something to do with that too, though.

 

[Mtoto]

They will continue to want him out until he goes, because they simply don't like the style of football we play under him so will always look to find fault. We could be 6th in the Prem and some would still complain about our "negative" tactics etc.

They're missing our massively on one of the most enjoyable times in our history.

I can remember when we were 7th in the old First Division under Mike Bailey and yes, there were plenty of people complaining that he was much too negative and we were only winning 1-0 all the time.

 

[Stat Brother]

Gus is clearly the best thing that's happened in a very long time.

But I certainly didn't appreciate the value of being the only team in the division that didn't lose, while everyone is beating everyone else.

We've definitely missed out on an 'easy' chance for automatic promotion.
But who would have predicted Cardiff, Hull, Watford, Palace, Leicester & Middlesborough would all refuse to win out, in a division where the 3 relegated teams have been fighting further relegation.