Hang your heads in shame...

[Seagull by the Sea]

I am not prone to 'wet the bed' but watching Bouremouth celebrating has made me so angry I couldn't help it.

Nothing to do with Bourenmouth, they have done fantastically well (even if I dislike Howe with a passion).

My anger is towards the powers that be who run our club. I have been a season ticket holder since the Goldstone days, through Gillingham, Withdean and the Amex. I have seen many dark days and revelled in the promotions along the way. I always thought we were the underdog, beating the cheating Chesterfields of this world, pipping Southampton to the title etc.

Then we got the Amex and somehow I, along with many others, believed the hype that we were now a 'big' club, we were destined to join the Premier league but...we would have to understand that we would have to pay, not just lots of money but also with our heart. You see, we are no longer little old Albion, we are the brand leading, corporate driven club with one ambition.

Well, we delivered didn't we? We bought our record number of season tickets, we accepted that our 'family club' had to become more sterile, we listened time and again when Barber told us to spend, spend, spend because of FFP and then.....the best players were sold and replaced with average ones, loan after loan player arrived, we haven't even had our own first team left back for 3 seasons ffs!

We have, however, won loads of stadium awards (yes I do appreciate what TB has done), we have won the rights to have rugby World Cup games played here and we have a shiny new hotel coming soon.

Despite all this, the powers that be have let all of us down because the only real thing we care about is the football, everything else is a little bit meh. It's not so much that we didn't go up but we have failed miserably to even 'have a go' to organise ourselves properly in 2 successive close seasons, to allow teams like Bournemouth show us what a club pulling together can really achieve.

 

[KJP]

It should have been us

 

[gripper stebson]

Although I agree with a lot of this we have had ONE bad season! All clubs have them - we have no divine right to just keep getting better.

Let's get a few decent players in and go again.

Heads up chaps.

 

[SteveTheSeagull]

Although I agree with a lot of this we have had ONE bad season! All clubs have them - we have no divine right to just keep getting better.

Let's get a few decent players in and go again.

Heads up chaps.

Thing is a fear is we get a few decent players in. One "Good" offer and they will be shipped out quicker than when we tried to get them in. We've always been a selling club even when we havent needed to sell. One of the reason i think we'll always be a small club.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I am not prone to 'wet the bed' but watching Bouremouth celebrating has made me so angry I couldn't help it.

Nothing to do with Bourenmouth, they have done fantastically well (even if I dislike Howe with a passion).

My anger is towards the powers that be who run our club. I have been a season ticket holder since the Goldstone days, through Gillingham, Withdean and the Amex. I have seen many dark days and revelled in the promotions along the way. I always thought we were the underdog, beating the cheating Chesterfields of this world, pipping Southampton to the title etc.

Then we got the Amex and somehow I, along with many others, believed the hype that we were now a 'big' club, we were destined to join the Premier league but...we would have to understand that we would have to pay, not just lots of money but also with our heart. You see, we are no longer little old Albion, we are the brand leading, corporate driven club with one ambition.

Well, we delivered didn't we? We bought our record number of season tickets, we accepted that our 'family club' had to become more sterile, we listened time and again when Barber told us to spend, spend, spend because of FFP and then.....the best players were sold and replaced with average ones, loan after loan player arrived, we haven't even had our own first team left back for 3 seasons ffs!

We have, however, won loads of stadium awards (yes I do appreciate what TB has done), we have won the rights to have rugby World Cup games played here and we have a shiny new hotel coming soon.

Despite all this, the powers that be have let all of us down because the only real thing we care about is the football, everything else is a little bit meh. It's not so much that we didn't go up but we have failed miserably to even 'have a go' to organise ourselves properly in 2 successive close seasons, to allow teams like Bournemouth show us what a club pulling together can really achieve.

I share your feelings to a great extent.

But also agree that we have had just one bad season. It would not be beyond the realms of possibility that we could be swapping places with them next year...... then again I said that about Palace.

 

[Pickles]

Although I agree with a lot of this we have had ONE bad season! All clubs have them - we have no divine right to just keep getting better.

Let's get a few decent players in and go again.

Heads up chaps.

We had a few, one just captained Bournemouth to the premier league.

 

[Questions]

W

I am not prone to 'wet the bed' but watching Bouremouth celebrating has made me so angry I couldn't help it.

Nothing to do with Bourenmouth, they have done fantastically well (even if I dislike Howe with a passion).

My anger is towards the powers that be who run our club. I have been a season ticket holder since the Goldstone days, through Gillingham, Withdean and the Amex. I have seen many dark days and revelled in the promotions along the way. I always thought we were the underdog, beating the cheating Chesterfields of this world, pipping Southampton to the title etc.

Then we got the Amex and somehow I, along with many others, believed the hype that we were now a 'big' club, we were destined to join the Premier league but...we would have to understand that we would have to pay, not just lots of money but also with our heart. You see, we are no longer little old Albion, we are the brand leading, corporate driven club with one ambition.

Well, we delivered didn't we? We bought our record number of season tickets, we accepted that our 'family club' had to become more sterile, we listened time and again when Barber told us to spend, spend, spend because of FFP and then.....the best players were sold and replaced with average ones, loan after loan player arrived, we haven't even had our own first team left back for 3 seasons ffs!

We have, however, won loads of stadium awards (yes I do appreciate what TB has done), we have won the rights to have rugby World Cup games played here and we have a shiny new hotel coming soon.

Despite all this, the powers that be have let all of us down because the only real thing we care about is the football, everything else is a little bit meh. It's not so much that we didn't go up but we have failed miserably to even 'have a go' to organise ourselves properly in 2 successive close seasons, to allow teams like Bournemouth show us what a club pulling together can really achieve.

We ****ed up this year and have definetly lost our momentum but stop whinging. Nobody has a devine right to go to the Premiership just 'because'. They have an amazingly talented manager however much people on here seem to dislike him and are enjoying their days now. It's cyclical.... They might be back in league one in a couple of years(although I very much doubt it with Howe still there) and we might get our turn. Unbelievable how everyone thinks we have a God given right.

 

[jamie the seagull]

The only time we will see money being spent at the club is when the Hotel building starts....

At least we now know which premier league club is after Dunk......

 

[gripper stebson]

I could be wrong but maybe there is a split in our fanbase between long in the tooth older fans (me) who have seen A LOT of crap over the years and can put this season into context and our younger / newer fans who have not!

Hence the whining / stop whining arguments

Dunno, maybe.

 

[Seagull by the Sea]

To those saying we don't have a divine right...I didn't say we did.

I said the powers that be fu**ed up and having sold us the 'dream' did not back it up in any way, shape or form. The fact a club like Bournemouth can do it just makes it a lot more annoying that we failed to 'have a go' which we haven't. It's more a case of how badly managed we have been from the very top.

 

[The Camel]

Bournemouth have had the perfect storm of an excellent young manager, co incide with some brilliant young players.

Lose Howe and a couple of their key players, the rot will set in and they'll be back in League 1 within 5 years.

 

[Seagull by the Sea]

Although I agree with a lot of this we have had ONE bad season! All clubs have them - we have no divine right to just keep getting better.

Let's get a few decent players in and go again.

Heads up chaps.

I agree with what you have said, my point was that if we had had a bad season then fair enough, I've seen much worse!

My gripe is that the powers that be did nothing to help us have a good season. Who knows where we would be now if players like Bridcutt, Barnes, Buckley, Ulloa, Upson had been adequately replaced instead of drafting in loans Utd...

 

[gripper stebson]

I agree with what you have said, my point was that if we had had a bad season then fair enough, I've seen much worse!

My gripe is that the powers that be did nothing to help us have a good season. Who knows where we would be now if players like Bridcutt, Barnes, Buckley, Ulloa, Upson had been adequately replaced instead of drafting in loans Utd...

I agree but I don't think Bloom and Barber sat down at the start of the season and thought "I know - let's get a load of shit players in and be crap". They were let down by a mixture of bad luck and a bad recruitment policy. Hopefully both of these can be sorted for next year!!

 

[Questions]

To those saying we don't have a divine right...I didn't say we did.

I said the powers that be fu**ed up and having sold us the 'dream' did not back it up in any way, shape or form. The fact a club like Bournemouth can do it just makes it a lot more annoying that we failed to 'have a go' which we haven't. It's more a case of how badly managed we have been from the very top.

Mistakes have been made. The recruitment and system of buying players and hiring a manager who couldn't get the best from them, yes......but to say Bloom sold us a pup is fickle to say the least. It's hurting certain people so much because it's 'little old Bournemouth'. Contrary to some of the haters of all the other south coast clubs who will appear in time on this thread, there are few players that Bournemouth have that we couldn't have had in a financial sense. So if budgets are similar it's no good saying we didn't give ita go. The mistakes are obvious now, it's whether we learn and rectify them that matters. Bigger spending clubs than us have failed to get promotion so this is a jealousy motivated thread.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

My anger is towards the powers that be who run our club.

Then we got the Amex and somehow I, along with many others, believed the hype that we were now a 'big' club, 7

The only ones saying that are some of our fans, others have been more level headed than that and not thought we are something that we are not.

The clubs hope is to reach the Premier League, but not at all costs and it's not an expectation.

Whilst the club were trying to get permission for the ground and whilst it was being built, the ambition was to stay in the Championship once we moved in - we have. There was no expectation for Premier League football, tickets weren't sold on the promise of Premier League football.

We all want the club to do well, but some of us realise there are no guarentees in football, money spent on a team doesn't equal success on the pitch, We are trying to put ourselves into a good position with the academy but that is more of a long term objective and will take several seasons to produce the sort of players we need to help try to make the step up.

Some fans seem to have conveniently ignored the other teams we are competing with, they have similar ground sizes, fan base (and quite a few have bigger ones than us like Leeds) and all have hopes of promotion too, some have an unfair advantage of parachute payments, others don't. Some teams have a wonder season (Bournemouth this, Barnsley & Blackpool several seasons ago)

Anyone thinking that having the Amex makes us a big club with a natural place in the PL is mistaken, it's like someone winning a Ferrari and then expecting the jet set lifestyle to go with it, you can't have everything you want. People want us to run before we can walk and don't sem to care about what we went through to save this club and seem to think that we should risk throwing all that hard work away by chasing a fantasy / dream.

 

[Seagull by the Sea]

Mistakes have been made. The recruitment and system of buying players and hiring a manager who couldn't get the best from them, yes......but to say Bloom sold us a pup is fickle to say the least. It's hurting certain people so much because it's 'little old Bournemouth'. Contrary to some of the haters of all the other south coast clubs who will appear in time on this thread, there are few players that Bournemouth have that we couldn't have had in a financial sense. So if budgets are similar it's no good saying we didn't give ita go. The mistakes are obvious now, it's whether we learn and rectify them that matters. Bigger spending clubs than us have failed to get promotion so this is a jealousy motivated thread.

I don't blame Tony Bloom at all but we did fail to maximise our potential. The money from Ulloa's sale alone could have been spent on 2 or 3 quality signings to at least keep our momentum going

 

[Addick]

Please God stop moaning. All of you. Get a grip.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I am not prone to 'wet the bed' but watching Bouremouth celebrating has made me so angry I couldn't help it.

Nothing to do with Bourenmouth, they have done fantastically well (even if I dislike Howe with a passion).

My anger is towards the powers that be who run our club. I have been a season ticket holder since the Goldstone days, through Gillingham, Withdean and the Amex. I have seen many dark days and revelled in the promotions along the way. I always thought we were the underdog, beating the cheating Chesterfields of this world, pipping Southampton to the title etc.

Then we got the Amex and somehow I, along with many others, believed the hype that we were now a 'big' club, we were destined to join the Premier league but...we would have to understand that we would have to pay, not just lots of money but also with our heart. You see, we are no longer little old Albion, we are the brand leading, corporate driven club with one ambition.

Well, we delivered didn't we? We bought our record number of season tickets, we accepted that our 'family club' had to become more sterile, we listened time and again when Barber told us to spend, spend, spend because of FFP and then.....the best players were sold and replaced with average ones, loan after loan player arrived, we haven't even had our own first team left back for 3 seasons ffs!

We have, however, won loads of stadium awards (yes I do appreciate what TB has done), we have won the rights to have rugby World Cup games played here and we have a shiny new hotel coming soon.

Despite all this, the powers that be have let all of us down because the only real thing we care about is the football, everything else is a little bit meh. It's not so much that we didn't go up but we have failed miserably to even 'have a go' to organise ourselves properly in 2 successive close seasons, to allow teams like Bournemouth show us what a club pulling together can really achieve.

Waaaaaaah. Waaaah. Waaaah.

ONE poor season, in five? Get over yourself.

 

[gripper stebson]

The only ones saying that are some of our fans, others have been more level headed than that and not thought we are something that we are not.

The clubs hope is to reach the Premier League, but not at all costs and it's not an expectation.

Whilst the club were trying to get permission for the ground and whilst it was being built, the ambition was to stay in the Championship once we moved in - we have. There was no expectation for Premier League football, tickets weren't sold on the promise of Premier League football.

We all want the club to do well, but some of us realise there are no guarentees in football, money spent on a team doesn't equal success on the pitch, We are trying to put ourselves into a good position with the academy but that is more of a long term objective and will take several seasons to produce the sort of players we need to help try to make the step up.

Some fans seem to have conveniently ignored the other teams we are competing with, they have similar ground sizes, fan base (and quite a few have bigger ones than us like Leeds) and all have hopes of promotion too, some have an unfair advantage of parachute payments, others don't. Some teams have a wonder season (Bournemouth this, Barnsley & Blackpool several seasons ago)

Anyone thinking that having the Amex makes us a big club with a natural place in the PL is mistaken, it's like someone winning a Ferrari and then expecting the jet set lifestyle to go with it, you can't have everything you want. People want us to run before we can walk and don't sem to care about what we went through to save this club and seem to think that we should risk throwing all that hard work away by chasing a fantasy / dream.

...is the correct answer.

 

[Geriatric Seagull]

I could be wrong but maybe there is a split in our fanbase between long in the tooth older fans (me) who have seen A LOT of crap over the years and can put this season into context and our younger / newer fans who have not!

Hence the whining / stop whining arguments
I'm not sure I agree with all you say. I've seen nearly sixty years of good and bad Brighton football but I think this has to go down as one of the worst. When we were promoted along with Aston Villa in the seventies the following season was pretty poor but at least we had a team that didn't stop trying. Other teams haven't been anywhere near as talented (on paper, anyway) but they were prepared to battle. This year has been dire. From the farce of last summer's "recruitment" the season went steadily downhill. Hyypia was a disaster, his team selections odd to say the least, and his retention when he had clearly failed was nonsensical. Ok, Hughton has somehow managed to scrape enough points to keep us up but he remains a bit of an unknown quantity. Now it is the management's turn. The supporters (or are we still customers) have played their part; now it's time to stop coming out with meaningless slogans and platitudes and actually give the manager the means to produce a team that will at least compete in the Chamionship. It's time to clear out the ageing dead wood and build a team around the likes of Kayal, Stephens and Ince. I wonder if it will happen?