[Albion] I wonder, AT THE TIME, which one was the most exciting?

[studio150]

Poyet similar to Mullery as his profile as a player alone lifted the expectations and excitement

 

[Simster]

Definitely Gus, as almost everyone else has said.

Mind you, I don't think I've ever been as intrigued as I am with RDZ's appointment. I mean, how often does a manager join a club when everything is as rosy as it has ever been? We are 4th in the wealthiest and one of the best leagues in the world, we have a fantastic stadium, infrastructure and organisation in place, and some of the best players we've ever had - all in place for the new guy. Can RDZ deliver us something we've never had? An insanely high league place, or even a trophy? It's very possible, but so is a horrendous slump in form and morale.

 

[SULLY COULDNT SHOOT]

Gus.... it all started with him.

 

[Dave the OAP]

Poyet obviously.

As fantastic his record eventually was, apart from some superb results and performances against united for example, I was never a fan of the style of play potter set up. Just a personal view but I came away from a lot of games at the Amex wondering if I would bother going again.

 

[Javeaseagull]

Pretty sure, AT THE TIME, I was very excited by all of them! If I have to choose I go along with others and say probably Gus but not really much in it.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

Gus, all day long.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

Gus although I was delighted and really excited about Potter as the previous season had sucked all enjoyment out of watching Brighton for me.

Being a big watcher of Serie A and liking the way Sassuolo played and a Pep Guardiola fanboy, I am very excited about De Zerbi coming in too.

I was pretty neutral about Hughton, Garcia and Hyppia when they were appointed.

 

[GT49er]

Hyypia for me - but only for a very, very short time!

 

[Brovion]

Poyet similar to Mullery as his profile as a player alone lifted the expectations and excitement

Indeed. However whereas I was really excited by Poyet's arrival, I remember being distinctly underwhelmed by Mullery's.

There is actually a bit of similarity with today. The old manager, Peter Taylor (Mk 1), had done really well the previous season and we'd just missed out on promotion (having been relegation candidates the season before). Then he 'did a Potter' and left us for a bigger club and to join up with his old pal Clough at Forest. Then as now we made a slightly left-field appointment and picked the untried, recently-retired Mullery. As we all know the managerial world is full of stories of people who were great players but lousy managers, and we knew it could go either way.

TBH I was disappointed with Taylor leaving and was probably more in the 'this will end badly' camp. Obviously I was wrong then, so I'm hoping my slight pessimism is once again misplaced. As Simster says it is an intriguing appointment and is probably the best we could have made.

 

[ozzygull]

Oscar Garcia just because he drank Sangria, it reminded me of the highs we had under the guidence of the whisky drinking Mark Mcghee.

Actually it was GP the first for me. The first really exzotic manager we had, it felt totally flair and he did not disapoint. Still a shame how it ended, but then if he was not a teeny tiny bit unhinged it probably not have been so much fun.

 

[The Wookiee]

Gus - he built the foundations for where we are today

 

[Justice]

RDZ as I think he firmly believes he can get us into Europe.

 

[PFW]

Gus ... He built the foundations to what we are today, a top 4 club!!!!

 

[matt]

Poyet. Although that pales into significance compared to the elation I felt when Liam Brady took over from Barry Lloyd.

 

[JBizzle]

Oh Poyet, by an absolute country mile.

Ze Derbi may well be the biggest coup but, as a League One club, seeing not just a household name come in but one with maximum flair, passion and a clear identity attached was insane. Our recent record of managers had always been going for lower league managers (Adams, Slade, McGhee), out of work short-lived managers (Coppell, Taylor) or internal promotions (Wilkins, Hinshelwood). Poyet was like a manager from another planet and genuinely signaled the move from the Knight to the Bloom era.

 

[rippleman]

Gus. No doubt. 100%

There isn't even a second place.

 

[Insel affe]

Gus without a shadow of doubt, it came with everything else, the stadium news, Tony Bloom.
It was like a clean sweep, a new found optimism swept the club and city from top to bottom.


Such a shame he tried to defend Luis Suarez once on talkshite.

&

Then the indefensible against Palace and what followed.


such a shame, idiot.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

I know it's from another era but I was massively overwhelmed and excited about Brian Clough coming to "lil ole Brighton".
Unfortunately, his motives were dishonourable and he jumped ship before we'd even left port.

Of the last six, Gus by a country mile - Eees complicated? No, flair init?
#mindtheceiling

 

[stewart12]

I sometimes wonder how Hyypia would have fared if the cards were not stacked against him? A superb world class defender but with very limited managerial experience. Sammy Lee, who was an experienced No.2, about to join as his assistant, jumped ship. The team, or rather the group of players, Hyypia inherited were woeful. Sami presumably had a wonderful plan of how they should play (probably to his exacting standards when he was a player). They couldn’t or wouldn’t and there was the crux of the problem - you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Whatever plan Hyypia had to implement his style of play unravelled very quickly and he soon became a broken man with a broken team.

I would love to know how he would have fared with our current squad?

think luck certainly was against him- you had the likes of Kuszscak, Ward, Upson, Ulloa, Andrews, Orlandi, Lopez, Buckley from the previous campaign all leave that summer....all senior pro's and a lot of quality that Garcia had (although he had a lot of injury problems in the squad of course) that weren't available to Hyypia.

For whatever reason the recruitment team had an absolute nightmare that summer as well. Some really poor/ill fitting players. Stockdale ended up being a success but took a while to really get going, Aaron Hughes was (I suspect) supposed to replace Upson but was nowhere near as good. Joe Bennett has ended up having a good career but that season wasn't up to what Hyypia was demanding of his full backs at the time (and wasn't as good as Ward), Gardner was a very poor signing, McCourt was great fun but in reality wasn't very good, then you have the strikers- Colunga, Baldock and O'Grady. Baldock of course, ended up working out but had a stop/start season, Colunga was ultimately too similar to Baldock and struggled physically and O'Grady was never going to score many. Teixeira was the only signing that worked that summer and I'm not sure how much of that was Hyypias fault

Hyypia was also a young manager who tried to get an experienced number two to help him (Sammy Lee) who ended up letting him down not long before the season started

Don't get me wrong, Hyypia really struggled and some of his decision making was poor, but I wonder what would have happened if he'd had a bit more help

 

[Marshy]

I was most excited by Potter