[Albion] Is This the Best Brighton Have Ever Been?

[Gabbiano]

I saw a rival fan say this on Twitter a while back and it's true.

"I hope Brighton fans realise they are living the dream of almost every other fanbase in the country."

I have to remind myself of this regularly. I'm not one to start banging on about Hereford and being a real fan but if you told me where we'd be now after some of those Withdean matches, I'd never have believed you.

It won't last forever, so enjoy it for as long as it does!

 

[SUIYHP]

Best we have ever been? Most certainly, but I think more importantly is looking forward- this isn’t just a fluke- its a statement of intent that has been in the works for years, the ambition is to become one of the best run clubs in the world, let alone the country- in some lenses we already are. Not just enough to focus on the success of the now but how to sustain that.

Who knows? Maybe Brighton has ideas ‘above its station?’

 

[Brovion]

I can't say whether this is the best ever team, although I think the squad overall is our best-ever. However this era is obviously the best. For us old lags (since 1966 for me) it's breathtakingly, unbelievably brilliant. It wasn't so long ago that we used to refer to the Mullery era and those four seasons we spent hanging onto our 1st division status by the skin of our teeth as the 'Glory Years'. And standing with a few thousand other deluded souls on the terraces of Priestfield at the foot of the fourth division I really did think they would never return. Certainly not in my lifetime.

However I would argue that the gap between the Albion now and the Albion at the start of the Amex era is as big as the gap between 2011 and 1997. Our progress has been stratospheric. When we moved into the Amex we would have been happy just to become an established Championship club, let alone a club who are being talked about as possible Champions' League qualifiers. (A remote possibility perhaps but still a possibility). We've got top internationals and our players are coveted by the Big Six clubs. We've come a long way from singing "Dale Stevens we want you to stay!"

 

[Berty23]

I don’t like to rain on the parade but I fear there is a lot of recency bias here. Maybe we are the best we have been SINCE 96/97

 

[Sid and the Sharknados]

I don’t like to rain on the parade but I fear there is a lot of recency bias here. Maybe we are the best we have been SINCE 96/97

The general standard and depth of talent throughout the top flight of English football pisses all over the level before 96/97, so we'd have to be stinking the division out with no points or goals at all for that to be a concern.

 

[razer]

How does that make us better than when we were playing great for 90 minutes every week scoring a bunch of goals?

Coz I said so.

 

[Kit Napper]

It could all change of course but I can't remember ever before being disappointed that we lost to Liverpool. And predicting we would win 2-1 against Man City, not just out of blind loyalty, but rather actually believing we could beat them.

Friday could of course prove how shallow the optimism really is, but what has impressed me more than anything is how Fab has already started to learn from his mistakes earlier in the season (suicidal high line v Chelsea).

And he's only 31! (Bet you didn't know that)

Agreed although that result against Man City is looking like an under-performance now

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

In some ways it was more fun. I genuinely believe that.

It’s just different isn’t it?

Yep.

I regularly just stand or sit in the Amex and take a moment to look around the whole stadium in awe, I love it and can't believe it's ours. And yet, I still miss going to Withdean.

 

[Brian Munich]

We have the best players for sure. But i don't think we've hit the heights of the end of Potter’s 3rd season yet, let alone RDZ smashing our way to Europe. I am hoping we'll see that in the next few weeks.

This is a really good point. It wasn't just the end of Potter's 3rd season, but this was carried into the next season as well. Overall, our run at the end his time as manager was phenomenal - 30 points from his final 14 games!

 

[Hotchilidog]

This is a really good point. It wasn't just the end of Potter's 3rd season, but this was carried into the next season as well. Overall, our run at the end his time as manager was phenomenal - 30 points from his final 14 games!

I'm glad someone has remembered how good the end of his tenure was!

 

[Brian Munich]

I'm glad someone has remembered how good the end of his tenure was!

Much as I disliked the way he left, I don't think he gets enough credit for building and developing that 6th-placed team. Sure, RDZ grabbed the baton and ran with it, but I doubt that there's many managers go into a new club with such a balanced team and in such great form as we were at the time. Even aside from the apparent discontent between him and the club board, I think RDZ was found out somewhat in 23-24.

 

[Berty23]

Where RDZ added to potter was picking Mitoma straightaway. Also Solly. The rest was basically already in place.

 

[Comrade Sam]

All those years of playing 'my best Albion 11' have gone out the window. For the past 3 years my best Albion 11 is that week's team sheet.

 

[Comrade Sam]

Where RDZ added to potter was picking Mitoma straightaway. Also Solly. The rest was basically already in place.

Was that like Mullery adding Horton and Ward to Peter Taylor's team but on amphetamines.

 

[RandyWanger]

It feels different to me. The 1st RDZ season was a wild ride with low expectations but our highest ever finish followed by the European dream but after he spat his dummy out it all went a bit sour. I think we're playing the best football, if we can get a cup final and/or European football again it will be.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

I saw a rival fan say this on Twitter a while back and it's true.

"I hope Brighton fans realise they are living the dream of almost every other fanbase in the country."

Remember looking admiringly at Southampton's exploits in the PL, thinking that I hope Saints fans realise how good they have got it.

Certainly applies to us now!!

 

[Uter]

ELO club rankings don't have us quite at the heights we reached under De Zerbi, but of course these models are results based and have a long tail, so there is a bit of a lag between reality and the ranking if you have recently improved/worsened a lot. We are certainly on the rise again.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Where RDZ added to potter was picking Mitoma straightaway. Also Solly. The rest was basically already in place.

And Ferguson.

 

[Brian Munich]

It feels different to me. The 1st RDZ season was a wild ride with low expectations but our highest ever finish followed by the European dream but after he spat his dummy out it all went a bit sour. I think we're playing the best football, if we can get a cup final and/or European football again it will be.

I don’t know about you, but after the end of 21-22, I had really high hopes at the beginning of 22-23. None of us were really that fussed about selling Bissouma on the basis that we’d already seen how good Caicedo was.

 

[Pavilionaire]

If we beat Southampton tomorrow night then I think we will have definitely reached peak Albion, although the team that finished the 2021/22 season in style was very impressive.

The team that beat Arsenal at the start of that run was - for me - arguably the best line-up we've ever put out in terms of talent:

Sanchez, Cucurella, Dunk, Veltman, Mwepu, Bissouma, Trossard, Gross, Caicedo, MacAllister, Welbeck.