[Albion] RDZ goodbye speech in full.

[Bridcutt]

Do you really not think it was perhaps a bit much, for a guy who has had 1.5 good seasons with us? Don't get me wrong, he did a great job, and I was fully bought into him until a couple of months ago. But we have been crap since January.

Look at our last ten games:

LDLDLLWDLL

How many clubs would give a manager a send off like that with that record, who had been at the club for less than 2 years? Very. very few.

Most of us also remember that we finished 6th last year and we topped our Europa League group. This year has been unlucky and even with that in mind I think De Zerbi could and should have performed better than we have but it's not as simple as we've had only 1.5 good seasons

 

[Springal]

Most of us also remember that we finished 6th last year and we topped our Europa League group. This year has been unlucky and even with that in mind I think De Zerbi could and should have performed better than we have but it's not as simple as we've had only 1.5 good seasons

No you’re right, it was about 0.8 seasons of good

 

[London Irish]

Do you really not think it was perhaps a bit much, for a guy who has had 1.5 good seasons with us? Don't get me wrong, he did a great job, and I was fully bought into him until a couple of months ago. But we have been crap since January.

Look at our last ten games:

LDLDLLWDLL

How many clubs would give a manager a send off like that with that record, who had been at the club for less than 2 years? Very. very few.

Honestly I think a lot of clubs would have, if that manager has achieved a lot of historical highs and firsts for the club. People are just grateful for those memories, don't think it's more complicated than that It reflects well on everyone tbh

I think we need to take a bit of a step back and look beyond this Bloom vs RDZ comic book rivalry because I don't think it explains what is truly happening here at the club at all.

We have a transfer policy that people have variously described as a highly sensible, highly sustainable or quite conservative - doesn't really matter what you call it cos it amounts to the same thing, we know what it is.

But in a tough and ruthless league like the EPL, that will inevitably mean there will be periods of underperformance, it's just footballing gravity -- given so many other clubs are spending big resources and bringing in good players. (heaven knows Potter had plenty of those times)

The dilemma for Brighton is that some/many fans (not all!) find it really hard to cope with those periods of underperformance and react in extreme ways, making extreme derogatory remarks at what they see who is to blame (generally the manager) and, by doing so, stinking the place out and bringing down everyone's Albion mojo.

How do you solve this dilemma of having our current transfer policy yet keeping quite emotion-driven fans on planet earth - so we don't have this feeling of meltdown we've had over the past few months. I think it's very tough one to answer and the next Albion managers are going to find it hard going doing so.

I guess the only thing you can say is expectations for next season may be a lot lower?

 

[Baldseagull]

Well I for one simply don't believe the only two options for the club are £122m profits or bankruptcy. Anyway good luck to the next fella or the one after that, the way it works in recent Albion history is that they often tend to get what the guy who was sacked was asking for

If we were making £120M profits from sponsorship, tickets, merchandise and broadcast money, we would have the right to feel let down at not upping the budgets. Player trading is not reliable income.

 

[Baldseagull]

Me neither - doubt the lack of 'shared vision' was simply down to transfer budgets

More likely wage budgets, and ability to retain players and reject offers.

 

[Baldseagull]

Do tell? What else would have it been about, genuinely interested to know if I'm missing something obvious

I think it was most likely to have been about retaining players. The clubs ability to attract young talented players requires there to be some moving on of the current talent to make space in the squad for the new.
To do it would mean upping the wages budget, not reaping the transfer value of players, and making us less attractive to up and coming players. It would be a massive change of policy, and how the management see the club being able to be competitive in the PL.

 

[Commander]

Honestly I think a lot of clubs would have, if that manager has achieved a lot of historical highs and firsts for the club. People are just grateful for those memories, don't think it's more complicated than that It reflects well on everyone tbh

I think we need to take a bit of a step back and look beyond this Bloom vs RDZ comic book rivalry because I don't think it explains what is truly happening here at the club at all.

We have a transfer policy that people have variously described as a highly sensible, highly sustainable or quite conservative - doesn't really matter what you call it cos it amounts to the same thing, we know what it is.

But in a tough and ruthless league like the EPL, that will inevitably mean there will be periods of underperformance, it's just footballing gravity -- given so many other clubs are spending big resources and bringing in good players. (heaven knows Potter had plenty of those times)

The dilemma for Brighton is that some/many fans (not all!) find it really hard to cope with those periods of underperformance and react in extreme ways, making extreme derogatory remarks at what they see who is to blame (generally the manager) and, by doing so, stinking the place out and bringing down everyone's Albion mojo.

How do you solve this dilemma of having our current transfer policy yet keeping quite emotion-driven fans on planet earth - so we don't have this feeling of meltdown we've had over the past few months. I think it's very tough one to answer and the next Albion managers are going to find it hard going doing so.

I guess the only thing you can say is expectations for next season may be a lot lower?

Difficult to argue with too much of that. I genuinely think RDZ is probably our best ever manager, and he has given me the best Albion memories I've ever had. Sadly it didn't last very long, and I just felt a little bit uncomfortable with giving him the kind of send off Klopp got, after less than two full seasons in charge, half of one in which we absolutely stunk the place out. Not so much at the time, I was singing "we want you to stay" along with everyone else, but when I thought about it later I decided it was a bit weird.

Bloom's aim has always for us to be a sustainable top 10 Premier League club. That in itself is an insanely ambitious goal (and one we haven't actually achieved yet) but that means sometimes finishing 6th and sometimes finishing 10th, and the fans are going to have to accept that not every season can be like the one we had last year.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

I think there are two extreme positions bring presented and I suspect the reality is somewhere in between.

We could all see the gaps last summer and jan and I'm.not sure it would have taken fortunes to fix it. But it would have been a different mix

Of course bloom is well within his rights to say 'no'

I agree. I know Nsc is renowned for posters taking sides with one or the other but, like you, I think it's more nuanced than that. Nsc thinks Tony won 100-0 or De Zerbia lost 20-80 but it's probably more 60-40 in favour of TB.

It's a shame but onwards we go and I hope we get a manager we can all like (but I doubt it.)