[Albion] So, we're a big club now...

[Mustafa II]

It's undeniable that we're a big club now. World famous in football, with fans all around the globe. The BHAFC crest seen all around Sussex, more so than any other club now.

The legacy the club has created in the last few years, and particularly the new fans that we have acquired, will surely protect us from ever worrying about extinction again, even should we drop a few rungs down the football pyramid.

Should that happen - thousands of fans would lose interest, but also thousands would still stick around. Four figure gates are a thing of the past for us now, regardless of which league we find ourselves in.

So while this incredible journey of top 10 Premier League football won't last forever - and it doesn't like it's about to come to abrupt end either - Brighton and Hove Albion FC is going to be the most popular team in the county, with fans all over the world, for years to come.

We have gone from unknown minnows, just 15 years ago we were a struggling homeless League One side... to one of the top teams in the world.

What Bloom & Barber have done with this football club is beyond legendary.

 

[essbee1]

But you still can't get a pint at half-time without leaving 5 minutes before the end of the half.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

We are indeed a top club, at the moment. But big? Yes compared to Seaford Town or Eastbourne Borough or even Bury or Peterborough. But big compared to Liverpool, Man U etc. Nah.

 

[Whitechapel]

We’re bigger than we were, but calling us a big club seems pretty laughable to me.

We’re a smallish club in a big league.

 

[jamie (not that one)]

We're not a big club. We need a good few more seasons in Europe etc and maybe even win something to be considered a big club.

 

[Brok]

Roll on Saturday...

 

[Easy 10]

We're having our moment in the sun, but its worth remembering that BURNLEY finished 7th and qualified for Europe not so very long ago. Swansea also played in Europe after winning the League Cup within the last 10 years. They've both since been relegated.

We've won nothing. This "big club" stuff does my swede in tbh.

 

[Icy Gull]

I am in France at the moment and had an Internet problem. Visit from an Orange technician who saw my T Shirt with Brighton and Hove Albion on it. Went on to tell me how he enjoyed watching us and what good football we played. He said he thought the PL was the world’s best league, but had never heard of us five years ago. Knew of and praised De Zerbi and a few of our players. Marseilles fan

 

[Badger Boy]

We are one of the biggest clubs in the country in that second tier really below the clubs with 40k plus stadiums, insane revenue streams and suspiciously generous benefactors. We have the potential to establish ourselves in the top 10 in the PL but that work is literally renewed every season. No club below the top 6 or 7 (welcome to the group, Newcastle) has zero relegation concerns. We will be planning with the worst case scenario of relegation in mind, every season. Leicester got themselves relegated out of absolutely nowhere last season, nobody saw that coming. It will have chilled owners all over the country how quickly that totally unraveled despite the quality of a lot of their players on the pitch.

 

[Wozza]

We're bigger than we were.

Not exactly a superclub though.

Perspective needed.

 

[banjo]

Big club?? Big balls

 

[Muzzman]

We're having our moment in the sun, but its worth remembering that BURNLEY finished 7th and qualified for Europe not so very long ago. Swansea also played in Europe after winning the League Cup within the last 10 years. They've both since been relegated.

We've won nothing. This "big club" stuff does my swede in tbh.

Agreed, Norwich beat Bayern Munich in '93, didn't make them any bigger though, just a jaunt in the sunshine.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

But you still can't get a pint at half-time without leaving 5 minutes before the end of the half.

This. PBOBE OUT!

 

[A1X]

Looking forward to the inevitable bounce of this thread when we're done 0-2 by Luton this weekend

 

[Icy Gull]

Looking forward to the inevitable bounce of this thread when we're done 0-2 by Luton this weekend

Having had 80% possession, I almost expect it

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

Big as in well run and having the ambition to be Big one day, yes, but a big club, no.

 

[BNthree]

Honestly don't understand football fans obsession with how "big" their club is. Results is all that matters surely? How many fans you have or how well known the club is is all meaningless.

 

[Mustafa II]

Honestly don't understand football fans obsession with how "big" their club is. Results is all that matters surely? How many fans you have or how well known the club is is all meaningless.

Disagree. Results matter TODAY. The size of the fanbase matters for years to come.

Big clubs don't stick around the bottom end of the league pyramid for long. They have greater resources and appeal to higher profile players, relative to the clubs around them.

We are a big club now, relatively speaking. We will never be tarred with the same brush as the likes of Grimsby or Leyton Orient ever again. We will always have bigger gates, and always have greater resources, with a reputation that appeals to players that they do not.

 

[JetsetJimbo]

Sometimes, when I get a bit overexcited, I force myself to look at the lower divisions and pick out the clubs that were once lauded as well-run Premier League clubs.

At a stretch, League 2 has three - Wimbledon, Bradford, and Swindon. But Wimbledon were a special case, I don't think anyone called Bradford well-run even when they were in the Premier League, and the same is arguably true of Swindon.

So let's go up a level, to League 1. There, you'll find Bolton, Charlton, Portsmouth, Derby, Reading, and Wigan - all of which I remember being held up as examples of well-run smaller clubs in the Premier League during my lifetime. Plus there's Barnsley and Blackpool, which I've omitted because I don't recall anyone calling them well-run (doesn't mean nobody called them that, but if anyone did, it hasn't stuck in my mind).

The other end of the scale is that year when we finished second-bottom of the entire football league, with only Doncaster below us. Above us were Cardiff, Swansea, and Hull (I can't remember the precise order, but that was the bottom five). All of those five have been at least as high as the Championship since, four of the five have been in the Premier League, Swansea won the league cup and Cardiff and Hull were both losing FA Cup finalists.

Despite its reputation to the contrary, English football is actually pretty fluid in terms of who's doing well and who's doing badly. There are a handful of "superclubs", but we're not among their number and probably never will be. Outside of that group, there's a very fine line between success and failure. So, let's just enjoy the fact we're around to see our team's "glory days".

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

We will be swiftly forgotten about as soon as we drop in to the Championship, like Swansea and others before us.

Big club? Meh.