Supporting the Albion this year?

[Superphil]

Replaced by a few condescending, unlikeable, spin merchants who talk the talk but as yet, no evidence that they walk the walk.

.

This sums it up for me now. I've listened to Bloom, Barber and Burke, on the official outlets, at fan forums, on the Albion Roar, read their comments in the press and programmes. Bloom has appointed the other two with the best intentions, and expectations, I'm sure.

Barbers remit seems all about making, and saving, money, fair enough, maybe he's doing well at that, but he comes across wrong with parts of the fan base, and some of things he's told us he's done just don't sit right, for that he's failing. We all know full well the fans ARE the club.

Burkes role, and the way his department works has been laid bare for all to see, and it sounds an impressive set up. But it has failed, impressively. He's Taken a top 6 side, 2 years running, and decimated it in less than 6 months, that is failure, on an epic scale.

I may well be lambasted for these views, I may be (considered) wrong in my assumptions, but as a dedicated fan of this football club that is how I see things are going at the moment. The public face of the club (to me) is now smarmy, conceited, and condescending. The player recruitment is an absolute disaster.

The Chairman may be a legend, he now needs to do something legendary, and do it soon. Can you imagine being in the same division as Crawley Town?

 

[Hotchilidog]

Barbers remit seems all about making, and saving, money, fair enough, maybe he's doing well at that, but he comes across wrong with parts of the fan base, and some of things he's told us he's done just don't sit right, for that he's failing. We all know full well the fans ARE the club.

Burkes role, and the way his department works has been laid bare for all to see, and it sounds an impressive set up. But it has failed, impressively. He's Taken a top 6 side, 2 years running, and decimated it in less than 6 months, that is failure, on an epic scale.

The Chairman may be a legend, he now needs to do something legendary, and do it soon. Can you imagine being in the same division as Crawley Town?

Re Barber, I disagree, I have just not taking offence to anything he has said. The man is doing is job and he explains himself in a ridiculous amount of detail whilst having to really deal with the financial realities of running a modern football club.

Re Burke: Agree. The proof is out there (or not out there) on the pitch. What initially looked like a reasonable summer window has turned out to be completely unproductive and the team has suffered as result. He is on a very hot seat.

Better decisions need to be made at the club, and for me those decisions need to be in player recruitment. The talent evaluation has to improve, period.

Whilst I think we will stay up, complacency is not an option. we are in relegation form at the moment and I would say that Burke and Hyppia are the two men with the biggest questions to answer.

 

[BobbySmith]

Why revert to the Archer years to back your argument? The club has moved on since then and so should you. For your reference i go back a lot further pal. As Barber says we are customers and right now and i'm unhappy with things on and off the pitch. Before you come out with that line about being ungrateful with what Bloom has done then don't bother, save your breath.

Of course it's my choice not to renew and this is a forum to discuss such things.

Agree, we have moved on
From the Archer days and that is exactly my point, we are now a much stronger club, fact. Barber actually said 'fans are like customers', if you are unhappy then bye and close the door on the way out, if people can't see what is happening at this club, long term then we don't need those fans. I think some people on here just look at the last performance/result, if we had won
On Saturday I bet there would have been some on here looking at playoffs as that was 4 games unbeaten. As you say we all have a choice, my choice is to watch and support the team and not keep whining on a message Board.

 

[spanish flair]

Agree, we have moved on
From the Archer days and that is exactly my point, we are now a much stronger club, fact. Barber actually said 'fans are like customers', if you are unhappy then bye and close the door on the way out, if people can't see what is happening at this club, long term then we don't need those fans. I think some people on here just look at the last performance/result, if we had won
On Saturday I bet there would have been some on here looking at playoffs as that was 4 games unbeaten. As you say we all have a choice, my choice is to watch and support the team and not keep whining on a message Board.

If you don't like reading other fans points of view why come on here?

 

[JBizzle]

Barbers remit seems all about making, and saving, money, fair enough, maybe he's doing well at that, but he comes across wrong with parts of the fan base, and some of things he's told us he's done just don't sit right, for that he's failing. We all know full well the fans ARE the club.

Burkes role, and the way his department works has been laid bare for all to see, and it sounds an impressive set up. But it has failed, impressively. He's Taken a top 6 side, 2 years running, and decimated it in less than 6 months, that is failure, on an epic scale.

Disagree on Barber, he's the commercial head of the club and I personally think it's great the work that's been done to maximise revenue streams and increase the clubs off field profile whilst optimising spending. (Good God, what a Corporate sentence that is...)

Agree on Burke though. My concern is not about the selling of players, it's about who you replace them with. We were never going to replace Ulloa like-for-like, but all the others? To be in the position where the spine of our team are a mixture of long term and emergency loan signings and only Colunga, Hughes and Stockdale of the permanent signings started is poor, poor, poor. Our extensive scouting netwrork has come up with, what?

- Toko, seemingly a development player and rarely in the squad, [Not in Squad]
- Holla, a good player that's tanked in form of late, [Didn't come off bench]
- Baldock, who's been the victim of our insistence of buying tiny strikers without having a clue how to create a supply line, [Didn't come off bench]
- O'Grady, who will be off in January, [Not in Squad]
- Colunga, sometimes very hit, sometimes very miss, [Starte]
- Hughes, not too shabby [Started]
- Stockdale, I like. Long term no. 1 and improving [Started]
- McCourt, exciting but flakey and apparently desperately unfit.[Not in Squad]

So far, this doesn't look like a scouting network fulfilling it's purpose to the fullest extent,

 

[BobbySmith]

If you don't like reading other fans points of view why come on here?

Very good point, I do despair at some of the comments on here, but sometimes you just read something that makes me smile and feel good about this wonderful club of ours. I honestly think the only issue we have is Mr Burke. Bloom is money man and no one can slag him, we would not have a club without him and Dick. Barber, who with all his spin etc, but he does his job well, running a club within budget, but Mr Burke, fact has been a nightmare. For us to have 5/6 loan players in now, proves he did not do a good job in the summer. Sami, still not sure, he has to work with those players that Burke provided, although I do not agree with some of his tactics, as Saturday was a good example. We reverted to full backs pushing on when Kaz went off, why, as we have proved that does not work and in the last 3 previous games did not and we got results. He should in my view brought March on and kept same formula. See I can debate the issues, without resorting to throwing my toys out of the pram and threatening to stop supporting the club. The only thing that would stop me going is a bloody drum and goal music.

 

[SAC]

All the blokes (and their kids) who currently enjoy a guaranteed pass to The Amex are not going to give that up in exchange for having to negotiate domestically and then shell out £30 a ticket every time they want to go...

If our season continues to be a bit depressing, especially at home, then STH numbers will obviously fall - but not by that much.

We wont know for a while yet but my guess is a 4000 reduction on the ST numbers unless there is a dramatic change in the results.

STH numbers will remain high at The Amex.

However I think you are correct that fans will probably give up in having to negotiate domestically and then shell out £30 a ticket every time they want to go. Instead they will pick and chose and go back to attending every now and then either for the big matches or if Brighton are winning.

I think ST numbers will be high but think that they will be closer to 16/17000 which is pretty impressive for the Championship. It's a worry for the money men though.

 

[spanish flair]

Very good point, I do despair at some of the comments on here, but sometimes you just read something that makes me smile and feel good about this wonderful club of ours. I honestly think the only issue we have is Mr Burke. Bloom is money man and no one can slag him, we would not have a club without him and Dick. Barber, who with all his spin etc, but he does his job well, running a club within budget, but Mr Burke, fact has been a nightmare. For us to have 5/6 loan players in now, proves he did not do a good job in the summer. Sami, still not sure, he has to work with those players that Burke provided, although I do not agree with some of his tactics, as Saturday was a good example. We reverted to full backs pushing on when Kaz went off, why, as we have proved that does not work and in the last 3 previous games did not and we got results. He should in my view brought March on and kept same formula. See I can debate the issues, without resorting to throwing my toys out of the pram and threatening to stop supporting the club. The only thing that would stop me going is a bloody drum and goal music.

100 % agree with you about Burke, but I think I am only 50% with Barber, when you say he runs within budget. Was not the last figure he publicly stated that we are now losing £1 million a month and we all had to drink more beer and eat more pies, which caused a bit of a stir.

 

[RexCathedra]

I've got so fed up that I've gone to support Brentford.

That's nothing. I've gotten so fed up that I've gone to support FC Ingoldstadt 04.

 

[Pretty pink fairy]

Reckon I've saved £1500 for a 2 year no show (pat's wallet)
regards
DR

 

[Guy Fawkes]

I take the results and performances away from what I'm feeling as it wouldn't put me off going.

However, my thing this year is that I feel more detached from the club and players than ever. So many new players who now can't get in the team having been replaced by all these loan players has left me a bit "meh" to an extent.

I felt like this a bit under Adams second era when we had 35+ players chopping and changing all the time and it all felt a bit unfamiliar.

I think it's possibly because the last 3 transfer windows has seen so many players leave who we're mainstays and it all seems abit uninspired at the moment from top to toe.

Don't know how I've worded it but that's how I feel at the moment

Is it the club thats getting you down? - or is it the constant negativity about it on here and from other sources (FB, Twitter, etc) that is creating this depressing feeling about the club?

I'd bet it's the latter. This constant criticism of everything about the club repeated ad infinitum (even if the original reason for complaint was untrue or has been rectified (or attempted by to rectified by the club (like signing Bent on loan)) does more damage to fans morale and enthusiasm than anything the club is really doing.

We witnessed this at Withdean, even though we had great sucess there (4 promotions in 12 years) and were losing money hand over fist, whatever the club was doing wasn't good enough in some fans opinion. We had the feel good buzz of moving into the Amex, but those that view everything negatively are starting to win over more and more fans and the descent into a depressive lull gathers pace.

It would be interesting to compile a list of everything that has been complained about since moving into the Amex (most of which are now held up as examples of what we should have now)

 

[maltaseagull]

Worryingly I am coming around to sympathising with Poyet and I never thought I'd ever think like that after the way it ended. We are going backwards and the pace is gathering, it really does appear that the footballing side has been neglected. The facilities are great but are we going to wait until the academy produces before showing ambition again?

My concern is that there is no guarantee that the academy will produce. It depends on the quality of the recruits. Given the choice of going to Brighton's state of the art facilities over Southampton's reputation of producing Premier League players, not sure we will get the pick of the kids.

 

[BensGrandad]

For the first time ever I am considering about renewing my ST next season. Prior to being diagnosed with cancer in 1995 I was going to emigrate and buy a bar in Cyprus but had looked into how I could fly home for games early Saturday morning and back Saturday evening but am now wondering whether to renew or not, something is seriously wrong at the club, sorry if I sound like Harty.

 

[Guy Fawkes]

For the first time ever I am considering about renewing my ST next season. Prior to being diagnosed with cancer in 1995 I was going to emigrate and buy a bar in Cyprus but had looked into how I could fly home for games early Saturday morning and back Saturday evening but am now wondering whether to renew or not, something is seriously wrong at the club, sorry if I sound like Harty.

To me it appears to be the fans. (quite a few ungrateful, over expectant and down right miserable so and so's whose miserable outlook about the club has spread like a cancer)

There have been numerous complaints about the club, the board, etc since we move into the Amex despite having arguably our best ever manager and some of our highest finishes in our clubs history. They demand success because they think that it's what is needed to keep the fans coming but it's really to meet their own selfish needs, their feeling of needing to be rewarded for their years of fihting for the clubs survival.

The trouble is, the more people read their bile, the more widely held that belief becomes and the more it spreads, casting a cloud over the club and putting off our fans from wanting to attend (the exact opposite outcome that their so called outbursts are (as they claim) designed to do).

It seems that we have a large number of fans who can't enjoy following the Albion any more, they feel they have to run some moral crusade to save the club and jump on every little thing about the club and turn it into a criticism or a negative to show that they were right and there is something wrong at the club (even if most of their basis for these claims turn out to be complete bullsh~t)

It's like the fans getting behind the teasm and singing at games, they blame others near them because they don't join in, or try to balme the stewards or people near them for making them stop when the truth is that they just can't be bothered and they have no one else to blame but themselves but they can't admit this so they blame the club.

They feel they need to scruntinise every minute detail in case the man who has pumped well over £100 million into this club is another Archer with evil intentions. They have forgotten how to get behind and support the team without looking out for (real or imaginary) problems. They seem to think that following a football club as a fan is to always have a hate figure at the club that they have to force out for the benefit of the club (even if the owner says they are doing a good job and the fans basis for their hate is purely speculative.

The team is underperforming, everyone agrees with that but the club are trying to sort things out by signing players like Bent and E Bennett, and yet these are even being used to attack the club and it's business.

It's about time our fans did what we should have been doing all along from the beginning of this season, getting right behind our team and giving the 11 players on the pitch our support (even more important when a team is struggling)

 

[BensGrandad]

Do not try to lecture me on what I should or should not do as a supporter as I have been supporting them since 1946 through good times and bad times up to 1st Division and down to the 4th, and nearly to non league. You have been on here since 2007 which is just before we left Withdean so I assume you have been supporting them for a similar time, perhaps a little longer so it is still new to you. When we went to The Amex I foresaw the start of a new era of a profesionally run club rather an old boys club as it had been in the previous 10-12 seasons. Things were going along fine when Gus was in charge the football was enjoyable the results acceptable even taking into account defeats, which happen. OK we f....d up in the play offs and should have been promoted. Oscar took over we carried on going forward, the football wasnt so exciting but I can live with that as I appreciate constructive football and if that means 1-0 wins so be, it the result to me is the priority, that in itself brings the enjoyment of the game. Unfortunately this season the good players have been sold under the pre text of meeting FFP when in fact it was just a cost cutting exercise. perhaps TB has had to' cut his cloth to make the suit' due to heavy expenditure, that is understandable but dont try to flannel the supporters with all this FFP rubbish: which most of the clubs are ignoring and all have agreed to raise for next season, so it obviously doesnt work. We have sold good players and replaced them with far inferior ones. The performances on the pitch are poor and getting worse. The management appear to have no idea of what to do to put it right when it is most obvious to everybody. And you have the cheek to tell me and others in the same position to support the team!

Hence I am wondering if I want to spend the money on my 3 season tickets next season.

 

[Hamilton]

I'm still passionately Albion. Do I feel anymore detached than last year? No.

Do I feel more detached than in the Withdean years? Yes, but then we had a cause to rally around.

What's been lost is the camaraderie that the club could once count upon between fans and club. We had an opportunity to build on that and we blew it. We sold up to the money making marketing machine. But hey ho. Some supporters always said they wanted to just support a normal football club, and that's what we've got. A normal club. It can be a bit boring though. The party has finished and it's the day after and it can feel a bit boring.

I know I still feel protective over the Albion. That's where my passion comes from. I worry about us sinking down the league and out of existence. To be honest, I wouldn't trust a club chairman as far as I could throw him or her. I'd much rather see a supporter's trust with a significant holding in the club.

All that said, I still get excited to a degree. I will get behind the team, refuse to boo and certainly won't join any Sami out chants (we've known worst times).

Does that add up to 'meh'? Not quite. I guess I'm between 'meh' and 'yeah!' but nowhere near the heights of some years.

 

[BensGrandad]

I know full well the BHA allegiance will pull me to renew my STs because it is in the blood but the fact that for a moment I considered not would have been unbelievable a few years ago. As I said I was emigrating but keeping my ST and making arrangements to fly home to watch all home matches.

 

[spence]

I know full well the BHA allegiance will pull me to renew my STs because it is in the blood but the fact that for a moment I considered not would have been unbelievable a few years ago. As I said I was emigrating but keeping my ST and making arrangements to fly home to watch all home matches.

You just said you would probably end up renewing again, therefore it's just a knee jerk reaction from you at the end of the day. Completely different from my view.

 

[ozzygull]

I am feeling a bit meh at the moment and it is definitely the results and being in the drop zone that is causing it. Saying that I am Brighton fan and these feelings are not unusual, I take comfort in the fact that these have never stopped me going to games before and I'm sure they won't now. The thing is if we get relegated I will feel bad, but I will get over it renew my season ticket and look forward to next season. For Tony Bloom the bad feeling will be far far greater.He is the one that has invested millions and has a lot more to lose then me if we are relegated. Now a chap that has made enough money to be to be able to do what he has brighton is no fool. So I guess he will be doing what ever he can to make sure that does not happen.

I can't do anymore but to just keep going to games, even if it does feel like visiting a relative your not keen on.

 

[spence]

To me it appears to be the fans. (quite a few ungrateful, over expectant and down right miserable so and so's whose miserable outlook about the club has spread like a cancer)

There have been numerous complaints about the club, the board, etc since we move into the Amex despite having arguably our best ever manager and some of our highest finishes in our clubs history. They demand success because they think that it's what is needed to keep the fans coming but it's really to meet their own selfish needs, their feeling of needing to be rewarded for their years of fihting for the clubs survival.

The trouble is, the more people read their bile, the more widely held that belief becomes and the more it spreads, casting a cloud over the club and putting off our fans from wanting to attend (the exact opposite outcome that their so called outbursts are (as they claim) designed to do).

It seems that we have a large number of fans who can't enjoy following the Albion any more, they feel they have to run some moral crusade to save the club and jump on every little thing about the club and turn it into a criticism or a negative to show that they were right and there is something wrong at the club (even if most of their basis for these claims turn out to be complete bullsh~t)

It's like the fans getting behind the teasm and singing at games, they blame others near them because they don't join in, or try to balme the stewards or people near them for making them stop when the truth is that they just can't be bothered and they have no one else to blame but themselves but they can't admit this so they blame the club.

They feel they need to scruntinise every minute detail in case the man who has pumped well over £100 million into this club is another Archer with evil intentions. They have forgotten how to get behind and support the team without looking out for (real or imaginary) problems. They seem to think that following a football club as a fan is to always have a hate figure at the club that they have to force out for the benefit of the club (even if the owner says they are doing a good job and the fans basis for their hate is purely speculative.

The team is underperforming, everyone agrees with that but the club are trying to sort things out by signing players like Bent and E Bennett, and yet these are even being used to attack the club and it's business.

It's about time our fans did what we should have been doing all along from the beginning of this season, getting right behind our team and giving the 11 players on the pitch our support (even more important when a team is struggling)

Rubbish.