The Faustian pact comes unstuck.....

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

It's not the amount of money we spend that bothers me, it's the quality of the talent evaluation. We will obviously be out of the market for a number of pricier players but good due diligence should still net you some hungry youngsters looking for a break or a wise old head looking to keep his career going for a little longer. Clearly we have failed on this front massively this season, and Burke either needs to pull some exceedingly large rabbits out of a hat in january or make way for someone who can.

Spot on.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

"Old guard" and "war years" eh? I remember Attila appealing to everyone (unsuccessfully) to calm down outside the West Stand during one of the ubiquitous protests of the latter days of the Goldstone. Luckily, in my view, plenty took a different stance and decided that we needed to go a bit further as I don't think Bellotti and Archer would have been that concerned about some angry poems. Fair play to those that risked arrest on many occasions in the West Stand seats, the lads that snapped the crossbars, those on the marches etc AS WELL AS those that did the cerebral work like Paul Samrah. There were hundreds if not thousands regularly involved, not just those that enjoy a namecheck many years on.

It's hardly a Faustian pact is it? The closest there is is stuff like the naming rights and let's face it we'd be mugs to turn down the cash, especially when, despite all the corporate deals, the club is shipping millions every year. Or more accurately, Tony Bloom is shipping millions every year. We are incredibly lucky to have him and should never lose sight of that. He isn't lacking in "passion" for the club he just quite simply isn't the sort to court publicity. Who wants a Dave Whelan anyway?

I'll agree that I think he has made an error this time with Sami. I'll not aftertime though - I was happy enough with the appointment when it was made. I also do not know what criteria were laid down for any prospective incoming manager. For all we know they could all have asked for the undeliverable and TB was left with a narrow choice.

Either way, we all make mistakes. Some deserve a little leeway and some deserve more than others. TB falls squarely into the latter category. Just a view.

Terrific post. Spot on.

And like you, I was very happy with the managerial appointment, at the time. (As were a great many people now rounding on Bloom for making 'a terrible choice').

 

[El Presidente]

I actually had you down as someone quite intelligent until that post.

I'm just glad you came to your senses and saw me for what I truly am.

 

[GT49er]

You're quite right of course. Some don't even try to hide their agenda.

Is there really a 'Bloom out' agenda out there somewhere? Seriously?

Just asking, like.

 

[Hungry Joe]

I'm just glad you came to your senses and saw me for what I truly am.

Oh, I wouldn't go that far. Like some of those who jumped at the chance to have a pop at good old Attila, I was delighted to have an opportunity to get one in after your slightly arrogant riposte in my direction on the 'Barber Out' thread. I am now officially 'over it' though. Cheers.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

Is there really a 'Bloom out' agenda out there somewhere? Seriously?

Just asking, like.

Bloom out? No.

Snide digs at Bloom, for not being Dick Knight? Definitely.

 

[Questions]

Spot on with that one. Reportedly Burke is probably the most DOUR man you ever would meet and HE is in charge of recruitment and SELLING the club to potential players!

Whatever ones views on agents in the game and to be honest those views are irrelevant here because the guys are here to stay I have it on good authority that there are quite a few who find Mr Burke impossible to deal with. 'Good' I hear you say, he drives a hard bargain. Like 13 k a week for O'Grady.

 

[El Presidente]

It's not the amount of money we spend that bothers me, it's the quality of the talent evaluation. We will obviously be out of the market for a number of pricier players but good due diligence should still net you some hungry youngsters looking for a break or a wise old head looking to keep his career going for a little longer. Clearly we have failed on this front massively this season, and Burke either needs to pull some exceedingly large rabbits out of a hat in january or make way for someone who can.

This season we have got it wrong, last season, some of the younger signings, Ince, Lingard, Stephens, as well as more experienced ones such as Ward, Crofts and Andrews, suggested we got more right than wrong. Add to it the emergence of JFC and March, and it was a good two and a half cheers for the recruitment and youth development teams. There were duffers too (Lita, Kemy), but as far as I can remember no Albion managers have got it all right (even Chris Cattlin, who is one of my favourites, made a fair few clangers).

This season they have got far more wrong than right. Sam Baldock is the THIRD most expensive player in the history of the club, David Stockdale the FOURTH (equal), and they have at best looked okay. The rest

We have done well in terms of sales, £15 million for Bridcutt (bench warmer), Buckley (inconsistent sicknote), Ulloa (on whom we made a profit of £6.5 million in 18 months) and Barnes (vastly underrated IMO) is a damn good return on an outlay of £3.1 million. We however also have effectively lost over £6 million on the likes of CMS, Hoskins, Harley, Dobbie and O'Grady (note mainly strikers), which shows that getting the right front man is a tough ask.

David Burke wasn't a genius for getting in some good players who took us to the playoffs last season, and he isn't a complete idiot for his input on our signings this season that have resulted in the club being in the drop zone. Sometimes there is an element of luck involved, just as there was when Gary Dicker broke Will Hoskins leg three years ago, and we didn't re-sign Glenn Murray as a result.

 

[GT49er]

And like you, I was very happy with the managerial appointment, at the time.

Yes, me too. It now looks like a bad mistake - some of us took longer than others to come to that conclusion, but I think it's fair to say that a considerable number of people now are in agreement about that. Current criticism about TB is not so much that he made a mistake (everybody does, and he's only human too) but that he doesn't APPEAR to be doing anything to rectify it.

(I say 'appear', because none of us actually know what he's thinking or doing or going to do.)

 

[Questions]

Unlike 'Old Harry' I'm not against Directors of football who can aid and assist a manager in setting up their whole scouting system but I would want them to be ex managers or football people themselves and not someone who relies solely on a Wiscout or Prozone computer software package.

 

[El Presidente]

Unlike 'Old Harry' I'm not against Directors of football who can aid and assist a manager in setting up their whole scouting system but I would want them to be ex managers or football people themselves and not someone who relies solely on a Wiscout or Prozone computer software package.

I can understand that view. We are in the era of big data in terms of football, and it does seem a bit clinical, when what we want is passionate and emotional. As for Harry, I wonder why he wants such a hands on approach to player signings............

 

[portlock seagull]

If Tony Bloom is reading this - I doubt he would be thinking that. I am sure he would understand it as a literary allusion. People are taking this way too literally.

Precisely. And there's some right jealous bitches on NSC who just can't stand the fact that Attila, Harty, Samarah and co are and always will be remembered in the Albions history for saving the club; whilst they won't even make the footnotes. Despite their 1000 postings a week most of which is pathetic snidey nerdy ner ner stuff which is of course water off the back of those guys and girls.

 

[attila]

Apologies for not having been NAILED to this message board all afternoon: I was driving my 93 year old mother in law down from Northwich to spend Xmas and New Year with us. In my defence, I have logged in within half an hour of arriving home

The Faustian Pact has absolutely NOTHING to do with Tony Bloom, or indeed with BHAFC. We are indeed better than many in that regard. It refers to my personal dislike of modern football as embraced in England (and my great admiration for the German alternative, among others) I am Brighton till I die and NOTHING - not Archer, Bellotti and Stanley, not modern football, not silly swipes on a message board by fellow fans generated seemingly because of a dislike for me/my politics, and it always to be the same bunch, many of whom are very nice to my face - will change that. For me, and for many I know, modern football is indeed a Faustian pact: you suspend some of your core beliefs in order to keep supporting the club you love. But if you suspend those beliefs and accept corporate football, you expect the extremely highly paid individuals who preside over it to run it properly and to act when things are obviously going pear shaped. Some Premier League fans (and not just Premier either) have walked away and can now be seen at FCUM, 1874 Northwich, St Pauli, Clapton FC and a host of other places. I never will, although I will sometimes be seen at all those grounds when the Albion aren't playing. I think we nearly all agree that Hyypia and Burke need to go. I think we should do something about it.

And no, I don't read NSC that much. I am on the computer enough as it is organising my life and spreading ideas and compositions through social media. I shall not be posting any more poems on here, which will please many of you nor anything not Albion related: I have other avenues for that. But I will post occasionally, and I do read a bit. I am not 'above' anybody. I have no agenda at all apart from wanting the best for the club, and I am not 'bitter' on behalf of DK: he is big enough to fight his own battles and he has made mistakes too.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The motives of those circling the wagons for TB? I'd hazard a guess that some are motivated by a desire to get back at him for what they see as him having treated DK poorly at the time TB took over. In other words - revenge.

Why should ANYONE wish to exact revenge on the man who was instrumental in turning all those years of campaigning for a permanent home for the Albion into something far better than anyone could have imagined was possible?

That doesn't rule out criticism, though. You'd expect nothing different from longstanding critical friends.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

More of the same, Buzzer, HKFC, Bozza, Simster and co jumping on a post from one of the 'old guard' because they don't like 0.1% because it might not be especially positive about Bloom.

Unusually, everyone seems quite united in criticism of the on the pitch so it's a shame this petty squabble grumbles on when it comes to off field matters.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Faust......would happen in Germany.

 

[portslade seagull]

At least this fresh thread gives people the opportunity to take part in one of NSC's favourite pastimes ... Shoot the Messenger.

Instead of bickering with each other we need to unite if that's what you want to call it and let the board know Sami out !!!

 

[Goldstone1976]

Why should ANYONE wish to exact revenge on the man who was instrumental in turning all those years of campaigning for a permanent home for the Albion into something far better than anyone could have imagined was possible?

That doesn't rule out criticism, though. You'd expect nothing different from longstanding critical friends.

Of course we should criticise, and most posters, including me, think that TB has been somewhat tardy in dealing with Sami. That said, some posts go beyond mere criticism of the current footballing woes and, imo, stray into much-raking. It is those posters whose motives I question.

 

[Acker79]

 

[herecomesaregular]

I am never quite sure of the boundaries between praise, sarcasm and cynicism on this forum. But I genuinely thank Attilla for his intervention as I do Harty and wish that more of the team that did get quite close to the club in the War years, were also bold enough to put their head above the parapet. I hated Naylor's fence sitting in the Argus Analysis this morning also.

These two fools (Hyppia and Burke must go with immediate effect).

You weren't a wrestler by any chance ? (re username), sorry off topic!