[Albion] The Mike Bailey Principle

[Ernest]

That Manchester United one was quite telling. True, Man U weren't the force they became 15 years later, but they were still a big club PLUS Peter Ward was back playing for us. But under 19,000 is risible.

For me, it was part of a bigger malaise in society, leading to falling attendances everywhere. Even Chelsea (albeit a mid-table second division club at the time) were only getting 8,000.

These falling attendances, combined with Bamber's reckless lashing out of the Monopoly money when we were on the up, combined to create a nightmare scenario for him when the wheels came off. Bailey, who was the first manager Bamber sacked for 10 years, was a victim of that. It also was the start of the problems we were to have over the next 30 years.

Man U v Brighton in March 1983 attendance was 36264 , shows how attendances were in those days

 

[Mo Gosfield]

Wasn't Melia on the staff anyway, perhaps as a scout?

I will admit to being bitterly disappointed. Also cringed at his publicity stunts during the cup run and when he was booted out. Didn't he appear in the North Stand versus massive?

Yes, he did.
It was all orchestrated between Melia and certain individuals within the club. When I arrived for the game, a contact told me what was going to happen. All the journo's had been tipped off that he would appear in the North Stand, during the first half, which he duly did and was promptly lifted shoulder high by fans. All the ' red-top ' journo's raced round to the North Stand, whilst the ' broadsheet ' guys remained in the Press Box.
It was bizarre behaviour by Melia and frankly, did him no credit. He should have had the dignity to walk away. He had lost an internal power struggle with Chris Cattlin and his career at Brighton was over.

 

[dangull]

A lot of teams in this league have better squads on paper, so its madness to criticise CH tactics when we are sitting 11th in the table at the moment.


It happens in all leagues in the world. Most Scottish teams use park the bus tactics when playing Celtic as the gulf in finances is huge. Quite often when they do take risks they usually get thumped.

 

[Rogero]

A .lot of fluctuation there, people mainly turning out to see the top teams it seems. 12k for Leeds (who got relegated) followed a week later by 27k for Spurs; 10k for relegated Wolves followed by 17k for second place Ipswich.

But the drop-off from 81-82 to 82-83 is stark, can it really be just because of Bailey's management style? 27k for Arsenal in April followed by 13k for Arsenal in September. Thats bizarre.

Not many people had season tickets in those days, and also the way seats are counted was different.

 

[Exile]

Not many people had season tickets in those days, and also the way seats are counted was different.

And depending on how many turnstiles were being accurately counted...

 

[The Large One]

Yes, he did.
It was all orchestrated between Melia and certain individuals within the club. When I arrived for the game, a contact told me what was going to happen. All the journo's had been tipped off that he would appear in the North Stand, during the first half, which he duly did and was promptly lifted shoulder high by fans. All the ' red-top ' journo's raced round to the North Stand, whilst the ' broadsheet ' guys remained in the Press Box.
It was bizarre behaviour by Melia and frankly, did him no credit. He should have had the dignity to walk away. He had lost an internal power struggle with Chris Cattlin and his career at Brighton was over.

There was no 'power struggle' between Melia and Cattlin.

There may - or may not - been behind the scenes goings-on within the higher reaches of the club, but there is no way Cattlin ever involved himself in any 'power struggles'.

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Aren't you boycotting the club any more?

Not at all, I have been sneaking in watching over your shoulder

Yes of course I have.

I'm just putting across why I love to watch the game so much because parking the bus maybe for some, but I feel the balance of this has gone too far to hope to nick a win or not to lose too heavily is just boring entertainment and if I was watching that week in week out I would find it very tedious.

I find the best way to watch Albion nowadays is on MOTD because they can cut out 90% of the boredom.
I have even fallen asleep while listening to it on Radio Sussex, of course, you could put that down to JC or just the fact he doesn't have a lot to work with.

Never really boycotted the club just the man who treats customers as a number.

Principles,principles, principles, someone needs to have them nowadays.

 

[deslynhamsmoustache1]

Yes, he did.
It was all orchestrated between Melia and certain individuals within the club. When I arrived for the game, a contact told me what was going to happen. All the journo's had been tipped off that he would appear in the North Stand, during the first half, which he duly did and was promptly lifted shoulder high by fans. All the ' red-top ' journo's raced round to the North Stand, whilst the ' broadsheet ' guys remained in the Press Box.
It was bizarre behaviour by Melia and frankly, did him no credit. He should have had the dignity to walk away. He had lost an internal power struggle with Chris Cattlin and his career at Brighton was over.

Ahh those white slip on shoes.........those were the days

 

[AZ Gull]

Wasn't Melia on the staff anyway, perhaps as a scout?

Yep - not sure exactly when he joined the staff, but he was with Albion at least as early as the summer of 1980 when he was included in the pre-season team photo (2nd row, between Glen Wilson and Ken Craggs):-

 

[deslynhamsmoustache1]

Not many people had season tickets in those days, and also the way seats are counted was different.

The gate receipts were regularly manipulated in those days as it was mainly POTG cash. if you stood in the same spot each home game - which a lot of people including myself did you soon got a feel for the attendance, so when 18k felt like 28k you knew the club had some creative accounting going on.

 

[deslynhamsmoustache1]

I think what would be Albion utopia would be a blend of our current defense with a good dollop of Bournemouth's attacking flair. I'll still settle for slow and steady progress until we get near to that.

 

[drew]

It is an either or. Right now we are winning games playing to our strengths, and you want to throw caution to the wind and change our game completely (even though it's what out manager is custom to) for the sake of abit more entertainment? It's absolute madness.

What examples of (consistent) expansive football can you give me in the Premier League outside the top 6 who have nailed down stability here? Please don't say Bournemouth because you clearly haven't watched them if you do. Maybe Watford, but they are a basket case of a club.

Also, here's where we differ. I don't think Wolves 'dominated' us, I think we did a number on them. Maybe the next edition of Match or Shoot magazine will follow your line of thinking but for me, the game of football is not about possession stats and shots on goal and thank god that it isn't, else we would have comfortably lost. I honestly can't say I was concerned AT ALL throughout the entire game about them breaching our back line, other than; Doherty in first half, second half when someone smashed it through a crowd of players into Ryan's knees and finally the Bennett chance at the death. All matched and exceeded by the chances we had, a miss from 3 yards out, 2 breakways squandered and the goal we scored.

People keep saying we scraped a win and that we were 'lucky'. I think we could have won the game 2 or 3 nothing by the end, playing the way we did. I wonder if people would still be spouting the same bollocks if we had. 'Scraping a 3-0 home win'.

Sorry but I'll politely say you're talking bollox!

It is an either or situation because, now I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, you can't guarantee that by playing like we did against Newcastle and Wolves when we play Everton, we'll win 1-0. There are no guarantees.

As for the Wolves game, you don't need statistics to know that we only had one shot on target which came about because Bruno's shot was miss hit! We could have had a couple more but our two breakaway chances were completely wasted so we scraped a 1-0. As for Newcastle, not too dissimilar, our goal came from two deflections.

I agree with your comment about stats but over the course of a season, I suspect you'll find that those clubs that have more shots on goal, will score more goals!

As for scraping a 3-0 win, don't think I've ever met anyone that would consider a 3-0 scoreline as scraping it!

So if you're content with the last three performances then that's fine, whatever floats your boat. Me, I'd like to see a little more.

 

[BensGrandad]

Nothing is guaranteed but IF we can keep a clean sheet by using those same tactics it is half way there.

 

[drew]

Sorry but I'll politely say you're talking bollox!

It is not an either or situation because, now I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, you can't guarantee that by playing like we did against Newcastle and Wolves when we play Everton, we'll win 1-0. There are no guarantees.

As for the Wolves game, you don't need statistics to know that we only had one shot on target which came about because Bruno's shot was miss hit! We could have had a couple more but our two breakaway chances were completely wasted so we scraped a 1-0. As for Newcastle, not too dissimilar, our goal came from two deflections.

I agree with your comment about stats but over the course of a season, I suspect you'll find that those clubs that have more shots on goal, will score more goals!

As for scraping a 3-0 win, don't think I've ever met anyone that would consider a 3-0 scoreline as scraping it!

So if you're content with the last three performances then that's fine, whatever floats your boat. Me, I'd like to see a little more.

Sorry, corrected.

 

[Drumstick]

At halftime v Wolves one absolute bell cheese in the north boo’d. He quickly shut up when not one person joined.

He is the kind of idiot who spends the game generally making shit jokes, throwing things at people and being politely ignored by most.

Problem is he really annoys me.

I wasn’t around in the early 80’s, but I think we are on the whole realistic enough to know better than the `we should be beating teams like...’ stuff.

There is definitely merit to both but I’m more in the camp of the win is largely more important than the performance.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if it has been mentioned. On another thread someone blamed the sacking of Bailey as the reason the club almost went into terminal decline which seems odd bearing in mind, now I might be wrong here, that it was the club that gave players ludicrous 10 year contracts that were not sustainable. Having to support those contracts on the back of falling attendances no doubt contributed to the demise of Bailey. However, was it not the case that the problem was not sacking Bailey but in a cheap appointment of someone who had no worthwhile managerial experience and, as it seemed, was just a puppet for the senior members of the team?

So The Albion saw 10 year contracts as the way forward a bit like Bristol City if so how did the club avoid The Ashton Gate eight situation ?

 

[Mo Gosfield]

There was no 'power struggle' between Melia and Cattlin.

There may - or may not - been behind the scenes goings-on within the higher reaches of the club, but there is no way Cattlin ever involved himself in any 'power struggles'.

Wrongly worded, I admit. There were factions within the club that wanted Melia out and favoured Cattlin. That was the 'struggle ' Not between the two individuals.

 

[Puppet Master]

This thread sounds like a Big Bang Theory episode title

 

[Perry Milkins]

Sorry but I'll politely say you're talking bollox!

It is an either or situation because, now I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, you can't guarantee that by playing like we did against Newcastle and Wolves when we play Everton, we'll win 1-0. There are no guarantees.

As for the Wolves game, you don't need statistics to know that we only had one shot on target which came about because Bruno's shot was miss hit! We could have had a couple more but our two breakaway chances were completely wasted so we scraped a 1-0. As for Newcastle, not too dissimilar, our goal came from two deflections.

I agree with your comment about stats but over the course of a season, I suspect you'll find that those clubs that have more shots on goal, will score more goals!

As for scraping a 3-0 win, don't think I've ever met anyone that would consider a 3-0 scoreline as scraping it!

So if you're content with the last three performances then that's fine, whatever floats your boat. Me, I'd like to see a little more.

Just focusing on your last statement, at what point does that manifest itself into you not bothering to come to the game.

What I am looking for is an understanding as to where the threshold is for the regulars now and at what point will the individual say 'enough is enough, we have been in the Pl for 3/4/5..seasons and this is all that CH sets out to do...'

I am not a sports fan psychologist but whilst I gauge that a good majority see the result over the style now, as each passing game/season goes the tide may turn. But I guess CH and TB/PB know that and whilst we are not anchored to cash generated by ticket sales they will want the Amex as full as possible.

 

[drew]

Just focusing on your last statement, at what point does that manifest itself into you not bothering to come to the game.

What I am looking for is an understanding as to where the threshold is for the regulars now and at what point will the individual say 'enough is enough, we have been in the Pl for 3/4/5..seasons and this is all that CH sets out to do...'

I am not a sports fan psychologist but whilst I gauge that a good majority see the result over the style now, as each passing game/season goes the tide may turn. But I guess CH and TB/PB know that and whilst we are not anchored to cash generated by ticket sales they will want the Amex as full as possible.

Good question. I've been going for over 40 years and have never stopped just because of the style but my level of enjoyment has certainly fluctuated and you only need to look at the attendances pre Amex to know that it does affect others decision to go.

You could turn the question around and ask those that are happy to go along with the project and see 1-0 victories in the manner we have just seen, when they hope to see the project taken to the next phase, ie next season, the season after etc etc.