[Albion] The Premier League’s Big Six tore apart Southampton, now they are doing the same to Brighton

[Bozza]

"We are seeing almost the exact same thing happening at Brighton right now. The highly respected head coach Graham Potter poached by Chelsea. The decimation of a playing squad that, for even the most fleeting of periods, looked as though it could make even the tiniest dent in the Big Six.

Unfortunately, that task is like trying to build one of those devilishly difficult dinosaur towers you were bought for Christmas while your three-year-old keeps gleefully snatching away dinosaurs on the bottom row that are propping the remainder up.

Brighton will — rightly so — cling to the hope of a glittering system, a well-oiled model of a club, that they can keep unearthing these players and selling them onwards and upwards. They are a phenomenally well-run football club. But there’s no guarantee it can last forever."


Source and full article: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league-big-six-southampton-brighton-2101622?ITO=newsnow

 

[Gwylan]

I've seen this suggestion before - several times in fact. There is a big difference between Brighton and Southampton, however: Brighton is owned by a lifelong fan, who desperately wants to see the club thrive; Southamption was owned by a businessman who wanted to maximise his investment. Since Liebherr died, it's had a succession of owners, so there's been no continuity; that's totally different from Brighton's progress.

I'm not saying we're going to dent the Big Six permanently but I don't think we'll collapse as Southampton have done

 

[WATFORD zero]

Brighton and Southampton both sold a few players for big money. That is the only similarity, they have been run completely differently as clubs. And obviously we are going to go up and down and we're currently on an up.

Lazy 'journalism'

 

[chaileyjem]

Brighton and Southampton both sold a few players for big money. That is the only similarity, they have been run completely differently as clubs. And obviously we are going to go up and down and we're currently on an up.

Lazy 'journalism'

Southampton have also, since their promotion to the PL a decade ago finished in the top ten - four times, and the Europa League twice . So Albion still have a fair way to go to match their rise, let alone their fall.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

"We are seeing almost the exact same thing happening at Brighton right now. The highly respected head coach Graham Potter poached by Chelsea. The decimation of a playing squad that, for even the most fleeting of periods, looked as though it could make even the tiniest dent in the Big Six.

Unfortunately, that task is like trying to build one of those devilishly difficult dinosaur towers you were bought for Christmas while your three-year-old keeps gleefully snatching away dinosaurs on the bottom row that are propping the remainder up.

Brighton will — rightly so — cling to the hope of a glittering system, a well-oiled model of a club, that they can keep unearthing these players and selling them onwards and upwards. They are a phenomenally well-run football club. But there’s no guarantee it can last forever."


Source and full article: https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league-big-six-southampton-brighton-2101622?ITO=newsnow

The language in that report is pretty peurile.

'The decimation of a playing squad that, for even the most fleeting of periods, looked as though it could make even the tiniest dent in the Big Six' suggests our moment in the sun has been and gone. It's barely started.

As for 'cling[ing] to the hope of a glittering system', Pah! it looks more like confidently scaling new heights from where most of us are sat.

Journalist hasn't read the room at all

 

[dwayne]

Palace fan writing that article ?

Sounds like a bitter twat.

 

[AmexRuislip]

This is just typical shite journalism that you expect around the time of a transfer window.
It's all a load of hokey IMO.
We've got an owner in TB, who'll not see our club dismantled, all to be cherry picked by the so called BIG 6.

 

[Sarisbury Seagull]

I've said before, it's a lazy comparison.

The clubs are run very differently - the ownership situation, structure and direction of Southampton has been a mess for 6/7 years now.

 

[AmexRuislip]

Latest Sam Cunningham exclusive......

'Man in cave discovers fire'

 

[Napper]

The jump to the top 6 is steeper than the fall to the lower half of the table.

As little as 1/2 player sales and the players replacing not quite up to it is all it takes to suddenly be looking over shoulders.

This is the season to live the dreams

 

[Questions]

Not one reply really thinks that THAT could ever happen….. It really could though.

 

[Mustafa II]

The big question is, can this model last forever?

At the moment, it certainly seems like it can. We haven't failed to find replacements for all of our big outgoing transfers as of yet. If anything, we have improved on them.

But surely there needs to be a point in our ambitions where we keep hold of our very best players.

Or are we just to accept that it's a matter of time before we lose Caicedo, Mac Allister, Ferguson, Mitoma, Sanchez... and all the rest, but with the idea that there are young players primed and ready to fill their vacancies once they go.

 

[Bold Seagull]

The big question is, can this model last forever?

At the moment, it certainly seems like it can. We haven't failed to find replacements for all of our big outgoing transfers as of yet. If anything, we have improved on them.

But surely there needs to be a point in our ambitions where we keep hold of our very best players.

Or are we just to accept that it's a matter of time before we lose Caicedo, Mac Allister, Ferguson, Mitoma, Sanchez... and all the rest, but with the idea that there are young players primed and ready to fill their vacancies once they go.

The way football is run it is a pipe dream you can just hold on to your very best players. Even the likes of Liverpool, Spurs, Chelsea sell their stars if they want away to Real or Barca.

Our ambition has to be that talented players like Lewis Dunk, Pascal Gross, Solly, Veltman, Webster, who are maybe just below top 6 radar, can sign long term with us and have a fulfilling career here without needing to move to a West Ham or Villa or comparative team. We are retaining some very good talent that form the core of our squad.

Exception talents, especially from foreign shores, enjoy them while they can, but they are going to leave. Just be thankful world class players are regularly wearing the stripes these days.

 

[casbom]

The key to our success will be when the senior players like Dunk/Gross/Lallana are no longer around. We need to have a solid group of players who do stick around and are good enough for top 10. All very well in selling off top young players but if we don't have a quality foundation of the team, it will fall apart. However good the intentions of the Club are.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Latest Sam Cunningham exclusive......

'Man in cave discovers fire'

Look forward to his world exclusive on the wheel.

 

[RustyKent]

Hopefully we won't follow Southampton's lead.

The Big Six tore apart Southampton, now they are doing the same to Brighton

White to Arsenal, Cucurella then Potter to Chelsea, Bissouma to Spurs and now Trossard to Arsenal as well – we’ve seen this all before

inews.co.uk

 

[dazzer6666]

[Albion] - The Premier League’s Big Six tore apart Southampton, now they are doing the same to Brighton

"We are seeing almost the exact same thing happening at Brighton right now. The highly respected head coach Graham Potter poached by Chelsea. The decimation of a playing squad that, for even the most fleeting of periods, looked as though it could make even the tiniest dent in the Big Six...

www.northstandchat.com

 

[Beanstalk]

As many others have said, the key difference is owners. Until the Liebherr family sold their stake in 2017, the only time they finished outside of the top 10 in the PL was in their first season, they bought intelligently and sold high. Post that era of the Saints ownership, the strategy has been a mess, and has sucked a substandard playing side into a repetitive relegation battle. They may have a clear plan in place now (buy young, develop, sell high), but they're implementing it from a very dangerous position.

This may happen to us one day but we are in a much less dangerous place as our owner is emotionally invested as well as financially.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

No, I don't think we'll ever keep hold of our 'very best players'. Hardly any club does after all, Man U couldn't keep Ronaldo first time round and sold him to Madrid, for example.

But what we will do is keep more and more of the other players. No one right now is worried about losing Dunk, or March, or Gross, or plenty of others. But if we were much lower down the league we would be worried about losing them, they would probably be the very best players at the club.

Rising up the league will do that. The very best will always move on, but the 'quality' of the very best improves. It may be that in 5 years a Caicedo would just be an average player at Brighton, thought of in the way we think of Pascal Gross now.

 

[Simster]

Brighton and Southampton both sold a few players for big money. That is the only similarity, they have been run completely differently as clubs. And obviously we are going to go up and down and we're currently on an up.

Lazy 'journalism'

No, that isn't the only similarity at all. Southampton were one of the early pioneers (outside the big boys) of heavy investment in their youth system. Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Alan Shearer all started their careers in Southampton's youth system. We also do this, and it is in contrast with, say Middlesbrough, a similar sized club who after their new stadium then spent millions on high salaries to keep it filled.

I actually wonder whether the biggest difference between Albion and others is the use of data modelling to sign players as opposed to tweaks in the scouting system. People will call it moneyball but I suspect it's more sophisticated than that and is a direct consequence of Bloom making his money in gambling using such modelling. Naturally, how that works is a closely guarded secret, and good luck to Newcastle finding out how that is done.