When did this story start ?

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Questions

Habitual User
Oct 18, 2006
25,515
Worthing
Reading the replies to Inigo Calderon encouragement tweet and the messages telling him he is part of this story it got me thinking to when did this whole fantastic voyage really begin.
Not when you first started watching them but when this last thrust, dream, belief really grew within us. After the shit we had had thrown at us and we saw the first shoots of recovery of this club.
I promised my daughter when she went to her first game when she was six and being pulled towards the Premier League shirt brigade that we would get there one day. Well she is 27 this year.

It was when I first saw the bulldozers at Falmer when I started to believe.
 




Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Watching the team Gus put together at Withdean when we walked League One the season before we moved into Falmer, It remains a highlight of watching the Albion, for me, and I almost believed we'd go up in our first season at the Amex. So the last season at Withdean was when I really started to believe and when this journey began for me.

The Doncaster game also
 






Wellesley

Well-known member
Jul 24, 2013
4,973
The friendly against Aberdeen preceding Gus's first full season. I couldn't believe some of the football we were playing.
 




Triggaaar

Well-known member
Oct 24, 2005
53,221
Goldstone
Maybe when we got permission for the Amex :shrug:
 


Was not Was

Loitering with intent
Jul 31, 2003
1,607
Those consecutive away games against Charlton and Peterborough that we won 3-0 and 4-0 iirc. It seemed almost wrong seeing an Albion team look untouchable.
 








Brovion

In my defence, I was left unsupervised.
NSC Patron
Jul 6, 2003
19,878
For me it's probably the first match at the Amex. (And I went to all three so you can take your pick). All the while it was being built it still didn't seem real, but once I actually saw us playing there and I knew this fantastic ground was ours, I knew that a new and fantastic phase of the club's story had begun.

"And one day, when our new home's built and we are storming back / A bunch of happy fans without a care"
 


Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
13,457
Central Borneo / the Lizard
Watching the team Gus put together at Withdean when we walked League One the season before we moved into Falmer, It remains a highlight of watching the Albion, for me, and I almost believed we'd go up in our first season at the Amex. So the last season at Withdean was when I really started to believe and when this journey began for me.

The Doncaster game also

Bloom making Poyet his first managerial signing is an obvious starting point, and many elements of our style of play started under Gus and have continued to this day, ball-playing defenders and goalkeepers, midfielders dropping deep to pick the ball up at feet, a surplus of wingers to stretch sides. And this is when Calde and Greer joined.
 




lawros left foot

Glory hunting since 1969
NSC Patron
Jun 11, 2011
14,089
Worthing
The day Dick Knight took over, we had someone who loved the Albion in charge at last. No one said it would be easy, and they were right.
 


martin tyler

Well-known member
Jan 25, 2013
5,969
It's one big long story that I think starts on your first Albion game. Inside of that there are chapters of a start which make up the book. This chapter for me began as we won league 1 and moved into the AMEX. I think it will end with us being promoted. The PL era will be part of a new chapter. But the current chapter has some players/managers that are not here now but won't ever be forgotten. Calderon being the biggest
 






dejavuatbtn

Well-known member
Aug 4, 2010
7,577
Henfield
Overtaking Chesterfield's points total that existed before they had the 10 point deduction. A real indicator that we were becoming a force again.
 






Davemania

Well-known member
Jul 11, 2011
1,752
Uckfield
This has been so overdue since the '80's. When I started watching the Albion in the mid '80's I think it was generally assumed that it wouldn't be long before we had another go at the top division after having had a four year spell up there only a short time before. We made the play off final in 91, didn't quite make it but I don't think anyone realised (maybe it was known, not to me, I was only 15) that we were on the verge of financial ruin and homelessness during the coming decade. That set us back about 20 years. Finally we're coming out of that period of complete destruction and hopefully will be rewarded with promotion to the PL. As I said before there's no set of fans that deserve it more than Brighton fans
 






whitelion

New member
Dec 16, 2003
12,828
Southwick
Could this be it?

https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/showt...-Year-Plan-to-reach-the-Premier-League-a-myth

It's talked about on NSC as if it's a living, breathing document with comments around whether we are on schedule etc. However, is there any evidence that such a plan exists?

All I can find is the statement by Poyet that getting into Premier League is a 'goal'. Which is rather different from a plan. And although it mentions five years, it's not even the case that it's promotion within five years or Gus is leaving. To quote him:


Reaching the Premier League is now the ultimate target, be that with Brighton or someone else.

He intends to reach that level sooner rather than later and, having represented Chelsea with distinction during his playing days, has refused to rule out a return to Stamford Bridge.

"Yes, perhaps. But I'm not in a hurry," Poyet told The Independent.

"That doesn't mean when I'm 72, but not tomorrow. Five years would be better than 10, but anyway I'm convinced that it's possible with Brighton.

"If the aim were not the Premiership, I'd already be gone. But the chairman (Tony Bloom) wants the same as me."

Poyet fancies Blues post | Chelsea News, Fixtures, Results, Transfers | Sky Sports


I have no problem with what Poyet says here, especially as he doesn't talk about it as a 'plan.'

It seems a bit presumptuous to plan for when promotion will happen especially as a season will throw up lots of circumstances and events (injuries, revenue, loss of form of players, unexpected successes) that are very difficult to predict 2, 3 or 4 years in advance.
 


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