Why are albion unable to take the final step and ever get promotion to the PL ?

[warmleyseagull]

Since the January window shut we scored 8 more goals than any other team in the league, had a +24 goal difference and lost 1 game. and racked up 11 more points than Sheff Weds, 12 more points than Hull and 5 more than Boro. and had the top scorer in the entire league for that period.

But what would have happened if Hemed had got injured? We also need competiton for him as he demonstrated perfectly in his barren spell that strikers blow hot and cold. BZ is finished, Wilson will go back to Man U.

 

[chaileyjem]

If we'd had one last night I suggest we would have romped that game.
I'm not going to let you convince me otherwise, we need another big striker

Yes. We self evidently need and will likely get 2 new strikers for next season. Zamora has played his last game. And Wilson (i guess) won't be back.

 

[chaileyjem]

But what would have happened if Hemed had got injured? We also need competiton for him as he demonstrated perfectly in his barren spell that strikers blow hot and cold. BZ is finished, Wilson will go back to Man U.

Of course. We'll need to invest in 2 strikers this summer alongside Baldock, Hemed assuming, as is likely, that Wilson and BZ have played their last games for the club

 

[smithmustscore]

I reckon we are still suffering form Burke running the recruitment, but is there any other deeper, intrinsic reason why we can't make that final step ?

I think it comes down to pressure you put yourselves under. BHA have a Premiership set up and feel they deserve to be in that league on many fronts, whilst other teams like Palace, Burnley, Bournemouth etc don't have that expectation and pressure and that has helped them to either get straight promotion or win play offs. Playing without fear is massive.

I just think BHA haven't been a Championship club for that long and are still finding their feet, and it is a matter of time before you do go up.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

Agree, James Wilson and Sir Bobby must both be replaced for next season - how much should we spend.

Assume no other buying / selling.

This is where we need our international scouts to excel - another Ulloa [or two] would be fantastic - how much did we pay for him?

 

[Bold Seagull]

Is the Championship just getting harder top to bottom, or is the top half just more competitive? This is the 3rd season in a row 89 points hasn't been enough to get automatic. We'd have WON the league in 2010/11, 2011/12 and 2012/13 on what we finished on.

I think Tony must have done some deal with the devil somewhere along the line, because we ain't getting any good fortune whatsoever. Injuries hit us hard over Xmas, and again now. Normally these are more spread over a season, you could handle the same number of injuries, but we seemed to get them in clusters together. I really don't know how we haven't done it. Just one bit of luck. The ref seeing Barton's stamp, the ref seeing Stephens challenge fair, or as he first thought a yellow, seeing the push for their goal last night. I feel like we got nothing, not a little deflection, a kind bounce a cross that drifts in! I'm not handling this very well.......

 

[chaileyjem]

It doesn't detract from the fact that this is what finally did for us. Not enough centre forward options

or hitting the bar too much
or not scoring 1 goal in the first Boro game
or Stephens not raising his leg too high.
or Hemed missing *that* penalty
or Dunk not getting sent off at QPR or going in with 2 feet at Derby
or 4 players going off at Sheff Weds
or or or or or

NO IT MUST BE BECAUSE WE DIDN"T SIGN GLENN MURRAY

 

[beefypigeon]

As others have said, the three recent occasions where we've been in the playoffs have all been very different affairs.

- Poyet's team was probably good enough to do it, but we all know the controversy and implosion that occured there.
- Oscar's team we were lucky to get in the playoffs at all. That squad and the football we were playing was nowhere near as good as the other two occasions.
- Chris's team I believe fully deserved to be promoted this season. Even taking the blue and white tinted specs off, I think we've been very unlucky this last couple of weeks, making things so much harder than they should have been.

Next season will be tough, probably tougher than this season in terms of quality. Norwich, Newcastle, Derby, and Hull/Sheff Wed are all more than capable of automatic promotion. However we have proved this year that we are a fantastic team, and more than capable of doing it ourselves. With a couple of strikers, a back up CM or two, and the return of March/Stephens, we will be right up there as one of the favourites for automatic promotion.

 

[Return of the Rev]

I think its because the teams we play in the championship also want to be promoted and quite often they get more points than us Plus clackers&poogate

 

[Icy Gull]

or hitting the bar too much
or not scoring 1 goal in the first Boro game
or Stephens not raising his leg too high.
or Hemed missing *that* penalty
or Dunk not getting sent off at QPR or going in with 2 feet at Derby
or 4 players going off at Sheff Weds
or or or or or

NO IT MUST BE BECAUSE WE DIDN"T SIGN GLENN MURRAY

I love the fact that you REFUSE to accept that we were light on big centre forwards in the second half of the season. It must just be a massive co-incidence that every single other team in the top six had more than one. Boo hoo it was all down to bad luck that we are still in the Chapionship as we cannot possibly suggest that just perhaps the club shot themselves in the foot by not getting one in January. BHA, perfect in every way and just unlucky. OK

I totally accept we had an inordinate amount of bad luck and shit officials though

 

[chaileyjem]

we were light on big centre forwards in the second half of the season. It must just be a massive co-incidence that every single other team in the top six had more than one.

Yes. We didn't sign Glenn Murray.
In fact we'll never sign Glenn Murray.
Thank god for that.

 

[Icy Gull]

glenn murray.

Him or nobody seemed to be the plan, when Eddie said no did we just gave up trying? A big reason why we are still in the Championship IMO.

At least you and TSB are happy we didn't manage to sign him.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Next season there will be none of this "under the radar" stuff - we were top of the Championship for a good portion of the season, we got 89 points and pushed Burnley and Boro all the way, we have quality players throughout the side, a proven manager. The football media are beginning to take the Albion seriously as a club and there's an expectation in the media that Prem football will come sooner or later to Brighton.

 

[Return of the Rev]

Next season there will be none of this "under the radar" stuff - we were top of the Championship for a good portion of the season, we got 89 points and pushed Burnley and Boro all the way, we have quality players throughout the side, a proven manager. The football media are beginning to take the Albion seriously as a club and there's an expectation in the media that Prem football will come sooner or later to Brighton.

The same media that wrote off Leicester for most of the season

 

[chaileyjem]

Him or nobody seemed to be the plan, when Eddie said no did we just gave up trying? A big reason why we are still in the Championship IMO.

At least you and TSB are happy we didn't manage to sign him.

ICY - you also were convinced Derby would romp it this season. Hows that going ?

 

[Pavilionaire]

The same media that wrote off Leicester for most of the season

When Gus told the world we had hit the ceiling, then we got rid of most of our best players I think there was a perception that the Brighton bubble had burst. What Hughton has done is prove that Brighton ARE a genuine contender and we ARE a big player in this division.

In the past we've got rid of our best players. The challenge now is to hang onto the key players that won us 89 points. If we can do that then for the first time in more than 30 years I'll be starting a season genuinely believing automatic promotion is a strong possibility. But hanging onto those players will be a battle. I hope the club act swiftly in that regard - we must keep this team together.

 

[symyjym]

Him or nobody seemed to be the plan, when Eddie said no did we just gave up trying? A big reason why we are still in the Championship IMO.

At least you and TSB are happy we never signed him.

Murray was the only player who would have suited us. It was always going to be him or no one.

I would support the idea of getting him in over the summer, plus another striker.

 

[Swillis]

Murray was the only player who would have suited us. It was always going to be him or no one.

I would support the idea of getting him in over the summer, plus another striker.

People on here are saying Murray is to old etc. He has never been a pacy player. He knows how to be in the right place at the right time, loads of us were gutted when the went to Bournemouth. Others said it was great business tosser, it turned out a bad deal all round. We plummeted like a stone and could not score, Bournemouth Bought someone who just did not fit for whatever reason and Murray hardly got any game time. I still believe Murray would score a lot of goals in the Championship. With the right delivery he would score still in the premier league.

 

[sydney]

no doubt if we had a decent striker we would be looking forward to a season in the prem.....hemed may develop , baldock was great in div one with brizzle but didn't really grasp the nettle lets face it , we had everything this year other than a quality goalscorer , the likes of gray would have seen us up i reckon......never the less , if we had played the way we played the opening 25 minutes yesterday in each half of the majority of our games then we would be up......few games this season when we "didn't turn up " one point from one of them games would have seen us up........i think the consistency comes from a properly gelled team and hopefully we will have that next year......UTFA...KTF....one love to all....

 

[symyjym]

People on here are saying Murray is to old etc. He has never been a pacy player. He knows how to be in the right place at the right time, loads of us were gutted when the went to Bournemouth. Others said it was great business tosser, it turned out a bad deal all round. We plummeted like a stone and could not score, Bournemouth Bought someone who just did not fit for whatever reason and Murray hardly got any game time. I still believe Murray would score a lot of goals in the Championship. With the right delivery he would score still in the premier league.

Yep, he has a good footballing brain which makes up for lack of pace. Can use both feet, head, and is a team player.