[Albion] What are your expectations as a football club ?

[Guinness Boy]

Absolute bollocks. Look where we are now compared to when we were in the Championship. Look at the depth of our squad. How many clubs have gone up and down since then? We have consistently strengthened the club in all areas through having an actual model and a strategy and long-term plan, which is why we haven’t been a yo yo club and why we have never been in serious danger of relegation. But success doesn’t come in a straight line, there are always bumps and wobbles along the way, and that means seasons as well as individual games / runs.

From your post it seems you disagree with Bloom’s strategy and that you know better than him. Would you agree with that statement?

What you’re describing there is medium term progression with a few blips. Not some five or ten year plan. And I largely agree.

My concern at the moment is that we’re moving away from that, not just with results but with our style of play and many player regressions.

 

[ROSM]

To get the best out of the players available

 

[jackalbion]

No.

I’d like us to be an established top 10 club every season, fighting with a chance to get into Europe most of those seasons hopefully. But more important than that to me personally is I want to be entertained and impressed by the football we play, maximising the talents of our players.

We were generally worse off under Potter, points and league position wise to this season but I enjoyed watching us a lot more then as we had a great style of play that you could see was progressing and we were building something that we saw a brilliant culmination of at the end of 2021/2022 and during 2022/2023. I don’t see entertainment or progression this season.

Massively this. I don’t expect us to be in Europe, but there’s so many flaws now I’m struggling to see past them.

 

[Reddleman]

I want to see us playing with a clear identity. I have been quite vocal about thinking FH is not the right manager for us and yet I never once called for Potter to go. Even though the results weren’t always good I could see what he was trying to do and believed completely in it. I don’t see what Hurzeler is trying to do, I don’t see a philosophy. Yes we are doing okay points wise but with the strength of squad we have that is the bare minimum we should expect.

 

[BadFish]

I want to see us playing with a clear identity. I have been quite vocal about thinking FH is not the right manager for us and yet I never once called for Potter to go. Even though the results weren’t always good I could see what he was trying to do and believed completely in it. I don’t see what Hurzeler is trying to do, I don’t see a philosophy. Yes we are doing okay points wise but with the strength of squad we have that is the bare minimum we should expect.

We started with a clear identity, then Chelsea beat us and people demanded a plan B. We got a plan B away at Newcastle and everyone was thrilled.

Fwiw I agree with you, I love an identity , loved the football that RDZ got us playing. Indeed I would also love to get in a Knutsen style manager to play some out there new style football.

Not sure that's going to please everyone though as it usually means you are on the end of a few whoopings , usually away at Villa.

It's exciting though.

 

[GJN1]

What you’re describing there is medium term progression with a few blips. Not some five or ten year plan. And I largely agree.

My concern at the moment is that we’re moving away from that, not just with results but with our style of play and many player regressions.

I haven’t checked the odds but I suspect we might be one of most likely candidates for relegation next season.

 

[portlock seagull]

Absolute bollocks. Look where we are now compared to when we were in the Championship. Look at the depth of our squad. How many clubs have gone up and down since then? We have consistently strengthened the club in all areas through having an actual model and a strategy and long-term plan, which is why we haven’t been a yo yo club and why we have never been in serious danger of relegation. But success doesn’t come in a straight line, there are always bumps and wobbles along the way, and that means seasons as well as individual games / runs.

From your post it seems you disagree with Bloom’s strategy and that you know better than him. Would you agree with that statement?

Rude and childish reply too. I’ll leave it there consequently.

 

[portlock seagull]

People see the world differently to you mate, you are just going to have to come to terms with that fact.

Sorry if this makes you angrier

…said without any irony!

 

[BadFish]

…said without any irony!

Grrrr

 

[jackalbion]

What you’re describing there is medium term progression with a few blips. Not some five or ten year plan. And I largely agree.

My concern at the moment is that we’re moving away from that, not just with results but with our style of play and many player regressions.

I have to agree that we have seemed to have broken our own model!

 

[Vicar!]

Mid table established Premier League with an occasional flurry into Europe, only for the squad to be torn apart by agents, fall from grace, rise, rinse and repeat.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

We should not be employing a trainee manager who is learning his trade at our expense, then when he becomes good will bugger off to the first big offer he receives

What do you propose as the alternative? Someone who’s a bit shit so no one is interested in him?

 

[London Irish]

What are your expectations for us as a football club ?

Is getting into Europe every season the absolute minimum we should be achieving?

And if we don’t make it do you think the season has been a failure and we should sack the manager each time ?

*mods please edit title - fat fingers

Really good question.

I think most of us felt we had a brilliant chance of Europe this season. We’ve blown it really. People are entitled to be unhappy about that.

We obviously had a chance two years ago too and on that occasion we took that chance, so I think very few believe that these aren’t reasonable expectations and that the respective managers weren’t a key factor.

That said I’m not one who wants Fab to get the sack. I don’t think at this stage we should be a club that sacks a manager for 10-12th place finishes. It’s really a case of spending money better than we did last season and going again in August

 

[Commander]

What do you propose as the alternative? Someone who’s a bit shit so no one is interested in him?

Or someone more developed who is already on the big clubs’ list that will be off after one season if they succeed?

 

[Commander]

Rude and childish reply too. I’ll leave it there consequently.

OK. I’m sorry for using a mild swear word on a football forum, and for offending you.

Any chance you could reply to the last sentence though? I’m genuinely interested.

I’m sure it’s not just reactionary nonsense from you, and that you must have been consistently voicing this viewpoint and demanding we sack the manager when we won 7 on the trot or whatever it was.

 

[A1X]

I’m a bit fed up with individuals using the club for their own careers. I really miss the together ethos that got us from the champ to the PL. I get our model and it works but it’s not flawless.

We do seem to have swallowed our own hype in this regard. When we started in the PL we mixed prospects with “team men” (Gross, Veltman, Welbeck), now we seem to focus entirely on the former. Consider our signings from last year, how many are players we would envisage as being around for multiple years to build the team around. Maybe O’Riley at a push? Certainly none of the wingers / #10s, all of who. Will have been seen as buy up / improve / sell on.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

It’s really a case of spending money better than we did last season and going again in August

Barber has previously said that the manager identifies what he needs, and recruitment then look at available players, either on the club’s books or elsewhere. There’s also the succession planning side of this as well.

I’d expect a couple of CBs, full backs and even a forward. I’d also expect a lot of outbound players as well.

 

[crad]

I'd like to see a bit more heart from some of the lads tbh. Yes the top players will probably move on, and that's a reflection of where we are as a club, but f***ing put in 100% for the shirt while you're here.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I'm not sure I really have too many expectations.

If you'd asked me five years ago if in the next few years I expected us to qualify for the Europa league, do the double over Ajax, beat Marseilles and Roma I'd have said no and thought you were stretching incredulity a bit to suggest it. If you'd asked me five years ago if a few years later I'd expect to be disappointed/frustrated with an f.a cup quarter final and a season that saw us top the league and spend the majority of it in the top half of the table I'd have most likely snorted in derision.

But both of those things are true.

Which leads me to what I think is one of the few things that I've come to expect (and to be fair, it's a big'un!)and is maybe the reason for my current frustration. I think our success over the past 15 years has been built on building a club and team that is consistently greater than the sum of it's parts.

I think that is true for Poyet, Garcia, Hughton, Potter and RDZ. It's a long enough period now(about 40% of my Albion supporting life) for it to be a considerable part of what I consider Brighton's current identity.

So that would be my main expectation all the time TB is at the helm - a team that over the course of the season proves more often than not to be greater than the sum of its parts. Or, at least, makes strides towards being that. In other words, I don't expect us to be less than the sum of our parts. It's a tough assignment but a well coached team at a well run club can do it regularly as ourselves and a number of other clubs have shown.

In terms of FH - because that's what the thread is really asking isn't it? - it doesn't feel like we can say he's put out a team that has achieved that aim too often, and it doesn't seem like we're particularly moving towards it either. Time, and I fully expect him to be given plenty(so I guess that's a second expectation?), will tell on that score.

 

[SittingbourneSeagull]

My expectation is that we will have a few seasons mixing with the best teams and then probably fall away and be relegated. I'll still be there watching and supporting but I bet quite a chunk of the current home crowd won't be.