Is there any reason we couldn't do a Brighton?

I think you could call Brighton a big club. After all, just be being a Premier League club, you are apparently listed as one of the world’s top clubs. Perhaps this is only because of TV money, but it is a fact.
 
It's a freak season really. They've been very good but they've benefited from Chelsea and Spurs being way below par.

Sadly, this is the best a team like ours can ever hope to achieve. We will never be able to compete at the very top but yes, having a season like Brighton have had is possible. Will take a good few seasons of good recruitment and a run of good managers but it's doable.
 
Potter set the foundations of that squad well & De Zerbi has continued to get the best from that squad & arguably improve their play - fair play to them.. they do play some excellent football..
 
Brighton will be relegated within the next 5-6 seasons. They have done very well staying in the league the past few seasons and this season everything has lined up, excellent scouting network for players and managers, players stepping up and improving - all of this despite losing players and a manager in the same period. This does not and will not continue to happen - They will lose their better players as that is just football, they will lose the manager if he continues as he is. Eventually the replacement wont be as good, the scouting wont unearth superstars and it will come to an end.

Fans of clubs like this have to just embrace and enjoy every minute because it will end and it can become a distant memory very quickly.

Bighton's model however, should be the foundation for the rest outside the big boys
 
Brighton's success won't be sustainable, as ours wasn't, Leicester's hasn't been and Bolton's wasn't. You can probably add Stoke to that mix, they had a couple of European season iirc. There are four or five perennial big boys, even Chelsea, now without the Russian billionaire seem to be moving back to their traditional level.
 
Bookmakers make their money by having a better understanding of data, probability, and human behaviour than the general public. Tony Bloom (and Matthew Benfield at Brentford) make fortunes by having a better understanding than bookmakers. They're applying their mastery of data science to football. They'll never be richer than a sovereign state, but they could well be smarter.
 
Tony Bloom (and Matthew Benfield at Brentford)

it should come as no surprise that the pair of them were in business together once upon a time.

their 'scouts' are IT specialists - not ex payers from another era - they data base & monitor every major league in the world, and do so from under 16 level and upwards - Brighton/Bloom have invested in a global electronic infrastructure - they also have a club in Belguim (they made it to europe last season - an ex Boro player is on their books)) where they regularly send young players whilst they grow and develop, not all of their purchases succeed in the premiership, Gyorkes for example (sold to cov c for £3M), but they pay relatively low fees (would they pay £3.5M for Hoppe?- i very much doubt it),
 
it should come as no surprise that the pair of them were in business together once upon a time.

their 'scouts' are IT specialists - not ex payers from another era - they data base & monitor every major league in the world, and do so from under 16 level and upwards - Brighton/Bloom have invested in a global electronic infrastructure - they also have a club in Belguim (they made it to europe last season - an ex Boro player is on their books)) where they regularly send young players whilst they grow and develop, not all of their purchases succeed in the premiership, Gyorkes for example (sold to cov c for £3M), but they pay relatively low fees (would they pay £3.5M for Hoppe?- i very much doubt it),
Isnt analytics their background and on what their wealth is built?

I think they had a very acrimonious parting of the way too.
 
I wasn't trying you underplay our past wonderful achievements, just wondering if we could do it again.
Breaking into the top 6 has to be harder than ever given the riches available at the top of the prem.
Of course first have to achieve promotion.
 
Every so often there appears a "model" club [not Triang - Hornby] held up as the beacon of good management, recruitment, financial prudence, etc.
But down the road they crash and there`s another "perfect" model which takes its place.
I`m thinking of
Swansea City.
Bolton [under Alardyce]
Charlton [Under Curbishley]
Exeter City [Supporters trust and board members]
Brentford.
Brighton.
Southampton.
Middlesbrough*

All at one time or another lorded as beacons: Boro for our English owner.
The rest have been attributed with sound recruitment and selling policies - eg Southampton - until the wheels fell off.
Bolton were ruined by a nob of an owner.
Charlton was taken over by an idiot.
Exeter rose from the ashes on the back of hard work of ordinary fans.
Etc, etc.

I think there are many clubs who dont get the recognition for the hard work of their supporters to keep clubs afloat.

Hey ho!

UTMB

* Its unfair to Boro to suggest we want to "do a Brighton".

1685013658507.png
1685013707461.png
Who wants deck-chairs being thrown about on bank holidays and crowds of Londoners "invading" the town on bank holidays?
Perish the thought!;)
 
And qualify for Europe again?
Great to see a club like Brighton qualify.
It's 10x harder for us now.

We're not in the south/ on the south coast, harder to attract players up here unless you have wads of cash (like Newcastle, and like how we used to have compared to other clubs). Probably halves our player options at best.

I think those days are long gone I'm afraid, unless a low wage cap comes in, or FFP actually starts to level the playing field, rather than just trying to stop clubs bankrupting themselves or letting the rich get away with whatever they want.

The system of being able to spend quite big helped us a lot from 1995-2005, but when other clubs started to get a lot more money, it left us in their wake.
 
Alexis MacAllister is one of the very best players in the Prem League.

If Brighton can keep him, they'll have a platform to build further.

If he is transferred, they'll have a huge chunk of cash to build more.

Either way, things are looking rosy for the time being.
 
Back
Top