[Albion] European places

hart's shirt · Mar 7, 2018

I'd love to see the Albion represent the Premier League in Europe someday, however that happens.

With all the issues that we've come through in the last 20 years, I'm sure the club would be able to cope.

Some of the clubs that have qualified for Europe since the 2000-01 season:
Aston Villa
Ipswich
Fulham
Middlesborough
Millwall
Bolton
Birmingham
Portsmouth
Stoke
Wigan
Swansea
Hull
Southampton
West Ham

We're in a better position than of all of them at the moment.

Football's about the glory.

dazzer6666 · Mar 7, 2018

Taybha said:
Thanks I’ve already sampled it’s delights , I think I purchased a pair of shorts and some mackerel feathers from there from memory

https://youtu.be/11fCIGcCa9c

Dolph Ins · Mar 7, 2018

hart's shirt said:
I'd love to see the Albion represent the Premier League in Europe someday, however that happens.

With all the issues that we've come through in the last 20 years, I'm sure the club would be able to cope.

Some of the clubs that have qualified for Europe since the 2000-01 season:
Aston Villa
Ipswich
Fulham
Middlesborough
Millwall
Bolton
Birmingham
Portsmouth
Stoke
Wigan
Swansea
Hull
Southampton
West Ham

We're in a better position than of all of them at the moment.

Football's about the glory.

Disn't do them much good did it. Look where they are now!

hart's shirt · Mar 7, 2018

Dolph Ins said:
Disn't do them much good did it. Look where they are now!

I don't think that could all be put down to simply playing in Europe.

More a case of overstretching with the likes of Portsmouth, etc. as well as form and the cyclical nature of football success.

Everton and Newcastle have also played regularly in Europe over the last 10-15 years.

I was more making the point that if those 14 clubs can make it into Europe, so can we at some point.

One would hate to think that we've reached the summit of our achievement already.

We'll have our season in the European sun sometime.

Simster · Mar 7, 2018

NooBHA said:
It is too early to even want to qualify for Europe. Whilst it would be an exceptional achievement. Next year will also be a struggle so thee extra games would put a strain on the squad. We will still be in a position where we need to keep players free of injury. So for me ''No'' - I wouldn't even want to qualify for it

Disagree. What our club have done - absolutely superbly - is build a SQUAD. Our 25 is full of players you'd be reasonably happy seeing start a game. That's the difference between ourselves and the NigeIs among others. We have an injury? No problem, in steps a squad player with a minimal loss of quality. The NigeIs lose Zaha? "Oh no! It's all so unfair, how unlucky! We could go down and it's not our fault"

Maybe they should have a more balanced squad? Because ultimately, it works better. Firstly, it provides genuine competition for places which means you get more than the sum of your parts as the first XI perform beyond expectations to keep their place (see Glenn Murray). But also - and here is the point of my reply - we are now able to properly rotate the squad to genuinely compete in all competitions. So with our squad, I don't think a Europa League spot would impact us negatively at all.

I know I can be too optimistic at times, but as I said earlier I'm with the OP here. There is no reason why this club can't get into Europe. Another step in moving on from our small time past, and considering our support, it's high time we achieved what similar sized clubs have managed.

NooBHA · Mar 7, 2018

Simster said:
Disagree. What our club have done - absolutely superbly - is build a SQUAD. Our 25 is full of players you'd be reasonably happy seeing start a game. That's the difference between ourselves and the NigeIs among others. We have an injury? No problem, in steps a squad player with a minimal loss of quality. The NigeIs lose Zaha? "Oh no! It's all so unfair, how unlucky! We could go down and it's not our fault"

Maybe they should have a more balanced squad? Because ultimately, it works better. Firstly, it provides genuine competition for places which means you get more than the sum of your parts as the first XI perform beyond expectations to keep their place (see Glenn Murray). But also - and here is the point of my reply - we are now able to properly rotate the squad to genuinely compete in all competitions. So with our squad, I don't think a Europa League spot would impact us negatively at all.

I know I can be too optimistic at times, but as I said earlier I'm with the OP here. There is no reason why this club can't get into Europe. Another step in moving on from our small time past, and considering our support, it's high time we achieved what similar sized clubs have managed.

We have to agree to disagree then because. If we had got injuries to Duffy or Dunk this year it would have been catastrophic to survival chances. Whilst replacements might be decent, they are nowhere near as good as Dunk and Duffy as a Partnership. European commitment is too much. Too many games in the group stages.

I have seen how CH dealt with European matches. When he went to Birmingham they were in Europe. Arguably by the time they met Blackpool in the play offs that year the players were burnt out because a lot of their league games early on were postponed. Consequently later in the season they were sometimes playing 3 games in 10 days to catch up and the players were just exhausted with so many games with no time to prepare in between.

Nothing wrong with fans wanting to see their team in Europe but ultimately the commitments of it are not attractive to the coaching staff and players.

drew · Mar 7, 2018

Can't believe the desire for some is just to survive in the PL! Only goal this year is to stay up. Same next year etc etc. When exactly do you want to see us win something that matters.

I don't think we have a cat in hells chance of qualifying through the league but who knows what may happen in the cup.

Bozza · Mar 7, 2018

I'm booking contingency hotels in all major cities of Europe right now.

seagulls4ever · Mar 7, 2018

NooBHA said:
We have to agree to disagree then because. If we had got injuries to Duffy or Dunk this year it would have been catastrophic to survival chances. Whilst replacements might be decent, they are nowhere near as good as Dunk and Duffy as a Partnership. European commitment is too much. Too many games in the group stages.

Really? Goldson stepped in for Duffy vs Watford, and produced a MOM performance as we won 1-0.

If we were to qualify for Europe, I'd have every faith in our excellent recruitment team to produced a squad that is able to compete on all fronts. Now that we're in the Premier League, the next level we can go to is the Europa League, and so that's what I'm hoping for, eventually.

Leegull · Mar 7, 2018

NooBHA said:
We have to agree to disagree then because. If we had got injuries to Duffy or Dunk this year it would have been catastrophic to survival chances. Whilst replacements might be decent, they are nowhere near as good as Dunk and Duffy as a Partnership. European commitment is too much. Too many games in the group stages.

I have seen how CH dealt with European matches. When he went to Birmingham they were in Europe. Arguably by the time they met Blackpool in the play offs that year the players were burnt out because a lot of their league games early on were postponed. Consequently later in the season they were sometimes playing 3 games in 10 days to catch up and the players were just exhausted with so many games with no time to prepare in between.

Nothing wrong with fans wanting to see their team in Europe but ultimately the commitments of it are not attractive to the coaching staff and players.

This.

Picture this, it’s the 5th July 2018, we’re at home in the 2nd leg - to the mighty Chikhura Sachkhere (they qualified for the Europa League as runners up in the Georgian Cup Final) - We drew 1-1 away in their 2000 seater stadium and there was an absolute bin fest for the 200 tickets available to traveling fans.

Home leg we scramble a 1-0 victory to qualify for the second qualifying round against Jagiellonia Bialystok (the Polish Super Cup champions) but we’ve already lost Dunk and Stephens to injury as they’ve been on the go for a full 12 months.

We end up eliminated by FC Freiburg in the middle of August just as the Premier League season is kicking into gear. We’ve not played a single team that anybody has ever heard of to half empty stadiums and have knackered squad with loads of injuries and end up relegated! Still we’ll always have that qualifying match against Chikhura Sachkhere to look back on fondly when we’re traveling to newly promoted Accrington Stanley on a Tuesday night in the Championship!

It’s a nice dream but I have a feeling that this one may come back to bite us in May when we’re traveling to City or Liverpool still looking for results to go our way to guarantee survival.....

NooBHA · Mar 7, 2018

seagulls4ever said:
Really? Goldson stepped in for Duffy vs Watford, and produced a MOM performance as we won 1-0.

If we were to qualify for Europe, I'd have every faith in our excellent recruitment team to produced a squad that is able to compete on all fronts. Now that we're in the Premier League, the next level we can go to is the Europa League, and so that's what I'm hoping for, eventually.

that's FINE for a game or two but long term injury leaves you with a weaker subs bench. Its all the travelling in between. It is exhausting and leaves less time on the training ground to practice set piece defending or attacking scenarios. The one plus point was it allowed Nathan Redmond to break consistently into the Birmingham team at age 16

Mental Lental · Mar 7, 2018

Leegull said:
This.

Picture this, it’s the 5th July 2018, we’re at home in the 2nd leg - to the mighty Chikhura Sachkhere (they qualified for the Europa League as runners up in the Georgian Cup Final) - We drew 1-1 away in their 2000 seater stadium and there was an absolute bin fest for the 200 tickets available to traveling fans.

Home leg we scramble a 1-0 victory to qualify for the second qualifying round against Jagiellonia Bialystok (the Polish Super Cup champions) but we’ve already lost Dunk and Stephens to injury as they’ve been on the go for a full 12 months.

We end up eliminated by FC Freiburg in the middle of August just as the Premier League season is kicking into gear. We’ve not played a single team that anybody has ever heard of to half empty stadiums and have knackered squad with loads of injuries and end up relegated! Still we’ll always have that qualifying match against Chikhura Sachkhere to look back on fondly when we’re traveling to newly promoted Accrington Stanley on a Tuesday night in the Championship!

It’s a nice dream but I have a feeling that this one may come back to bite us in May when we’re traveling to City or Liverpool still looking for results to go our way to guarantee survival.....

Don't give a shit if it affects our "survival" chances. I wanna see Brighton play in the Europa League.

End of.

Edit: Oh and you can stick your miserable worse case scenario up your arse as well. What if we breeze through the qualifiers without any injuries and have games against Juventus, Borussia Dortmund and Valencia to look forward to?

Weststander · Mar 7, 2018

Dolph Ins said:
Disn't do them much good did it. Look where they are now!

Sssssh. Don’t let reality get in the way of future glory as we play Europa League qualifying stages.

Triggaaar · Mar 7, 2018

hart's shirt said:
I was more making the point that if those 14 clubs can make it into Europe, so can we at some point.

One would hate to think that we've reached the summit of our achievement already.

Of course, but that's a goal for a future season, not now. When we were in League One in our last year at the Withdean, our goal was the Championship. When we were in the Championship our goal was the PL. Right now our goal is survival (we do still only have 34 points), so let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Exile · Mar 7, 2018

Brighton Lines said:
We need to finish in 11.7 th position as there were 22 in the league in those days.

I see the logic you are applying, but it’s wrong! How many in the top league isn’t the point. Think of it that we finished 13th best in the country.

Triggaaar · Mar 7, 2018

drew said:
Can't believe the desire for some is just to survive in the PL! Only goal this year is to stay up. Same next year etc etc. When exactly do you want to see us win something that matters.

Newly promoted clubs are always favourites to go down. Also financially a few years in the PL are a lot better than one, and give a team time to strengthen the entire squad, better equipping them for both European competition and PL success/survival. Everton for example have had a horrendous season, but thanks to the depth of their squad they'll be fine.

To answer your question of when - well I'd never turn the chance of success down. If we got lucky and had a chance to win the cup this year of course that would be brilliant. It's not a realistic goal though, so it's not crossed my mind.

Triggaaar · Mar 7, 2018

NooBHA said:
that's FINE for a game or two but long term injury leaves you with a weaker subs bench. Its all the travelling in between. It is exhausting and leaves less time on the training ground to practice set piece defending or attacking scenarios.

It's not easy to do without strength and depth in your squad, so obviously if you do qualify, you have to build a squad that can handle it.

Spanish Seagulls · Mar 7, 2018

Simster said:
Disagree. What our club have done - absolutely superbly - is build a SQUAD. Our 25 is full of players you'd be reasonably happy seeing start a game. That's the difference between ourselves and the NigeIs among others. We have an injury? No problem, in steps a squad player with a minimal loss of quality. The NigeIs lose Zaha? "Oh no! It's all so unfair, how unlucky! We could go down and it's not our fault"

Maybe they should have a more balanced squad? Because ultimately, it works better. Firstly, it provides genuine competition for places which means you get more than the sum of your parts as the first XI perform beyond expectations to keep their place (see Glenn Murray). But also - and here is the point of my reply - we are now able to properly rotate the squad to genuinely compete in all competitions. So with our squad, I don't think a Europa League spot would impact us negatively at all.

I know I can be too optimistic at times, but as I said earlier I'm with the OP here. There is no reason why this club can't get into Europe. Another step in moving on from our small time past, and considering our support, it's high time we achieved what similar sized clubs have managed.

Yes indeed. Those players would love the chance to play in Europe & it would also attract players here that might otherwise turn us down to opt for another club offering them a chance to play in Europe.

warmleyseagull · Mar 7, 2018

Leegull said:
This.

Picture this, it’s the 5th July 2018, we’re at home in the 2nd leg - to the mighty Chikhura Sachkhere (they qualified for the Europa League as runners up in the Georgian Cup Final) - We drew 1-1 away in their 2000 seater stadium and there was an absolute bin fest for the 200 tickets available to traveling fans.

Home leg we scramble a 1-0 victory to qualify for the second qualifying round against Jagiellonia Bialystok (the Polish Super Cup champions) but we’ve already lost Dunk and Stephens to injury as they’ve been on the go for a full 12 months.

We end up eliminated by FC Freiburg in the middle of August just as the Premier League season is kicking into gear. We’ve not played a single team that anybody has ever heard of to half empty stadiums and have knackered squad with loads of injuries and end up relegated! Still we’ll always have that qualifying match against Chikhura Sachkhere to look back on fondly when we’re traveling to newly promoted Accrington Stanley on a Tuesday night in the Championship!

It’s a nice dream but I have a feeling that this one may come back to bite us in May when we’re traveling to City or Liverpool still looking for results to go our way to guarantee survival.....

And what is it about qualifying for Europe that you don't like?

Leegull · Mar 7, 2018

warmleyseagull said:
And what is it about qualifying for Europe that you don't like?

As covered in my post. Bigger clubs with bigger squads and on a much sounder financial footing than us, have found the Europa League to be nothing more than a distraction that has adversely impacted their season(s)..

We’re way way ahead of ourselves here and still not certain of survival this season. Let’s give it a few years before we start thinking of Europe.

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[Albion] European places

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