[Albion] The Mike Bailey Principle

The Large One said:

That Manchester United one was quite telling. True, Man U weren't the force they became 15 years later, but they were still a big club PLUS Peter Ward was back playing for us. But under 19,000 is risible.

For me, it was part of a bigger malaise in society, leading to falling attendances everywhere. Even Chelsea (albeit a mid-table second division club at the time) were only getting 8,000.

These falling attendances, combined with Bamber's reckless lashing out of the Monopoly money when we were on the up, combined to create a nightmare scenario for him when the wheels came off. Bailey, who was the first manager Bamber sacked for 10 years, was a victim of that. It also was the start of the problems we were to have over the next 30 years.

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Blind Pugh said:

Wasn't Melia on the staff anyway, perhaps as a scout?

I will admit to being bitterly disappointed. Also cringed at his publicity stunts during the cup run and when he was booted out. Didn't he appear in the North Stand versus massive?

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Kalimantan Gull said:

A .lot of fluctuation there, people mainly turning out to see the top teams it seems. 12k for Leeds (who got relegated) followed a week later by 27k for Spurs; 10k for relegated Wolves followed by 17k for second place Ipswich.

But the drop-off from 81-82 to 82-83 is stark, can it really be just because of Bailey's management style? 27k for Arsenal in April followed by 13k for Arsenal in September. Thats bizarre.

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Rogero said:

Not many people had season tickets in those days, and also the way seats are counted was different.

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Mo Gosfield said:

Yes, he did.
It was all orchestrated between Melia and certain individuals within the club. When I arrived for the game, a contact told me what was going to happen. All the journo's had been tipped off that he would appear in the North Stand, during the first half, which he duly did and was promptly lifted shoulder high by fans. All the ' red-top ' journo's raced round to the North Stand, whilst the ' broadsheet ' guys remained in the Press Box.
It was bizarre behaviour by Melia and frankly, did him no credit. He should have had the dignity to walk away. He had lost an internal power struggle with Chris Cattlin and his career at Brighton was over.

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Thunder Bolt said:

Aren't you boycotting the club any more?

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Mo Gosfield said:

Yes, he did.
It was all orchestrated between Melia and certain individuals within the club. When I arrived for the game, a contact told me what was going to happen. All the journo's had been tipped off that he would appear in the North Stand, during the first half, which he duly did and was promptly lifted shoulder high by fans. All the ' red-top ' journo's raced round to the North Stand, whilst the ' broadsheet ' guys remained in the Press Box.
It was bizarre behaviour by Melia and frankly, did him no credit. He should have had the dignity to walk away. He had lost an internal power struggle with Chris Cattlin and his career at Brighton was over.

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Blind Pugh said:

Wasn't Melia on the staff anyway, perhaps as a scout?

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Rogero said:

Not many people had season tickets in those days, and also the way seats are counted was different.

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Nixonator said:

It is an either or. Right now we are winning games playing to our strengths, and you want to throw caution to the wind and change our game completely (even though it's what out manager is custom to) for the sake of abit more entertainment? It's absolute madness.

What examples of (consistent) expansive football can you give me in the Premier League outside the top 6 who have nailed down stability here? Please don't say Bournemouth because you clearly haven't watched them if you do. Maybe Watford, but they are a basket case of a club.

Also, here's where we differ. I don't think Wolves 'dominated' us, I think we did a number on them. Maybe the next edition of Match or Shoot magazine will follow your line of thinking but for me, the game of football is not about possession stats and shots on goal and thank god that it isn't, else we would have comfortably lost. I honestly can't say I was concerned AT ALL throughout the entire game about them breaching our back line, other than; Doherty in first half, second half when someone smashed it through a crowd of players into Ryan's knees and finally the Bennett chance at the death. All matched and exceeded by the chances we had, a miss from 3 yards out, 2 breakways squandered and the goal we scored.

People keep saying we scraped a win and that we were 'lucky'. I think we could have won the game 2 or 3 nothing by the end, playing the way we did. I wonder if people would still be spouting the same bollocks if we had. 'Scraping a 3-0 home win'.

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drew said:

Sorry but I'll politely say you're talking bollox!

It is not an either or situation because, now I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, you can't guarantee that by playing like we did against Newcastle and Wolves when we play Everton, we'll win 1-0. There are no guarantees.

As for the Wolves game, you don't need statistics to know that we only had one shot on target which came about because Bruno's shot was miss hit! We could have had a couple more but our two breakaway chances were completely wasted so we scraped a 1-0. As for Newcastle, not too dissimilar, our goal came from two deflections.

I agree with your comment about stats but over the course of a season, I suspect you'll find that those clubs that have more shots on goal, will score more goals!

As for scraping a 3-0 win, don't think I've ever met anyone that would consider a 3-0 scoreline as scraping it!

So if you're content with the last three performances then that's fine, whatever floats your boat. Me, I'd like to see a little more.

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drew said:

Haven't read the whole thread so apologies if it has been mentioned. On another thread someone blamed the sacking of Bailey as the reason the club almost went into terminal decline which seems odd bearing in mind, now I might be wrong here, that it was the club that gave players ludicrous 10 year contracts that were not sustainable. Having to support those contracts on the back of falling attendances no doubt contributed to the demise of Bailey. However, was it not the case that the problem was not sacking Bailey but in a cheap appointment of someone who had no worthwhile managerial experience and, as it seemed, was just a puppet for the senior members of the team?

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The Large One said:

There was no 'power struggle' between Melia and Cattlin.

There may - or may not - been behind the scenes goings-on within the higher reaches of the club, but there is no way Cattlin ever involved himself in any 'power struggles'.

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drew said:

Sorry but I'll politely say you're talking bollox!

It is an either or situation because, now I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, you can't guarantee that by playing like we did against Newcastle and Wolves when we play Everton, we'll win 1-0. There are no guarantees.

As for the Wolves game, you don't need statistics to know that we only had one shot on target which came about because Bruno's shot was miss hit! We could have had a couple more but our two breakaway chances were completely wasted so we scraped a 1-0. As for Newcastle, not too dissimilar, our goal came from two deflections.

I agree with your comment about stats but over the course of a season, I suspect you'll find that those clubs that have more shots on goal, will score more goals!

As for scraping a 3-0 win, don't think I've ever met anyone that would consider a 3-0 scoreline as scraping it!

So if you're content with the last three performances then that's fine, whatever floats your boat. Me, I'd like to see a little more.

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Blind Pugh said:

Just focusing on your last statement, at what point does that manifest itself into you not bothering to come to the game.

What I am looking for is an understanding as to where the threshold is for the regulars now and at what point will the individual say 'enough is enough, we have been in the Pl for 3/4/5..seasons and this is all that CH sets out to do...'

I am not a sports fan psychologist but whilst I gauge that a good majority see the result over the style now, as each passing game/season goes the tide may turn. But I guess CH and TB/PB know that and whilst we are not anchored to cash generated by ticket sales they will want the Amex as full as possible.

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