[Albion] Another 'How far we've come' type reflection.

[el punal]

Until we in the Zenith Data Systems Cup I’m not having it. Palace lording it over us on that front is frankly embarrassing. We’ve got a long way still to go.

Quite right! We have every chance of winning the Johnstone’s Paintpot trophy this year, but only on the basis that Potter is serious about it and selects the first team players - not the development squad.

 

[portlock seagull]

I posted this on another thread, but it's always worth remembering.

When we sold Mark Lawrenson he became the most expensive defender in the country and the ramshackle Goldstone can't have been worth much more than 1 million. Our biggest ever crowd is at that ground and wasn't even in the top division and we've had big player and manager stories in that era. Clough, Mullery, Robinson, Ritchie, Case, Fashanu as well as playing in a Cup Final when it actually meant something.

Yes, little old Brighton have certainly come a long way if you think that history started between 1992 and 1997 but in many ways we're simply returning to our greatest ever era - and then bettering it (though another Cup Final would be nice please, Graham, and without a corresponding relegation).

This. Too many can’t look over their shoulders never mind that ‘far’ back. We’ve ALWAYS been a well supported club, biggish in a sort of way. Returning rather than arrived. Yes, I like that and agree!

Now feck off Palace and hope you get mullered tonight you utter utter SCUM! (but our scum)

 

[ConfusedGloryHunter]

I get the drift a multi millionaire has invested in his boyhood club and we should all shut up and be grateful although it doesn’t really work like that does it? It kind of gets the club of the hook in many ways when things go tits up, I mean a few disgruntled boo’s after Leeds and people start questioning what the hell do you expect for your £600 a season Maupay to actually hit the target from a yard out? Well just remember we played at Withdean once you entitled c.unt

I didn't read this thread as a "get some perspective" lecture (that does get trotted out whenever a few of us emote a little heavily after a poor game), more as a fellow fan, triggered by the sale of someone most of us had barely heard of a year or so ago for a ridiculous wedge of cheese, thinking out loud how mad the change in circumstances are. Maybe because that was what I was thinking too.

Mind you I am one of the annoying fans who mainly just enjoys how we are playing under Potter so I don't feel those lectures are ever aimed at me.

 

[studio150]

We've certainly come long way.
I remember wearing an Albion t-shirt around Disney in 1998 or 2000 and two chaps walked past and I heard them say, 'Bet they don't sell many of those'


Now all youngsters locally seem to wear the Albion kit everywhere and if you go to any tourist attraction, you will almost always see an Albion shirt or something with the club badge on.

Also anywhere in the world if asked who you support, once you mention Brighton the locals will know all about the players having watched the PL.

 

[portlock seagull]

We've certainly come long way.
I remember wearing an Albion t-shirt around Disney in 1998 or 2000 and two chaps walked past and I heard them say, 'Bet they don't sell many of those'


Now all youngsters locally seem to wear the Albion kit everywhere and if you go to any tourist attraction, you will almost always see an Albion shirt or something with the club badge on.

Also anywhere in the world if asked who you support, once you mention Brighton the locals will know all about the players having watched the PL.

For a certain generation, including us, always be excited to see a Brighton fan because it was such a novelty bumping into in far flung places as many a thread over years has testified to. Like long lost family, that shit just doesn’t happen if you follow the richest clubs who basically buy locals so that even line pole fishermen off some isolated atoll in the South Pacific that the Chinese have yet to claim can be seen wearing a Chelsea shirt, as ‘their’ club. Christ, I’d hate to be in that circle. All glory and no suffering!! How can you enjoy glory without suffering?! And when’s our glory due cause I’m kinda running out of life?!

 

[Justice]

I didn't read this thread as a "get some perspective" lecture (that does get trotted out whenever a few of us emote a little heavily after a poor game), more as a fellow fan, triggered by the sale of someone most of us had barely heard of a year or so ago for a ridiculous wedge of cheese, thinking out loud how mad the change in circumstances are. Maybe because that was what I was thinking too.

Mind you I am one of the annoying fans who mainly just enjoys how we are playing under Potter so I don't feel those lectures are ever aimed at me.

I don’t get the surprise aspect we play in the big boys millionaires playground league what do they expect?

 

[kjgood]

After last year's record points total and highest ever finish, a 4-0 stuffing of Man U etc. Cucurella's sale now means that our club has sold the most expensive full back ever! Five years ago Solly gave an interview to The Times and famously said that our opponents in the opening match had two full backs who cost more than our stadium:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...re-than-our-home-but-theres-no-fear-6nbltwtff

Given that Ben White started a few games at RB, if granted a bit of leeway in our descriptions, we could probably argue that we've now sold two full backs for more than it cost to build our stadium.

I know it goes without saying, but the club is in the best hands it has ever been in. Bloom's financial generosity has been more than fans could ever dreamed of, but just as importantly, he is running the club in a way that, if maintained, will guarantee that future generations of Brighton fans will never ever have the worries about survival that a lot of us went through. It's hard to associate what this club is today with what it was at the end of the Goldstone years and throughout the search for a home, but I really get the impression that the foundations of everything good that the club does today is based on lessons learned from what could have been lost. On the pitch, this division will always be a challenge for a 'team like Brighton' and we all know that there will be good seasons and bad going forward. It's good to reflect upon the fact that, whatever the results, the club is here and will continue to here for the people of Sussex to watch football, but also as a vital community resource in as strong a position as it has ever been in its history.

From not knowing whether the club would be there next season, to allowing the people of Sussex to enjoy EPL football and be part of iconic events like the Rugby World Cup and this summer's Women's Euros, it just sometimes catches me how apt 'We've come a long, long way together,' really is.

Great post and totally agree

 

[Algernon]

We've come a long, long way together,
Through the hard times and the good.

I have to sellotape your baby?

 

[BBassic]

We've come a long, long way together,
Through the hard times and the good.

I've said this before but why this refrain hasn't become a chant at the Amex is baffling.