Nathan Jones...

[The Fifth Column]

It feels to me like the club are trying too hard sometimes without me actually figuring out what they are trying too hard at if that makes sense, I think they need to get back to basics and try and re-engage with the people that matter ie the fans. We are packing out the Amex week in week out without fail and have shown ourselves to be a patient lot but it feels to me like we as fans are becoming increasingly becoming sidelined in the pursuit of the corporate dollar.

 

[Baron Pepperpot]

My love for the Albion has started to dwindle over the last six months to a year. It has absolutely nothing to do with our performance on the pitch but more, as several people have mentioned, that we are now seen as paying customers rather than loyal fans.

The constant attempts to make money, save money (hiding behind FFP), cut services, and patronising club communications are really starting to grate with me. No matter how we are doing on the pitch, my feelings will remain the same until the club begin to bridge and repair the gap that has appeared between themselves and the fans.

We need to get back to our roots (and yes, that is possible while still being financially competitive).

This. I forgot to adjust my work hours for Monday and am have no desire to go through the procedure of re-organising them. I'll pop into a pub at nine. That means there is something wrong, and it's not a lack of desire to watch football itself.

 

[Mancgull]

I think the problem we have at present is a lack of visible passion from the management team. Garcia is very measured and cool, Jones is patronising and we seem to hear more from Barber and Burke. We also seem to get quite a few opinions from Keith Andrews which I think should be tempered by the fact that he is a loan player and one whose form has dipped recently.
I think that the club want to revert from the one man show that was Gus Poyet, but at present I think we have gone too far the other way. We need a bit of leadership at present and we don't seem to be getting it.

 

[Ceej]

There'd be more visible passion, smiley interviews, interesting questions put to the manager etc etc etc if our injury list wasn't so big. It's unlucky that it's important players out and injured but give it a couple of months and there could be a big turnaround. Give Bloom and his pals the credit for the money they've spent and invested (and continue to do so when they could start getting a bit nervy) and back them. Yes, we buy the tickets, but take stock and look at where we've come from in the last 10 years. Nathan Jones seems ok. He's hardly going to be cracking jokes is he? Oh, and yes, Seagulls Player IS a bit shite at the moment. Could do so so SO much better and be more interesting.

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

Nathan Jones is the new Charlie Oatway.

When he offers to donate half his testimonial earnings to AITC then he'll be in the running. Charlie Oatway is a one-off.

 

[Canonman]

Due to changing circumstances I had to cancel my season ticket after the start of the season, a tough choice to make after having one for so many years, probably the reason they let me cancel to be honest, but one of the things that made the choice easier was knowing that if we ever got to the P/L I would probably be priced out of the market anyway as I wouldn't be able to afford anything over and above current prices, as for match day tickets no way, I wonder how many others will be in the same boat?

I though do have the luxury of about 4 other tickets in the family so still hope to get along as much as possible although I’m struggling to feel enthusiastic at the moment, I have questioned myself on this so much as we have witnessed some of the hardest time this club has faced in recent times, all of this at the moment is a walk in the park.

I will always love the Albion no question but I sometime wonder if anything will ever top the moment of that first game at the Amex and coming from behind to win after the journey we have been on, it meant so much, will anything ever beat it? trophies, promotions and relegations come and go but that was a real moment in our history, does it get any better?

It's a catch 22 situation, we all want the club to be successful but the more it is the more distant we feel we become.

Some people obviously won’t care as football to them is an alternative to the cinema and they can take it or leave it, the loyal fan base from the past may be isolated in these feelings.

Things were always going to be tough after the end of last year and it's been difficult to move on with everything else that’s been going on

I can understand the lack of enthusiasm at the moment especially with our position in the league. The thing that keeps me feeling positive is watching how Southampton are doing and knowing we can achieve the same things. It's nailed on, if we finish in the bottom half this season we will lose season ticket holders its to be expected. The training complex and all the other exciting things are happening at the moment fills me with confidence for the future. As I said in a previous thread it may take a few years but it will happen.

 

[gumbo43]

The funny thing is that under Gus with his big mouth and team of wind up merchants we were becoming increasingly hated by other teams' fans. Cheating Brighton. Arrogant Brighton. Nouveau Riche Brighton with their divers and back healers and wordy post match interviews. But as a Brighton fan I felt part of a gang with an identity. Us against the Championship. Not quite Millwall levels but the more people sniped the more part of the club I felt. I do accept though that at the same time Gus was probably alienating many of our own fans and that's why the Gus threads still kick off.

Now though we have a coach who wants to stay in the background and certainly has humility and integrity. We have a CEO who will reply to 1000 word emails from fans at 10pm on a Tuesday. We have a marketing department who foist pub-hatched idea after pub-hatched idea upon us. Fans of other teams may soon start liking little old Brighton again. I, however, have fallen more and more out of love with the club since the events of mid May to the point where I now feel I'm following a voiceless, faceless corporate entity.

Brilliant .. Totally agree... They even stopped gulleys girls!!

 

[BensGrandad]

Are we as a club/team suffering from the inexperience in English football of Garcia and also this being Nathan Jones first senior job so generally a lack of managerial experience all round.

 

[Acker79]

Are we as a club/team suffering from the inexperience in English football of Garcia and also this being Nathan Jones first senior job so generally a lack of managerial experience all round.

He was assistant manager at yeovil for three years. This isn't his first senior job.

 

[TSB]

Tickets sold for Watford shows the negative nelly's are in the minority.
North Stand Waaaah

 

[symyjym]

Tickets sold for Watford shows the negative nelly's are in the minority.
North Stand Waaaah

The negative nelly's will always be more active and louder with twisted propaganda than the majoriy.

 

[BensGrandad]

He was assistant manager at yeovil for three years. This isn't his first senior job.

When they were in a lower division so in affect it is his first high profile job as he went from Ast Manger at Yeovil to U21 coach at Charlton., which on the face of it is a backward step from Ast 1st team manger back to U 21 but it was a bigger club, so perhaps not.

 

[Acker79]

When they were in a lower division so in affect it is his first high profile job as he went from Ast Manger at Yeovil to U21 coach at Charlton., which on the face of it is a backward step from Ast 1st team manger back to U 21 but it was a bigger club, so perhaps not.

Yes, but there's a difference between first senior job, and first high profile job. He has had a senior job before, he isn't completely inexperienced, he has a record that can be looked at and used to judge his potential in that role with us. More to look at than, say, Gus had as manager (i.e. he had experience as an assistant, but none as a manager, which he was applying for, nathan has experience as an assistant, the very post he applied for (and got)).

 

[Johnnyboy]

After seeing Jones' pathetic antics at Woevil on 2 successive occasions, I'll never think of him with even a smidgen of respect or fondness. The bloke's a tosser.

Yep, I was there and I agree. But he is our tosser

 

[BensGrandad]

Yes, but there's a difference between first senior job, and first high profile job. He has had a senior job before, he isn't completely inexperienced, he has a record that can be looked at and used to judge his potential in that role with us. More to look at than, say, Gus had as manager (i.e. he had experience as an assistant, but none as a manager, which he was applying for, nathan has experience as an assistant, the very post he applied for (and got)).

We shall have to agree to disagree about his previous level of experience

 

[Acker79]

We shall have to agree to disagree about his previous level of experience

I'm not going to agree to disagree to something based in fact. He has experience. That's not opinion, that's fact. Actual fact, not NSC opinion/prediction/hope-masquerading-as-fact fact. He has been an assistant manager in the professional league for Yeovil. He has joined us as an assistant manager (coach) in the professional league. A higher division than his previous assistant manager job, yes, but still essentially the same role. More experience than Gus had as a manager before he joined us as manager. More experience as an assistant (at a professional level) than Oatway had when he was appointed as an assistant. This is fact, not something to "agree to disagree" over.

 

[BensGrandad]

But still no experience at our level so really still a novice. It is like saying a headmaster of a primary school would have sufficient experience to take over as head of a grammar school or similar. Or a manager of a small local shop could take over running a Tesco supermarket.

 

[mona]

Bring back Withdean Wanderer. Lets have some proper moaning rather than this sort of soft excrement.

 

[Acker79]

But still no experience at our level so really still a novice. It is like saying a headmaster of a primary school would have sufficient experience to take over as head of a grammar school or similar. Or a manager of a small local shop could take over running a Tesco supermarket.

You haven't said he doesn't have enough experience. You have said he had no experience. That this is his first senior job. It is not. Even in those examples you give the headmaster has some experience running a school, it will be a slightly different environment and there's no guarantee of success, but there is relevant experience. The shopkeeper may not have run a supermarket before, but he has experience running a shop.

Nathan Jones has experience. His experience is at a decent enough level to be relevant to why we would give him a job. His level of experience is greater than Oatway's was when he was given the same job. It is simply wrong to say this is his first senior job, and it is wrong to suggest he has no experience.

 

[BensGrandad]

Does he have the same job as CO or Tanno, I would suggest it is Tanno although for legal reasons both him and OG are said to be coaches but are in all but name manager and assistant manager and those brought in by OG are the coaches .