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Premier League: Brighton, England's coolest club





SeagullinExile

Well-known member
Sep 10, 2010
5,674
London
Good find.
 










Paris

Well-known member
Jul 17, 2010
4,068
13th district
I didn't know about local boy Darren Tullett...

He's a hidden treasure. Been on French TV for a quite a long time, between Canal+ and now Bein Sports. Never misses an opportunity to champion the Albion. He wore a Brighton shirt whilst presenting the coverage of us versus Middlesbrough, May 2016. Apparently he was born in Shoreham. If you check his twitter account he's a proper Seagulls nut:albion2:
 




Harry Wilson's tackle

Harry Wilson's Tackle
NSC Patreon
Oct 8, 2003
49,341
Faversham








dolphins

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
5,137
BN1, in GOSBTS
Just the start is brilliant (via Google Translate): "Returning from nowhere, supported by admirable supporters and a funny owner, the club of the coastal city of Brighton will discover the elite of British football."
 






Bob'n'weave

Well-known member
Nov 18, 2016
1,970
Nr Lewes
A good read although I was reading it in a 'Allo 'Allo voice

Good call.

It really is much funnier when you read in your best French accent, it almost makes sense.

'Returning from nowhere, supported by admirable supporters and a funny owner, the club of the coastal city of Brighton will discover the elite of British football.'

A delirious president, fans invading the lawn and an ecstatic communion throughout the city: these are some images of Epinal of English clubs on promotion days. But on April 17, these jubilant scenes took on a special resonance in Brighton. The Seagulls (the Seagulls) finally validated their return to the Premier League, which until now had only experienced four poor seasons among the elite (1979-1983). A miraculous success story for this delightful coastal city south of London, which had almost lost everything in 1997.

Martin Perry, one of the directors of the club, receives in his offices of the American Express stadium, with impregnable view on this charming enclosure of 30.000 places which will show complete this season. He was already there twenty years ago for this traumatic experience: the sale of the historic stadium of the downtown by the owners in order to pay the debts of the club. Pretty transformed on the field in a shopping center, the Goldstone Retail Park, which the most hard-core fans still refuse to patronize. "In the spring of 1997, it was almost nil, rewind Martin Perry, we had just maintained the fourth division on goal difference, but we did not even have a training ground, The university to lend us its lawns, then go into exile in Gillingham, 120 km from here, to welcome our opponents, we organized buses for our supporters who did not have a car. Two, but one hit the other, and the two stayed on the side of the road. " He laughs, but identifies this moment as the one where the club touched the bottom ...


Fatboy Slim, Darren Tulett and Evin Law
The daily galley lasted more than ten years. Tired by the incessant exile, the club finally fell on an abandoned athletic track, polluted by tall grass, the only suitable space of the municipality. By conducting a first legal fight to overcome the resistance of the premises, then a second to install the 6.000 regulatory seating, obligation made to any professional club of D4. "But it was only temporary," said Martin Perry, "when the last match of the season was over, the galleries were dismantled to lend them to the British Open, and then they were reinstalled just before the start of the game."


This is not the first time the leader unpacks his bag of funny stories, but the pleasure is obviously always so intense. Our favorite was the ticket printing machine, which was too capricious to work for sure, which made it necessary to use a hair dryer in order to make them clean for sale. Or the distribution of waterproof ponchos on rainy and snowy days, because only 1,300 places were covered. Brighton & Hove Albion FC: Skint, the label of DJ Fatboy Slim (the club's most famous fan), appeared at the beginning of the century as a sponsor of the Seagulls. "Skint", or "mowed" in original version. A whole symbol.

Paul Hayward, sports journalist across the Channel, said: "Brighton has become a beacon for supporters who want to fight the owners without soul or values. And Martin Perry adds: "Ours found the key to the rescue, they were of all battles, to turn the former owners in 1997, and then to force the decision to grant us the right to build the current stadium, Which took 10 years [finally inaugurated in 2009.] They wrote a lot of letters to the government, organized marches on the waterfront to put pressure on the politicians, and we would have died without them.

Media figure of this victorious army: the journalist Darren Tulett, who exhibited his funny teenage outfits on the streets of Brighton before penetrating in France on Canal + then beIN Sports. He remembers the public, which obviously has not changed over the years. "We're polite, very welcoming and we're making fun of ourselves," he says. "For example, we change the stadium beer every two weeks to propose those brewed in the city of the visiting team Whether the guys come from Newcastle or Sheffield, they can drink their local beer. " Not really the spirit of the Evin law that the whole world envies us ... Or this detail, again: the lights of the corridors of the stadium change to take the colors of the opponents.

True that Brighton is an exceptionally tolerant city: it is the only green town hall in the country, the gay-lesbian community is omnipresent, we see freaks with green hair all over the streets without it shocking anyone. But this beautiful story with rose water, fed up with rainbows, nevertheless needed a leader to realize fully. Tony Bloom is nicknamed "The Lizard", easy to understand why at the first photo. Former pro poker player, he is mostly a smart businessman who made a fortune with Starlizard, a company that describes himself as a consultant in the world of sports betting.

The president-fan and the French pearl
In 2008, when the financial crisis prevented the club from borrowing any books from banks, it decided to invest its own money. To become a sort of president-fan, the exact opposite of the Asian, American or other shareholders, whose speculative intentions are necessarily doubtful. While keeping his hand cold: he did not change his method despite three play-offs of accession to the Premier League lost between 2012 and 2016, and prefers to hunt in the depths of the continental championships that slam millions on names sounding.

The club should a priori succeed in retaining its French pearl, striker Anthony Knockaert, elected last year's best player of Championship (the second English division). A risk that these values ​​slip with promotion? "Unlikely, Martin Perry Cup, we've been around for years thanks to the stadium, the structures, the public, we know where we've been and we'll never forget our roots." First element of response against Manchester City, August 12th. At home, for real.
 



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