[Albion] So its clear many expect nothing less than to beat ManU followed by winning at Everton...

Kalimantan Gull said:

.. with the reserves knocking United out of the cup for good measure. And fair play I say, it's good to dream and set your expectations high. I want that to.

But with these expectations firmly set, and put clear inability to achieve it at present, how do we go about it?

Buying a team is the quickest route, but I worry we're not on a financial par with those clubs. Buying and paying players who routinely best Bernardo Silva, Pogba, and Rashford one week, followed by James Rodriguez and Richarlison the next, and have the strength in depth for the second string to march on in the cup, would set us back a cool half a billion or more.

We could try the tactic of playing a couple of big stoppers at the back who ping it forwards for a big guy up front, some good crossers on the wings and none of this passing it around or wing backs nonsense. Get it forward, put it in the mixer. get stuck in, lot of passion, winning formula, don't know what's hit them. I've a feeling that's been tried quite a lot in football history, however, and with or without the half a billion it doesn't get the consistent results anymore that it used to.

I guess that leaves the idea of developing youth, signing young players with potential and pairing them with a progressive coach who let's them develop and learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately this isn't an instant solution to the problem, there will be good days and bad days along the way with mistakes getting punished. And there's always the likelihood of the best players getting poached.

But I think to meet the expectations of routine back to back wins over such teams as Man Utd and Everton, its probably a sound option for us and I'd like to give it a go a bit longer before we go back to the drawing board.

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Reddleman said:

And the award for the most patronising and arrogant post of the season so far can be awarded right here!

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Plooks said:

Agreed. There seem to be some hugely deluded fans about at the moment who seem to think that we deserve to be beating the big teams simply because we have been in the league for a few seasons.

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Whitechapel said:

Our fan base are an enigma I'll never be able to figure out.

It seems like most of our fans want us to fly under the radar whilst also having our players and manager praised to high heaven. We want to mock Leeds fans for being arrogant whilst also being annoyed at losses to an extremely expensive Everton side managed by one of the best managers in the game. We want to tell Leeds fans that White might struggle with the step up whilst also writing him off whenever he makes a 'mistake'. We simultaneously want to compare ourselves to the team scraping survival at the Priestfield & Withdean whilst also placing ourselves above other similarly sized teams based on our 'potential' or 'future'.

I don't know, maybe every fanbase suffers this weird dichotomy and I only see if it with us because I'm a Brighton fan but it's hilarious and frustrating in equal meassures.

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Kalimantan Gull said:

.. with the reserves knocking United out of the cup for good measure. And fair play I say, it's good to dream and set your expectations high. I want that to.

But with these expectations firmly set, and put clear inability to achieve it at present, how do we go about it?

Buying a team is the quickest route, but I worry we're not on a financial par with those clubs. Buying and paying players who routinely best Bernardo Silva, Pogba, and Rashford one week, followed by James Rodriguez and Richarlison the next, and have the strength in depth for the second string to march on in the cup, would set us back a cool half a billion or more.

We could try the tactic of playing a couple of big stoppers at the back who ping it forwards for a big guy up front, some good crossers on the wings and none of this passing it around or wing backs nonsense. Get it forward, put it in the mixer. get stuck in, lot of passion, winning formula, don't know what's hit them. I've a feeling that's been tried quite a lot in football history, however, and with or without the half a billion it doesn't get the consistent results anymore that it used to.

I guess that leaves the idea of developing youth, signing young players with potential and pairing them with a progressive coach who let's them develop and learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately this isn't an instant solution to the problem, there will be good days and bad days along the way with mistakes getting punished. And there's always the likelihood of the best players getting poached.

But I think to meet the expectations of routine back to back wins over such teams as Man Utd and Everton, its probably a sound option for us and I'd like to give it a go a bit longer before we go back to the drawing board.

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BN41Albion said:

Its just an Internet football message board with a mix of fans with different viewpoints, the most outlandish on either side often the loudest, just like any other football message board? In reality, most fans are pretty balanced in real life. Very few Albion fans gave a shit about Leeds and their fans in real life, for example, whereas on here the whole thing was a huge drama. That's the effects of social media, I guess.

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Kalimantan Gull said:

.. with the reserves knocking United out of the cup for good measure. And fair play I say, it's good to dream and set your expectations high. I want that to.

But with these expectations firmly set, and put clear inability to achieve it at present, how do we go about it?

Buying a team is the quickest route, but I worry we're not on a financial par with those clubs. Buying and paying players who routinely best Bernardo Silva, Pogba, and Rashford one week, followed by James Rodriguez and Richarlison the next, and have the strength in depth for the second string to march on in the cup, would set us back a cool half a billion or more.

We could try the tactic of playing a couple of big stoppers at the back who ping it forwards for a big guy up front, some good crossers on the wings and none of this passing it around or wing backs nonsense. Get it forward, put it in the mixer. get stuck in, lot of passion, winning formula, don't know what's hit them. I've a feeling that's been tried quite a lot in football history, however, and with or without the half a billion it doesn't get the consistent results anymore that it used to.

I guess that leaves the idea of developing youth, signing young players with potential and pairing them with a progressive coach who let's them develop and learn from their mistakes. Unfortunately this isn't an instant solution to the problem, there will be good days and bad days along the way with mistakes getting punished. And there's always the likelihood of the best players getting poached.

But I think to meet the expectations of routine back to back wins over such teams as Man Utd and Everton, its probably a sound option for us and I'd like to give it a go a bit longer before we go back to the drawing board.

Click to expand...

Whitechapel said:

Our fan base are an enigma I'll never be able to figure out.

It seems like most of our fans want us to fly under the radar whilst also having our players and manager praised to high heaven. We want to mock Leeds fans for being arrogant whilst also being annoyed at losses to an extremely expensive Everton side managed by one of the best managers in the game. We want to tell Leeds fans that White might struggle with the step up whilst also writing him off whenever he makes a 'mistake'. We simultaneously want to compare ourselves to the team scraping survival at the Priestfield & Withdean whilst also placing ourselves above other similarly sized teams based on our 'potential' or 'future'.

I don't know, maybe every fanbase suffers this weird dichotomy and I only see if it with us because I'm a Brighton fan but it's hilarious and frustrating in equal meassures.

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sheebo said:

A lot of them should be ‘supporting’ Liverpool, Man City it Chelsea. We’ve played 2 of the top 4, another who have won 7/7 and look class and smashed the one game against someone of a similar standard and been fantastic. We’ve looked class in 3/4 league games, playing lovely passing football. But it’s not enough to just enjoy being in the prem supporting a team trying to play the right way for some - mind blowing!

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Hu_Camus said:

I watched the game and thought they dealt with an excellent Everton side who were pressing and putting the lads under pressure. It wasn't just raining, it was a constant barrage, and as their press was done with real quality, defenders are always under the cosh.
The whole league seems to be running to form in terms of home advantage despite there being no fans, so this result was always on the cards.
I thought Biss played well, and young Lamptey looked like a tired kid, and having his recent spell of excellent form and work-rate catch up with him.
Dunk has been off his best so far this season, but he's class and will come good - similar feeling about White....the last position up for grabs in a back three lacks composure.
I think there was LOTS to be happy about today, but in not long enough periods.
If Everton can keep their Brazilian, I think them real CL possibilities.
Its been a hard start, but a good show against Palarse, and we'll all be chilled again.

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sheebo said:

Although Richarlison is Brazilian, pretty sure you meant a Colombian (James). But agree with what you say - seen us play far worse than today - at least we gave it a go and played great last 20 mins. Struggled in horrible conditions, unlike them for the main, and some sloppy mistakes and poor defending BUT it happens and as fans we need to accept it when it does better than some on here imo...

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Whitechapel said:

Our fan base are an enigma I'll never be able to figure out.

It seems like most of our fans want us to fly under the radar whilst also having our players and manager praised to high heaven. We want to mock Leeds fans for being arrogant whilst also being annoyed at losses to an extremely expensive Everton side managed by one of the best managers in the game. We want to tell Leeds fans that White might struggle with the step up whilst also writing him off whenever he makes a 'mistake'. We simultaneously want to compare ourselves to the team scraping survival at the Priestfield & Withdean whilst also placing ourselves above other similarly sized teams based on our 'potential' or 'future'.

I don't know, maybe every fanbase suffers this weird dichotomy and I only see if it with us because I'm a Brighton fan but it's hilarious and frustrating in equal meassures.

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Weststander said:

Every club‘s fan forum is full of infighting and despair after a defeat. Those who think it’s wrong to be fed up and whinge, those who get it off their chest.

My perception is that those who talk about and still reference Priestfield or Withdean are an increasingly tiny minority. NSC is not representative.

The rest, the vast majority, think of us as a PL/Championship club, our real potential being fulfilled, with this huge catchment area all to ourselves, with a great owner.

The fanbase has evolved. Over the last three years countless bitchy and schadenfreude NSC threads and posts about other clubs. If it’s not Leeds, it’s others. Their’s is super-fuelled because they’re incredibly unpopular in football, past violence and homophobia. The danger of boasting and mocking on NSC or anywhere, is that can come back to bite you. If Leeds do well this season and beat us, that’s going to be painful for quite few people who’ve been so certain this year that Leeds will crash and burn.

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