[Football] F365 - Middle no longer means mediocrity

Postman Pat said:

Apologies for yet another thread on CH sacking, but I think this is a brilliant article on Football 365 and is what most sensible Brighton fans are trying to articulate why we feel a change was needed.

I won't post the full thing here as it will detract from clicks on the site

Collectively, this seems to represent a shift in mood. Previously, the broadcasting revenue was treated as a reward for continuity. Now, in conjunction with their native resources, the bulk of the clubs who comprise this middle-class see the opportunity that exists within that wealth, treating seasons as waypoints rather than final destinations. In the abstract, it’s football’s equivalent of a research and development culture, in which the folly of exorbitant spending is being de-emphasised in favour of smarter decisions and the pursuit of marginal gains.

The money continues to pour into the market place, the Premier League has hardly become frugal, but it’s not being pumped out into the ether. Owners will write the same cheques, yes, but with changing expectations of what their clubs can be and a demand for something other than safety. They want the feeling of progress. If that can’t be reflected in the league table, then they want to know that their club is running optimally and with the maximum chance of success. It’s an example which has been set and which, now, the great majority want to follow.

In that light, the situation at Brighton makes much more sense. For the purposes of Chris Hughton’s own reputation, gaining promotion and then surviving relegation twice remains a fine achievement. For Tony Bloom and Dan Ashworth, however, the failure to become incrementally more competitive would really have been a regression and the inefficiencies at its heart intolerable.

https://www.football365.com/news/f365-says-the-middle-no-longer-means-mediocrity-premier-league

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ATFC Seagull said:

Without having read the full article, I think I disagree with the jist of it if I've understood it correctly.

Whilst I was personally very much against the sacking of CH, I've spent the last few days trying to explain the complexities of the situation to casual observers who've looked at our survival and can't understand why we got rid - the whole "do you think you should be challenging for Europe?" comments. I don't think for the majority of people it was about progressing or improving, but apprehending what looked like a slide towards possible relegation. People felt like didn't look like we'd finish 17th again next year.

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Guinness Boy said:

The point of it is, if you don't improve incrementally you will go down and I agree with that 100%.

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ATFC Seagull said:

Without having read the full article, I think I disagree with the jist of it if I've understood it correctly.

Whilst I was personally very much against the sacking of CH, I've spent the last few days trying to explain the complexities of the situation to casual observers who've looked at our survival and can't understand why we got rid - the whole "do you think you should be challenging for Europe?" comments. I don't think for the majority of people it was about progressing or improving, but apprehending what looked like a slide towards possible relegation. People felt like didn't look like we'd finish 17th again next year.

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Bold Seagull said:

Great article...

Other than the opening statement of "given what Hughton had achieved in his three years at the club".

If you're going to do a piece of in-depth journalism, how hard is it to find out how long a manager as been at a football club?

So just the 18months short of his true employment duration, I'm sure the rest of the article must be credible...

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Pavilionaire said:

To be fair this wasn't a piece about facts and figure but a take on what is happening in the middle of the table and an attempt to understand the thinking behind Bloom's sacking of Hughton.

The middle ground is populated by the more celebral coaches - and the days of the autocratic 'character gaffers' like 'Arry, Pardew, Allardyce, Pulis seem to be on the wane.

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father_and_son said:

If the only thing you can do is what you have always done but everyone else innovates, you become extinct.

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father_and_son said:

The premise of the argument in the article is really that 'progress' no longer means climbing the table. No one is standing still so if you don't progress yourselves you will just slide backwards and eventually out of the league... We were right on the edge of that precipice and not progressing so TB did the only thing he could and look to change.

I get the idea expressed and do agree given how well presented it is. Until Cardiff I had assumed Chris' brief was "survive" and despite the dreadful performances and dodgy position, I remained confident we would survive. But Cardiff was the turning point for me. That's when it clicked. We are on an inclined treadmill... Staying still isn't an option and we were staying still. We had to change, evolve, improve... The reward would be "survive" not Europe or, indeed, top half, just staying in the division next season.
We had switched from 4411 to 433 and it wasn't working (this is down to the players IMO) but instead of working with what he had and trying something new to make 433 work, he just resorted to 4411. Pragmatic and necessary for survival this time but not progress.
If the only thing you can do is what you have always done but everyone else innovates, you become extinct.

For TB extinction is not an option... Time to evolve. We should be using players in their preferred positions, we should be bringing talent up from the academy and fundamentally, we cannot win games with 10 men behind the ball and the lone attacker is not a super quick striker with a rocket shot and a lightning trigger to use it. Glenn is not that man for all the goals he taps, heads, bundles and c*CK blocks into the goal.

The academy is there to find talent and generate money. Those players we don't want to keep, we have to sell, but if we don't put them in the shop window every once in while, no one wants to buy.

TLDR; Chris is a dinosaur. A gentleman and a scholar and the nicest man in football. But he cannot innovate the way we have to. However good it is at this moment, same old same old is not enough next month never mind next season.

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Mouldy Boots said:

All very well put like the article, but this one line above is what really bothered me and I think fans just kept turning a blind eye to his Achilles heel.

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father_and_son said:

Absolutely... And until Cardiff I would admit being guilty of this myself. I called on here for a return to 4411, to be pragmatic and return to boring, defensive football. But I didn't see the folly in this in the medium/long term.

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Not Andy Naylor said:

I wrote in another thread about our lack of any footballing identity beyond they-shall-not-pass, repel-all-boarders, remember The Alamo and that it couldn't go on this way, if only because it was such a backward step after the Poyet and Oscar years. I was hoping that there might be a change of emphasis from CH with some better summer recruitment. I think I now realise that that was just me indulging in wishful thinking because Hughton is such a great guy.

It could be argued that watching such negative football is a price worth paying for staying in the Premier League, but when it isn't even successful then things have to change. It's important to keep moving forward, in every sense.

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Not Andy Naylor said:

I wrote in another thread about our lack of any footballing identity beyond they-shall-not-pass, repel-all-boarders, remember The Alamo and that it couldn't go on this way, if only because it was such a backward step after the Poyet and Oscar years. I was hoping that there might be a change of emphasis from CH with some better summer recruitment. I think I now realise that that was just me indulging in wishful thinking because Hughton is such a great guy.

It could be argued that watching such negative football is a price worth paying for staying in the Premier League, but when it isn't even successful then things have to change. It's important to keep moving forward, in every sense.

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