Ball boys sacked

[Barrel of Fun]

The same boys that will be dropped like a sack of shit at the end of the season when they don't make.

They do plenty for the club already and what is wrong with ball boys.

I know for a fact the scholars still clean the boots and our captain is a tight arse and el abd is pretty generous.

Also they all have to wear black boots the club don't allow the, to have colour they are also not allowed to wear gloves or body armour.

You've obviously got some history with the youth setup, going by your previous posts.

I'm not sure why they should be exempt from this duty, simply because they don't want to or will be judged to be not good enough when their scholarship ends.

There are still lessons to be learned, even if you've taken your eye off the academic route.

It's the nature of the beast.

 

[Socialist Sid]

Have you ever agreed with a decision made by Brighton and Hove Albion?

Have you EVER made a post that doesn't have a question mark at the end(?)

 

[Gullys Cats]

A sad day for the ballboys

 

[martyn20]

Have you EVER made a post that doesn't have a question mark at the end(?)

Several, like this one!

 

[Lincoln Imp]

didnt our great community club sack him as a result of that incident or would that spoil the point you are making?

You're right, Keith Cuss was sacked - the club really had no option. Although his name will mean nothing to most buyers of the programme I still think it would make an amusing little historical flashback piece, perhaps on some appropriate anniversary - "The day we sacked the oldest ballboy in the ground"...

I can't imagine an organisation as corporate as the Albion agreeing, that's all.

 

[Luke93]

A sad day for the ballboys

Will there be a minuets silence next home game?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Will there be a minuets silence next home game?

Yes. The dainty French dancers will be silenced.

 

[Luke93]

Why do people say "a minuets silence" though? There's only one minuet :/

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

You're right, Keith Cuss was sacked - the club really had no option. Although his name will mean nothing to most buyers of the programme I still think it would make an amusing little historical flashback piece, perhaps on some appropriate anniversary - "The day we sacked the oldest ballboy in the ground"...

I can't imagine an organisation as corporate as the Albion agreeing, that's all.

No need to imagine as Spencer Vignes wrote a piece about the incident in the match day programme last season in the 'You Couldn't Make It Up' feature.

 

[Ali_rrr]

Also they all have to wear black boots the club don't allow the, to have colour they are also not allowed to wear gloves or body armour.

This bit has changed now.

 

[Sergei's Celebration]

Because we're not the same as any other club.

This is possibly the most arrogant, egotistical, pompous and least aware statement i have read on here on heard in the stands for a very long time.

What makes us so different from 91 other clubs then?

 

[severnside gull]

You're right, Keith Cuss was sacked - the club really had no option. Although his name will mean nothing to most buyers of the programme I still think it would make an amusing little historical flashback piece, perhaps on some appropriate anniversary - "The day we sacked the oldest ballboy in the ground"...

I can't imagine an organisation as corporate as the Albion agreeing, that's all.

It was written up in detail in the programme for a game towards the end of last season. Spencer Vignes (?) wrote it.
Didnt pull any punches.
We really are not as precious as a club as we sometimes think.



edit: sorry - just seen I was beaten to it

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

What makes us so different from 91 other clubs then?

Less and less every week it seems. Just becoming an identikit football club, bit like the way high streets all end up looking the same. Every club used to be have something special about it but its all dying in the face of the premier league monster. There was lots special about us and if you can't see that

[although ball-boys is ball-boys and there's probably better threads out there to make this point ]

 

[edna krabappel]

Ballboys traditionally have been a link connecting the club with the local community. To dispense with them continues the move towards a more businesslike operation. A bit sad really.

Oh please. There are many initiatives that, it could be argued, generate a "link with the local community". Having ten kids per game, many of whom are probably on the Albion's books as schoolboys anyway, is hardly a massive engagement project.

It struck me on Saturday when I was wandering round Brighton, just how many kids there were wearing Albion shirts, both in the city centre and in the parks playing football. A friend of mine's son & his U8 team did a tour of the Amex yesterday and I believe the club hung all their new season shirts up in the dressing room, and then arranged for them to have a team photo on the pitch afterwards. I bet those kids feel pretty linked to the club right now. I live in Mid Sussex, not even in Brighton, and I see dozens of children wearing Albion gear all the time.

None of that ever used to happen. By all means whinge about stuff if its valid, but to whimper that the club are losing touch with the community (that's the Albion with their award winning community scheme, let us not forget) on the basis of changing a few ball boys? Come off it.

 

[Brovion]

Oh please. There are many initiatives that, it could be argued, generate a "link with the local community". Having ten kids per game, many of whom are probably on the Albion's books as schoolboys anyway, is hardly a massive engagement project.

It struck me on Saturday when I was wandering round Brighton, just how many kids there were wearing Albion shirts, both in the city centre and in the parks playing football. A friend of mine's son & his U8 team did a tour of the Amex yesterday and I believe the club hung all their new season shirts up in the dressing room, and then arranged for them to have a team photo on the pitch afterwards. I bet those kids feel pretty linked to the club right now. I live in Mid Sussex, not even in Brighton, and I see dozens of children wearing Albion gear all the time.

None of that ever used to happen. By all means whinge about stuff if its valid, but to whimper that the club are losing touch with the community (that's the Albion with their award winning community scheme, let us not forget) on the basis of changing a few ball boys? Come off it.

Indeed. When people say 'The Albion is no longer a community club' what they mean is the Albion is no longer a niche market of limited interest to most people in Sussex. The Albion, with it's increased reach and better facilities, is now far more of a 'community' club than it ever was when it was a minor sideshow stuck on the margins at Withdean. The fact that it's managed to do this whilst transforming itself into an organisation that can comptete in the modern football environment is quite an achievement. However there are some people who preferred the portacabins, temporary stands and general non-league feel and will look for any stick with which to beat the club.

 

[Withdeano]

The support the players (from both teams) got in retrieving the ball was really poor v Millwall. The ball boys may as well have not been there. I think the Millwall players were quite grateful for their inactivity.

 

[Spencer Vignes]

For anyone who's interested, here is the article that I wrote for the programme in its entirety:


April Fools’ Day, at least in my experience, always promises more than it ever delivers. You get stories about the white cliffs of Dover turning green and John Terry being accepted into Oxford University to study Fine Art, yet in an increasingly ludicrous world it’s often difficult to separate fact from fiction come the first day of the fourth month. I mean who would seriously believe some yarn about a ball boy, a middle-aged one at that, being fired from his regular post at a professional football club for a hilarious time wasting prank committed at the expense of a well known team from the north? That’s just got to be made up, hasn’t it? Ah, err, alright then, perhaps not.

On Saturday 1 April 1989 Manchester City came to the Goldstone Ground to face Albion in an important Division Two (now the Championship) fixture. City required points in their quest to bag the second automatic promotion place behind runaway leaders Chelsea. We, on the other hand, needed a result to put some daylight between us and the three clubs occupying the relegation zone. A highly entertaining game saw Albion take a first-half lead through a twice-taken penalty by Alan Curblishley only to be pegged back after the break when a deflected shot from City’s Trevor Morley looped agonisingly over the head of our keeper John Keeley. Back we came, visiting defender Ian Brightwell rising majestically to head a Garry Nelson cross into his own net. Grazie infinite Ian! From that point on it was pretty much a case of us defending our lead as City piled forward searching for a second equaliser of the afternoon.

With injury time approaching a loose pass travelling at head height flew towards the touchline on the west side of the pitch, approximately mid-point between the halfway line and the goal line at the northern end of the ground. Standing directly in its path was Keith Cuss, a well-known face around the Goldstone on match days who besides supervising the ball boys also helped with ball-fetching duties himself. Instead of catching the ball or stepping out of its way Keith, for reasons known only to himself, chose to back head it deep into the crowd (it may even have cleared the shallow area of terracing at that part of the ground and ended up in the car park behind). Everyone cracked up.....well, everyone that is with Albion leanings. City’s bench and players were however far from happy seeing it as a blatant time-wasting ploy. Nevertheless they quickly retrieved the stray ball and continued pressing for an equaliser that never came. Final score Albion 2 Manchester City 1.

All too often in professional football managers of losing teams resort to pathetic excuses to mask their own, or their team’s, deficiencies. Usually it’s the poor referee who undeservedly gets the bullet. This time City manager Mel Machin set his sights firmly on Mr Cuss during the post-match interviews. Keith, and only Keith, was the reason City had lost the match. It had nothing to do with Mel’s team selection, his tactics, Brightwell’s bizarre own goal or even ref John Deakin allowing Alan Curblishley to have a second stab from the penalty spot after visiting keeper Paul Cooper saved his initial kick, supposedly because of encroachment. Nope, it was all the fault of Keith Cuss and his backwards header. In his defence Cuss argued that he hadn’t meant to head the thing and was actually ducking to get out of the ball’s way. From my vantage point in the North Stand I’ve got to say that it didn’t look that way. But hey, what the heck? It had all happened so quickly and who’s to say any one of us wouldn’t have done the same thing if put in Keith’s position? I actually thought it was a nifty bit of skill.

Unfortunately there was to be a sting in the tail for poor Keith. Rather than fight his corner Albion chose to relieve him of his duties the Monday after the game, stung into action by Sunday’s adverse newspaper headlines about the forty-something ball boy whose gamesmanship had cost City a point or possibly more. Machin’s moans made a good story in the eyes of the press and successfully deflected blame away from City’s own failings, which was clearly his overriding intention. Rumours later abounded of how Albion’s board had been looking for an excuse to get rid of Keith for some time. If true, those poisonous quotes from City’s manager gave them all the ammunition they needed to waste the poor bloke. Nice one Mel. From where I’m standing it’s not Keith, Ian Brightwell or John Deakin who played the part of the April Fool that day. It’s you.