[Football] How much do you enjoy being in the Premier League?

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Anything after Sami would have appeared fun....

We should give eternal thanks to the Junior Seagulls Xmas Party for giving Sami the good news. Out of the mouth of babes etc. If memory serves, Sami had the good grace to resign earlydoors the very next day. Again, if memory serves, TB was already halfway back to Oz for his summer/winter season when the news broke, and then had to come all the way back to sort out the mess.

Well that's my version of the truth anyways. Yours?

 

[DJ NOBO]

I still buzz off Albion being in the Premier League.
I’ve watched too many games at Gillingham and worse to let the faults of the League ruin that.
There’s plenty to whinge about if you want to, but enjoy it for what it is, while you can.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Anything after Sami would have appeared fun....

Yup

*nods*

 

[Perkino]

To be the only side who has been promoted to the Premier League but never been relegated from it is a great stat. Long may it continue

 

[Hotchilidog]

I hate VAR but I love watching us going against the best teams in the land and all in front of 30,000 at the Amex.

 

[BBassic]

We should give eternal thanks to the Junior Seagulls Xmas Party for giving Sami the good news. Out of the mouth of babes etc. If memory serves, Sami had the good grace to resign earlydoors the very next day. Again, if memory serves, TB was already halfway back to Oz for his summer/winter season when the news broke, and then had to come all the way back to sort out the mess.

Well that's my version of the truth anyways. Yours?

I have zero evidence for this theory but I remain convinced that TB sacked Sami but allowed him to say he'd resigned. Again, no evidence at all. But it's 2020! Who needs things like "evidence" and "facts" and "physical contact with family and friends to stop us going bonkers whilst a global pandemic rages on" ?

 

[Machiavelli]

A few rumblings on other threads, so time for a definitive POLL.

How much are you loving the Premier League experience on a scale of 1-10. One being that you have given up watching or are about to due to the PL and 10 being that it is the best thing since a Peter Ward hattrick.

I am about a 3 I think. VAR, games you have little or no hope in and stupid kick off times have made the PL the thing I should have been careful I wished for. Diving, big team bias and some woeful punditry do not help either. I would personally be happy with a few seasons in the Championship. However, I understand fully this does not work for the club as an organisation and its owners and leaders. It's a totally personal preference, not a statement of ambition.

Do away with VAR and become a little more competitive, however, and I'm sure my vote would change to much more towards the top of the scale.

You?

It's great to have that exposure, and to witness your team test themselves against some of the best club sides in the world. The player upgrade is worth flagging up too.
But the biggest downside is the lack of competition, which we all ought to have known about prior to experiencing it directly. Ditto with big six bias. Those years in the Championship were just wonderful, as it was a competitive league (it is less so now), and each season and fixture was by no means a forgone conclusion. As to woeful punditry, despite attracting much less attention than the big boys, we get far more than we would outside of the PL.
So I'm a 5 or 6, given all this.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

I do feel as if certain fans should start following a non-league side as well as The Albion to get the certain "fix" that we will never get again, most likely.

I totally get it. There was something great and wholesome about following The Albion when we were a small club. It was a more gritty and more personal experience.

For me, I have always known The Albion has a small club - but I've always loved The Premier League even when we weren't in it. In the 90's and 00's I used to dream about The Albion getting there one day, playing amongst all those iconic players and even having some ourselves, not dissimilar to Southampton, Portsmouth, Bolton, etc.

Well we've done it. We're here, this is the holy land. Other clubs all around the country envy us and aspire to be where we are now. A squad full of internationals and world football is our oyster - we now have an actual real prospect of winning major trophies or playing European football... If you aren't enjoying this ride, then you're missing out. If that's you then it's surely worth following a local non-league side as well to get the "fix" that you miss, because probably, hopefully, you won't be getting it at the Albion again.

I'm dreading the time when we're are relegated back to The Championship, spending frustrating season after season trying to get back to the holy land... just like all the other relegated teams do.

Despite the horribly long post, read it all and totally agree. This IS The Holy Land, where we are now. Or as holy as it's ever going to get. From here where do you go Joe? Back down to do it all over again? Or upwards so you reach the ultimate: a two leg against a team you have to google from a country you barely heard of on a Thursday night in the Europa League Of Losers

 

[Super Steve Earle]

This one will do fine.

I want to know if people are enjoying the experience, not where we should be playing. Because, believe it or not, if enough people complain about VAR and 5.30 kick offs on a Monday these twin evils might be at least tweaked, if there is anyone out there who still gives a toss about the fans. And, if there isn't that's perfect reason enough to vote with a low number.

I can remember playing Watford at home in our first Premier League season when they had done some previous yo-yoing. On the train from Brighton to Falmer were four Watford lads who I would say were late 20s / early 30s. Pissed as lords, dressed as Super Mario characters and still chugging Stella. They spent the whole journey telling my impressionable 11 year old son and his mate how much more fun The Championship was, how shit the Premier League was and how relegation really wouldn't be the end of the world.

Your post is handy to work with. I am enjoying the experience. On balance, I still bloody love VAR. I think it mostly stops the refs favouring bigger clubs with conscious or unconscious bias. I couldn't wait to get out of the Championship and the refs with wrong decisions and no fallback to check them. I don't want to complain about VAR and let's face it 5.30 kick offs aren't an issue with no fans going anyway. I bet those Watford fans won't be finding the Championship much fun now. I like my club being part of the conversation, a major player in all the debates, a squad full of International players and prospective Internationals. A top class academy producing and nurturing first team players that we would not have found so easy to attract in The Championship. We only got promoted once. The rest of the seasons had disappointments and some very average players who would not cut it at the top level, players we thought would improve us but didn't. We also have massive income to survive Covid and our club on TV every match to help us deal with the stresses of Covid. I voted 10 and proud of it.

 

[nwgull]

I went for 7 as I love the profile of us being in the top league and of us having a squad full of international class players. However, I won't deny that winning most of the games that we play, and often by 3 or more goals, in the last 2 Championship seasons was a lot of fun. Season 15/16 in particular was amazing as it was so unexpected; by contrast Season 16/17 became quite stressful in the 2nd half as the general feeling was that FFP would necessitate break up of the squad and that this would be our last chance for a couple of seasons at least.

With some of the exciting youngsters that we have on our books, I'd certainly get over the disappointment of relegation, if it happened, quite quickly and look forward to the new season.

 

[Change at Barnham]

A 9 for me.
I love seeing some of the best players in the world play at the Amex. We have a lower budget and wage bill than most of the sides, so I find it fascinating watching how we try to maximise our strengths and compensate for our weaknesses. Currently we're not getting the points that we hoped for, but I believe we are moving in the right direction with a clear plan and strategy in place.
I get frustrated with those fans who criticise more than I feel the club deserve as it is an incredible challenge just to stay in the Premier League let alone advance up the table.
After losing I'm far more disappointed than I should be and I've found setbacks have caused more sadness and frustration than it should, which is silly as I should be able to compartmentalise the setback and move on.
I think I need some of Graham Potter's emotional intelligence teachings which may allow me not to be so affected.

I really hope we win tonight, because if we lose it will make me feel sh!t for the next four days.
No doubt there are plenty of you out there that feel exactly same. Let's hope most fans can see what Tony Bloom's masterplan is and continue to encourage and support it.

 

[Chicken Run]

I enjoyed it at the beginning but I’m finding going into certain games thinking we will do well if we only concede three a bit tiresome now, the Championship is imho the best league in the UK.

 

[Barnet Seagull]

After the last 30 years, I'm happy to have a club. I'm happy that the EPL give my club stability and I'm happy that we aren't struggling to manage our finances to the same degree as those lower down the pyramid. I'm also happy that we're giving teams a game. 10 for me Jeff.

 

[BeHereNow]

To be in the same league as all the plastic’s teams is great, especially when we beat them, it’s vindication of all the years I supported the Albion during the Withdean years, I’m sure many feel the same, it’s probably the biggest factor for me. We’ve taken points off all the big clubs expect for Manchester City, which is pretty amazing really. Slowly, but surely adding top flight seasons to our name and catching up with clubs that might be perceived as bigger by some is also great, we have a long way to go to catch up with a club like QPR for example, but that’s the fun of staying up every year. The idea that kids are growing up seeing Brighton & Hove Albion as a Premier League club is great and long may that continue.

But, it’s been incredibly frustrating that we haven’t got the points we’ve deserved and it seems like it’s not just because of our lack of finishing but stupid bloody VAR decisions.

Another thing I don’t like is the lack of accessibility to less well off fans, but that probably wasn’t to different to The Championship, so it’s a problem with football in general. People who I used to go with in the League 1 days don’t even go anymore.

So, that brings me to my biggest ‘complaint’. The away support/crowds don’t seem as good as the League 1 days, like a lot of those don’t even get tickets. I don’t mean to be ageist, and I’m not saying they don’t deserve tickets, but there seems be a lot more quiet 60+ types at the away games these days and I don’t remember seeing them in the League 1 away games! (Yes, I get that they would’ve been about 50 back then)

A big thing for me is really getting behind the team at away games, no matter what and that doesn’t seem to happen now and MAYBE it’s because too many quiet season ticket holders snap up the tickets. Arsenal away last season sticks in my mind.

 

[Wrong-Direction]

A strong 5

Sent from my SM-A600FN using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted member 2719]

So if we do a rough tot up it would appear that the fans are suggesting a 60%/40% split in being in favour of being in the premier. (assuming 5 equates to okay) Ie 1-5 against and 6-10 in favour


So perhaps TB might just be happy to not invest and see if we can improve with what we have, or drop into the lively Championship as it won't upset to many fans.

Assuming the NSC polls are as accurate feedback your ever likely to get.

 

[A1X]

If we're talking about when we can go, a 9 as you get to see some of the best players in the world in front of your very eyes. On TV it's about a 6 as I can watch them on TV anyway.

 

[blue-shifted]

I don't care about the losing more than we win thing. If I did, I probably wouldn't have chosen to support Brighton

The kick off times are annoying, but a lot of that is to do with COVID

The real turd in the apple crumble is VAR, which is an abomination

But basically, my club are routinely in the best 20 in the country. I've seen us not be in the top 90. Bloody amazing

 

[BeHereNow]

I miss the necessity of having to win in The Championship and the pressure it brings. We don’t have to win almost every game in the PL to achieve our goal, we only need to win about 11 with a few draws, this means we don’t feel the pressure to win every game, so we don’t get that feeling of relief when we do win, although we might do tonight! But that is an exception to most games in the PL, so it does kind of feel like we are making up the numbers at the moment, but that could change in time. Still, I’d rather be in the PL as the point of winning in The Championship is to play in the PL! I’d rather have the chance of upsetting Arsenal than having a game against Blackburn, where we will be about 80% confident of winning.

Reading some other posts, I remembered how we as fans seemed more appreciated in the Withdean years and that we aren’t as important now, so that takes the fun out of it a bit.

Another thing that is annoying is the corporate stuff. I get that the club makes more money from corporate seats and stuff, but looking at the expansion plans for the North East corner, it’s a little disheartening that the club would rather have about a 100 corporate seats than say 400+ normal seats. So, to me, that says they care more about money than actually having more fans in the ground.

 

[London Irish]

I moan a bit as I'm not 100% sure Potter is using the resources wisely and Barber can be a bit annoyingly cheesepairing when it comes to costs for fans, but otherwise it's a solid 8 for me