[Albion] How much have you enjoyed the 24/25 season? What were your highlights?

[Iggle Piggle]

If ever a season was summed up in a game it was today.

When we are all full of hope before a game we should win, we do our best to make hard work of it. Then, in the second half we absolutely destroyed the Europa league winners like they were Mansfield when we all think it's going to go to shit. Performance between halves were night and day.

Newcastle away in the cup was the absolute stand out for me but I thoroughly enjoyed today, Man Utd away (and at home) as well as Everton away. Pity I missed both Chelsea games through work and TV wankers. TV wankers is only getting worse next year by the way.

Less said about Forest away (if we'd won that game, we finish 6th), Chelsea away first half and the Palace games the better. The bad this year has been particularly bad.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Brighton 3 Liverpool 2 just magnificent.
the continuing quality of Mitoma, Baleba, Van Hecke, Webster and Verbruggen.
the blossoming of people like Wieffer and Gruda in recent weeks
andthen there’s Rutter…… and everyone else!

 

[Kit Napper]

Games against the so-called Big Six where our overall record was W7, D3, L2. It's very unlikely that this will ever be bettered. All with a new, inexperienced manager with several new young players to integrate and, if I'm not mistaken, the most player days lost to injury in the Premier League.

 

[nsclurker]

New manager, the youngest ever manger in the top flight
takes us to our second best finish ever.

Anyone scoring less than 5 has an acute attack of Entitlement virus.
Sadly penicillin won't work.

Or went to Forest, Fulham, or Brentford away - for example - and remembered how we did against the bottom 3.

However, overall, I'll give it a 4/5.

 

[Terry Butcher Tribute Act]

A strong finish has propelled it from a 2 to a 3, but ultimately the what could have been moments + The FA Cup debacle mean it's a generous 3

 

[Jimmy Come Lately]

Lots of great highlights have already been mentioned but I'd like to add the home game against Bournemouth... that one that people like to quote Jonathan Wilson saying on the Guardian Football Weekly podcast as being "like watching football from the future". Because it really did feel like that to me at the time with the WSU bird's eye view.

Two sets of players with abundant skill just casting every trick they had to try to prove they were the better team, and we only went and won it. I gasped, I held my breath, I applauded random passes and tackles, and not a minute went by when I wasn't entertained. Like the Liverpool post-title exhibition match later on or the Manchester City post-title exhibition match two seasons ago, but against a genuine rival when there was something at stake for both teams. If the Premier League can contrive more matches like that it really will be the best league in the world.

 

[Klaas]

It's been excellent, especially considering the amount of injuries we had and a whole load of new players with a new coach.

Not to mention our first premier league season without Pascal Gros.

HIghlights: City (Home and away), Spurs, Chelsea (YES), and Liverpool.

 

[Eeyore]

I think a problem now is that, having had a season where Albion qualified for Europe followed by a season in which they played in Europe, it's difficult having a season where eighth place leads to nothing. But it's still a decent season all considered. It's a long old ride to miss out in though.

 

[Klaas]

And how many times did we come from behind to win? Felt like a lot.

 

[chaileyjem]

And how many times did we come from behind to win? Felt like a lot.

Joint top of that table in 24/25.

 

[Vicar!]

The pleasure of watching 60,000 Arsenal fans seriously losing their shit as Rice got sent off. Hilarious.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Great season.

My overriding emotion, is frustration at the inconsistency, mixed with the Euphoria of when it all falls into place.
If we can step on from here, next season will be pretty special.

Personal highlight was Solly's goal at Norwich.

Favourite game - Bournemouth home
Favourite player - Adam Webster

 

[Peacehaven Wild Kids]

The long weekend in Newcastle was epic!

 

[brighton_tom]

I've really enjoyed watching the progression of some of our new players. In the first half of the season there was a lot of questions about the near £200m spent. Some players like Minteh and Georginio showed their quality early on, but others were not so seamless. So it was great to see, after giving them the time to bed in & recover from injuries, that by the time we got into this last 5 to 10 games we were getting great performances from Weiffer, Gruda, Gomez, and O'Riley. All will be even better next season.

 

[Hiheidi]

Looks like the players had a party last night.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/performancechefwillcarvalho/3640581250995608752?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MTA3dGxidDFkOG5qdw==

 

[BNthree]

Enjoyed a lot of it, found parts really really frustrating. It’s never been a question of us not having the ability, but the silly mistakes and naivety (to be expected) have been really irritating.

Exactly this for me. Great to finish 8th and watch some superb football but frustrating to see us lose or draw some matches we really shouldn’t have.

 

[brighton_tom]

Looks like the players had a party last night.

https://www.instagram.com/stories/performancechefwillcarvalho/3640581250995608752?utm_source=ig_story_item_share&igsh=MTA3dGxidDFkOG5qdw==

And so they should! Fatboy slim on the decks.

 

[Zeberdi]

I think a problem now is that, having had a season where Albion qualified for Europe followed by a season in which they played in Europe, it's difficult having a season where eighth place leads to nothing. But it's still a decent season all considered. It's a long old ride to miss out in though.

As Hürzeler said post-Spud, it depends how you define “a successful season”

Some will think not getting Europe (especially as those specific hopes had been expressed by TB) means we had an ‘unsuccessful’ season. So yes, an ‘unsuccessful season’ and stated target missed and I suspect for most of us, deeply disappointing.

Others will look at the second best finish in our history, stats of a young manager that outcompetes previous managers, beating all Big 6 Clubs at least once, a slew of young players successfully negotiating a very steep learning curve …

Some of us, feel a bit of both!

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Chelsea qualifying for UCL, Liverpool winning the league and Spurs getting the Europa, should keep us in add-on cash to buy South American wonderkids, for another couple of seasons.

 

[Fiskmås]

A solid 4 for me, which is pretty amazing considering that I probably went into this season with lower expectations than most.

The highlight of the season wasn't really a single game, but rather seeing some of the youngsters stepping up massively when called upon. I don't think anyone expected e.g. Ayari to be more than a squad player getting a run out for the occasional cup game before the season started. Minteh is a completely different beast compared to his first games – mostly thanks to his decision making having improved so drastically. Gruda getting to show what he has to contribute with when finally played more centrally. Just to name a few.

Also the redemption arcs for our 3d and 4th choice centre backs have been incredible. Seeing Igor being pretty much written off this time last year, to hearing half the Amex chanting his name mid-season, was really sweet and well deserved. Webster surpassed at least my expectations as well with quite some margin. And that's in a back line where the central pairing had to change almost every game due to injuries.

Really, really looking forward to the next season now. Feels like the first half of this season was decent, thanks to an exciting line-up of players, while Fabian's experiments with the high back line and implementing German 2nd division tactics backfired quite spectacularly at times. The second half of the season was decent, thanks to Fabian finally leaning on more pragmatic tactics, while the injury situation meant we were down to the third choice in many positions.

So, fingers crossed for a season with the tactics of the second half and the line-up of the first – that will be pure magic.