[Albion] It's Just Sunk In...

[kevtherev]

I'm rather happy to have the pressure of expecting to finish in the top 6 off us. We are now back to the Brighton I've always known and loved. The future for our club is really rather bright and again this makes me happy. Get behind the team through thick and thin and don't dwell on the past.

Sorry, but isn't that what our chairman said he expects..So who's the pressure off from. I would say the pressure is very much on for OG to deliver the goods. I very much doubt OG came here thinking mid table is going to be ok.

 

[JBizzleBeard]

The media seem to have written us off this season which I particularly like. I also prefer to start judging how our season is going around the Christmas period and not after one away league match.

 

[Phil Young]

Wigan have lost a few players but signed 10.

As Tony Bloom hinted at last Thursday at Fans Forum the parachute payments for dropping from Premiership will gradually create 2-tier Championship. The haves (teams with £££ premiership parachute payments) and the have-nots.
No other business would reward failure (relegation from Premiership) by giving parachute payments. But I suppose football is like no other business.
Even more galling then that we missed out on promotion last season.

 

[Commander]

Yeah, at the start of last season from memory, we lined up with Bridge, TK, Bruno and Crofts all signed in the summer before the start of the season. This season we have Chicksen and Kemy, one of whom you would assume is back up. It's true most dealings are done towards the end of August but there are a dozen if not more points up for grabs by then. Don't get me wrong, i'm not all doom and gloom about the season ahead. I am 100% behind OG although I do stand by my previous views that I think experience of this league would have been a big plus. That said we have got our man and I think he will do well, although it may take some time for his style of play to reap rewards, which may mean we are playing catch up. But the way I believe this season will play out, will be much like last. Everyone will slit each others throats, so any team that can string 5 or 6 wins together will shoot up through the league....I don't blame OG for the lack of signings, I don't even blame Burke or Bloom. This summer has been a complete nightmare and it's bound to have a knock on effect....I do believe it would be in the interests of the squad/team if a few of the current first team were moved on with some new faces replacing them. My views on Poyet are well known and I'm not going to bark on about that, although I do think a starting eleven of all Poyet players/signings is not healthy moving forward for OG to stamp his mark on the side.

For the first time ever, I think I agree with pretty much everything you say here. Basically we're about a month behind where we were last year because of the debacle that was the Summer. Still plenty of time to sort it out though, I'm expecting at least two first teamers to sign before the window shuts.

 

[AZ Gull]

El Abd faded badly after Barnsley away game

El Abd picked up his tenth booking in that game, and received a 2-game ban. In his absence, Greer came back in and formed a solid partnership with Upson (the team didn't lose a game until the play-offs). El Abd didn't get his place back - he made only one sub appearance (in the last regular season game against Wolves).

Not quite sure how you interpret that as El Abd "fading badly".

 

[Red'n'Blue]

And to make it worse Palace will come down next season with a swelled bank balance, having got lucky last year with a pretty average squad (barring obviously Zaha).

Nothing wrong with an average squad.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Wigan are too good for this level with the team they have , QPR have the best strike force in this league and arguably the best player in Barton and Reading don't really have a weakness

 

[m20gull]

For the first time ever, I think I agree with pretty much everything you say here. Basically we're about a month behind where we were last year because of the debacle that was the Summer. Still plenty of time to sort it out though, I'm expecting at least two first teamers to sign before the window shuts.

We're more than a month behind. Poyet had been manager for more than two seasons. Would be vindictively cruel to judge Oscar on half a transfer window by comparison.

 

[casbom]

Anyone else watch the Barber interviews this evening? Apparently budget is more than last year?

#bhafc just watched Paul Barber interviews x2 on utube. V interesting and worth watching.. O yea player budget has been enhanced from lastyr

 

[Seagull on the wing]

We are stronger now than at this stage last season and there's no reason to think we won't strengthen further. It's the 8th of August FFS.

Definately spot on....

 

[big nuts]

Gus was an incredibly frustrating manager, and I was first in line at times to question the caution, the lack of variety in our play and the persistence with some players. But we've all (myself included) taken for granted that he actually got an awful lot of basic elements of football absolutely spot on, and up and down this country there are football teams without those. I'm talking about simply being able to defend, to have a style and a belief, to play with commitment, to have technical quality like almost no other team in this league. Apart from the utter disaster of 13/05/13, you can count on one hand the number of times we badly let ourselves down under Gus. I think we've all come to expect a certain level as though it is the norm, when actually it was incredibly high class.

Now, we're left with a manager who has no experience of England, a weakened squad at his disposal, and what looks alarmingly like a lack of money to spend. I'm not enough of an idiot to genuinely question him after two matches, we need two or three months to form any sort of definite opinion of him. But my early impression is that he doesn't fill me with any confidence, and that he has a lot of circumstances going against him that will make this a tough job this season. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm fully expecting a bottom half finish.

I've always thought your knowledge and understanding of cricket was far superior than football, I may have to revise my opinion after that post. Superb