Having found ourselves in the fourth tier of English football back in the late 1990’s, Brighton and Hove Albion’s rise up the domestic pyramid and into the heady heights of the Premier League with our 2016/17 promotion is almost the stuff of legend now.
14 years without a stadium, the end of a 34 year absence from the top flight and a sixth place finish leading to a first ever involvement in European club football are just some of the other notable headlines across that period.
Another headline is the fact that under owner Tony Bloom, the Seagull’s have become a byword for how to successfully grow a football club, have a plan for the future that is not thrown off track by unexpected developments, that also as a minimum provides consolidation, if not steady and progressive improvement.
Many clubs in the modern game have a plethora of managers in a pretty short period of time, and often there is little in the way of continuity when it comes to ethos and playing style, and a change of manager leads to an upheaval of the first team squad.
Brighton, as we know, took a different approach once we had made it to the promised land, and our PL gaffers number four – Chris Hughton, Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi, and currently, Fabian Hurzeler.
Managers may have changed, and not always at our own timing, but each and every subsequent appointment has steadied the ship, and with some ups and downs, continued to push us forward – particularly in light of the fact that we have shown ourselves very adapt at working the transfer market to our favour, bringing in the right players at the right times to absolutely maximise the sale fees of others without too much disruption to options at the first team level and our ability to do that has somewhat become a safe bet for those who use the likes of Betway.
This summer was slightly different though. Not only did we make the novel choice to appoint 31 year old Hurzeler as the youngest ever Premier League manager in history, we also made some very notable moves of our own in the transfer market almost breaching the £200 million mark with our nine permanent arrivals.
We certainly put what remained of our £140 million deal with Chelsea for goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and defender Moises Caicedo to good use, and as he continues adjusting to the English game, Hurzeler has already started brightly at the Amex Stadium and seven league games in, we are already sat in sixth place on 12 points.
Ahead of the October international break, we had picked up three wins and three draws and that is an incredible return given all the changes that took place over the summer, and by and large our newbies have settled in very well indeed and are more than beginning to justify the fees that we spent on them.
With progress being made in the League Cup as well, there is every reason for fans to be confident right now that we could be looking at another very successful season again, as while we will undoubtedly have some kind of blip as we head towards next May, our start means that we are one of the current favourites for a potential European spot at the end of the season. At the time of writing, online sportsbook Betway currently have us priced at 2/1 to finish in the top six.
There is obviously plenty of football still to be played and phrases like ‘honeymoon period’ continue to be bandied around in the media, but football can often be a funny old game.
There is every reason for optimism as our recent past records have shown improvement, and many would argue our European adventure hit our league form last season, and if we prove that was a one off there is no reason that we cannot be top half or higher once again.
Whilst fans can get carried away with a possible future, the squad should keep taking it one game at a time and with the October break now over it should be all eyes to our trip to Newcastle United.
We have a slightly better goal difference, but an identical record so far, so this will not be an easy game as Eddie Howe has ambitions of his own.
It is however, a game we should certainly not fear if we are at our best and racking up back to back victories would be the perfect way to go into the Wolverhampton Wanderers game on home soil as we should naturally be looking to take full advantage of their current form which sees them sitting winless in 20th place in the table.
Making it three wins from three could also see us enter the month of November possibly sat in fourth or fifth place which would be a further boost for everyone.
