Our Board v Brightons Board. Shows where the issues lay

[Saint Domingo]

Its not really about whether they are able to break in to the top four, its more that they have created and supported an identity that emphasises playing entertaining, progressive football.
Of course they could have a poor season, they probably will at some point, but the evidence at the moment is that they have a structure and strategy that is robust enough to be able to correct this.
They may never win a trophy or break into the top four but if they continue to aspire to play good football they have a greater chance of success than those whose strategy is just to survive for another season on the PL gravy train.
Their strategy at least fosters hope whereas our lack of any discernible strategy engenders only despair.

What’s the point then?

Look at the two statements in bold. Hope only exists because you think your team is going to win something. Eventually you get to where the Everton fan base got to with Moyes by the end, annoyed with him for cup semi final losses and missing the top 4. When you realise that it’s highly unlikely your team will progress then all that entertaining good football doesn’t stop that annoyance. Yes of course it’s better than battling relegation but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

 

[Billy Dean]

Should be the ambition of every team in the premier league to try and win it. What are we all doing otherwise? Existing to be a feeder club to six other clubs who can win stuff but as long as we’re playing decent footy and occasionally getting europe everyone is ok with that?

Yes but realistically should be ambition of Brighton be to win the league, considering the size of their budget, fanbase and where they’ve come from? I don’t think so. Without knowing details I could imagine being an established premier league club is sufficient for them. They’re not a big club like us who should have more ambition than that.

 

[Saint Domingo]

Yes but realistically should be ambition of Brighton be to win the league, considering the size of their budget, fanbase and where they’ve come from? I don’t think so. Without knowing details I could imagine being an established premier league club is sufficient for them. They’re not a big club like us who should have more ambition than that.

Should be the ambition of all clubs to be the best. What’s the point otherwise. No club has a divine right to be winning stuff. I doubt Brighton’s fans will be happy for long if every year all they do is finish mid table. They’ll want more and they’re entitled to do so. Then they’ll realise that short of artificially inflating your revenues or trading your best players every year there’s no route into staying in the elite.

 

[johnjoeefc]

Swansea did exactly what Brighton are doing now.

Appointed a succession of managers based on a philosophy (Rodgers, Laudrup) signed good players on the cheap who made big impacts and even won a trophy in the process.

Ultimately Brighton will end fall away the same way in the end - maybe not as quick as Swansea but no club outside the scab 6 has managed to continue improving and break the monopoly.

Everton couldn't

Leicester did for 1 season when every top side bar a bottling Spurs were in transition

WHU haven't

Wolves haven't

Villa will try but end up in the same FFP position we are if they are to keep investing in players like Digne & Carlos and have to sell Watkins etc and likely fall away

I think Brighton are different. They have already sold some top players and still continue to improve. They have this season gone into games away to some of the big 6 and been favourites with the bookies such as spurs and Chelsea. Everton never did that. They were also favourites to beat man utd in the fa Cup semi.

They are a very efficient and well drilled team and their scouting is the best. The transition from Potter to de zerbi was seemless. I think they have it sussed out.

 

[Eggsyblueskin]

What’s the point then?

Look at the two statements in bold. Hope only exists because you think your team is going to win something. Eventually you get to where the Everton fan base got to with Moyes by the end, annoyed with him for cup semi final losses and missing the top 4. When you realise that it’s highly unlikely your team will progress then all that entertaining good football doesn’t stop that annoyance. Yes of course it’s better than battling relegation but the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

Is your point that Brightons board structure is not model we should aspire to?
If so, do you have a preferred ideal of how a club should be structured?

 

[Billy Dean]

Should be the ambition of all clubs to be the best. What’s the point otherwise. No club has a divine right to be winning stuff. I doubt Brighton’s fans will be happy for long if every year all they do is finish mid table. They’ll want more and they’re entitled to do so. Then they’ll realise that short of artificially inflating your revenues or trading your best players every year there’s no route into staying in the elite.

That isn't realistic though for all clubs, especially in the modern game. Brighton not so long ago were playing at the Withdean in League 1.

If Tony Bloom owned us and not Brighton, his ceiling would be much higher.

 

[blulouie]

Right owner
Right board
Right manager
Right players
Right Coaches
Right Scouting network

Most of all RIGHT STRATEGY

Everton fail in every department.


Brighton are an absolute world away from where we can & should be.

Yet some fools want to dismiss this.

 

[ultra]

At least they have a deck of cards to collapse.
All we have is a couple of soggy jokers.

That’s not at all fair.

We have 4, not 2.

 

[Cool_Blue]

Yes but realistically should be ambition of Brighton be to win the league, considering the size of their budget, fanbase and where they’ve come from? I don’t think so. Without knowing details I could imagine being an established premier league club is sufficient for them. They’re not a big club like us who should have more ambition than that.

Would we call Leicester ‘a big club’? I’m not sure. But they’ve won the PL.

 

[Billy Dean]

Would we call Leicester ‘a big club’? I’m not sure. But they’ve won the PL.

Complete outlier though

 

[Exeter_Gently]

Owner - Farhad Moshiri - He is the chairman and a shareholder of USM, a diversified Russian holding company with significant interests across the metals and mining, telecoms, technology and internet sectors.
Chairman - Bill Kenwright - Local Life Long Evertonian & Prolific theatre Production Compnay ( No Business Back Ground)
CEO -Denise Barrett-Baxendale - worked for a small schools charity in Liverpool, called The Fiveways Trust
Financial Director - Grant Ingles - Been in and around the club on and off since 2006 with varies roles up to now FD
Directors
- Grahame Sharp Former Player

Brigton
Chairman - Tony Bloom - Local Life Long Brighton Fan & Success Business man outside of football
CEO - Paul Barber - 25 Years experience in the Football Business up to and including head of marketing for the FA.
Finance Director - Lee Cooper - Accountant with a background in Audit,Tax and Corporate finance.

Directors
-Ray Bloom -founder of the IMEX Group
- Derek Chapman - Founder of Adenstar Developments Ltd, which grew to become one of the largest construction companies in the south east.
- Robert Comer - Former HMRC tax inspector
- Adma Franks - worked at KPMG and subsequently ING Barings before using his considerable business acumen to build and grow businesses relating to the professional sports and financial markets. He is currently chairman of Blue and White Capital, a single family office that specialises in private and public equity investments.
- Peter Godfrey - He is an entrepreneur, founder and chairman of a number of companies, including First Agency, a global experiential creative agency, and a director and chairman of a number of other entities.
- Marc Sugarman - graduating from Oxford University, he qualified as a chartered accountant in 1996. Marc joined Morgan Stanley that year as an Equity Analyst covering European Media and continued as an analyst in the same sector for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup until 2009.
- Michelle Walder - Having studied Russian and French in Bristol and Law in London, Michelle worked in HR in financial services (Commerzbank, Nomura, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein), before cofounding TXG in 2004 – a leadership development consultancy where she is CEO. She is also a director at Hay Festival and Chair at the Migraine Trust.


Everton have 5 people on there board 3 with no real business experience, Brighton have 10 people all with real life business experience covering all the areas needed to run a football club, they have constructions specialists, HR specialist, Tax Specialist.

They are fast becoming the Model we should be trying to follow from top to bottom.

Brilliant post...yet utterly frightening. The one person we had on the board Kenwright scared him off.

 

[charmoffensive]

Hi Brighton fan in peace.

Read comments with interest and have a few comments:

1) one thing we can all rely on is that Brighton fans will never be guilty of is 'entitlement' When you've driven 2 hours to your home ground to see a 0-1 defeat to Scunthorpe standing in torrential rain you feel you've earned your Amex seat, and that aint bad if it is as good as it gets;

2) Having said that, there is an air of hope that is becoming close to anticipation. I have been a fan for nearly 60 years and just cannot wait until we get an away game in Sofia on a wet Wednesday....if the incompetence of the officials against Spurs (costing us a 6 point turn on them) is all that makes the difference to getting into Europe, there will be a deal of anger, though Barber has made clear that it is what it is and the matter has ended;

3) A few have questioned the sustainability. Short-term I don't see a problem. Brighton are in top 4 since New Year; they have the highest shots on target and highest of any team in Europe in that period. Of course, football can be [Poor language removed] but ransacking Wolves with 5 changes shows there is more depth than many of us have realised. We were 5-0 up without the big 3, who came on late for a cameo (BTW Caicedo actually made a mistake at Forest);

4) Long-term, sceptics have a point. Just go back to to the 2013 table. 8 of the 14 (will be 9 when Saints go soon) non top 6 are no longer in PL, most scratching around in Championship. It happens. This thread is glass half empty but look at it another way: Everton have uniquely survived, chased around top 6 a couple of times DESPITE basket case ownership. Take what you have and treasure it. I realise there is a sense of lost opportunity when money is chucked at ridiculous players and managers but it could be worse (Of course might be with relegation...);

5) Can Brighton break the mould? There are pros and cons:

 

[charmoffensive]

PROS:

TB is unquestionably the smartest owner in the world. A bit of history in case you are unaware: he grew up in Brighton, went to Manchester Uni to do Maths. He is a gambler (one of the world's leading poker players and Gold Cup winner - as in his horse), reportedly got fed up with his returns so spent his formative years researching odds. He found gaps, notably that betting firms were over inclined to react to injuries. I have heard it said that he was banned from many platforms, but not sure whether that is true. He established Premier Bet, sold that in noughties, and for reasons that he doesn't advertise somehow ended up with, reportedly, £1bn, 40% of which (publicly) he 'invested' in Albion, principally by interest-free loans. He is so invisible that even the Sunday Times Rich List cannot unpick him. Obviously a large chunk of that went on Amex but also on players (not all of which have worked, particularly early years, partly because he allowed Poyet too much say, for example selling Murray to Palace and buying Craig MacKail Smith (known as roadrunner, you get it...) for what was then an eyewatering £3m. He realised his mistake and it all went tits in the infamous poogate incident after losing play-off to the dreaded Palace.

His company is StarLizard. He is not even a shareholder or a director, so not sure how that works; perhaps he has maxed out. SL recruits beardies with Maths Phds. They are bound to secrecy. When Matthew Benham left to establish a rival entity and Brentford, TB blacklisted him from all contact, and sits in away end at Gtech. Somehow we bought Maupay from Brentford, but lets not go there.

What is entirely beyond doubt is that his methods have worked startlingly well after taking nearly 5 PL seasons to average much more than 1ppg. There is presumably an inner cabal of folk around a pot chanting spells, the only thing we do know is that we don't know how he does it. Which is why I don't entirely buy the 'others will cotton on and have our lunch' argument. They don't know the spell, and TB is constantly adapting as he does for StarLizard.

 

[charmoffensive]

The remaining post appears to be blocked, so good night if read enough, else can post remainder.

 

[DonegalEvertonian]

Whilst I agree with you I think its too early to be labelling Brighton as some beacon of success that we must follow. Under Wee Davey/Kenwright we were doing the exact same as what Brighton have been doing but over a longer period of time due to being skint.

Brighton have had 2x seasons in the top 10 - under Moshiri's tenure we've had 3x. You also have to acknowledge you always get a small club punch above their weight for a few years - Swansea and Watford did similiar a couple of years back.

They'll be back in midtable within 2-3 seasons like WHU, Wolves, Leicester, Villa, Brentford etc who chase their tales underneath the glass ceiling of the scab 6 + oil Newcastle.

@Saint Domingo

I'm more thinking that the majority of that board took Brighton from Homeless in League 1 to a well run Club with good structure in place and a modern stadium and training ground which they own who are proforming solidly in the premiership