Thursday 16th May, 2013:
Wow, what a sensational day of events at Brighton & Hove Albion! So, the Gus Bus is pulling into the garage one last time before changing drivers. It's been a car crash day at BHAFC but I'm sure that all true Albion fans will back and support chairman Tony Bloom as he suspends manager Gus Poyet, assistant Mauricio Taricco and coach Charlie Oatway. Bloom doesn't deserve to see his club dragged into a mess that was not of his own making and if what I'm hearing about recent events at BHAFC are true then perhaps it is probably best if Poyet does leave the club.
It has to be said that the style of football under Gus Poyet was the most attractive and best I've ever seen in all the years I've been watching Albion. He gave the team's style of play, in his own words, an identity. We've had a successful reign under Gus but the downside was the manager didn't always know when to keep his mouth shut. We had his opinion on the Luis Suarez racist affair and how many times did we hear from Gus that one day he would manage Chelsea or Spurs or Leeds. For heaven’s sake Gus, you are manager of Brighton, the fans didn't want to hear this. His constant moaning about the player budget began to wear a little thin too, especially as we still managed to finish above Crystal Palace and only two places outside of automatic promotion to the Premiership which is not too bad at all in my view. There was definite progress in the last three years with promotion to the Championship two seasons ago, a 10th place finish last season and up to 4th place this season.
And then there was Monday night. He choose his post Palace match interview to again moan about the budget, spoke about hitting roofs and looking after his own interest. This was not the time or the place, the fans were raw after suffering a home defeat to their arch rivals in what was one of the most important matches in the club's history and that was all they cared about. It would appear that Gus had other things on his mind and just didn't appreciate what a great job he had at Brighton, any other manager would give their eye teeth to have a job like his. A full Amex at every home game, fans that adored you, a team playing beautiful football (at times), one of the best chairman in the football league (and English to boot) and a new training facility coming on stream next year. It's a great job for someone to walk into. The grass isn't always greener elsewhere and no one person is bigger than BHAFC as every Albion fan will tell you, it's not Team Gus it's Brighton & Hove Albion FC. We all knew Gus Poyet would leave one day but not like this, not in this crazy mess.
So we embark on a new era, with probably a new man at the helm and minus some key influential players. It's an opportunity for someone to come into this club and move it onwards and upwards. The financial fair play rules introduced for next season make it tough to compete financially against teams that are relegated from the Premier League with their millions of pounds in umbrella payments but us fans will support Albion no matter what happens in the future. We've come a long way in the last few years under first Dick Knight and now Tony Bloom and they will not jeopardise this clubs financial future because of one man's selfish ambition. They, like us, have a dream of Premiership football at the Amex one day and there's nothing wrong with that, us fans too have the same dream. I thought Gus shared that dream but it seems like he just didn't have the patience or bottle to see it out. It’s such a shame because it was a great journey before the car crash ending.
