Gingerfinch wrote:I understand the Football wasn't great but you reached a cup semi final and stayed up. That's the ceiling.
Brighton have spent a lot of money, in fact they spent more than City, United, Arsenal and Spurs this year, and their net spend discrediting the top 6 mega teams in the last 5 years is only exceeded by Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, who have both spent a combined 5 years extra Premier League seasons in that period, and have both only scraped past our spends in more than half the time in the Premier League. Leicester won a bloody league spending less money. Other teams like Southampton qualified for European competitions twice in the period, having a net spend less than 200 million than us. Hughton has been given money, and the return on that money as a minimum in comparison to those around us, was survival. You can think of us a small club from a small town, but its money that talks nowadays.... and we have spent a lot more.
Wolves are a great example. Spent less than us and have come up from League one, requiring two squad shifts to new leagues.... finished 7th last year in the first year in the Premier League. If you are telling me its impossible for Brighton to aim higher than 17th, then how can Wolves spend a 100million and shoot up to just below the mega teams? They did it because they spent their money wisely, and had a nice wedge to spend. If Brighton spent their money wisely, they have had enough to buy everyone of Wolves squad with spare change..... so the capacity is clearly there.
I think its a very naive suggestion to state any team that have been prepare to invest in the club like Brighton have, have any ceiling below the top 6 at all. Or cant win a trophy or play in Europe.
Wigan won the FA cup a couple of years ago. Swansea won a cup. Birmingham won a cup...... Swansea qualified for Europe. Southampton have multiple times in the last few years..... as have Hull, Wigan, Burnley, Newcastle, Leicester, Villa, Portsmouth, Leicester, Fulham, Stoke and West Ham. Everton under Moyes spent nothing and made the top 4, and repeatidly made the top 6. Are any of the above list out of reach of Brighton? 5 of them are below Brighton now in the pyramid, and the others are a couple of wins to the North.
I dont think its much of an argument to say Hughton has reached the pinnacle of Brighton's possible achievements. If we had been West Brom'ing it and spent 6 million over two years, accepting we'd go down, then fair enough, but hes been backed heavily, far heavily than most teams all the way up to the top 6 (only 3 teams have higher net spends)......