Crazy world

Interesting.  Too late to look into it properly. but wonder if there are parallels between the demise of long serving, over achieving but come to the end of the road  managers ie Hurst n Buckley

Quoted from Kris2

For all the talk of how Buckley had us playing now among fans, people sure did hate it at the time lol. I think it just proves that no matter who is in charge and how we play, the main stand is always the stand for the complainer. Still remember lots of complaints about tippy-tap football and triangle passes that don't go anywhere. Think Buckley was stitched up that summer though by a new board that wanted to put their own stamp on the team by bringing in their guy and giving him the resources. We spunked tons of money on recruitment but somehow had no money for Buckley that summer who had to settle for two poor signings on a free after being told to sell his best asset the previous season.

As for big names I remember a young Ashley Cole on the BP pitch long before he became a big superstar married to a pop star. There was a bit of buzz around him as a hot prospect while on loan at Crystal Palace and by the next season he'd be a first team player at Arsenal.  

There is a good one - Dimitrios Papadopolous - played for Burnley that season at BP as a kid . Went on to play and win Euro 2004 with Greece .

Ashley Cole was quality even at that stage I remember him for Palace . Matt Upson & Phil Jagielka 2 more that went on to have good careers . Darren Bent at Ipswich . There must be loads  

Brighton manager gone too,

Quoted from RonMariner

Brighton manager gone too,

Sacked ? Absolute madness if that’s the case

Quoted from crusty ole pie

Sacked ? Absolute madness if that’s the case

Mutual decision. Owner has set plan, but manager wanted to progress faster, so they have agreed to part ways

I think it's more a case of De Zerbi saying, 'I'm off', as much as anything else. Realistically, Brighton aren't ever going to be able to achieve much more than they already have, perhaps the odd Cup run in the F.A. Cup or Europa/Europa Conference League. I reckon he wants to leave to get the chance of winning something.

Been phoning it in the last few months anyway.

just  anote , with Klopp leaving Artell is now the 55th longest serving manager , with less than 6 months service. crazy world

Quoted from forza ivano

just  anote , with Klopp leaving Artell is now the 55th longest serving manager , with less than 6 months service. crazy world

No doubt a few more will get canned before the season starts too.

Quoted from Mappers

Lee Nogan was apparently .

I will add a bit - Sir Alan was effectively playing like a lot of teams do now or at least want to , If I remember correctly by the end it became even more possession based (I'm sure big Artell would have loved it as we must have been completing over the 600 passes a game he craves ) 4-5-1 with Lee Nogan putting in a heavy shift up top by himself whicg he seemed to endure rather than enjoy weekly . The cry of 'get it forward ' from the main stand was never so strong as in that season .... we just didn't know how good we had it : Prosinecki , Merson , Duff , Tugay and all at BP at some point around that time with many more 'big names ' I can't currently remember .

If only it was that good in Buckley's final season.  Nogan left the summer of '99, having become a bit of the boo-boy target for his lack of goalscoring prowess, completely overlooking the sheer amount of donkey work he did for the team.  Minus he over-frequent back heels he was the Tony Rees of Buckley's second spell.

His final full season was so frustrating but hindsight definitely sits in his favour, we were definitely punching above our weight and within a few years of his sacking we dropped like a stone and haven't got close to returning since.  The possession game and the current clamour for it is an interesting point made, but it really lacked any potency.  Even the lesser teams who try to play that type of play, even thinking of those early hammerings under Artell, had something about them going forward.  We didn't, I'm not sure how much of that was down to the approach or the players available to Buckley at the time.  Recruitment generally hadn't been great.  Lee Ashcroft and Stacy Coldicott were good additions post the double winning season, then Alan Pouton, Danny Coyne and Bradley Allen the year after. But they were more about replacing than improving overall.  Then that final summer just did him.  One of the first things Lennie said when he came in was the team badly lacked pace, the line-up for Buckley's final home game was:

Coyne
Macca Raven Livvo Smith
Donovan Pouton Groves Black
             Clare Jeffrey

The final game away at Portsmouth was slightly different but equally painfully slow:

Coyne
Macca Raven Livvo Gallimore
Donovan Coldicott Groves Pouton Smith
                     Jeffrey

That all said, the last 10 league games under AB were against the following:

Barnsley
Huddersfield
Sheff Utd
Man City
Blackburn
West Brom
Tranmere
Birmingham
Preston
Portsmouth

We definitely didn't know how good we had it.