By Tim Hodges
As the Seagulls sit precariously above the Championship relegation zone, the Amex faithful can take some comfort that it is still only early October .
However, back in October 2009 a manager Tony Bloom had showed similar faith in , was struggling to get the Seagulls to the expected lofty heights of the League 1 table .
Russell Slade , had saved the Albion from relegation to League 2 at the end of the 2008-9 season, from an almost impossible position .
Slade was in fact the last Albion manager employed by Dick Knight , before he handed over to Bloom!!
During the summer of 2009 , Bloom awarded Slade a three contract and a sizeable transfer kitty.
Sadly however, Slade’s some of Slades signings and his tactical approach let him down , a 7-1 thrashing by Huddersfield and player indiscipline, left the Seagulls far from their play off place aspirations.
Bloom aware even then of the vital importance of the club kicking off at Falmer in at least the Championship , sacked Slade and his assistants , Bob Booker and Dean White at the end of October.
The question now is , will the chairman’s trigger finger get itchy during leaf fall season this year?
Realistically, Russell Slade is still the only Albion manager Bloom has sacked based on performance issues.
No one really knows why Gus Poyet went , but finishing 4th in the championship is hardly likely to have been a factor .
And we are lead to believe Oscar Garcia resigned , after guiding the Albion to sixth last season .
Therefore no one is really aware of Blooms threshold on this matter, unless you compare Slade’s demise.
The X Men
The Albion have now drawn four league games in a row , scoring twice in this period. Both goals from defenders .
No recognised front man has scored a league goal since Craig Mackail -Smith at the end of August .
The significance of Lewis Dunk’s four goals so far this season show that Albion need a big target man up alongside Mackail -Smith or Sam Bacldock .
The Seagulls have tough remaining games in October. At home, first to high flying Middlesbrough and then improving Rotherham.
In fact Rotherham could be Sami Hyypia’s Hartlepool .
As it was after a 3-3 draw in late October against the Monkey hanger’s , that Slade was shown the door.
Bloom will know only to well, that League 1 with possible average home attendances of below 10’000, is not the place to be .
I can almost hear the Lewes Lib Dems saying “We told you so”
Is this a spoof? Terrible writing in every aspect.
Along with the abysmal grammar and punctuation this must rate as pretty close to being the worst article ever written about BHA.
Is Tim Hodges aware that there are still thirtyfive league games of the current season left to play?
Has he actually attended any games this season? I would imagine not. For he would surely have seen that the team have actually played very well, their last two fixtures were away to the top and second teams in the Championship and in both the club came away with highly commendable draws. He should also take note that there are a handful of important players ( including a recently purchased high scoring striker) who have been unavailable for varying reasons.
It might have been wiser before taking the risk of looking rather silly to have waited until at least half the season was through before condemning those mentioned in the article.
Errr ….believe what’hype’ precisely?!
Perhaps a story covering ‘The Strange Case of the Missing Comments’ might be of more interest. Basically, if you supply a portal for readers to comment on, be open enough to leave them on display.
Is this site as shallow as it’s grammar is appalling?
ps … this comment will probably self destruct once you’ve read it.