10 Season Preview 2019-20 FourFourTwoBRIGHTOn & HOVE ALBIOn
WhenbossChrisHughtonwascalledinfora 9am
meeting at Albion’s Lancing training ground with
owner Tony Bloom, it was less than 24 hours after
the end of a season in which he’d kept Brighton up
for a second successive year, taken them to an
FA Cup semi-final and continued to perform with
a set of values and class that are rare in the game.
He imagined that he’d be discussing recruitment for
the 2019-20 campaign. Instead, Bloom sacked him
on the spot. Hughton, not prone to hyperbole, later
said that he was “hugely disappointed and surprised”,
and, as with his inexplicable dismissal from NewcastleARE THE SEAGULLS In A POSITIOn
TO PUT STYLE OVER SUBSTAnCE?
PREMIER LEAGUE
2019-20
in 2010, pundits were quick to berate the decision as
“cowardly”, “brutal” and Bloom’s “biggest gamble”.
However, fans – including Bloom, who poses in his
scarf for selfies with supporters on away-day trains –
were more understanding. Having seen only three
wins in 23 games at the back end of 2018-19, which
ended with Brighton taking three points from their
final nine matches, most Seagulls understood why
Bloom had cited “how we struggled” while hiring
Graham Potter as the new head coach.
This may have been a diplomatic way of reassuring
the fanbase that the sometimes dour, defence-first
approach of Hughton – its high/low point being April’s
backs-against-the-wall last-minute defeat at Spurs –and a team reliant on towering centre-backs and
a clinical but ageing striker wasn’t going to be enough
for another year. Hughton’s hand had perhaps been
forced, though, by a string of expensive, disappointing
buys from the Eredivisie, including two club-record
signings in Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
Potter is lauded as one of the more progressive
coaches in England. Everyone paid attention when
Swansea’s young, attacking side went 2-0 up against
Manchester City in an FA Cup game beamed live on
the BBC. He will be backed by Bloom’s investment,
and expectations are high. New £15m signing Leandro
Trossard highlighted that Potter told him when he
joined that he wants to “play more attractive football”.
But the risks for Brighton this year are plain to see.
As flowing and fluid as Swansea were in that game
against the champions, in the end, even with Daniel
James inspiring all sorts of heroics, they lost. The
memory of Hughton’s teams grinding out 1-0 wins,
and Dunk and Duffy blocking and heading balls away
for 90 minutes week after week, might become
a fonder one as the 2019-20 season progresses.LAST SEASON
PREMIER LEAGUE 17th
FA CUP Semi-Finals
LEAGUE CUP Second Round
TOP SCORER
Glenn Murray (15)