Brighton v Arsenal now, then, meandering thoughts and the team…

Brighton’s best season over the years was in 2022/3 in which they came sixth in the league scoring 72 league goals along the way.  Seeing that, we can immediately acknowledge that this is a club without huge pretensions – a club that is pleased to have a modern ground, and happy to be in the top division.  Not expecting to win trophies but if some cups come along that will be exciting.

And in such regard I like Brighton.   They’ve grown, but without arrogance or stupidity.  It feels right.  With a ground capacity of 32,000 in an out of town stadium, they seem to me to be going the right way.

In this regard it is the exact opposite of Chelsea where key directors come and go, and new directors come in with a feeling that running a football club is like running any company.  Put the right people in, spend lots of money…  Yet that’s not even right for a company – you have to know its nuances, features and benefits.  I think Brighton get that.

But the problem for Chelsea was that they were run by the now-sanctioned Abramovich who, if he leaves Turkey he doesn’t have too many places that would welcome him.  Argentina maybe?   Meanwhile the money he made from selling Chelsea is tied up in legal disputes.  He has some big boats (I guess I ought to call the yachts, but it is more amusing to call them boats) which can’t really leave the harbor they are in…

So may being the man owning a big football club is not the greatest thing in the world – or at least it isn’t when the walls come down and the debts are called in.   And from that I can take it that both Brighton and Arsenal are happy to be owned as they are.

For such balance as the two clubs have, comes not just from a cash point of view but because no one from outside comes in and declares themselves sporting director on the basis that if you know how to make money in one business, you can do it in another.  Football club, knitwear factory, house builder… it’s all the same (or so they say – but of course they are wrong).

And this is why it is interesting to compare Chelsea and Brighton – the grounds are only about 55 miles apart, but one club signed Stirling for a third of a million pounds a week, and the other didn’t.

And what this brings me to this, is the fact that I think I have rather stupidly spent quite a bit of time believing that people who are directors of football clubs know something about football.   Some do, but I think I know more about football than some other football club directors do – but I certainly don’t know enough to be a director of a club.

I had such thoughts when I was reading up on the history of Brighton, and then my mind flipped to Chelsea.  For Brighton have raised themselves from the lower tiers, into having a thriving season in the Premier League finishing two places above Chelsea last season – and on what must be a fraction of the budget.

Chelsea have won eight cups and six league titles plus two champions leagues, and Brighton are one place above them in the league as I write this.

So I come back to what is a regular question for me: how can very rich people be so incredibly silly?  I suppose the answer is that very rich people think they are clever because they are rich.  But one doesn’t follow the other.

Of course a big issue for Chelsea is the stadium, and here we can compare them with Arsenal.  Arsenal had an issue with Highbury – it was too small, and couldn’t be enlarged.  So Arsenal thought of turning the stands into flat, and moving around the corner to a bigger ground – and did it.   Chelsea got planning permission to go to Earls Court – and bottled it.

Which brings me back from my meanderings to Brighton.  They had multiple stadium issues, but solved them and moved.   As did Arsenal.    Making the move is not the magic cure, because you also need managers who can manage the situation even if the fans make a fuss.  But it can work.

So Arsenal moved, held on, paid off the debts and finally won the league.  Brighton made the move, stayed solid and are now a regular fixture in the Premier League.  Meanwhile Chelsea seemed to have got themselves involved with what they would have called in a 1930s film “a rum bunch.”  Ah well.

And if anyone comments on the fact that Arsenal did not win the league for so many seasons, I do think about Chelsea and their muddle.  And I do admire Brighton for having made their way up from the Third Division to a solid Premier League place.  Of course I want Arsenal to win, but I ‘m glad Brighton survive.

Yahoo sports go with exactly the same players, and when that happens they are generally right.