Feelgood Tuesday sets Brighton up for stinging Bees
The past five weeks have been pretty bleak in the world of Brighton & Hove Albion. Out of the FA Cup. Out of the Europa League. An ever increasing injury list and Roberto De Zerbi griping in public about lack of signings and questioning the club’s ambition.
Thank the Lord then for feelgood Tuesday. Finally, there was some good news coming out of the Amex off the back of an encouraging performance in losing 2-1 to Premier League leaders Liverpool at Anfield.
Brighton announced profits of £122.8 million after tax for the 2022-23 season, setting a Premier League record. Remarkably, that figure does not include the £115 million Chelsea paid for Moises Caicedo or the £25 million the Blues forked out for Robert Sanchez.
Along with the accounts being released, Paul Barber was revealed to have signed a new contract keeping him at the Amex until 2030.
Hardly any other football club in England announces their CEO agreeing a deal as if they are a player, which shows the importance Tony Bloom places on his right hand man.
This is understandable. Barber may have his flaws and WAB might have had a couple of run-ins with him in the past over issues like the season ticket sharing scheme and Premier League PPV (expect another when the independent football regulator comes in), but there cannot be any doubt he is the best chief executive in England. The Albion are lucky to have him.
A third and final boost came from De Zerbi’s pre-match press conference ahead of the trip to Brentford. After two months out, top scorer Joao Pedro is fit to return at the Gtech Community Stadium. Julio Enciso is also back having missed the trip to Liverpool.
Pedro last appeared in the 4-1 thrashing of Crystal Palace at the beginning of February. Since then, the Albion have won three, drawn one and lost six matches in all competitions.
Goals have dried up, with the Seagulls scoring just 10 times in 10 matches. And five of those came in a single 90 minutes against a woeful Sheffield United outfit.
Brighton failed to net against all of Wolves, Fulham and Roma having previously blanked against just Arsenal and West Ham United through the first half of the campaign up to January 2nd.
Little wonder De Zerbi appeared so happy at the prospect of Pedro’s availability, the Brazilian forward having played in a behind closed doors friendly for the Under 21s against Southampton on Saturday.
Both Brighton and Brentford need to win their clash at the Gtech Stadium for different reasons. Victory for the Albion can reignite their campaign going into the final run-in.
The Bees meanwhile have been in ghastly form for four months now. Thomas Frank has overseen just three Premier League wins in 17 matches.
It is relegation form and leaves Brentford five points above the bottom three. Without their strong start to the season, the Bees would be in real danger of dropping back to the Championship.
Not even having Ivan Toney available after his eight month ban for breaching FA betting rules has helped turn the tide. Toney has managed four goals in 11 matches, trailing a certain Neal Maupay in the season standings.
La petite shithouse Française has eight in all competitions and has set new levels even by his high standards of winding up, well, everyone.
James Maddison and the whole Spurs fanbase now hate Maupay, as does darts sensation Luke Littler. Best of all was Maupay uploading a photo to Instagram of himself wearing Sanchez’s Chelsea shirt after setting up the Bees’ second goal in their October 2-0 win at Chelsea.
Whether we are quite so appreciative of Maupay if he scores – and produces some sort of fantastically outrageous celebration – for Brentford against Brighton remains to be seen.
One man who will not be happy if that is the case is Bloom himself. The Albion owner famously offers a large bonus to the players if they beat the club owned by his hated rival Matthew Benham.
The bad blood between the two runs so deep that Bloom refuses to go in the boardroom whenever Brighton play at the Gtech.
Expect to see him amongst the fans in the away corner again this evening, perhaps for the last time. In February, Benham put Brentford up for sale.
If new owners come in and Benham is no longer part of it, Bloom might revert to the champagne and caviar of the director’s box rather than joining the rest of us on the terraces.
What Benham selling Brentford shows is just how difficult it is for a genuine fan-owner to bankroll and deliver success in the Premier League.
That should make us appreciate the Albion’s achievements under Bloom even more. It should also give De Zerbi food for thought before criticising the Brighton board and approach in public.
Hopefully, the glut of positive stories from the Albion of the past 24 hours and the improved mood created by them will lessen De Zerbi’s complaints.
Time for the Brighton head coach and his players to do their talking on the pitch. Starting with giving Bloom victory in the game he wants to win above all others.
