“I was at Hereford…” – The Albion’s online generational division

So another transfer window comes and goes and Brighton & Hove Albion have once again not been able to grab the much coveted striker that basically every Premier League pundit, supporter and their mothers knew we needed.

Before the 2021-22 season began, I wrote on WAB about what might happen if the Seagulls failed to strengthen their front line, including several possibilities for how they could turn all those expected goals into actual goals with the tools Graham Potter currently has at his disposal – at least as a stop-gap until the next window of ultimate hope and frustration comes along in January.

What the striker issue and the final days of the transfer window have brought to my attention on Twitter is the divisions between sects of the Albion’s online support. It is something worth taking a look at.

Twitter at the best of times is a completely insane, hilarious and utterly terrifying place to spend hour after hour flicking through. The Albion hashtag is no different.

There is the inventive catfishing done by various accounts pretending to be the club’s official profile or significant Albion covering journalists.

Announcement tweets of new signings, some of which are believable (Darwin Nunez) and some of which are not (Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi) are commonplace, especially when the hysteria of deadline day reaches fever pitch.

And then we come to the vitriolic abuse that goes in the direction of players, managers, and most interestingly to me for the moment at least, other supporters.

The most common theme I noticed was fans using the phrase “I was at Hereford…” before attempting to justify their opinion.

We as a club are strangely unique in the football landscape. Our exile in Gillingham and more than a decade in the ramshackle surroundings of Withdean Stadium in the lower reaches of the Football Leagues is thought by many to have left us with a significant generational gap in our support.

Club officials themselves have commented that we lost a generation of supporters during the Withdean years, put off by the facilities.

I started going to Albion matches at Withdean in 2003 at the age of 12, so I am something of an exception to the lost genetation rule and I know there are many others like me.

This does not negate the fact the club’s fanbase expanded significantly following the move to the Amex with a whole new generation of supporters flocking to the Albion in the last decade.

A 20-year-old today was only 10 when the Amex opened. It is possible to have been an Albion fan for your entire football supporting life and for all that time to have been played out at the Amex.

These supporters have never known anything but the good times. They have never seen Brighton suffer the heartbreak of a relegation. The idea of the club financially on its knees and staring extinction in the face is alien to them.

But does this mean that their opinions on the clubs transfer activity – or lack of it – this summer is any less valid that that of a fan of 40 years?

Now in my (very) early thirties and entering my 19th season following the Albion, I am inclined to think that we have never had it so good.

It is frustrating that we have not landed a striker and seemed to let the population of a small village head out on loan, but my word we are in a better place now than we have ever been. Despite the frustration, it is worth keeping that in mind.

I think it is also worth remembering the club mantra that helped get us to this position – ‘Together’. The motto was born out of the horrific events of the Shoreham Air Disaster and went onto define the Albion’s mentality as we headed to the Premier League.

Regardless if someone was at Hereford or not, whether they went to the playoff final in Cardiff, or whether their first game was the Amex’s opening day against Doncaster, we are all in this together.

How long we have been supporters is not relevant to the validity of our opinion. That said, if you are talking utter nonsense, except that it is going to be challenged. Being a Brighton fan for 50 years or 50 minutes is no cover or justification for talking like a lunatic.

The transfer window is closed, we have what we have and we move forward. It is time that players, staff, executives and supporters stop receiving vitriol from other fans.

Let us stop being divided by generation and take on the Premier League once again. Together.