Gus Poyet and those comments about Brighton hitting the roof
Losing the Championship playoff semi final to Crystal Palace in 2023 was bad enough. But the aftermath brought about the end of an era at Brighton as the reign of Gus Poyet finished amid acrimony, gardening leave and talk of the Albion hitting the roof.
Poyet gave one of the most extraordinary post match interviews in Brighton history following the 2-0 defeat to the Eagles at the Amex, publicly questioning if the Albion could improve without more financial backing from Tony Bloom.
Those comments have entered Seagulls folklore. A decade on and Brighton fans still talk about the alleged “glass ceiling” between the Albion and the Premier League, although the actual term Gus Poyet used at the the time was hitting the roof.
“I always say that all the time we keep improving, I am going to be at this football club,” Poyet started off by saying.
“But the day we hit the roof, I am not. And tomorrow morning, I want to ask me if we hit the roof. And to know that I need answers, and then we see.”
“This is about everything. It is not like a click of fingers and you finish in the top six every year. Financial fair play is coming next year. It is going to hit everybody, including us. And we got a few problems.”
“This team is much better than last year’s team and it has been improving because of the way we finish and the way we play. Now can we get better? Because to go up, we need to get better. I don’t think so. Then we see.”
Poyet was then asked if he would be seeking some assurances from the board. “Yes, I will. No doubt about it. I want the team to get better.”
Of course, Poyet never received those assurances. Three days later and he was suspended. Six weeks later and the Albion finally announced Poyet had been sacked.
As The Guardian said at the time: “Six weeks of confusion, of claim and counter-claim concerning secret misdemeanours. Neither club nor manager has emerged from it with great credit.”
Strict confidentiality agreements cover what Poyet was alleged to have done by the club and then found guilty of, leading to his sacking. We will probably never know.
What can be debated though is whether Poyet was correct in his assertions about Brighton hitting the roof. And what makes that debate particularly interesting is that you can make a case that he was both right and wrong.
When the comments were made, they were met with incredulity by many Albion fans. His thinly veiled criticism at a lack of financial backing did not really run true as Brighton had a squad that was more than good enough to win promotion to the Premier League that season.
Tomasz Kusczczak was one of the best goalkeepers in the Championship. The back four contained two former England internationals in Wayne Bridge and Matthew Upson, captain Gordon Greer and Bruno. Inigo Calderon could not even get in the team.
Liam Bridcutt won back-to-back Player of the Season awards. David Lopez scored nine goals from midfield. Andrea Orlandi made things happen and Kazenga LuaLua and Will Buckley could be unplayable on their day down the flanks.
Palace had found that out two months before the playoffs, when the Seagulls sauntered to a 3-0 victory at the Amex on St Patrick’s Day.
Leonardo Ulloa scored twice that day and would go onto become a Premier League winner with Leicester City. Ashley Barnes was the perfect foil as his strike partner. All of those names and still no mention of Vicente, Adam El-Abd or Dean Hammond.
In contrast, Ian Holloway’s Eagles starting XI who beat Brighton 2-0 and went onto win promotion to the Premier League via victory over Watford at Wembley cost less in total than the £2.5 million Brighton had lavished on a single player in Craig Mackail-Smith.
That is what made Poyet’s post match interview particularly hard to take. It appeared as though he was trying deflect blame for elimination at the hands of the Albion’s arch rivals, who had an inferior side at the time, towards the boardroom, rather than his own failings.
The next two seasons, however, would go onto vindicate Poyet’s assertion of Brighton hitting the roof. Tony Bloom tightened the purse strings for 2013-14.
It was something of a miracle that Oscar Garcia led the Albion to sixth place with a midfield of Keith Andrews and Jake Foster-Caskey; and it almost certainly would not have happened without the goals of Ulloa.
Following a thrashing at the hands of Derby County in that season’s playoff semi finals, Garcia resigned. Bloom reduced the playing budget further for 2014-15, summed up by Ulloa being sold and replaced by Chris O’Grady.
Andrews, Orlandi and Lopez in midfield gave way to Danny Holla, Gary Gardner and Paddy McCourt. Aaron Hughes was brought in when Upson went and Joe Bennett took over from Stephen Ward at left back.
Brighton’s determination to do things on the cheap meant at one point in the 2014-15 season, Sami Hyypia had so many loaned players that he could not name them all without breaking the rule that said only five were allowed in a matchday squad.
Unsurprisingly, the Albion ended the season in 20th spot. It would have been 21st had Rotherham United not suffered a points deduction for fielding an illegible player.
Brighton had survived on 47 points, thanks largely to Blackpool, Wigan Athletic and Millwall somehow being worse. All three of those teams recorded victories over the Albion too.
By the summer of 2015, Gus Poyet had been right about Brighton hitting the roof. Fourth place in 2012-13, sixth place in 2013-14, a relegation battle and 20th place in 2014-15. All whilst the squad became weaker as the Albion tried to compete in the Championship on the cheap.
That disastrous campaign under Hyypia and then Chris Hughton did at least lead to a change of approach. Hughton was well backed in the transfer market for 2015-16.
Uwe Hunemeier, Gaetan Bong, Liam Rosenior and Connor Goldson improved the defence markedly. Jamie Murphy and later Anthony Knockaert and Jiri Skalak transformed the Albion’s threat out wide.
Tomer Hemed brought goals and Bobby Zamora was a popular returnee whose experience and knack of scoring when it mattered most made him a valuable member of the squad.
The strengthening continued in the summer of 2016 with the return of Glenn Murray and the arrival of Shane Duffy. All of which meant within two years of being on the verge of relegation to League One, Brighton had won promotion to the Premier League.
Hughton had taken a sledgehammer to Poyet’s alleged roof and smashed through it, bringing top flight football to the Amex. There has been no looking back since, with Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi continuing to take Brighton to previously unchartered heights.
The next roof for the Albion to break is the one to Europe. It is therefore fascinating to hear De Zerbi talking about his squad needing strengthening if Brighton are to regularly challenge for the top six.
His public assertions almost mirror those of Poyet from a decade ago, although De Zerbi’s stock is so high and his manner much less grating than Poyet’s for the Albion and Bloom not to take umbrage from them.
And Bloom appears to be listening, too. Joao Pedro has arrived from Watford already for £30 million. Free transfer deals for James Milner and German international midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud from Borussia Dortmund are apparently imminent.
In the two years following Gus Poyet saying Brighton had hit the roof, they had indeed hit the roof. Not anymore though. Gus was right and wrong at the same time; a contradiction which probably sums him and his time as Albion manager up nicely.
