What a day to be a Brighton & Hove Albion fan

Summer transfer deadline day 2012. Do you remember it? When Brighton fans were giddy with excitement about Dean Hammond returning to the Albion on loan from Southampton?

Okay, maybe giddy with excitement is pushing it. But we should have been giddy with excitement. I blame Andy Naylor for the reaction being so muted on account of his tweet about “a club legend” returning and everyone assuming it was going to be Bobby Zamora.

Who would have predicted back then that 11 years later, Brighton would be signing Barcelona’s number 10, whose contract with one of the biggest clubs in the world contains a €1 billion release clause?

Or that Albion fans would be looking forward to matches against Ajax, Marseille and AEK Athens after the draw for the group stage of the Europa League?

It has been a roller coaster of a day. The anticipation of finding out who Brighton would meet in Europe. The excitement as the draw was made. And then, just as everyone was coming back down to earth, the Albion announce the biggest coup of the summer transfer window.

Ansu Fati swaps Barcelona for a year in Brighton. The youngest scorer in the history of both Barca and the Spanish national team. The hottest property to come through La Masia since Lionel Messi. Wearing blue and white stripes.

How has this club that 14 years ago was losing 7-1 at Huddersfield come so far? What happened to the days of losing 2-0 to Kidderminster Harries at an athletics track rented for a ground?

Barely 1,000 people watched Brighton play a Tuesday night home game against Peterborough United at Gillingham 26 years ago. “Homeless, broke, the board’s a fucking joke,” was being sung on the Goldstone Ground terraces 28 years ago.

There have been so many pinch yourself moments since Dick Knight saved the Albion through to today and an afternoon spent working out the best way to get to Amsterdam to watch Brighton.

Danny Cullip’s bullet header to secure the old Division Three title. Playoff final victory at the Millennium Stadium. Gus Poyet He Who Must Not Be Named’s Albion side playing football from a different planet on their way to being crowned League One champions.

The first game at the Amex against Doncaster Rovers. Promotion to the Premier League. Two FA Cup semi finals at Wembley. And drawing with treble winners Manchester City to secure Europa League football.

It seems that for a lot of Brighton fans, the enormity of that final achievement had not sunk in until today when the name Brighton & Hove Albion came out of the hat in Monaco alongside two former European Cup winners and one of the most famous teams in Greece.

Which is why Saturday 1st September 2023 will go down in Brighton history. It does not feel real. You are still half expecting someone to shake you awake, at which point you will realise Brighton playing in Europe and signing Fati was all a cheese dream brought on by too much gouda.

Actually, Liam Dickinson is still leading the line for the Albion between his Monday nights out on Carnage pub crawls and still getting photographed by The Sun carrying a comatose female down the street.

But until that happens, enjoy every moment. The European Tour. The heir to Lionel Messi in a Brighton shirt. Roberto De Zerbi revolutionising the way football is played from a small corner of Sussex.

What a day to be a Brighton & Hove Albion fan. What a time to be a Brighton & Hove Albion fan.

(Narrator: Brighton would go onto lose their next game 3-1 to Newcastle United. And nobody expected anything less)