What went wrong for Brighton and Sami Hyypia?

The mere mention of the name Sami Hyypia still strikes fear into the hearts of some Brighton fans. His reign of terror lasted six months and saw the Albion go from Championship playoff contenders to relegation candidates.

Hyypia is subsequently considered one of the worst Albion managers of all time. He represents a rare mistake from Tony Bloom; one compounded by Bloom’s initial refusal to accept Hyypia’s resignation before eventually realising a parting of the ways was necessary.

A decade has now passed since Hyypia arrived at the Amex. In that time, opinions on Hyypia have started to shift and soften amongst sections of the fanbase.

Was he incompetent? Did he really deserve a nickname like the Finnish Fuckwit? Were the banners displayed on the terraces demanding his sacking harsh?

Or was it a case of right man, wrong time? What would have happened had David Burke not been his head of recruitment?

How would he have fared with the sort of financial backing Gus Poyet and Chris Hughton received from Bloom, rather than a squad with seven loan players at one point?

How Sami Hyypia landed the job of Brighton manager

Less than 24 hours after Brighton had been eliminated from the 2013-14 Championship playoff semi final by Derby County, Oscar Garcia handed in resignation.

Garcia said in a statement: “The club has been aware of my thoughts for several weeks During this time, I have had discussions with both the chairman, Tony Bloom, and chief executive, Paul Barber.”

“I have enjoyed my time with the club but, although I do not have any immediate plans, I have decided to move on. The club will always have a place in my heart and I hope very soon they will be competing at the top level in English football.”

Garcia decided he could not work with the budget being put forward for 2014-15. Poyet had the same belief a year earlier.

Poyet made his point publicly, throwing out hand grenades in his infamous “hitting the roof” interview immediately after Brighton were beaten by Crystal Palace in the playoffs.

Whilst everyone fixated on Poyet’s roof comments, he also offered a warning about what Bloom cutting the budget whilst still wanting to finish in the top six would mean for Brighton.

“It is not like a click of fingers and you finish in the top six every year,” Poyet said. “Financial fair play is coming next year. It is going to hit everybody, including us. And we got a few problems.”

Garcia had too much class to go down in a similar blaze of gory to Poyet. Instead, he resigned with dignity. The problem of FFP and Bloom further cutting the playing budget was now Hyypia’s to deal with.

Sami Hyypia at Bayer Leverkusen

Sami Hyypia had been out of work for a little over two months following his sacking by Bayer Leverkusen when the Seagulls swooped for his services.

He was appointed permanent joint-boss of Leverkusen alongside Sascha Lewandowski in the summer of 2012. The duo led the club to Champions League qualification in their first season in charge.

The summer of 2013 saw Lewandowski moved to a role in the Leverkusen academy. Hyypia was put in sole charge and although his first six months at the helm went okay, things fell apart after the Bundesliga winter break.

A 6-1 aggregate defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 of the Champions League combined with a run of one win in 12 Bundesliga matches saw Hyypia fired.

His overall record at Leverkusen was decent enough. He knew English football as one of the most popular Liverpool players of all time.

There was one heavy question hanging above Hyypia’s head though. Had Lewandowski been the real mastermind behind Leverkusen finishing fourth in 2012-13, explaining why they struggled to repeat the success with Hyypia on his own?

Sammy ‘The Snake’ Lee

To be fair to Hyypia, he himself seemed to realise he needed a high-class coach working alongside him. Hence why one of his first acts as Brighton manager was to bring in Sammy Lee as number two.

Lee had agreed to join Brighton on Thursday 26th June. The Albion announced his appointment on Friday 27th June. On Sunday 29th June, it was revealed that Lee had changed his mind and was now going to assist new Southampton boss Ronald Koeman at St Mary’s.

Not a great start to life for Hyypia. Barber said in response: “It is extremely disappointing for the club, Sami Hyypia and those of us who worked hard to bring him here that Sammy Lee has now reversed his decision after agreeing to become assistant manager.”

“Our focus now is on working with Sami to help him recruit his assistant while also supporting him to bring in the players he needs to improve the squad for the new season.”

Except a new assistant was never recruited. Nathan Jones instead fulfilled the role. Who knows how different things might have turned out if Hyypia had an experienced, older head alongside him for his first managerial job in English football?

Hyppia’s Brighton squad

The biggest problem facing Sami Hyypia though was his Brighton squad. It was rubbish. He had the misfortune to manage the Albion when money was tight and what Brighton were spending was going on crap signed by Burke.

In the summer of 2014, Brighton replaced future Premier League winner Leonardo Ulloa with Chris O’Grady. Player of the Season Matthew Upson was replaced with Aaron Hughes.

Tomasz Kusczcak was replaced by an overweight David Stockdale, who only became good once Ben Roberts was appointed Albion goalkeeper coach the following season.

The list goes on and on. Stephen Ward replaced by Joe Bennett. Andrea Orlandi by Gary Gardner. Will Buckley by Paddy McCourt (sorry Paddy). David Lopez by Danny Holla. Ashley Barnes by Adrian Colunga.

At one point, Hyypia was given seven loan players to work with. Championship rules said you could only name five in a matchday squad.

This led to 18-year-old Christian Walton playing in goal with Stockdale injured and Ali al-Habsi unable to play shortly after signing on loan from Wigan Athletic as he would have broken the limit.

Even a manager as good as Hughton struggled with the Brighton squad of 2014-15. The Albion benefitted from the normal new manager bounce when Hughton replaced Hyypia, but it did not last long.

Brighton did not win a game from mid-March until the end of the season. Only one goal was scored in that time. The Seagulls survived relegation into League One by default of Blackpool, Wigan and Millwall somehow being worse rather than via their own efforts.

It was that telling that after such a lucky escape from the drop, Bloom changed tack for the 2015-16. Hughton was well backed with quality signings like Uwe Hunemeier, Liam Rosenior, Gaetan Bong, Andrew Crofts, Jamie Murphy, Bobby Zamora and Tomer Hemed.

The result? Brighton missing out on automatic promotion to the Premier League at the end of the 2015-16 season by two goals.

Hyypia’s tactics

If what we have covered so far suggests Sami Hyypia was dealt a bad hand at Brighton, then prepare for a sharp about turn when it comes to looking at his tactics.

Albion fans in 2024 are accustomed to a back four with full backs encouraged to do more attacking than defending. We have Roberto De Zerbi to thank for that.

A decade earlier and it was a less familiar concept when first introduced by Hyypia. He would push his full backs 70 yards up the pitch and get a holding midfielder to drop in and make a back three from what was hailed a fluid 4-3-2-1 Christmas tree formation.

With players hopelessly out of position due to the requirement to cover here, there and everywhere, most of the time it was more reminiscent of a Christmas pudding.

Hyypia needed tactically astute, Premier League standard players to make sense of such a fluid approach. De Zerbi made a similarly innovative approach work because he had Pervis Estupinan, Alexis Mac Allister and Pascal Gross. Hyypia was trying to do it with Bennett, Gardner and Holla.

The Championship is a crazy, chaotic and tough league were the margins between winning and losing, promotion and relegation are fine. Depending on your viewpoint, you are either brave or stupid to try innovating in it.

With hindsight, the writing was on the wall from a tactical perspective as early as September. Brighton needed extra time to beat League One side Swindon Town 4-2 in the League Cup.

Swindon looked capable of scoring every time they came forward with the Albion a defensive shambles, hopelessly out of position. Brighton only just squeaked through thanks to two Jake Forster-Caskey penalties in the 100th and 120th minutes.

Sami Hyypia remained wedded to his approach until the end, meaning Brighton won just three of 22 league games in charge.

The end for Hyypia

Fan opinion turned against Hyypia as early as October. It would be another two months before Bloom acted. Was that because he wanted to give Hyypia a chance to turn things around?

Or was it as a result of the Albion’s thin skin at board level? To sack Hyypia so early into his reign would be an admission the club had made a mistake, something which we know they absolutely hate doing.

Hyypia tried to resign on at least one occasion. Eventually, the Amex turned toxic. A 1-0 Friday night defeat to fellow relegation candidates Millwall saw a Hyypia Out banner unfurled.

Tempers flared so much that fans even began fighting each other in the stands. It was both a grim and thoroughly entertaining evening.

Hyypia limped on for one more game, a 1-1 draw at Wolves before Bloom finally accepted another resignation letter. Tellingly, Burke was sacked as head of recruitment at the same time.

And that kind of sums up Hyypia’s Reign of Terror. Bad recruitment. Tactics ill-suited to the Championship. Stubbornness to the point of delusion.

With a different set of players at another time in Brighton history, Sami Hyypia might have worked out. You can certainly see the merits behind that argument.

But then I recall being at Pride Park three weeks before Christmas, Bennett and Bruno being the Albion’s furthest players forward and Gardner stood in midfield utterly confused as Derby County broke to go 3-0 up inside 20 minutes.

Conclusion – it was just shit.