David Lopez

[St. Brynjar]

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthrea ... y-in-style)-this-season

[yuuichi]

I'm sure wolves fans must be saying the exact same things after they nicked players and almost a manager off us.

[littlejohnnyoster]

had to serve pies to some of these fans last season. AMEX lovely stadium, got a lot of respect for the club after the shit they endured in withdean years, but fans are nuts. Feel it's their godly right to be back in 1st division. Always moaning about Poyet too. Got this weird 'big club' syndrome.

Sign him up!

[UpTheJunction]

http://www.northstandchat.com/showthread.php?281791-Which-team-do-you-most-want-us-to-turn-over-(hopefully-in-style)-this-season

Just been reading through this and was gonna post it on here as well. It is hilarious! I want all there players to come to us and then we sell them to a load of other teams.

[sandman]

When we aren't competing with them I quite like Brighton too. Their ground is lovely, next door to the mighty Sussex Uni, great pies, and my GF used to work in the hospitality boxes at the Amex serving Des Lynam his lunch!

However, they are rivals next season so that all goes out the window, and since they've moved to the Amex their fans have become ever more dramatic and plastic - the way the Amex emptied well before the end of the play-off semi was quite embarrasing

Surprising we don't get on better with them really.

[Ian Royal]

I'm sure wolves fans must be saying the exact same things after they nicked players and almost a manager off us.

Wolves were a bigger club than us and we bloody knew it. That was part of the funny. Plucky little Reading shitting up their season again and again. And gradually, gradually catching them up and becoming a genuine competitive rival (and now having passed them, maybe briefly).

Besides, most of us are over Wolves now aren't we? They just keep providing entertainment.

[From Despair To Where?]

Amazing how all those players over the past 10 years had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the footballing collosus that is BHA to play for little old Reading, especially considering the only player I can actually remember us signing directly from Brighton was Paul oxf*rd Brooker.

[SPARTA]

Amazing how all those players over the past 10 years had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the footballing collosus that is BHA to play for little old Reading, especially considering the only player I can actually remember us signing directly from Brighton was Paul oxf*rd Brooker.

Was just working that one out as well. Sidwell was Arsenal's when we bought him, only on loan at Brighton. My memory is terrible I admit, but who else did we buy from them?

[FridaysGhost]

Claridge wouldn't know a big club if it fell on him. Claridge looking up at Messi = Brighton looking up at Reading. This is the Brighton who were once advertised as '11 clockwork clowns' by one of their own fans.

[From Despair To Where?]

Amazing how all those players over the past 10 years had to be dragged kicking and screaming from the footballing collosus that is BHA to play for little old Reading, especially considering the only player I can actually remember us signing directly from Brighton was Paul oxf*rd Brooker.

Was just working that one out as well. Sidwell was Arsenal's when we bought him, only on loan at Brighton. My memory is terrible I admit, but who else did we buy from them?

Ivar chose us over them from Wolves and he had been on loan to them, Sidwell was a loan from Arsenal, apart from Brooker, Coppell is the only only other person I can think of who's come direct from them to us.

Coppell managed Sidwell and Ivar at Brentford (and Stephen Hunt, in fact, all 3 played for Brentford in THAT game, as did Jay Tabb) so he simply went back to players he knew he could trust to do a job. At the time, with them playing at Withdean, we were always going to be a far more attractive club for any player with even the slightest shred of ambition.

Maybe the balance is being slightly redressed with the move to Falmer but they struggle to terms with the fact that 10 plus years at Priestfield and Withdean saw them go backwards as a club, and such are the vagaries of modern football, we will now be perceived by neutrals as being a bigger club because of that. It's not so long ago that they were involved in a winner takes all relegation from the league showdown with Hereford Utd and they seem to forget that. They have a massive identity crisis, they think they're bigger than us but complain that we are the playground bully nicking players from ickle old Brighton.

They were a much bigger club pre the 80s, but really, we were similar sized clubs until somewhere around 1998, we took different turnings, we went forward, they went backwards. We're back on the same road, just we're 15 years ahead of them. They don't seem to understand that status is fluid, not fixed.

In all that, I forgot that we've done the dirty on them by nicking Wayne Bridge from, err, Manchester City.

[FridaysGhost]

Get a grip, Guys. Don't feed the massive unreality-world that Brighton fans live on. Brighton have always been a small club, even though, when Promotion was easy they fell into the top tier for a small time, so did Accrington Stanley - historically. Brighton are a lower-level Football League team with pretentions of Grandeur. On sites like this we should live in the real world. Reading to Brighton is like Real Madrid to 'somewhere unheard of in Spain'.

[From Despair To Where?]

In the 70's, they were capable of getting attendances of 25,000 plus in the 3rd division when the likes of Peter Ward was playing for them so they certainly haven't always been a small club and yes, I would say they were a bigger club than us back then. Their problem is that they still believe now, in the 21st Century, they are still that big relative to clubs like ourselves.

They have an issue with Atkins as well, because I believe that as Southampton manager, he had the temerity to suggest Southampton was a bigger club than Brighton. They clearly have size issues.

[Ian Royal]

It'll be interesting to see how they do over the next couple of seasons. Will they consolidate in the Championship, maybe push on like we have - maybe better, or will they fail to sustain their recent success and slip back into League One? They're all quite plausible.

I fancy they'll knock about mid-table Championship for at least the next few years. Maybe flirting with a little look over their shoulder around February, or a wee run at the play offs once in a while.

I'd say they're less than 10 years behind us. Maybe 5-7.

[Royal91]

In the 70's, they were capable of getting attendances of 25,000 plus in the 3rd division when the likes of Peter Ward was playing for them so they certainly haven't always been a small club and yes, I would say they were a bigger club than us back then. Their problem is that they still believe now, in the 21st Century, they are still that big relative to clubs like ourselves.

They have an issue with Atkins as well, because I believe that as Southampton manager, he had the temerity to suggest Southampton was a bigger club than Brighton. They clearly have size issues.

Adkins what a lad. Southampton certainly are a bigger club than us both.

But hey when did size ever matter.

[CholseyRoyal]

In the 70's, they were capable of getting attendances of 25,000 plus in the 3rd division when the likes of Peter Ward was playing for them so they certainly haven't always been a small club and yes, I would say they were a bigger club than us back then. Their problem is that they still believe now, in the 21st Century, they are still that big relative to clubs like ourselves.

They have an issue with Atkins as well, because I believe that as Southampton manager, he had the temerity to suggest Southampton was a bigger club than Brighton. They clearly have size issues.

Adkins what a lad. Southampton certainly are a bigger club than us both.

But hey when did size ever matter.

It does to the likes of West Ham. You could say they have an inferiority complex as clubs like Stoke for example and the top four don't go on about it.

[St. Brynjar]

It'll be interesting to see how they do over the next couple of seasons. Will they consolidate in the Championship, maybe push on like we have - maybe better, or will they fail to sustain their recent success and slip back into League One? They're all quite plausible.

I fancy they'll knock about mid-table Championship for at least the next few years. Maybe flirting with a little look over their shoulder around February, or a wee run at the play offs once in a while.

I'd say they're less than 10 years behind us. Maybe 5-7.

Try telling them that. They have a thread discussing what kind of Premier League team they'll be and how they'll be received.

[Cureton's Volley]

It's crazy because the many Brighton fans I know (mostly older who were around when Brighton were 'something') are pretty grounded. I guess with a new stadium and an upturn in fortunes the imagination of the mob gets ahead of itself... We are guilty of this also, if not in such a vein, self-concious way!!

[Royal91]

It'll be interesting to see how they do over the next couple of seasons. Will they consolidate in the Championship, maybe push on like we have - maybe better, or will they fail to sustain their recent success and slip back into League One? They're all quite plausible.

I fancy they'll knock about mid-table Championship for at least the next few years. Maybe flirting with a little look over their shoulder around February, or a wee run at the play offs once in a while.

I'd say they're less than 10 years behind us. Maybe 5-7.

Try telling them that. They have a thread discussing what kind of Premier League team they'll be and how they'll be received.

Haha that is oxf*rd tragic. Need to read this.

[floyd__streete]

4 years in Division 1 (1979-1983) and an FA Cup losers medal in 1983, wow - how can we compete with that sort of history?

Yep, so that is one more year in the top flight than us and one more FA Cup semi final victory than us. Absolute behemoth of a club aren't they

Anyway:

Promoted to the top flight twice > promoted to the top flight once.

[Mr Optimist]

If I had more time on my hands I would calculate what percentage of our respective time in the football league have been spent at what tier. My guess would be our records would be very similar to theirs with the majority of time being spent at the third level. Over to you Snowball!