Are you one of those Albion fans publicly questioning the manager after a run of one win in 10 games? Then please stop. Because the level of criticism being aimed at Fabian Hurzler is irritating the Brighton board.
Yes, really. Fan opinion which does not fall in line with the views of Tony Bloom and Paul Barber is apparently annoying. Even if it comes from supporters who spend a significant amount of their income on buying a season ticket.
The revelation appeared in an article on The Athletic by Andy Naylor. Titled Brighton have one win in 10, but there is still faith in the Fabian Hurzeler project, the Naylor piece did exactly what it said on the tin. It made some good arguments in defence of Hurzeler against the more excitable criticism which has come the Albion manager’s way.
Midway through the article came the paragraph which has caused such disgruntlement. It appears to be more of a throwaway comment than anything else – but one which underlines the feeling of drift between the Brighton board and supporters over the past 18 months.
Brighton board irritated by Albion fans criticism of Hurzeler
Naylor writes: “Sources at the club who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity to protect relationships say there is no diminishing faith in Hurzeler at boardroom level. In fact, there is irritation about the level of criticism and a faction of the fanbase intent on pushing the idea that his job will surely be on the line if results do not improve soon.”
I guess the question is why are Bloom and Barber irritated by what fans think? Almost every Brighton manager in my lifetime has come in for criticism at some point or another with some sections of the fan base wanting him sacked.
Even the ones who delivered historic successes. Roberto De Zerbi. Chris Hughton. Gus Poyet. Mark McGhee. Micky Adams at the start of his first reign and end of his second.
I remember one of my friends writing on a car in the snow during winter 2009 “RESIGN ADAMS”. Another phoned the BBC Radio Sussex Fans’ Phone In and said he was going to buy McGhee swimming armbands, because he was drowning as Albion manager. Modern-day Brighton would want both chucked in the gulag for dissent.
The only manager who avoided having major detractors was Peter Taylor II. And that is only because he walked out not long after winning the Division Two title. Had he stayed to manage Brighton in the 2002-03 season, he almost certainly would have suffered the same.
Disliking or not rating a manager is part and parcel of football. It always has been. It always will be. At every club up and down the country.
Yes, social media amplifies the criticism in 2025. The mind boggles over how Twitter would have reacted to Brighton losing 4-0 at “home” to Darlington in 1998 if social media existed.
Or would not enough people have cared, given crowds at Gillingham were only a couple of thousand back then?
Brighton are a different beast in 2025 with 31,000 attendances tickets sold and a global fanbase thanks to the worldwide exposure and broadcasting riches delivered by the Premier League.
But even if the criticism is louder than before, you cannot stop it. You cannot tell Brighton supporters what to think, short of installing some form of mind control device on the turnstiles at the Amex to impart a message of compliance over criticism.
In which case, Bloom and Barber might as well rename the Amex as the George Orwell Stadium and change the 1901 lounge to the 1984 lounge.
I have told this story before, so please forgive me if you have heard it. But somebody quite high up in football once described Brighton as wanting to be “the Hyacinth Bucket of football.”
Desperate to come across in public as absolutely perfect, like the magnificent character brilliantly played by Patricia Routledge in Keeping Up Appearances. Which is why the Albion love playing up to the best run club in the country reputation.
To have Seagulls supporters disgruntled and criticising the manager – and by association the decision-makers who appointed him – dents that image. Just one month after the club’s reputation took a battering during the Heritage Tiles debacle.
Is this why the board are irritated by Albion fan opinion going against Hurzeler and the club? Because it challenges the narrative?
Have the Albion just made the situation even worse?
Whatever the reason, those sources who spoke to The Athletic on condition of anonymity along with Naylor publishing the quote may well have made the situation even worse.
No Brighton fan is going to think “Bloom and Barber are irritated because I criticise Hurzeler, I better start liking him now instead. Don’t want to upset them.”
If anything, supporters who spend thousands of pounds following the Albion around the country being told a couple of millionaires find their opinion irritating for not toeing the party line is likely to entrench views further and spawn even more criticism.
What Brighton should have done is let the criticism ride itself out. A couple of wins over Everton and Crystal Palace and it would all have dampened down and disappeared. That is football.
Unless they do not think Hurzeler is going to get a couple of wins in the next two games. Hey, we better not go there….
Instead, they may well have turned a mole hill into a mountain and strengthened the feelings some supporters have of a growing disconnect between board and fans.
What an own goal. Colin Hawkins-esque, some might say.