Gus Poyet and Brighton – A messy divorce

One cannot help but feel that the sticky situation the club are now in could have been avoided had Bloom and Managing Director Paul Barber dealt with the Poyet situation within the four walls of the club.To publicly suspend a manager and his backroom staff for the length of time they have is almost unheard of, and it would be scoffed at had it occurred at a Premier League club, which is, after all, what Brighton are determined to become.

Surely a frank and open discussion should have been had in the days immediately following the play-off defeat, with a swift decision made as to the future direction of manager and club. It’s possible that the situation became increasingly complicated with the arrival of Barber, who was behind the sacking of Juande Ramos and Gus Poyet’s coaching team at Tottenham in 2008. Yet while personal dislike can be disruptive, sometimes a measure of pragmatism has to be adopted for the good of both sides.

Poyet is far from blameless though. For all the good he has done Brighton, he has certainly not distanced himself from vacant positions in football over the last few years, and openly admitted he would consider a job offer to return to his beloved Leeds should it be forthcoming. Moreover, while he may have turned down Reading in March, there is strong feeling that this was purely because Poyet felt Reading were doomed to relegation, and not due to his attachment to Brighton, while the likelihood of Poyet being considered for the next spate of available Premier League jobs over the summer and during next season was strong.

Gus Poyet and Tony Bloom in happier times

Perhaps Tony Bloom began to grow weary of the speculation, and became increasingly sceptical about his manager’s long-term commitment to the club. Poyet also made a major error by publicly criticising Bloom following Brighton’s defeat against Palace. Bloom has invested nearly £100 million of his own cash into the club, and while he may have handled this episode badly, Poyet showed an alarming lack of understanding for the difficulties all Championship clubs will face under the new Financial Fair Play laws next season. No longer can a chairman such as Bloom simply write an open cheque for luxurious transfer targets, and the models exemplified by Norwich and Swansea in recent seasons have shown that the clubs which have embarked upon the Premier League with a firm financial footing have been the most successful in recent years anyway. Just ask QPR!

The background to Norwich’s success ought to have been studied more closely by both sides. Like Poyet, the man who masterminded Norwich’s rise to the Premier League, Paul Lambert, was intent on playing passing football and progressing to the top of the management tree; like Brighton, Norwich were, and still are, the beneficiary of a large catchment area, with a growing fanbase and a stadium which has potential to continue to develop its revenue streams. Norwich managed to keep hold of their man until they were established in the top tier. Brighton meanwhile have lost theirs. Yet for Norwich, both sides won. It may have been a messy divorce in the end, but Lambert got his ‘big’ job at Aston Villa, while Norwich received substantial compensation and appointed an excellent coach and manager in Chris Hughton, who has continued to develop the playing staff since.

Unfortunately for Brighton and Poyet, both sides appear to have lost. Poyet’s tirade against the club was a poor PR move, and has probably put him out of the running for an immediate move into top tier football, while Brighton have lost out on a talented manager who has overseen the most successful period in the club’s recent history. Meanwhile, in purely economic terms, they have lost out by having to compensate Poyet for his dismissal as opposed to receiving compensation for him themselves at some stage in the future.

Both Brighton and Gus Poyet have huge potential to become major players in the Premier League. It is a sad and somewhat regrettable fact that they will now have to take separate, and far more complicated paths in order to do so.