BRIGHTON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 22: Yankuba Minteh of Brighton & Hove Albion during the Premier League match between Brighton & Hove Albion FC and Nottingham Forest FC at Amex Stadium on September 22, 2024 in Brighton, England. (Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Is Fabian Hurzeler out of his depth? – opinion.
Ian Hart assess the German head coach after a painful loss to Crystal Palace
The late Graham Taylor was perhaps unkindly ‘credited’ in turning the England squad from the fourth best team in the world in 1990 to World Cup non-qualifiers in three short years.
Whilst at the Albion, on Saturday November 2 at Anfield Liverpool – between 3pm and 3.45pm – Fabian Hurzeler’s team played some of the best, if not the best football I’ve seen in 51 years watching the club.
Yet seven weeks and one day later – a whole lot less than Taylor’s apparent demise timeline – the Albion have the look of potential relegation fodder.
By its very nature, any Albion defeat in a competitive fixture has a degree of hurt, for any defeat against Crystal Palace the hurt is off the scale.
Sunday’s 3-1 loss at the Amex was actually another pivotal moment in my Albion journey. I’ve always prided myself on the fact that win, lose or draw. I’ve always stayed to the bitter end, with two exceptions. Firstly in the Championship 2013 play off semi-final second leg, I went and sat in the bar when Palace scored their second goal late on, and it was deja vu at the weekend, when Palace got their third on 82 minutes.
The Goldstone Restaurant was beckoning, I made my way there with a degree of regret but basically I’d had enough, and looking at the amount of empty blue plastic seats on Match of the Day 2, I wasn’t alone.
In the wake of the abject humiliation, internet rumours and speculation abound. A caller to the BBC Sussex Radio phone-in claimed there’s unrest in the dressing room. More unfounded rumours abound with talk of Kaoru Mitoma, Joao Pedro and Bart Verbruggen all “wanting out” when the window opens in January.
Don’t panic Albion fans, my usually impeccable sources – who are extremely close to the club – immediately rubbished this speculation, all three players are apparently here for long-haul.
But what has gone wrong? A relatively short time after the Albion went toe to toe with Liverpool and arguably should have been home and hosed at half time, they have since failed to beat two teams at the Amex who have since sacked their respective managers for poor results. But worse than that, the ‘piste de resistance’ the gut wrenching loss to our bitterest rivals.
By the very nature of the gamble Tony Bloom took appointing Hurzeler, it was always going attract a number of detractors and doubters.
“They’ve sent a boy on a man’s errand” perhaps a tad wide of the mark. But what is clear that this now represents the biggest challenge in Hurzeler’s managerial career, the level of investment in the transfer market in the summer indicated that European qualification for the second time was the target.
At present, the only way the Albion will get into Europe next year is if they write a song!
Whilst almost bleeding blue and white, Tony Bloom can also be extremely ruthless when he needs to be. Hurzeler will get time to turn things round. The sacking, which a small number of fans crave, for Xmas, simply won’t happen.
It would almost be viewed in certain quarters as an admission of failure by Bloom. But by the same token, this vein of form and the negative atmosphere it spawns simply cannot continue.
