Gus Poyet finds himself now looking for new work after his contract at Brighton and Hove Albion was terminated last night, with the now ex-Seagulls manager appearing to have been made aware of the news while he was working as a TV pundit for The Confederations Cup.
Poyet was originally supposed to be analysing the first-half of the game between Nigeria and Spain for the BBC, but the majority of the 15 minutes assigned for that ended up becoming a discussion about the breaking news with regards to what happened at Brighton and where he can likely go from here. Poyet had initially been suspended, pending investigation from his previous position last month after the teams Play-Off Semi-Final defeat to rivals Crystal Palace, but the suspension was made over reports of a falling out with boardroom members and a breach of contract and nothing to do with the club falling just short of a place in next seasons Premier League. Now a month on and the powers that be at The Amex Stadium have decided that they can no longer continue their working relationship with Poyet and have officially decided that now is the time to part ways.
The club have issued a statement on their official website denying Poyet’s claims that he was taken completely by surprise and first made aware of the decision by a member of the BBC’s production team printing off a copy of the official statement regarding his departure and handing it to him during the ongoing match he was meant to be watching. Instead they claim that meetings took place over the course of the weekend including yesterday with Poyet and his legal representatives where they state that the Uruguayan was made fully aware of the fact that a decision regarding his dismissal was pending and that he knew exactly what was going on.
It is entirely up to the reader to believe whether or not they think that statement from the club is true or not, what presumably would be on most Brighton fans minds now other than who the new manager will be is why could this decision not have been announced at a more appropriate time? Regardless of the board’s feelings towards Poyet now, given all he had done for the club, such as turning them from a lower-half League One side in 2010 to a promotion chasing Championship side in 2013, why could this decision not have been announced publicly today instead? That way they could have avoided the criticism from fans and outsiders for the bad timing of this decision and the increase in sympathy that Gus Poyet has received from it. In the end it may well be something that won’t even bother the decision makers at the club, but really it does the reputation of Brighton and Hove Albion as a whole not much good.
Poyet has announced that he intends to appeal the decision to dismiss him, which also prevents the club from hiring a new manager on a permanent basis until a decision is made. With clubs now starting to prepare for pre-season, the timing of this could well come back to haunt Brighton who will almost certainly start their preparation campaign with no new manager there to set out initial hopes and expectations for the upcoming season. Brighton are still a strong team regardless and many will expect them to be amongst the frontrunners again, but if they don’t get off to a good start and end up missing out again, many will perhaps consider this saga between Poyet and the board members as a reason for any potential failure.
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Was amusing for fans other than Brighton ones but cannot beleive how poorly this has been done
Gus Poyet was in the middle of his contract, yet he spent most of last season making it clear that he was interested in pretty much any job going in the Premier League. He was completely outwitted by Ian Holloway in the Play off semi finals and responded to Brighton’s defeat by refusing to deal with the post season contract renewals. Evidently he also refused to attend a disciplinary hearing.
The suggestion that we should all be appalled that he was told of his dismissal by the BBC is laughable – he made it clear that he wanted to leave the club the day they lost in the play-offs – this is just bringing the sorry saga to an end. Poyet has a very high opinion of his own abilities – but Brighton could have made automatic promotion last year had they not thrown away a huge number of points with last minute naivety. I think a lot of Chairmen will take one look at how he has behaved at Brighton and decide that he will be more trouble than he is worth.
Tip for Mr Underwood – if you want to tell a story as a journalist – you really ought to tell both sides.
Please note the use of the word “appearing” in the first paragraph. He could well have found out about his termination right there and then or perhaps he did know beforehand but decided to wait and make it seem like he didn’t because he knew he would get the sympathy vote. We may never know. I agree that he is very confident in his own abilities, but the world is full of managers that believe they are the best and are capable of managing at the top level. I don’t see what makes him any different in that regard. Brighton never got promoted last season yes, but did a whole lot better than other teams in that league who should have been challenging as well. I’ve spoken to 2 Brighton fans I know and both have completely different views on this situation. I’m certain that I have not shown any strong bias towards either side here by simply stating facts. My own opinion here is regardless of what happened, perhaps this could have been dealt with a little bit better for the reasons I stated in the 5th paragraph. I accept your criticism though, I’m still fairly new to all this so will take on board what you have said and will look to improve in the future. 🙂