Not too long ago the Europa League felt like a booby prize. There was the Thursday-Sunday schedule and travel to unfamiliar, distant locations, combined with a lack of interest, weakened teams and distinctly sub-capacity crowds.
There was not a lot of money to be made in the early rounds and sometimes clubs even lost money when it was the plain old UEFA Cup.
But on Thursday night inside the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, the competition seemed like the most exciting thing in the world.
Chairman Tony Bloom rekindled the drama of Joao Pedro’s late goal to secure Brighton top spot in Group B last season, while others recalled the pinch-yourself draw that promised games with Ajax, Marseille and AEK Athens.
There were shirts and boots, tickets and newspapers, embroidered napkins and presentation wine on display in the exhibition Brighton & Hove Albion: A First Year in Europe, which is open until April and features wonderful images of last season’s great adventure.
High-flying Brighton enjoyed success in a pinch-yourself group in the Europa League last term
The club’s adventure in the competition has been celebrated with an exhibition in the town
Nobody mentioned the tear gas, riot police or knife-wielding ultras, but there were reminiscences about Bloom at Fat Boy Slim’s post-match gig in a nightclub in Greece and tears shed by veterans of the club’s desperate fight for survival.
Perhaps Brighton’s back story makes it all the more poignant. Those who witnessed the escape at Hereford in 1997, the eviction from the Goldstone Ground and homeless years lodging at Gillingham and Withdean – the athletics stadium fondly dubbed ‘the Theatre of Trees’ – would never have dared to dream of duelling with Roma for a place in the quarter-finals of a major European competition.
The beautiful narrative arc bears repeating, if only to remind others stuck in football’s doldrums that the gloom is not necessarily permanent.
Brighton’s trajectory has been upward for some time now. Bloom has been at the helm for 15 years and the Amex Stadium opened in 2011. This season is their eighth in a row in the Premier League. For some young fans, it has been glory all the way.
The Europa League came as a timely shot of something fresh and different. It was a useful symbol of progress, just in case some people might be starting to wonder what’s next, and a chance to project the story to a wider audience.
Stakeholders of Brighton and Hove Albion have learned to value their club since those times of crisis.
They seized on European football, decorating the streets with bunting, dressing bollards and trying to turn the zebra crossings blue-and-white for the occasion.
The low points, such as supporters being tear gassed in Greece, have not been mentioned
Their Europa League exploits came as a timely shot of something fresh and different
Fabian Hurzeler replaced Roberto De Zerbi and has earned wins against Spurs and Man United
It’s about more than money, but there’s no danger of a club losing money in European competition these days. The rebranded Europa League, with its group stages, saw to all that, even before the latest lurch into this strange, extended affair.
If you’re smart there’s more to squeeze from the experience and Brighton are smart.
They will not miss a trick as they set about defying the logic that there must be a ceiling to this success, football’s natural life cycle forcing the likes of Bolton, Stoke and Wigan back from whence they came after sampling European football.
Brighton might be striking up new partnerships with the city’s museum but they show no signs of standing still to gather dust.
Proceeds from their first European campaign have gone towards refreshing the first-team squad and improving the women’s team, developing training-ground facilities and a new £7million fanzone at the Amex.
Popular manager Roberto de Zerbi started to rebel against Bloom’s strict, data-led recruitment strategy and was replaced with Fabian Hurzeler, a younger model who already boasts victories over Manchester United and Tottenham.
Brighton are keen to kick on and beat Newcastle to reinforce their fast start this season
Pascal Gross, an emblem of new-age Brighton but slowing down at 33, was sold to Borussia Dortmund. Gross was the first signing after promotion from the Championship, scorer of the club’s first Premier League goal and captain against AEK Athens on that first European night.
He was afforded the VIP treatment on his return to wave farewell to the fans before the Tottenham game but there is a strict limit to sentimentality.
That is something Chris Hughton would second. He led Brighton to promotion and kept them up before he was sacked and replaced by Graham Potter.
Bloom is looking to kick on and Saturday’s win at Newcastle reinforces a strong start to the season, keeping them above some of those they now identify as rivals for the European places.
‘We don’t want this to be a one-off,’ he said on Thursday night. ‘We have huge ambitions to carry on. We want to make this a regular thing, to bring people joy, playing great football, working hard to bringing success to our club and city.’
FIVE THINGS I LEARNED THIS WEEK
1. FA all talk on career pathway
The FA can bang on about coaching education and career pathways at St George’s Park, but that will count for nothing if they show no interest in appointing their own coaches to the most prestigious jobs.
Gareth Southgate was an exceptional England manager in all sorts of ways over eight years after stepping up from the Under 21s at a time of crisis, not least as a totem for English coaches trained through the FA system.
Southgate, with his understanding of the age groups and his staff of English coaches, gave meaning to the whole thing. Now they can all aspire to putting the cones out for Thomas Tuchel.
The FA’s talk on pathways will count for nothing if they don’t give their coaches the big jobs
2. FIFA move goalposts again
It is FIFA’s game, in case anyone had forgotten, and they will move the goalposts to suit. As they did by confirming Inter Miami will represent hosts the United States at next year’s newly expanded Club World Cup.
The play-off series to determine this year’s MLS champions is yet to begin, but Gianni Infantino can’t risk Lionel Messi’s team not winning, so awarded the place to Miami as the best team in the regular season. Never mind the sporting integrity, just drink in the soaring value of those TV rights.
3. Wilshere set for reunion
Jack Wilshere’s imminent move from Arsenal’s Under 18 boss to join Norwich’s first-team coaching staff hints at his drive and ambition, and sees him link up again with Dean Rastrick, now the head of football development at Carrow Road.
Rastrick was Luton’s youth development officer when Wilshere left them to join the Arsenal academy, aged just nine.
4. Parrott in form for Spurs return
Troy Parrott returns to Tottenham in decent form with AZ Alkmaar. He was a Spurs youngster handed his Premier League debut at 17 by Jose Mourinho against Burnley.
Mourinho strode on to the pitch at the end to make a big show of taking the match ball from Son Heung-min, who had scored a sensational solo goal, and handing it to the Irish teenager.
Parrott appeared only twice more for Spurs before joining AZ for £6.7million this year after loans at Millwall, Ipswich, MK Dons, Preston and Excelsior in the Netherlands. He has scored six in 11 games for his new club.
Troy Parrott has scored six goals in 11 games for AZ Alkmaar ahead of his Tottenham return
5. Non-league love
There is a lot of love out there for non-league football, with much correspondence after last week’s column from Harborough Town in the FA Cup, including this from a regular at Petersfield Town in the Wessex League: ‘This is real football. It’s not a business here. No plastic, except for the odd pitch.’
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