Brighton and Hove Albion should run out for the first game in Europe to Diana Ross' Chain Reaction - and this is why

Effectively Albion’s good fortune in this record and ground-breaking season has come about from a series of events, the original one not even football related. A global scenario has indirectly but ultimately brought about the Albion’s qualification for the Europa League.

The aforementioned event resulted in a change of ownership at Chelsea Football Club which then saw new American owner Todd Boehly immediately decide that his then current manager Thomas Tuchel was surplus to requirements, and he then targets Brighton boss Graham Potter.

Potter quickly jumps ship at the Albion and takes his entire backroom staff with him.

Elsewhere due to the same non-football related events Roberto De Zerbi finds himself ‘between jobs’. Already on Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s radar RDZ is quickly interviewed and subsequently appointed as Albion boss in the wake of Potters exit to West London.

And as they say the rest is history…….

For all the money the Blues threw at him was his time at Stamford Bridge ultimately Potter’s own personal poisoned chalice?

It was put to me by someone extremely well versed in all things Chelsea that Potter’s downfall wasn’t about the 11 players he started with each week, it was the 19 that he didn’t select that did for him. Whilst down on the South Coast RDZ hit the ground running and even allowing for the obligatory “bumps in the road” lead Brighton and Hove Albion to not only their highest ever finish in their 122-year history but qualification for European competition for the first time ever.

And all starting from, as I said, events far more significant than the Beautiful Game.

More sliding doors than the USS Enterprise! So, what if Chelsea don’t change ownership and Todd Boehly goes nowhere near West London? Does Thomas Tuchel keep his job? So, Potter therefore doesn’t leave The Amex? But does Potter go on to take the Albion into Europe?

I think they used to call it certain quarters a Johnny Nash, ‘More questions than answers’

The dream result for all of us, but as the fans in the stand currently sing, in a song borrowed from 'Paint your Wagon' no less; "How did we get there? I don't know. How did we get there? I don't care. All I know is that's Brighton on their way"

But probably best leave well alone when identifying the principal architect though?