Sussex World columnist Ian Hart dares to dream of Champions League football for Brighton next season

At 62 I’ve been very lucky to have watched Brighton all over England, Wales and into Europe.

During various holidays I’ve also watched - on the TV - in the US, the Caribbean, Middle East. Last week it was the Far East and this week it was the Gold Coast, Australia at midnight. But why was Sunday’s victory so poignant for me?

Not quite Saul on the Road to Damascus, but it’s another 90 minutes of realisation. It was perhaps prompted by sitting, as with Singapore last weekend, with ‘neutral’ football fans and hearing their opinions of ‘our’ football club.

It reiterates the almost seismic changes the club has undergone since that dramatic afternoon at Edgar Street in May 1997.

However somethings don’t change and I hope they never will, as the Albion’s annual commemoration of Remembrance Sunday was both poignant and fitting.

But then on to the action. The arrival of Brentford and the respective chairman’s shared backstory bubbling under in the background. Whilst not quite the M23 Derby perhaps, it’s a game we now look forward to that little bit extra.

Albion never let Brentford settle and by half time - courtesy of two goals and VAR actually doing it’s job - the Seagulls were effectively home and hosed.

Ian Hart’s quarter term report

So, if I had to don my mortar board and gown (Google required for some readers) and give a ‘quarter term’ report, what would it be?

Wow! Second in the table and the highest scorers in the top flight. One of the two defeats, Chelsea away, was arguably a game we should have won. And given Chelsea’s sporadic form since, if they played again this weekend, it certainty would be a different result.

Playing with flair and panache to reiterate a soundbite from previous columns, we all just have to enjoy the ride. One thing is for certain, we are in the EPL for at least another 12 months!

It’s just what will that 12 months bring. The much coveted trophy? Hopefully.

But in modern day football, what is the real gauge of success? We all want to see Dunky up on a podium lifting a pot, but what if this form continues for the remaining three-quarters of the campaign, and Albion get that all important Champions League spot?

Whether us old dyed in the wool fans like it or not, financially for the Albion that is far more lucrative than a trophy, bar the league title.

Champions League for Brighton?

And again whilst trying not to get too carried away, there are also two huge factors coming at us over the hill. Champions League qualification, would almost certainly mean huge changes in the club’s wage structure.

If we don’t pay our squad the ‘going rate’, then rest assured somebody else in our league, and we all know the clubs, will. And naturally we would also have to recruit along with the financial implications that would bring.

Whoever you are, you can’t do the CL on the cheap! But again to reiterate, let’s not get carried away.

Many of us remember domestic football long before the advent of the ‘International Break’, but we go into this particular one in the highest league position we’ve ever been for a said break.

So let’s just enjoy every second of it, and cue dear old Doris Day… Que Sera, Sera…….only 28 games to go!