Opinion: My Brighton brain fog has cleared – please don't qualify for the Conference League

U-turns were usually for Starsky and Hutch or numerous Governments (regardless of the colour of their rosette) and not for the likes of mere local newspaper columnists.

But picture the scene, I’m sat in my normal East Stand seat at the Amex on Sunday watching the Albion work towards a credible draw against Champions League chasing Newcastle, against a backdrop of a shocking display of refereeing from Craig Pawson (note to the EPL grandees, if we are to continue to have the best league on the planet, we have to have the best officials).

In mitigation to the hapless Pawson, I’m still trying to work out if he was aided or handicapped by VAR, and there were even positives to come out of such a frustrating afternoon.

Brighton clearly shouldn’t have finished with 11, Mats Wieffer was deserving of a second yellow, and in Pawson’s defence it wasn’t him that missed Brighton’s clear-cut chance to win it at the end.

But as this all played out, I had my eureka moment, when the footballing ‘brain fog’ cleared and everything dropped into place.

Quite simply, whilst I want the Albion to give a good account of themselves in their final three matches I now don’t want them to qualify for Europe.

In the grand scheme of things – and looking at the long term journey of the club – participation in next season’s European third tier Conference League would be a footballing poison chalice.

Whilst we all get dewy eyed about our exciting ‘away days’ in our first ever sortie on to the continent two seasons ago, let’s also remember our Sunday form after almost all of our European games.

What we need now is both stability and almost that rare commodity in the top flight, time.

Firstly, for the small minority ‘Hurzeler Out’ faction, it’s not happening anytime soon, so just get behind the man and let him do his job.

The first job being a summer of effectively clearing the decks and getting a squad of players who are not only capable of playing at the business end of the EPL, but actually want to play for the club.

Alongside that, chairman Tony Bloom backing him again in the transfer window, so that we get to August with arguably an even better squad than now. But to reiterate, made up of players who want to play for the club rather than themselves.

In Goldstone/Withdean days they were deadwood. Now, regardless of what they get paid or the international football they might play, they are still basically the same. And the best Albion managers always clear out the deadwood!

The distraction of Europe next season will, I believe, be counter productive. Let’s have a season getting things consistently right in the EPL, as consistency has cost us dear in this campaign. There have been disappointing results at the Amex against all three relegated teams, where would we be now with those six dropped points?

That said, it’s probably for the best. Any European competition would have seriously hampered our ongoing development and quest to be a consistent top six or eight club... not a flash in the pan every couple of seasons.

So let’s enjoy the next 270 minutes, as I said, give a good account of ourselves, but not collectively over-react when we don’t get that almost Holy Grail like eighth place.

In 12 months time, I believe we will be in a far better place than we are today, with a genuine opportunity of winning that trophy that Bloom and the rest of us crave.

Who knows, we could have won the FA Cup, this year. Cliche alert: maybe next year, with the settled and talented squad I refer to, will be our year!

For your next Albion read: Julio Enciso has a £40m problem at Brighton after Ipswich Town transfer decision