Brighton and Hove Albion reach Europe: If Brian Clough hadn’t gone to Leeds United, if Potter hadn't gone to Chelsea....50 years of 'ifs and buts' as a Brighton fan

In my 50 year tenure supporting the Seagulls we’ve had;

- If Brian Clough hadn’t gone to Leeds in July 1974 could the Albion have gone on to emulate Notts Forest's achievements in Europe?

- If Mark Lawrenson hadn’t been sold to Liverpool over his head would Alan Mullery have resigned in the summer of 1981?

- If then Vice Chairman Keith Wickenden hadn’t been killed in 1983 he would have surely seen off the unwanted attention of Messrs Stanley and Archer?

- If we’d lost to Hereford in 1997 and dropped out of the League would we have ever got back?

But the most recent question in this series is perhaps one of the most significant in the club’s history

Would Brighton have qualified for Europe if Graham Potter was the manager in place of Roberto De Zerbi?

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In my opinion, and I’d imagine that of many of the Albion faithful, the answer is a resounding ‘No’. I made no secret of the fact that I was never a huge Potter fan when he was at the club, credit where credits due he clearly had his qualities, and added something in the wake of Chris Hughton dismissal.

However, and as Chelsea later found to their cost, he had his faults, muddled thinking in team selection, a reluctance to play attacking football and at times clearly No Plan B.

There is no such thing as a perfect football manager, otherwise the said specimen’s team would win every game and therefore every trophy, but there is no doubt in my mind that RDZ is the best manager the club has ever had. He has taken a competent squad put together by Potter and moulded it into the, to date, greatest Albion team in the club’s history.

In light of their career arcs in the last 9 months to analyse Potter up against RDZ is like comparing Chesney Hawkes to Bob Dylan. So on the back of this if or but, an Albion sliding door moment if you like, where would the Albion have ended up if Graham Potter had never left?

One related factor would have been if Chelsea had stuck with Thomas Tuchel would they have had the nightmare campaign the Stamford Bridge faithful have had to endure? I think a Graham Potter Albion side would have finished at best, 9th, 10th or 11th, but way off European qualification. (And I’d imagine with both Chelsea and the woeful Spurs above us)

But its all hypothetical, Europe is now a reality, enjoy, embrace, savour it, taste it, especially for the 1,000 or so that were at Hereford 26 years ago this month, because if anyone had predicted the events of this season back then, they would have been viewed as being with the pixies.