ARE THE SEAGULLS In A POSITION TO PUT STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE?

When boss Chris Hughton was called in for a 9am meeting at Albion’s Lancing training ground with owner Tony Bloom, it was less than 24 hours after the end of a season in which he’d kept Brighton up for a second successive year, taken them to an FA Cup semi-final and continued to perform with a set of values and class that are rare in the game.

He imagined that he’d be discussing recruitment for the 2019-20 campaign. Instead, Bloom sacked him on the spot. Hughton, not prone to hyperbole, later said that he was “hugely disappointed and surprised”, and, as with his inexplicable dismissal from Newcastle in 2010, pundits were quick to berate the decision as “cowardly”, “brutal” and Bloom’s “biggest gamble”.

However, fans – including Bloom, who poses in his scarf for selfies with supporters on away-day trains – were more understanding. Having seen only three wins in 23 games at the back end of 2018-19, which ended with Brighton taking three points from their final nine matches, most Seagulls understood why Bloom had cited “how we struggled” while hiring Graham Potter as the new head coach.

This may have been a diplomatic way of reassuring the fanbase that the sometimes dour, defence-first approach of Hughton – its high/low point being April’s backs-against-the-wall last-minute defeat at Spurs – and a team reliant on towering centre-backs and a clinical but ageing striker wasn’t going to be enough for another year. Hughton’s hand had perhaps been forced, though, by a string of expensive, disappointing buys from the Eredivisie, including two club-record signings in Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Potter is lauded as one of the more progressive coaches in England. Everyone paid attention when Swansea’s young, attacking side went 2-0 up against Manchester City in an FA Cup game beamed live on the BBC. He will be backed by Bloom’s investment, and expectations are high. New £15m signing Leandro Trossard highlighted that Potter told him when he joined that he wants to “play more attractive football”.

But the risks for Brighton this year are plain to see. As flowing and fluid as Swansea were in that game against the champions, in the end, even with Daniel James inspiring all sorts of heroics, they lost. The memory of Hughton’s teams grinding out 1-0 wins, and Dunk and Duffy blocking and heading balls away for 90 minutes week after week, might become a fonder one as the 2019-20 season progresses.