Support, encouragement and understanding. Not foot-stamping belligerence.

As well as casting his critical ear over albums and gigs, Bobbysix's Rob Townsend also writes a weekly column about football, for newspaper The Argus. This week's column, the first of the season, was vetoed by the editor for being a bit controversial, so you'll read something much more bland - penned in about ten minutes flat by a very stressed Mr Townsend - in this Friday's paper. However, we ain't afraid of no football fans here at Bobbysix.com, so here is the banned editorial, in all its glory. It will only appeal/make sense to football lovers really. Normal music/fashion/culture service to be resumed at Bobbysix.com later today:

This is surely the most anticipated season ever for fans of Brighton and Hove Albion Football Club as, after 14 nomadic years, the club moves into its brand new £100m state-of-the-art stadium. So it's a shame that I feel obliged to use my first column of the campaign to speak about something genuinely disappointing.

I've been lending a hand behind the scenes at The American Express Community Stadium over the summer as the club frantically prepares for the first league game there on Saturday. The hard work and long hours are, of course, worthwhile, as we are all building towards something special. Sadly though, the excitement and positivity felt by many of Albion's workforce has long-since been eroded as the club has been bombarded by a barrage of aggression and negativity from a minority of supporters.

It's been the busiest pre-season I've ever known at Brighton and Hove Albion and, inevitably, there have been teething problems with the big move, yet the lack of understanding from certain sections of Albion's support – both long-term followers and newbies – is bewildering. I'm all in favour of constructive criticism, but the vitriol with which a number of people have aired their views is something that I genuinely haven't heard since the darkest days.

As we all settle into our new home, Albion fans need to be at their most understanding and tolerant. There have been, and will continue to be, glitches over ticketing, swipe cards, phone-lines, catering, parking and so on, but these things will steadily iron themselves out. In the meantime, the moaners need to see the bigger picture. The club has gained 15,000 new season ticket holders and has gone from having one corporate portakabin to a host of swanky lounges. I understand that everybody wants their Amex experience to be just perfect - we've waited so long for it after all - but anyone who thought such a massive upgrade in facilities would be a smooth and easy transition is kidding themselves.

What the club requires right now is support, encouragement and understanding. What doesn't help is the kind of foot-stamping belligerence that was displayed at the recent fans forum. Nor does it need people shouting and swearing down the phones or sending angry emails about the pies being too hot or the fact that Tottenham were a terrible choice of friendly opponent because of Harry Redknapp's Pompey and Saints connections (those were both actual complaints).

Rest assured the Albion staff aren't deliberately trying to ruin your season, nor are they a bunch of hopeless incompetents. They love the Albion just as much as you and are simply tired, stressed and close to breaking point as they work really, really hard to complete this massive task.

So, if the ticketing website is playing up, if you have to queue to get through on the phone, if the food kiosk runs out of pies (or if they're too hot), if your top-up doesn't work or if your email doesn't get answered immediately, don't get angry. Things will run smoothly soon enough and the club will do their very best to deal with your concerns. In the meantime, forget the teething troubles and give yourself a reality check by basking in the glory of our beautiful new home. It's a universe away from Withdean, so why tarnish the experience with petty concerns? Enjoy the game and let's all pull together and turn The Amex into the cauldron of noise we could only dream of at Withdean.

UPDATE:
So, since I posted the above, I have had nothing but positive feedback, from the man in the street, to Albion staff to the bigwigs at American Express. Thank you everyone. To celebrate, here is a little video montage I made of one of the most magical afternoons of my life:

Let’s beat the beautiful game into submission with a copy of Tony Pulis’ Big Book of Tactics.

Fans of Rob Townsend's weekly column in English newspaper The Argus will notice there is nothing from him this Thursday. Normal service will be resumed next week but, for now, here is a web-only special, exclusive to BobbySix.com:

Steve Claridge's comments on his video blog on the BBC football website really seem to get on people's nerves, don't they? Recently he waxed lyrical about how Brighton and Hove Albion's style of Total Football wouldn't work if the club competes in the Championship next season because teams would be fitter and better equipped to close down their passing game. I’ve never heard such nonsense in my life. Sure, the quality of opposition is going to be better - it is a higher division after all - but what does he propose they do? Start lumping it up to centre forward Glenn Murray? Hit the ball into the corners and try to score from set pieces and throw-ins? Good idea Steve. Let’s beat the beautiful game into submission with a copy of Tony Pulis’ Big Book of Tactics.

Aren't Swansea and QPR flying high in The Championship by playing fluid, passing football? Didn’t Brighton beat Watford and Portsmouth recently? I don’t think anyone expects a team like Brighton to march straight to the Premier League, but surely, with a few signings, they could hold their own and remain playing aesthetically pleasing stuff.

To be honest, football followers shouldn't be concerned about the rubbish Steve Claridge spouts. If you read the comments sections below his - quite awful - videos, he is berated pretty much universally by fans from all divisions. I have never been a fan of his viewpoint. On the BBC he pontificates with such arrogance that you would think he was the ultimate authority on football. In reality he is just another former player trying to make a buck.

In fairness though, while the words that tumble out of Claridge's mouth really grate on me, he is just a small fish in a massive pond of pointless punditry that blights my enjoyment of football. The problem is that there is just so much media coverage now that we are subjected to countless former players giving their ill-informed views just to fill air time and column inches. I fail to understand why Sky's live coverage starts an hour before kick-off. Do we really care what Scott Minto (for example) has to say? Not really. The pundits who are on constant rotation don't have an all-seeing knowledge of every team they cover, so it is little wonder they sometimes get things completely wrong.

I have no problem listening to pundits talk about things they are expert in. Alan Hanson's analysis of defending is genuinely interesting and I love listening to Guardian journalists discussing issues on the newspaper's excellent football podcast. I just can't be doing with the half-baked opinions of the likes of Claridge, who seem to talk purely for the sake of talking. If you don’t know what you’re going on about, how about just keeping your mouth shut?

A mercenary industry where cold hard cash supersedes loyalty

This week, my football column in The Argus focuses on Manchester City and on what money is doing to the game:
Even to people who have no real love for the English Premier League, a game to keep an eye on this weekend is Arsenal’s visit to Manchester City, as the juxtaposition between the two clubs is really interesting. One has a manager who, rather than spending the big bucks, likes to bring unknown players through the ranks, while the other is football’s equivalent of a Lotto winner going on a spending spree. It’ll be intriguing to see what happens and I’m probably not alone when I say that I’d really like Arsenal’s lovingly nurtured team to take City to the cleaners.

To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about Manchester City. On the one hand, I want them to fail miserably. The way they are cherry-picking players by throwing silly money around is indicative of just what is wrong with the game nowadays. Money is a disease that is eating football from the inside out. It is creating a mercenary industry where cold hard cash supersedes loyalty and success must be attained immediately or the manager is given the sack (with a tasty golden handshake) at the first opportunity. All the while fans are finding themselves progressively more alienated. How much longer can we be expected to love a game played by petulant millionaires while we struggle to afford the ever increasing ticket prices? To see City pay £24m for Jolene Lescott, who is probably worth less than half that, shows just how distorted things are becoming.

On the other hand though, I certainly don’t begrudge Manchester City fans the newfound excitement that all these signings has brought them. It can’t be easy living in the shadow of Manchester United, and it would be nice if the top four’s monopoly was compromised. I suppose though, that the reason I’m not sure how I feel about Manchester City is because I realise that my problems with their wealth are born largely out of jealousy. In truth, it’s hard to be too resentful when I know, in my heart of hearts, that if an insanely rich Sheikh threw a gazillion pounds at my team, my outlook would be very much different. We’d all love it if success was achieved organically; if our club climbed the leagues through hard work and a sensible business model while retaining a sense of community, but if a place among football’s elite could be fast-tracked by an Arab with more dosh than sense, would you hear me moralising about how money is ruining the game? Of course not, I’d be too busy deciding which of our new superstar signings’ names I was going to have printed on the back of my replica shirt.

A Phoenix finally rising from the ashes

My weekly column has started up again for the football season. This year, it's in The Argus on a Thursday, not a Saturday. The wordcount is up to 550 now. Ooh. Here is this week's:I’m lucky enough to have seen some beautiful sights in recent years. I’ve watched the sunset turn Ayers Rock the deepest orange. I’ve gazed in marvel from an aeroplane window at illuminated streets flowing like lava through the blackness of the New York night. I’ve stood in the Colosseum, surrounded by the aura of ghosts from its brutal Roman history. I’ve been dwarfed by the steel magnificence of the Eiffel Tower in Paris and strolled the gothic backstreets of Barcelona. However, last week I saw a sight during my humdrum daily routine in familiar old East Sussex that topped anything I have ever seen before.

I was on the train from Brighton to Eastbourne when I noticed something that made my stomach turn somersaults and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It was a fleeting moment, yet one so perfect that I will always remember it. I was staring vacantly out of the window as the train chugged past Falmer station when I noticed, poking up from behind some trees, the tiniest glimpse of a metal structure. This may not seem like much to get excited about but, of course, this skeletal framework represented so much more than the sum of its parts. To me, and to all supporters of Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, it is a Phoenix finally rising from the ashes, an embryonic vision of what will soon be Albion’s shiny new home.

Earlier this year I was at the Olympiastadion in Berlin. After a quick wander around to take in its history (it was there that black athlete, Jesse Owens, famously won four Olympic gold medals while Adolf Hitler watched on), I sat in the stand and breathed in my surroundings. Being a stadium nerd, this magnificent theatre of sport had me drooling, with its 3,500 ton roof and bright blue running track, and it made me think about how amazing it will be to finally get to Falmer. However, at the time, the idea of sitting in a comfortable ground, with decent acoustics and a roof over my head every fortnight seemed, somehow, still so far-fetched. Sure, as I was pondering this, work on the Falmer site had started, but it hadn’t amounted to much more than a few diggers churning through some fields. I had always said that, because the quest for Brighton's stadium had been going on for so long, I’d half-resigned myself to it never actually being built, and that I wouldn’t believe it was really going to happen until I saw the first brick being laid. Well, with a simple peek over the trees from the train window, I have now, finally, seen it with my own two eyes. It looked more like the picture above then the one below (which is what it will eventually become), but was still beautiful.If you haven’t already done so, then check out the stadium gallery on the Albion’s website. With photographs showing how it is taking shape remarkably quickly, it’s the best thing I’ve seen on the internet since I typed ‘lion reunion’ into youtube.

Regardless of whether I’m spending ages online, looking at photos of what is surely the most exciting construction site ever, or catching a real life glance out of a train window, I can finally now allow myself to really believe, with no degree of uncertainty whatsoever, that the Falmer stadium is on its way. And what a great feeling that is.

Passion, noise and excitement?

Every Saturday i have my own column in English newspaper, The Argus. here is today's:
I gave my Australian girlfriend her first taste of English football last week. Being an integral part of the super trendy Sydney fashion scene, she is far more interested in high-waisted trousers and vintage dresses than watching 22 men with Toni & Guy haircuts chase a piece of leather around some grass, but, knowing what a big part of my life football is, she was happy to come and see what gets me so happy/angry/frustrated/depressed on a Saturday. Bearing in mind the only other sporting occasion she has ever attended was an Aussie Rules game played at Melbourne’s world-famous MCG in front of about 90,000 fervent fans, I had to try to choose a match that would equal that occasion for atmosphere and thrills. So, with that in mind, the most obvious thing to do would have been to take her to England’s important World Cup qualifier at Wembley on Wednesday night. I didn’t do that though. Oh no. I decided to give her her first sample of English football in a place that is perhaps least representative of its passion, noise and excitement. That’s right, we went to Withdean to watch a goalless draw between Brighton & Hove Albion and Tranmere Rovers.

We sat in the north stand and I did my best to explain what was happening on the pitch (“The Brighton player is kicking the ball to another Brighton player… oh, he’s kicked it straight at the Tranmere player.”). She seemed to take it all in, although, as Brighton's Dean Cox almost scored a cracking volley, I noticed her absently reading the list of ingredients on the back of her drink bottle. Later, as Tranmere fired in a corner, she was instead focusing on pulling a loose thread from her jumper. I’m sure we can all sympathise with the fact that her attention wandered at regular intervals and, for the most part, she actually rather enjoyed the game, even though she didn‘t get to see any goals. While she may not have sampled English football in its most indicative environment (like at a ground where the stands aren‘t a million miles from the pitch), she did at least get the full Withdean experience in just one afternoon. She got to see how the warmth of the sun can create a typically lethargic atmosphere, and how the inevitable rain causes everyone to reach for their ponchos. She saw fairly poor football punctuated by some decent moments, heard an equal amount of wit, moaning and expletives from fans, and got to join in with the occasional chant of ‘Albion’. Oh, and at least Brighton didn’t lose. I suppose, actually, in that respect, it wasn’t quite the full Withdean experience after all.

The transfer window - a false, cornered market?

Every Saturday I write a column about football in English newspaper, The Argus. Here is an excerpt from my musings this week:Hull City manager Phil Brown recently brought up some interesting points about the transfer window, saying agents and players have created a false, cornered market that is unfairly weighed in favour of the seller. This prompted Manchester City boss Mark Hughes to bemoan the inflated prices and heightened expectations that come about because of the limited time clubs have to conduct their transfers.

It’s hardly surprising Hughes has got the hump, as surely any club that he approaches will stick a few million quid on any player’s asking price in the knowledge that Manchester City are swimming in cash since their takeover. A case in point was the Shay Given transfer. Newcastle boss Joe Kinnear described City’s original bid of £5m as “insulting.” This translates as, “Do me a favour. If you could afford to offer a hundred million for Kaka, you can at least throw us another £3m.”

I think the transfer window favours the big clubs who can afford to start the season with a massive squad. While everyone else suffers because of injuries and suspensions, the likes of Manchester United have players such as Tevez chomping at the bit to get a game. Mark Hughes stated in a recent interview that he couldn’t remember why the transfer window was brought in, and neither can I. Presumably it was for the benefit of the game, but how can such a melee where silly money is spent in a state of panic be anything but detrimental to football? Sure, it’s a fun spectacle for fans, but in these worrying economic times, shouldn’t more measured financial decisions be encouraged, rather than clubs desperately throwing money around and hoping some of it will stick?

Inane and out of touch...

My Sports Argus column is well under way (complete with new photo - below, taken by talented Sydney photographer Daniel Boud), and my intention to grind people’s gears a little this season is already having effect. Last week, someone wrote a letter to complain that my writing was “inane” and “out of touch”. This was the column that offended them so:This Saturday saw my first trip to Withdean since Sheffield Wednesday put the nail in our relegation coffin at the end of the season before last. It was odd spending a whole year away from the club (I was overseas), and I am pleased to be back, sampling the electric atmosphere of Withdean.

The fact that the visit of Northampton was my first appearance at Withdean this season means I didn’t make it to either of the two home pre-season games. To be honest, I deliberately avoided both of these matches, even though they were against Premiership opposition.

I have absolutely no idea why anyone would want to attend a friendly match unless the opponents were one of the big boys, like Manchester United or Liverpool. The thought of Messrs Rooney or Gerrard treading the Withdean turf would certainly have been enough to draw me through the turnstiles, but my mouth hardly watered at the thought of Fulham visiting our home town. Friendlies are obviously invaluable to managers and players, but what do they offer supporters, other than making our wallets a bit lighter for the benefit of watching a disjointed, dull game of football? We’ll all see enough of them during the season anyway.

Similarly, the game against Reading was something I had little interest in. I wouldn’t have minded seeing the legends stretching their tired old legs, but testimonials are something that I don’t necessarily agree with. Don’t get me wrong, I think Kerry is a top bloke and has been a great servant to the Albion, and the same can be said for Gary Hart, but the idea that professional footballers in this day and age should be given an extra payout at our expense just doesn’t sit well with me.

I’m sure many will disagree with my opinion, but footballers earn a lot more than us, even at the Albion’s level, and so I feel reluctant to throw any more of my money at them. Where are the testimonials for the members of staff who give many more years of service for a fraction of the wages that the players earn? For me, testimonial matches belong back in the days when footballers earned a relative pittance and had to scrape a living once their playing days were done. Okay, so it’s nice to pay tribute to players we respect like Kerry and Harty, but with footballers earning big bucks while fans are paying ridiculously inflated prices for tickets, surely testimonials are an unnecessary and slightly insulting anachronism? Lots of us give years of service in our jobs, or are forced to change careers in our 30s, but you don’t see us getting a tasty pay-out.

While we are on the subject of The Argus, check this out, it was a piece in the paper about a charity pancake race I did a few years back (below). Get a load of that Peter Andre hair. What was I thinking? (click the picture to see it in all its glory).