Saturday night wouldn't be Saturday night in my household without a visit to the 24-hour garage to buy a Sports Argus after the Albion game.

Vintage Vinners is usually the first page I turn to.

John's subject last weekend was former Albion manager Alan Mullery and how he is now perceived by a section of the Brighton support.

As far as I'm concerned, Mullery's achievement in getting the club promoted to the top flight in 1979, in his first spell as Albion boss, puts him right up there as a club legend.

However, since his first departure when he fell out with Mike Bamber over the proposed sale of Mark Lawrenson in the summer of 1981, his relationship with the Albion has steadily deteriorated.

Perhaps there is something in the saying you should never go back because any grudges Mullery may hold against the Albion are probably a result of his sacking in early 1987, just months after he had returned to his spiritual seaside home in a blaze of publicity.

On the face of it, he was badly treated. I suspect he was angered by the fact that he returned as nothing more than a patsy in order to placate season ticket holders angered by Chris Cattlin's sacking while the board's preferred choice, the unknown Barry Lloyd, arrived almost unnoticed as part of Mullery's backroom staff.

Since the day he was sacked Mullery seems to have developed a huge chip on his shoulder when it comes to the Albion.

He slated another former manager, Liam Brady, at every available opportunity, snubbed the club's centenary celebrations in 2001 and is far from complimentary about the Albion on what seems to be a regular basis.

Not quite a case of biting the hand that feeds, but it is sad that he has to take this stance against the club which gave him his big chance in management, especially when you consider that his quarrel was with three or four directors of whom only Ray Bloom still has anything to do with the club.

On the subject of yesteryear, I'm indebted to regular HOTM reader Ray Henson, from Worthing, who recently handed me an Evening Argus from May 1995. The back page headline was "Albion closer to a new home".

Andy Naylor reported that David Bellotti (remember him) had revealed the Albion had whittled down potential sites for a new stadium to two and there was a possibility that season 1996-97 could be the club's last at the Goldstone. Well, at least the former chief exec was right about that!

It was the prices that caught my eye. The Argus had gone up 4p in eight years but the potential cost of the stadium has risen from £15m to £48m!

We've all seen the plans, Tracey Island-type models and computer generated graphics, but what will the Albion actually get for their money?

It's obviously going to be something special because looking at the cost and that of other football stadiums, Falmer would be the most expensive stadium outside the Premiership and Wembley ever built in this country.

August 2006 can't come quickly enough!

It may have taken well over 100 years but there is a very good chance that in the next week or so Sussex will win the county championship - cricket's equivalent of the Premiership - for the first time in their history.

So it will be only fair for the cricket club to have the same civic honours that were bestowed on Albion when they won their back-to-back championships.

You never know, Brighton and Hove City Council's chief executive David Panter might even take them out for a slap-up meal on his corporate credit card!