After the tumult of the 2022/23 campaign that saw them coached by no fewer than four managers , Brighton and Hove Albion were left languishing just outside the relegation places in the Barclays Women's Super League.

Their apparent saviour, Mel Phillips, took charge of the team for the final few games of the season and proclaimed her intention to take the team to the top four of the WSL - but by Spring 2024, she too was abruptly sacked, with Brighton again near the bottom of the table and the club's patience apparently exhausted.

They've since managed a 9th-place finish under interim boss Mikey Harris, but recent results have made it all too clear that the project Phillips was denied the chance to complete will require far more patience from the club.

After she'd stabilised the foundations at the club, it quickly became obvious she wanted to go further and build something far greater. The American was blunt about her intentions to make Brighton a top four club, but her first priority was improving week-to-week performances on the pitch. Perhaps it was that mix of pragmatism and ambition that sparked a bustling transfer window on the South Coast, bringing in eleven new signings - including Champions League runner-up Pauline Bremer alongside a former Manchester United and Chelsea defender, Maria Thorisdottir.

Having taken over at a time when all she could do was secure survival, Phillips was now looking to push her new-look squad to far greater heights - and there were glimmers of the quality in the squad starting to shine through. The Seagulls held last year's title challengers Manchester United to a draw at home in November, and just a week later pulled off one of the season's biggest upsets with a narrow 0-1 victory over Manchester City in a game Gareth Taylor's side will no doubt have thought about countless times in the tight title race that followed.

It came as a massive shock, most of all to Phillips, when she was relieved of her duties. The announcement came mere hours after she held a pre-match press conference, and was apparently a surprise to almost everyone across the team and media. The club said that results had not matched their expectations following heavy investment over the summer - and so, just like that, the reins were snatched from Phillips after only ten months, and handed to interim boss Mikey Harris.

Scraping by Phillips' departure sent shockwaves through the WSL and introduced the unknown quantity of Harris, who arrived from Brighton's men's academy charged with saving the Seagulls from relegation again. He was plunged into the deep end with a trip to Manchester United in the league, where his side lost 2-0 but put in a respectable performance.

Fans would have been pleased that the team, many of whom had only played for Brighton under Phillips, avoided a total collapse and still showed bursts of their quality.

After a disappointing loss to Aston Villa in the Conti Cup, the mood was then lifted again by thumping wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers in the FA Cup and Bristol City in the WSL - those promising results were interspersed with frustrating defeats and draws, but the pressure was largely off after their 3-7 defeat of the later-relegated Robins.

Next steps In some ways, Brighton's situation now feels similar to where they were a year ago: despite a few top-level results, it's clear that some heavy lifting is needed to consistently perform at the heady heights that its higher-ups insist is the goal.

Ironically, the personnel situation has almost reversed from the beginning of last summer. Previously, there was a respected manager under whose direction a world-class squad could be built, whereas now there's a team of born winners under a coach taking on his first top-flight team.

That's no disrespect to Mikey Harris: he's won the admiration of many fans for steadying the ship, as Mel Phillips did last year, and the team has inched slightly up the table under his guidance. But can he take the past the brick wall they seem to keep hitting - that they are failing to hit the standards they're so clearly capable of?

To prevent key players - like young Lioness Katie Robinson, who is out of contract this summer - from moving on to pastures new, Brighton will need to move that they have a real plan (and the patience to stick it out) to give their world-class players the management they deserve.

The balance between ambition and pragmatism is one the club's hierarchy have failed to strike so far, but must they find it - and fast - if they're to realise the potential of their stellar squad.