Brighton transfers explained: Seagulls are Premier League pioneers despite quiet transfer deadline day

Ben Miller

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Brighton transfers explained: Seagulls are Premier League pioneers despite quiet transfer deadline day image

Brighton & Hove Albion's transfer alchemy isn't all smoke and mirrors.

While Chelsea were offering £41 million more for Enzo Fernandez than the total value of all the Albion players involved in Liverpool's FA Cup exit less than 24 hours earlier, the club four places above former manager Graham Potter's side spent £3.5m on a midfielder from Swedish team AIK.

Yasin Ayari clearly holds promise as a 19-year-old who made his Sweden debut last month, but he hardly leaps out as an obvious Premier League prospect. Instead, he is the latest quiet arrival in an occasional series of small-stakes gambles by Tony Bloom, the club owner whose success as a professional gambler has parallels with the admiration and ample financial rewards his club is now reaping for its cunning chip-playing.

Tony Bloom: Poker-playing mastermind behind transfers

Although Bloom's family have been involved in the leadership of the club for much of the 52-year-old's life, until 2009 many fans only knew of the man who would fund the construction of the impressive Amex Stadium through word and occasional sight of his poker prowess.

There had been whispers of Bloom possessing intricate worldwide networks that would benefit Brighton before he became chairman, but the ambition of scouting on other continents seemed fanciful for a club still struggling to make ends meet and escape the third tier of English football at their notoriously basic temporary home of Withdean Stadium, let alone the idea of becoming pioneers for talent-spotting.

Bloom's Starlizard company, which uses an army of analysts to collect data from leagues and sell it to companies, proved as powerful on the pitch as it does to the lucrative betting syndicates with which its owner gains an edge over odds-makers.

While the precise metrics it uses to identify potential new Brighton signings are not clear, the 'Moneyball' method of relying on forensic analysis of data from thousands of games has paid off spectacularly.

Why Brighton don't panic when players move on

Ben White had been released by Southampton when Brighton signed the future £50m Arsenal defender as a free agent, while 2022 FIFA World Cup winner Alexis Mac Allister cost £7m from Argentinos Juniors and Moises Caicedo signed for £5m from Independiente del Valle.

Bloom and his transfer team have all the qualities required to prosper in a casino: thinking a street ahead, keeping cool heads, playing at their pace and refusing to be flustered under pressure.

They dislike the winter transfer window — another largely unknown development-squad signing is the nearest they usually come to drama on January 31 — and chief executive Paul Barber has described how there is always a list of potential replacements for specific players and coaching staff.

Potter had long been earmarked as a rising coach who would suit Brighton's progressive style before he succeeded the revered, more conservative Chris Hughton in 2019, and Roberto De Zerbi, who has made an exceptional start to his reign despite Potter taking a stampede of Brighton's backroom and recruitment staff to Chelsea, clearly met the managerial mould.

When Chelsea came in for Marc Cucurella, Brighton held out for £63m for the player of the year who cost them £15m from Getafe 11 months earlier, then replaced him with another £15m player in Pervis Estupinan, who tortured Trent Alexander-Arnold in that FA Cup win alongside £2.6m Kauru Mitoma, a throwback winger from Kawasaki Frontale with a reliably thrilling ability to beat his markers, produce crosses and shoot dangerously.

Neal Maupay had top-scored for three seasons but joined Everton at the end of August, and Evan Ferguson, an 18-year-old who only made his debut in senior football outside Ireland in January 2022, has ultimately replaced the Frenchman by looking like a player who has led the line in the Premier League for 10 years, scoring three times and providing two assists in his five league appearances this season. Ferguson rejected Liverpool before joining Brighton in 2021.

Innovative interpretation of data dominates Brighton's approach, which broadly seeks out technically gifted team players who are extremely comfortable on the ball.

Brighton's attitude to transfers is also vital. Players and staff are encouraged to better themselves by moving on when the right deal is in place for the club, so there has been little friction over moves such as the one made by Yves Bissouma — signed as a raw talent from Lille in 2018, and Albion's only consistently excellent central midfielder in 2021/22 — to Tottenham Hotspur.

There was some discontent over Belgium forward Leandro Trossard's abrupt switch to Arsenal in January and Caicedo's clumsily worded statement insisting he wanted to follow suit days later, but the blame for those situations being handled imperfectly has been placed on greed from agents rather than the players, who move on with minimal fuss when the time is right.

Players know they will be given time to develop at the excellent facilities provided by the training complex at Lancing, which was one of the first investments Bloom made as chairman and is a place where Brighton's teams at all levels are schooled in playing in the same eye-catching style.

There are also early opportunities to play senior football at a high level rather than stagnate: 19-year-old Poland midfielder Kacper Kozlowski is currently starring for Dutch top-flight side Vitesse, and Mitoma is one of numerous players to have had loan spells at Union Saint-Gilloise, the Belgian club who have won promotion to the First Division and become title contenders since Bloom became owner in 2018.

Have Brighton ever made a bad signing?

All Brighton's array of development techniques do is increase their chances of incubating the next Mac Allister or Mitoma. There is no way of guaranteeing any inexperienced player will meet the exacting demands of the Premier League, and there have inevitably been many less successful deals along the way.

Albion broke their club record in 2018 by spending £17m on Alireza Jahanbakhsh from Dutch club AZ, with fans still unsure whether he would sign while excitedly tracking his flight to England amid strong interest from Leicester City, who were arguably a significantly more attractive proposition for a player seeking to make their mark in the top half of the Premier League at the time.

Brighton were short on creativity and flair during much of the Iran international's three-year spell with them, but his exquisite acrobatic strike at home to Chelsea was a rare high point for a player whose impact was negligible.

Other players have demonstrated the difficulty of bridging the gap between bright prospects and signings capable of reaching the very top: Matt Clarke was named Player of the Year at Derby County and West Bromwich Albion during successive loan spells from Brighton but was eventually sold to another second-tier side, Middlesbrough, without appearing for his parent club, having perhaps been unlucky to find himself at a club crammed with classy centre-backs.

It is quite conceivable that the element of luck Brighton require for their masterplan to keep working will run out — and just as feasible that they have planned for that eventuality.

The future is Brighton

De Zerbi has suggested they will struggle to continue competing for European qualification without reinforcements, and by the start of the 2023/24 season they may well have sold an entire first-choice midfield within a year, not to mention the enforced retirement of the hugely unfortunate Enock Mwepu through a heart condition.

Even if a steep drop in results follows, there will be no panic. Patience — appropriately for a club who spent 14 years trying to return to a permanent home stadium — is the virtue that has served Brighton best, and there are no delusions of grandeur after decades outside the top division.

It would have been tempting to chase the instant gratification of an expensive signing when the team comically underperformed against their expected goals during much of Potter's tenure, but the nearest they came was spending £9.5m in June on Julio Enciso, a 19-year-old attacker from Libertad Asuncion who seemed disbelieving at his arrival, sitting at a table at Brighton Marina for a live interview on Paraguayan national television.

International media attention around signings and a reputation for stealing a march on top clubs feels surreal at Brighton given that Matt Upson and Darren Bent were temporary recruits to prop up an unconvincing Championship squad less than 10 years ago.

Compared to a costly quick fix, acting in contrast to the mega-wealthy and taking informed risks in the hope of finding the next White, Cucurella or Caicedo is a much more exciting and sustainable way to treat the market.

Ben Miller

Ben Miller Photo

Ben Miller has been writing about sport for 25 years, following all levels of football as well as boxing, MMA, athletics and tennis. He’s seen five promotions, three relegations, one World Cup winner and home games in at least three different stadiums as a result of his lifelong devotion to Brighton & Hove Albion. His main aim each week is to cover at least one game or event that does not require a last-minute rewrite.