Brighton
It is an example of how the clashing parties in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Sunday are forcing other clubs to take note of their successes in finding and signing players.
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A source at a major club, who spoke on condition of anonymity to others he spoke to via The Athletic about relations, said: “We see Brighton as our biggest rival in some markets.
Caicedo bought Independiente del Valle in his home country. Two years earlier, Brighton bought Alexis Mac Allister, now a World Cup winner with Argentina, from Argentinos Juniors for £8 million.
Kaoru Mitoma, the Japanese left winger with seven goals and 4 assists in 24 appearances in his first Premier League season, joined from Kawasaki Frontale in the J1 League for £3m in August 2021.
Striker Evan Ferguson, 18, a senior international for the Republic of Ireland, has burst onto the scene this season, attracting Manchester United.
Brighton signed Ferguson, out of Sunday’s semi-final with an ankle injury suffered in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Chelsea, for the Bohemians academy in January 2021 before feeding him into the Under-21s.
–Brighton
The club will make huge profits when Ferguson, Caicedo, Mac Allister and Mitoma are sold.
The Brighton operation makes a huge impression on recruitment specialists, executives, managers and agents in the football industry. So how do they do it?Is their style sustainable?
The point of Brighton’s ability to obtain gems at low cost is chairman and owner Tony Bloom’s global player information, which no one else can replicate.
The 53-year-old sports entrepreneur has his own software that filters the entire market. The set of rules is a secret, kept even for club insiders.
Brighton is a consumer of Bloom’s company, Starlizard, which buys the knowledge that underpins the recruitment program.
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Explorers are given a list of names to watch out for and compile reports on players who have passed the knowledge checklist, on points such as age and minutes played.
A mild traffic formula is used to inform. Green means an adjustment, amber is for players who are close to meeting the criteria and red is for monitoring.
Gareth Jennings, FIFA’s former head of technical progression after serving as academy director at Leicester City and Stoke City, said: “There are 3 degrees to signing players: signing players for now, recruiting for now and for the future, and then for the future.
“They don’t touch the players for the existing scenario. Look at the signings in January: (Facundo) Buonanotte from Rosario Central for £6 million for an 18-year-old (Argentine) with huge potential.
“He has this ability to be in and around the team now, however, he is one for the future. Yasin Asari (19) from Sweden for £4 million; Again, huge potential.
“They have that smart balance in terms of understanding the type of players they need to bring in and who have compatibility in the way they play. “
It’s not just about having data, it’s about how to use it in the most productive way to identify players who will be most productive and compatible with the club.
Brighton were one of the first clubs to look for players by position rather than by region. They appointed John Doolan as director of search for the centre forward last month after a decade at Everton.
Les Reed, former FA technical director and Southampton vice-chairman, said: “There are safe spaces, strikers are one of them, where there is a distinctive merit to have someone who delights in who has been a prolific goalscorer or who has studied. he. ; that attention to detail is important.
Brighton competes with the clubs richest in fees and salaries. The maximum they have paid for a player remains £20 million for centre-back Adam Webster in the Bristol City league look in August 2019.
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Brentford are the only Premier League rivals with a lower wage bill. Therefore, Brighton are looking for players in whom they can get an advantage.
A source from a primary club said: “I wouldn’t call what they’re doing revolutionary, but they’re tackling new emerging markets.
“We know the players before they are signed, but they are in a position where they may be offering slow integration into the Premier League, whereas at the bigger clubs the players want to be there to move on and play without delay at the elite level. . . “
Brighton can cite examples and closer to home with players like Ferguson, who was sought by Liverpool, of an obviously identifiable path to career progression.
Jennings, who was recently appointed technical director of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Pro League, says: “The smart thing about integrating young players into the formula and developing them is that you don’t have to create a story in Brighton because you live the strategy.
“They show that there is a path to the first team and you will play in the Premier League, or we can be just a stepping stone, the opportunity for you to pass and play at the high level of a big European club or one of the most productive British clubs.
“I work with some clubs around the world in an advisory capacity. Many of them have documented it in brilliant booklets that say this is our way of playing, this is our identity.
“Many clubs in times of panic, when the team is not doing so well, will buy players for now, rush and pay more than opportunities. This upsets the balance, so the story you told the young players is disrupted. “.
“Brighton has been very clear, very consistent in the way it has worked. You have to compare your team and the team in general, the players coming in.
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“The uninterrupted paints of all the high performance staff in Brighton will have to be very good. “
Reaching the top flight in England in 2017 and developing their style has given Brighton an edge over clubs in other major leagues, such as La Liga in Spain.
According to an agent from one of Spain’s leading agencies, they have surpassed clubs like Sevilla and Valencia in terms of young players with trampoline potential.
This is especially true for South American players, who see Brighton as an environment in which they can grow before moving on. They can offer salaries 3 times higher than La Liga clubs can afford, with the exception of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid.
This is highlighted through Ecuadorian left-back Pervis Estupinan, who joined Brighton last summer for £15 million from Villarreal.
Estupinan has been a notable replacement for Marc Cucurella, signed through Chelsea in August for a payment of up to £63m with additions after an impressive season at Amex.
Reed said: “I would have liked to go back to when Southampton was the model, but Brighton is now.
“They stand out as the club that has benefited from making an investment not only in recruitment, but in a hiring formula for a club of their length that allows them to punch through their weight and succeed at who they are now. “
Uniting knowledge with more classic exploration strategies in the area with an eye on one player is a balancing act for all clubs.
A competitor’s source says from Brighton: “They have a strong physical presence in the market, as well as knowledge. The total consultation of knowledge is exaggerated. I don’t know of any club that uses scouts’ knowledge. “
“He’s there to complement the scouts’ paintings and direct them primarily to the player they’re looking for. “
Head coach Roberto De Zerbi is getting used to Brighton’s way of doing things.
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The Italian had his own man in the position of deputy head of recruitment, Salvatore Monaco, a former centre-back for several clubs in De Zerbi’s homeland. They worked together at Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine.
Monaco, appointed in October, left after the January movement window because it didn’t need it. De Zerbi sanctioned his departure.
Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber, guilty of managing the club on Bloom’s behalf, said: “We have another procedure for many clubs, we don’t qualify worldwide, constantly watching games looking at the players, which is like a needle in a haystack.
“We look for spaces to improve, we look for players that we think can fill that void, and then we send our scouts to look at those players in particular. “
January was De Zerbi’s first revelation of how Brighton works in a window of movement, which is different from the summer window in which they like to make the most of their business.
“I’m getting used to working with algorithms in another motion market and I’m getting used to enjoying that array,” De Zerbi said.
“I didn’t know that before. I spent a lot of time reading new players on video, but now I perceive that there is a way to locate players.
“At Sassuolo (in Serie A) and Shakhtar it was completely different. I had a member of my team give me a player’s call and I studied the players, but no numbers, no data, just video.
The Brighton Way is designed with sustainability in mind and succession plans are ready when members leave.
This has allowed the club to continue to progress despite a higher turnover of the key staff of workers and players, especially with the appointment of De Zerbi in September when Graham Potter left for Chelsea.
This also applies to the recruitment component. Returning to the January 2022 movement window, technical director Dan Ashworth, with Paul Winstanley at the helm of recruitment.
Ashworth resigned the following month to complete an extended move to Newcastle United. David Weir had been promoted from loan director to assistant to Ashworth’s assistant. The former foreign defender of Rangers from Glasgow, Everton and Scotland then took over as manager.
The situation was similar when Winstanley left in November to sign for Potter at Chelsea as co-sporting director.
Sam Jewell assumed the role of Director of Recruitment at the age of 33, having risen through the ranks for over seven years from U-21 Recruitment Manager to Emerging Talent Search Manager.
He played a vital role in the signings of Caicedo, Mac Allister, Buonanotte and Paraguayan prospect Julio Enciso, learning Spanish during the COVID-19 lockdown to improve his communication skills in South America.
–Brighton
Nottingham Forest, inspired by the Brighton model, were keen to point out young players with the best prospects for resale ahead of the season when general manager Dane Murphy and recruitment boss George Sirianos.
Once they left, this brainstorming procedure did the same.
Brighton’s style gradually evolved over time through Bloom and Barber.
Survival in the Premier League the goal of the first two seasons after the league was promoted under Chris Hughton in 2017. This ended 34 years of the most sensible escape, dating back to the 1983 FA Cup final defeat to Manchester United after a replay, which accompanied them through relegation.
The new vision when Hughton sacked and replaced through Potter to make Brighton one of the top 10 most sensible clubs. This meant not only a more subtle taste of play, but also the building of a younger team.
David Moyes, West Ham and former Manchester United manager, said: “We have all been inspired by Brighton for many years because of its construction, its model.
“There are styles all over Europe that are attractive and exciting to watch. I talk about the Red Bull style and how they’ve been successful with their clubs. I don’t know how many years they’ve been there, maybe 10 years now; Brighton, you see the players who they bought are younger.
“They’ve been able to faint and buy young players who maybe are ready, give them a few years before putting them in the team and now they have a lot of smart young players. “
They are now reaping the rewards of a slow expansion that dates back to 2011, when they were crowned Ligue 1 champions at the Withdean Stadium, a changed running track, before moving to the new Amex Stadium.
Reed says, “It took a long time. Ever since they built the Amex and worked their way up to the Premier League, this has been the order of the day.
“This is largely similar to the fact that Tony’s company has the merit of an incredibly well-established database of players and they have been able to tailor it to their hiring.
“It’s not the result of a little smart recruiting in a few windows of movement. This has been in plain sight for some time. They’re smart at that, well-structured and well-organized. “
“It works great internally, from the chairman, the lead executive to David Weir and his recruiting department, backed through technology, yet it’s a great network and eyes on exploration. It’s just a model. “
Brighton’s cohesive design is embodied through the goalkeeper department group.
Robert Sanchez has regained his Premier League place at Chelsea in the absence of the injured Jason Steele, 32, who was recently liked through De Zerbi for his fainting and decision-making in the process.
Sanchez, 25, is a regular member of Spain’s national team and remains incredibly bright with a wonderful future.
England Under-21s Carl Rushworth is gaining valuable experience on loan at Lincoln City, in the Ligue 1 team, this season, following a spell with Walsall in Ligue 2 last season, where Manchester United saw him.
Rushworth replicates Sanchez’s path to the first team: he loaned him to Forest Green Rovers in Ligue 2 and Rochdale in Ligue 1 before Potter accelerated him to the more sensible spot at the expense of Maty Ryan in 2020-21.
Brighton have English Under-19 goalkeeper James Beadle, on loan at Crewe Alexandra in Ligue 2.
Rio Ferdinand, who won the Premier League six times with Manchester United, has put his religion in the progression of Brighton’s goalkeepers.
Lorenz Ferdinand, the 16-year-old son of the former England centre-back, for the Under-18s.
One agent told The Athletic: “Without being rocket science, they’re very smart in the way they build their goalkeepers. They have an express taste to make them very proactive and that’s the experience they have in the middle. “
“They treat it like a breeding ground and like the concept of generating their own, while some of the bigger clubs will give massive salaries to young goalkeepers. “
The long and cherished loss of Ben Roberts, when the goalkeeping coach left with Potter and other team members backstage to sign for Chelsea in September, has been absorbed.
Roberts’ Spanish replacement, Ricard Segarra, 53, coordinated coaches at Barcelona ahead of a season with Turkish giants Galatasaray.
Assistant goalkeeping coach Jack Stern joined MLS in January 2022 after running for FC Cincinnati in MLS.
On the set-up of Brighton’s goalkeepers, the agent we spoke to said: “They are up to the task. They just have a very transparent strategy, a lot of other smart people are running on it. “
Brighton has learned some classes throughout the dangerous world of scouting and recruiting players.
It is not a precise science. No amount of knowledge and due diligence can cope with a huge diversity of uncontrollable points, such as fluctuating form, injuries or the fact that a player and/or his circle of relatives move to a new environment, especially from abroad.
Errors occur. A total of £30m was spent on Dutch striker Jurgen Locadia from PSV Eindhoven in January 2018 and another Eredivisie player, Iranian winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh, from AZ Alkmaar in July 2018.
None of those agreements worked. Jahanbakhsh has regained his form since returning to the Netherlands in July 2021 at Feyenoord.
Locadia joined the Cangzhou Mighty Lions in the Chinese Super League after stints in Germany at Hoffenheim and Bochum, split for one season in the United States with FC Cincinnati.
A source from a big club said: “As with the recruitment of all teams, there are some that have worked out, but now have a great reputation in the market. “
The signings of Locadia and Jahanbakhsh predate Ashworth’s arrival in 2019 as head coach. His main endowment of experience in building a transparent path for clients such as Ferguson.
Ashworth had been the FA’s director of elite progression for six years when Brighton hired him and is necessarily replicating Brighton’s style at Newcastle, with some tweaking.
They are recruiting Scouts in Europe and South American countries, as well as a complete overhaul of youth recruitment, employing specialists for other parts of the country and abroad.
Their wealthy Saudi will be exploited not primarily by ready-made and expensive signings in the Premier League, but by the young players they can develop.
Ashworth’s reconstruction assignment in Newcastle includes a new educational centre on a forward site in Benton, which will space out men, women and academia, as will Brighton’s high-end complex in Lancing.
Newcastle appreciates how Brighton has met head coaches at Potter and now De Zerbi who have compatibility with the model, to extract maximum progression from players in the same way as Eddie Howe at St James’ Park.
Brighton’s unique merit lies in Bloom’s knowledge and insight. A scout of Premier League clubs said: “I’m sure there are a lot of elements to the good fortune they have, but I would say they are organised and willing to make wise bets when it comes to signing players.
How long can Brighton keep losing their players and keep progressing?
One or either of Mac Allister and Caicedo may move to a bigger club this summer.
Jennings says, “I’m scared, but they’ve earned worldwide acceptance and success with the football team.
“Players and agents are smart. Many other people on the outside will think they will accept the most productive contracts, but agencies are much smarter than that. They think about long-term investments and opportunities for players. “
“Brighton is a hot proposition. If players move to bigger and bigger clubs, while that’s good fortune for the formula on one front, it’s a big investment on another.
“There is then a preference of the next players who embark on those roles to think ‘I go to Manchester City, Real Madrid or Barcelona’. Brighton will give me that opportunity. “
“This style of wasting players for a lot of money to maintain the sustainability of the club contributes to the quality of the style. They expand their product.
Brighton plans at least one or two move windows in advance to lock up players they intend to expand into the first team. Simon Adingra was bought last summer for £6 million through Danish club Nordsjaelland and loaned directly to Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise, which Bloom co-owns.
A goal in Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Seraing brought the 21-year-old Ivory Coast winger’s tally to thirteen goals and thirteen assists in 43 appearances. He’s following the same path as Mitoma, who spent last season on loan at Union.
Jennings says, “If we look at the standby of artificial intelligence, we now have knowledge outside of our own clubs that we can expect if it’s compatible with our model. “
“So with this global success that they have now, they will look at other markets and realize that if we lose that player, which player will give us the same answer?They will have a very clear perception of that. “
“His ability to assess the wishes of the team has been of a higher level. If you take a look at (Champions League) clubs like Benfica or (Borussia) Dortmund and you see the point of player who has come out of their models that you think would have had a big impact on their success, there has been very little impact because that evaluation has been very good.
At Chelsea, the winning goal struck 30 yards away through 19-year-old Enciso, who has yet to make his Premier League debut. Brighton’s ability to dig up gems shows no signs of stopping.
–Brighton
Reed says, “I wonder” what happens when Mac Allister leaves?”But they’re going to have someone in a position to get in, possibly not!
“If you take a look at the Brighton team and the distribution by nationality and age, it tells you they will be ready. If they weren’t ready to recruit very effectively as a component of a succession plan, they wouldn’t have this team like This is now.
“What is known now is that other people will be watching Estupinan, Caicedo and (Jeremy) Sarmiento and suddenly there will be a lot of new scouts going to Ecuador.
“There will be a gold rush in Ecuador and other people will think there may also be players in Bolivia and Peru. “
Where will Brighton already be? “Exactly,” Reed said.
Additional contributors: Stuart James, Adam Leventhal, Oliver Kay, Danny Taylor, Dermot Corrigan
(Top photo: iStock, Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images, Mike Hewitt/Getty Images; design: Sam Richardson)