Like the Sugababes, Brighton keep on delivering hits, whatever their line-up!

Embracing change is key as poster boys mix it with Big Six

IT’S 2am at a Hove bar on a Monday morning, which might seem an odd time for a party. Yet here Brighton’s first-team squad, manager and the entire staff were crammed into a drinking establishment celebrating their season.

They had finished ninth last May and before the fun police pronounce disapprovingly on excessive revelry for top-ten finishes, this is a club who were within a game of going out of the league in 1997, who were evicted from their own ground in Brighton, forced to play at Gillingham in Kent for two seasons and when they finally got back to Brighton, played at an athletics stadium, where the shot-putt circle obstructed fans’ views.

And the celebration was a genuine all-club affair. Staff from marketing, media, sales were there with star players and coaches, partly because that’s the kind of culture they have. But also because the club bonus structure extends to all staff, from the car park attendant to Danny Welbeck and Adam Lallana. The difference between finishing ninth and 12th, which is where they might have ended up but for 3-1 win over West Ham on that last day of the season, was £6million, shared among all the staff. So everyone had a reason to celebrate that night.

Brighton are the poster club of the Premier League. Everyone wants their staff and players. They spotted World Cup winning Alexis

Mac Allister when he was a raw 19-year-old at Argentinos Juniors, signed Leandro Trossard at Genk, brought Ben White through the ranks and gave Graham Potter his Premier League chance.

Today their latest prodigy, Moises Caicedo is at the centre of a transfer struggle with Arsenal. And yet even if does leave after a strong plea to go on Instagram, you feel Brighton may survive and thrive.

They’ve survived worse. Newcastle took their technical director and best defender, Chelsea took their manager, most of his staff and their world-class left-back.

Arsenal took White and Trossard and now want Caicedo, yet Brighton keep getting better. Currently sixth in the Premier League and preparing to host Liverpool in the FA Cup today having beaten them 3-0 two weeks ago, one journalistic wit dubbed them football’s Sugababes: it doesn’t matter how much you change the line-up, they keep delivering hit records!

Brighton won’t roll over on Caicedo. If he goes, it will be on their terms. However, they will also have a replacement in mind and the ship will keep steady on it course.

‘We identified years ago that if we want to be successful we have to accept change is a permanent state,’ said chief executive Paul Barber, who has worked previously for the FA, Spurs and in American with the MLS. ‘It’s about having a plan to replace people. And how far do you take that? Is it about the manager, the technical director, the chief executive?’

Brighton not only have a plan to replace every player should they go, they also have identified the next best person for the job in 25 key executive positions.

Hence, when Potter left in September, they knew Roberto de Zerbi was their preferred replacement and were confident he would continue and evolve the style Potter has put in place.

David Weir, who replaced Dan Ashworth as technical director says it’s a little like the swan analogy, serene to the outside world while, unseen, paddling like crazy.

‘We’ve lost a lot of senior people. But the club is more than that,’ said Weir, the former Rangers and Everton defender. ‘People can leave — staff and players — but I think it’s a good thing if people want your people. It shows you have recruited well and give them a platform.’ At the heart is owner Tony Bloom, the maths grad city trader turned Poker player — his moniker was ‘The Lizard’ — who took over in 2009. There was much hilarity when Brighton, then a yo-yo club between Championship and League One, announced their vision was to be ‘Premier League Ready’.

Yet they went up in 2017 under Chris Hughton, saying their new goal was now to be ‘Premier League Steady’ — meaning that they had to stay up. They did: just. Controversially they brought in Potter for Hughton having identified a style change to aim for the top ten.

To do so while constantly being raided by the Big Six can be wearing. ‘You do always have that threat and fear of things going wrong, whether that’s two or three bad signings, a bad transfer window or a couple of injuries,’ said Weir.

But to allay that risk, Brighton deploy superb data analysis and add in talented human beings to act on it. It is no coincidence that the two best run clubs in the Premier League have owners with a gambling and data analytics background: Brentford’s Matthew Bentham used to work for Bloom. Data has revolutionised football recruitment but none applies it better than Bloom and Brighton.

Yet data without talented scouts, good connections and human skills to do deals doesn’t get you far. ‘Mac Allister is probably the perfect story,’ said Weir. ‘We were on site in Argentina watching him at Argentinos Juniors and we really liked him. Head of recruitment Paul Winstanley (who has since left for Chelsea) and Sam Jewell (head of scouting) had been over there. Data was a big part of the process, especially during Covid when we couldn’t travel.’

Weir was loans manager at the time and, once the player had agreed to come to Brighton, travelled out to facilitate a loan to Boca Juniors to allow him to develop further. Mac Allister came to England in 2020 and in less than two years became a World Cup winner. Caicedo was spotted in Ecuador playing for Independiente del Valle but was loaned to Beerschot in Belgium to help him develop before being brought into Brighton’s squad. Barber says: ‘Data allows us to fish in ponds that other clubs too afraid to fish in because they don’t know enough about them. We’re prepared to go into darker, deeper ponds in Central and South America. People don’t think of Ecuador and Paraguay.’ At a recent Chelsea press conference, Potter was asked whether he should expect the sack having won lost six and won one of his last eight Premier League games. ‘I wouldn’t get sacked at a well run club,’ he fired back. ‘I wouldn’t get sacked at Brighton.’ This time last year Potter critics were in full cry as Brighton slumped down the table having lost six consecutive games. Barber, who was Potter’s neighbour, went round to his house for a coffee, which might have seemed inauspicious at another club.

‘I popped round and Graham said: “Paul, we’re playing really well and we’ve lost six in a row!” And I said: “Everybody in the club knows how well we’re playing. Every member of staff is absolutely backing you. There’s not a single board member even considering a change. Just keep doing what you’re doing.”’ A 0-0 draw with Norwich followed and then five wins in the last eight games, including victories over Arsenal and Tottenham, and a 4-0 demolition of Ralf Rangnick’s Manchester United, a run which saw them finish ninth, the club’s highestever position, which prompted that late night Hove celebration.

‘I think Graham felt the way that we operate then more than at any other point in his three years,’ said Barber. ‘At his lowest ebb, we weren’t down. We’re not too high on the highs and not too low on the lows. We just keep doing what we’re doing.’

Data allows us to go into ponds where other clubs are afraid to fish