Phil Sumbler
There was a time in the not so distant past where we used to look at how things worked at Charlton Athletic and used it as the blueprint that we wanted to follow.
That was back in the days of us being a League One club and certainly before a period where we spent seven years in the Premier League and now currently at our sixteenth consecutive season in the league’s top two divisions.
That period – the most successful in the club’s history – has left us in a very different position and looking upwards to Brighton & Hove Albion as a model that we would like to follow with the Seagulls embarking this season on a first campaign of European football.
AEK Athens,ย Marseille and Ajax will all be visitors to Brighton this season as part of that European campaign which follows a best ever 6th placed Premier League finish last season playing a brand of football that attracted many plaudits for both the way that they play but also the quality of players that they have been able to attract, develop and, as we have seen very recently, move on for a handsome profit.
Moisรฉs Caicedo was the subject of a British transfer fee record this summer when he moved from Brighton to Chelsea in a deal said to be worth ยฃ115m with ยฃ100m of that reported as an up front fee.ย Not bad business for a player that the Seagulls signed themselves just two and a half years ago for a fee of ยฃ4m.
They may have had to pass on 20% of the fee to Caicedo’s former club Independiente del Valle but it is a true reflection of a transfer policy that works and one that Paul Watson says he would like to see emulated at Swansea.
Of course that is a natural thing for anyone tasked with recruitment to say given a profit of over ยฃ100m in such a short period but whilst Caicedo is maybe the best example, Brighton are known as a club that recruits well without ever seeming to be extravagant despite having the riches that can come with a Premier League (and European) income thanks to a 7th consecutive Premier League season.
It is little wonder then that we look at Brighton as a club that we would like to emulate as detailed by Paul Watson in his interview yesterdayย “Everyone talks about the way Brighton recruit,” he said. “They’re buying players for ยฃ5million and selling for ยฃ115million. If you take the numbers out that. The principles and the processes in how they recruit, they’ve refined and got a wonderful process.
“Their sporting director is part of that, along with the data scientists, the research developers and Tony (Bloom) the CEO. We want to build our own version of that with me being part of a process.
“So it should never be on one person. It should never be on one manager to recruit one individual or sporting director, because you can’t say hand on heart that you’ve seen the very best player for Swansea City if it’s down to one person. If it’s down to a process, you can cast your net a little bit further.
“You look at the players Brighton buy. They’re in a stage now where their fans understand why and how and who they’re buying because they understand the process.
“That’s ultimately where we want to be and that’s what we want to build towards.”
And nobody anywhere near SA1 would complain if that was a level we eventually reached!
