Brighton chief highlights secrets behind rise - including bold aims and transfer profits

Brighton is seventh and hunting for a place in next season’s Champions League and face League Two Grimsby in the FA Cup this weekend with a victory taking them to Wembley

It has been a remarkable season so far for Brighton.

They are seventh in the Premier League, if they win their games in hand they can move into the Champions League places and are one game from Wembley as they have got an FA Cup quarter-final with Grimsby on Sunday. It all fits into Brighton owner Tony Bloom’s dream of one day winning the cup and leading his beloved club into Europe.

But then everything Bloom touches turns to gold at the moment as his horse Energumene won the Champion Chase crown at Cheltenham this week. Of course, the horse runs in Brighton’s colors.

Brighton has become the template of how to run a Premier League club. They appear to be getting every big decision right and the club vision is displayed in lights in the offices at the AMEX for all the employees to see. It reads: “To be a top-ten club in the Premier League and a top-four club in the Women’s Super League.”

Brighton’s chief executive Paul Barber, one of the most respected in the top flight, has helped oversee the transformation and takes pride in every aspect of the club both on and off the pitch.

“The vision means that every day you come into the office, if you’re ever in any doubt, then there’s the reminder,” said Barber. “What we said to the staff was it’s not about achieving it once. It’s about doing it every year.

“I remember the first time I met Tony, we were six months out of League One, the stadium held 20,000, we had no training ground, we were training at the university and he said: ‘Paul, I need someone here that can help me turn us into a Premier League team which competes.’

The message in the Brighton’s club office

“I asked him how long it would take and Tony said: ‘it will take however long it takes, we want to do it properly.’ Each year, we want to progress.”

This year the progress has been even more noticeable. And yet the challenges have been huge. They lost their manager Graham Potter just a month into the season, sold Marc Cucurrela for £60m to Chelsea, and did not panic when Moises Caicedo demanded to leave in January.

Brighton is all about succession planning. They managed to recruit Roberto De Zerbi from Shakhtar Donetsk and the Italian has given the team a new dimension on the pitch, they have sold £140m worth of talent but find replacements and even got Caicedo to sign a new contract.

When they lose key staff like head of recruitment Paul Winstanley to Chelsea or technical director Dan Ashworth to Newcastle, they are pragmatic and have got the next appointment lined up.

Brighton chief highlights secrets behind rise – including bold aims and transfer profits

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply