17 March 2023 , 14:49
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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 colours.
Brighton have 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 up 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.
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“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 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 are 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.
They have made big profits on the likes of Ben White, Yves Bissouma and Leandro Trossard but bring in new talents like Kaoru Mitoma or Levi Colwill as, following Ashworth’s exit, former Scotland international David Weir has continued the smart recruitment.
Barber said: “It’s obvious here that if you get good people, and they do well, then other clubs will be interested and the smart thing to do is to have a plan. As long as people are honest with us, don’t have secret dentist appointments, just tell us.
“In Roberto’s case - and I want to use this word carefully - we were fortunate, not lucky, that his contract had come to an end because of the war. He was our No1 target but he was available because of the war.
“Roberto is a special coach, special person. I remember when we first met him, I asked him about his English. ‘Paul, it’s four out of ten, by the end of the World Cup, it'll be eight or nine.’ Sure enough, he does an hour every night and it’s improved so much.
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Paul Barner and Alexis Mac Allister pose with their World Cup and OBE medals
Roberto De Zerbi has taken Brighton to new heights in the Premier League (Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)“We are the fifth highest scorers in the Premier League. Yet this was the team that everybody said couldn’t score. Am I surprised where we are? No. It’s about staying humble but there’s nothing wrong with ambition.”
Bloom has become hugely successful in the gambling world and horse racing. He has backed his own winner at Brighton. When his horse won at Cheltenham, we stopped the interview to watch it romp home before Bloom jumped on a helicopter to watch Brighton beat Crystal Palace.
There was great delight when Barber was awarded the OBE for services to football and a ticker tape parade at the training ground when Argentina midfielder Alexis Mac Allister returned triumphant from the World Cup. There is a sense of togetherness at the AMEX.
Barber added: “Tony is a genius. What he has achieved here is incredible. It’s easy to forget that 25 years ago, we were staring at the abyss. In danger of going out of the league, going out of business and here we are two and a half decades later seventh in the Premier League.”