[Albion] How Is Brighton's Recruitment So Good?

[Tyrone Biggums]

The bloke who does HITC Sevens may have a voice for silent movies, but he's good at deep dives into unheralded and unusual areas of the game. His video is one of the most well researched / informed I've seen during our current moment in the spotlight.

The only elements he seemed to gloss over were the use of the loan system to develop players and, where they do not make the breakthrough, move them on for a return; and the purchase of USG, Bloom's proof that his scientific methods being applied to the sport are reproducible.

Bloom is surprisingly unusual in football in that he runs his hobby like he runs his business. The sport is full of very rich people who have been successful in business. However, most of them don't seem to apply the methods that made their businesses successful to running a football club. It seems more the norm for them to buy into the myth that football is different and, on this basis, to do things that they would never consider doing in their usual field.

And our brand is getting great exposure from popular football sites like this one.

83,000+ people have watched the video so far, that's some decent free advertising for the club for nothing.

 

[um bongo molongo]

Long may it continue. But important we as fans remember it’s also a numbers game to some extent. For every Caicedo and Mitoma we’re going to have plenty of Zeqiri’s and Billy Arce’s who don’t make it (or don’t look like they’re going to make it in Zeqiri’s case) to elite PL level. We’re buying potential which is exactly that - sometimes that potential turns into a great player and sometimes it falls a bit (or a lot) short. It’s a sensible strategy and I’m fully behind it (why wouldn’t you be) but there’s no guarantees on the hit rate.

 

[Live by the sea]

Wouldn’t totally discount Zequiri , he’s still only 23 , scored 4 in 13 top flight games for Basel this season so far .

 

[dazzer6666]

Hmmm. Think we need to keep ourselves grounded on this one. Is it the same recruitment team that brought Locadia and Jahanbakhsh in on hefty transfer fees.

It’s not, but even if it was the process always develops and evolve, and we get better and better about it as we learn. Hiring people in any business isn’t an exact science - you will ALWAYS get some wrong, including high profile ones. The secret is minimising those - which we seem to be doing pretty well.

 

[Nobby]

Agree. But goes to show that little gems can’t be uncovered on every occasion.

I think the point is that the strategy has changed. As soon as we got promoted we bought mid level players from abroad on fairly high fees.
£12 - £20m. Who went straight into the first team (or should have if they hadn’t actually been crap, Izquierdo an exception).
When Potter and Cashworth arrived we continued that policy for a few months (Webster, Maupay) but then changed to paying smaller fees for young players
As we became an established Premier League club, it seemed that the risk of only buying young talented youth players diminished.
So go large when we started in the EPL, and then change to youth as we became more established.
Is that fair or is my memory playing tricks?

 

[SUIYHP]

What a bloody awful voice. Couldn’t listen beyond 10 seconds.

I feel bad saying it as I think he’s genuinely putting effort in, but I completely agree. Ive seen a couple of HITC sevens’ videos and can never get to the end because the cadence in his voice is just terrible. Just a long dull drone of noise. He reads so slowly, I wouldn’t put it past him to be deliberately stretching out his videos.

 

[RandyWanger]

We're no longer under the radar and so many people are jumping on this bandwagon now. Let's hope there's no 'so where did it all go wrong' type videos in the future. Another Hyppia type in the future

 

[Oh_aye]

We're doing well but there are a lot of factors and we can't be perfect forever.

Good incoming players mixed with excellent coaching from the last two managers getting the best out of existing players and creating Indian summers for a few older players.
Good development pathways - its not all about 'recruitment'
A non mental fan base.
A singular vision, direction and culture set by senior leaders
Giving youngsters a go and being patient.
Agreeing to release people atvthe right time.
Identifying players of good character

But I'm not sure we should get too hubristic.

Some luck is involved. E.g. the reason for De Zerbi becoming available (A bit gruesome to call it Good luck but you know what I mean). Players willing to adapt.

But there are challenges ahead. The frequency that are players and staff are now targeted, how unsettled players may become who can't leave it its 'the model', people with more resources copying and gazumping us, hubris leading to overconfidence, smaller clubs charging us more knowing we'll maximise fees etc.

I think I prefer it when we just do it and pretend it's not happening rather than talk about it all the time.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

We're no longer under the radar and so many people are jumping on this bandwagon now. Let's hope there's no 'so where did it all go wrong' type videos in the future. Another Hyppia type in the future

There will be . No club has an upward trajectory forever. I bet there are plenty about Liverpool at the moment.