[Albion] Paul Winstanley joins Chelsea as Director of Global Talent and Transfers

[Lurchy]

We appointed Salvatore Monaco as assistant head of recruitment a few weeks ago, he replaces Kyle Macaulay. He worked with RDZ at Shakhtar Donetsk so you’ve got to think he’d be most likely to step up even though he’s only been here a fortnight.

I think we need someone in addition still. Perfect replacement would be Scott McLachlan who is available and is very highly rated. He was at Chelsea for 11 years, recently linked to Palace.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I'm less upset than you about this rumour (and referring to it as a rumour doesn't mean that I'm saying it's not going to happen) but, on the ravaging:
-- in recent years, how many players have gone from Albion (you could substitute the word 'Southampton') to Chelsea?
-- in recent years which players have gone from Chelsea to B&HA (or, indeed, Southampton)?

For players, I think the answer to (a) is 1 and the answer to (b) is 2 plus a few loans. But I assume the poster is talking about all the backroom staff.

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

I think we need someone in addition still. Perfect replacement would be Scott McLachlan who is available and is very highly rated. He was at Chelsea for 11 years, recently linked to Palace.

If we promote Monaco I’m sure we will be looking to bring in someone else into the number 2 role. All part of the succession planning.

 

[Swansman]

I think we need someone in addition still. Perfect replacement would be Scott McLachlan who is available and is very highly rated. He was at Chelsea for 11 years, recently linked to Palace.

Doubleboo

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Hi mate. My thoughts are just my thoughts: I'm not advocating a 'walk away' campaign in the slightest, that would be ridiculous. I'm incredibly proud of what we have achieved and the legacy it hands on to people a quarter our age who have a completely different concept of what it means to be an Albion fan and would rightly call such an idea completely batshit. I'm just saying how I feel, personally. And I could never walk away, have no fear: though from now on I'll not feel as bad as I did when a good gig means I miss a home game, or wrong timing of the fixture list means it's not suitable for linked in gigs and I miss an away one, because I know the score. Barring wonderful miracles (which I will cheer to the rafters, and move gigs for if need be) that score is finishing 8-17 in the table until I pop my clogs. Rinse and repeat. Still the Albion, so still wonderful, but predetermined and predictable, which is the opposite of the meaning of sport. My regular non league visits and a bit of St Pauli can fill that gap.It's just a matter of comimg to terms with it.

You know my politics: this is the second time when my loathing of the contemptible, yet 'legal' way this economic system operates has dovetailed with its impact on the club I love. Of course there is absolutely no comparison with the first in the mid 90s, and I'm not making one, except in pointing out how much this episode has affected me. As for a solution - well, the most capitalist country in the world has worked out a way to stop such a procession happening in American football, so it's possible. And for me, like media bias and obscene wealth imbalance, it's a matter for legislation: something which both myself and my councillor wife will be campaigning for for the rest of our lives. But that's another story. UTA and let's do our best to stuff the plastic vultures on Saturday - and, most certainly, tell them what we think of them.

Apologies. I was a little harsh. Thanks for taking the time to reply (and so civilly).

Having made blasé comments.....I have been thinking most of the day (when not working) about what can be done about all this.

I think that success to me would indeed mean that clubs can be owned only by British citizens. That would put us out of kilter with the rest of the world including UEFA, but wasn't that why we left the EU?

I'm not sure what else could be done that would have substantive impact on foreign ownership that isn't specific action targeted at specific ownership (such as at Newcastle and Citeh, owned by nation states and therefore potentially tractable targets for protest or boycott or something - my thoughts about this are nor fully formed).

Anyway, I am greatly cheered that you are not contemplating a flounce from the Albion. I got the wrong end of the stick (this happens). The idea would be grotesque.

Yes, stuff the Chelsea. That would be . . . . hang on? A first!

 

[sparkie]

Chelsea want a "panel" of recruitment / co-technical directors for their desired multi-club setup.

Winstanley has a chance to be part of that panel, alongside the other appointments.

 

[nickjhs]

Potter is history for me. Yes, I don't like him for leaving and stripping us of our entire backroom team. He doesn't give a monkeys about us now and the feelings mutual. We have De Zerbi and once he gets a transfer window or 2 he'll take us to the next level is my honest belief. Its been a poor start for him but the football we've played hasn't changed apart from goalscoring. As others have said Potter had same problems with the losing streaks and winless runs not so long ago.

I was gutted when I saw the headline the Potter was likely to go to Chelsea, gutted and sad but not pissed. I got pissed when I saw the wholesale dismantling of our coaching staff, and now this attempt to grab PW and likely Trossard in January I have gone from pissed to WTF how is this able to happen. That we are still competitive after losing White, Burn, MC, Biss, our coaching staff, recruitment team and the cruel kicker of Mwepu is astounding. As to booing Potter I am on the fence, its a shame because had he left in a more respectful way I would have enjoyed seeing how his career progressed. At least TB has had warning shots about Trossard and hopefully a search is progressing well.

 

[jackalbion]

I think football needs a shake up, big time, this episode has made it clear, interesting though, that some established clubs have failed to break the glass ceiling (Everton, Villa) despite investment. I think to stop this there does need to be spending caps, and possibly 50+1. What I worry is some of this free spending at the top is affecting the pyramid downwards, which is something we should always be proud of having, and if that gets damaged by these US owners, thats when we need to put our backs up

 

[Springal]

I’d love to see a Brighton fan try to explain / justify 50+1 to Tony Bloom

 

[Motogull]

sad but not pissed. I got pissed I have gone from pissed to l.

Adding 'off' ain't too troublesome is it? Apart from that, good viewpoint.

 

[jackalbion]

I’d love to see a Brighton fan try to explain / justify 50+1 to Tony Bloom

Well Tony is clearly the exception to the 50+1 rule, what you are trying to make out here, is that I’m not grateful that he is a fan, which is complete nonsense, but what is clear is that maybe some clubs needs to have fans who don’t allow them to make whatever decisions they want, which could jeopardise the future of their club. If Boehly wanted to call Chelsea, the Chelsea Cowboys at the moment there’s very little on the Chelsea board to stop him.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

We appointed Salvatore Monaco as assistant head of recruitment a few weeks ago, he replaces Kyle Macaulay. He worked with RDZ at Shakhtar Donetsk so you’ve got to think he’d be most likely to step up even though he’s only been here a fortnight.

But Macauley was Potter's man in the recruitment process, not Tony's.
Monaco is De Zerbi's man, isn't he?

I would hope the club's succession planning has identified another for the top recruitment role in the club.
Not promoting someone, they would have known little about up until a few month's ago.

 

[levs]

For players, I think the answer to (a) is 1 and the answer to (b) is 2 plus a few loans. But I assume the poster is talking about all the backroom staff.

I think there were actually 3 players that went from Brighton the Chelsea in the summer. Cucurella from the first team plus Sturge and Mheuka, 2 very highly rated players from our youth sides. When you add that to Potter, Reid, Hamburg, Roberts, Bruno, Macaulay and now potentially Winstanley, it certainly does feel like we've been pillaged.

 

[Superphil]

If Boehly wanted to call Chelsea, the Chelsea Cowboys at the moment there’s very little on the Chelsea board to stop him.

I'd love it if that happened, they'd be a laughing stock.

 

[Machiavelli]

I think there were actually 3 players that went from Brighton the Chelsea in the summer. Cucurella from the first team plus Sturge and Mheuka, 2 very highly rated players from our youth sides. When you add that to Potter, Reid, Hamburg, Roberts, Bruno, Macaulay and now potentially Winstanley, it certainly does feel like we've been pillaged.

Well, we got top, top 'dollar' for Cucurella.
We've also got Colwill on a reportedly highly favourable loan deal. We bought Lamptey off them for somewhere between £900,000 and £3m, and Gilmour for less than £10m. Lamptey was an exceptional deal and, while it's too early to judge Gilmour, consensus is that the transaction is in our favour.
Does that constitute pillaging?

 

[Cheeky Monkey]

Well, we got top, top 'dollar' for Cucurella.
We've also got Colwill on a reportedly highly favourable loan deal. We bought Lamptey off them for somewhere between £900,000 and £3m, and Gilmour for less than £10m. Lamptey was an exceptional deal and, while it's too early to judge Gilmour, consensus is that the transaction is in our favour.
Does that constitute pillaging?

Not remotely, also not a remotely comparable or a valid comparison imho. Plus small concerns like ours don't exactly 'pillage' big ones, it's almost always the other way round.

 

[Icy Gull]

Well, we got top, top 'dollar' for Cucurella.
We've also got Colwill on a reportedly highly favourable loan deal. We bought Lamptey off them for somewhere between £900,000 and £3m, and Gilmour for less than £10m. Lamptey was an exceptional deal and, while it's too early to judge Gilmour, consensus is that the transaction is in our favour.
Does that constitute pillaging?

Nope, because players surplus to requirements with little chance of making the first team can hardly be pillaged can they?

Quite a few Potter apologists on here balancing out those of us who are pissed off with him, not for leaving but cherry picking who he wants. He’ll be very lucky to get a 50/50 reception imo and I really hope he doesn’t.

 

[Seagull58]

I'm someone who will engage if there is some sort of end game. If I can't see one, I'm inclined to move on. What would success look like, now Chelsea have pinched our staff? How would that success be achieved?

In general terms a mobilization against unacceptable ownership would be nice. But who is to decide what is unacceptable and how? Some people have stated on NSC that all foreign owners should be 'removed' and 'banned'. This is currently against the law, so a campaign to petition MPs would be required. 'Sling the foreigners out of our game'. Has a nice ring to it. Good luck with that.

OK, instead of that, what about some sort of fitness rules that allow Liverpool to keep their foreign owners but Newcastle and, er Chelsea to....no that won't work will it? Chelsea are now American owned. Like Sky TV.

Albeit some people think America is a rogue nation. Other people think that is just daft. Who decides, then?

So it gets tricky does it not? It is all very well @attila bemoaning the state of things, and we can take it back as far as we like - Sky, the first foreign owners? What about when Littlewoods owned Everton? What about when rich mill owners forced players to stay on a maximum wage? What about when a club could sack a player and stop paying them, but refuse to let them join another club unless a fee was paid?

So, when did enough become enough? What was the straw that broke the camel's back? What was the camel? What is the consequence of the broken back? Is this a euphemism for people saying they are going to walk away from they club and boycott football?

If anyone thinks I'm being blasé, please tell me exactly who should be doing what and with what end to change all this stuff. I love a good plan.

Meanwhile, it is all very well rushing to occupy the high ground, but 99 out of 100 non-Brighton supporters of other much longer standing EPL clubs, and those who have started to sink down the leagues, would say 'you are only moaning now because throughout your history, till 6 months ago, your club was too shit to raid, with no assets. Clubs like ours however have been pecked at by the big boys for 100 years. Sorry you had your club ransacked in one fell swoop after 100 years of being under the radar, but that' life, mate. Get used to it.

I am not looking forward to the Chelsea game, with a risk the atmos becoming as poisonous as 'that' Palace game some years ago where lots of people completely lost their shit. And we lost.

Brighton means different things to different people. Anything from panto to religion. For me it is the connection with my past and my home town (and the panto element, with the occasional bit of glory being an added bonus). It is not an effing religion.

The weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, directed at some sort of imaginary creature called MONEY is not the same as the campaign that saved our club, and I don't like the attempt to conflate the two, and I don't like the idea of walking away from our club just because it has been raided by a rich club.

On a lighter note, I'm looking forward to the game finishing 0-0 allowing us to sing 'Are you Brighton in Disguise'.

It's not a religion and it's not a matter of life and death. It's far more important than that..

 

[Icy Gull]

It's not a religion and it's not a matter of life and death. It's far more important than that..

True and I imagine we’ll lose a shitload of “fans” again if we slide down the leagues

 

[Seagull58]

True and I imagine we’ll lose a shitload of “fans” again if we slide down the leagues

You're either a fan or a "fan" in my eyes. I have followed the club since 1967. I have no second team and it messes up my weekend if we don't get a result. I f***ing hate Chelsea for gutting our management team and I want the ****s to hear it loud and clear tomorrow.