[Albion] Tony Bloom interview

[Anger]

Are you telling me De Zerbi was sacked?

You know what? I think that in all probability and having considered the many and varied opinions on the subject, I have come to the very conclusion that he was and not to put too fine a point on it, given the old heave-ho.

 

[Guinness Boy]

He was pissed off at the time of signing his. !!

I always remember the interview when everyone else was excited and he said through gritted teeth that fati was 'very expensive '

Bloom himself says on a link in this thread “Mike was at the forefront…..deciding which players to go for between myself, David and Mike……in terms of players to go for that comes very much from the data, the recruitment team and the scouts”. He doesn’t then add “except for Dahoud, Fati and Igor”. Bloom literally slays the NSC myth and you repeat it on the same thread. Laughable as usual.

Furthermore

Well, on a recent Athletic podcast covering the Albion (I listened/watched off youtube; warning, the same advert is repeated about 10x through it), one of the points they made is that our signings in the summer of 2023 targeted European experience -- we had very little going into that summer. Hence, Igor, Dahoud and -- recall, just on a one year loan -- Fati.

I think this explains it. We added European experience into the data. It also explains Milner to some extent.

Ultimately it was our first ever season in Europe and mistakes were made across the board. It’s certainly not unusual. West Ham’s Premier League season was absolutely awful the season they won the Conference League.

Super Fab doesn’t have any of those issues. Two of those players are gone and one will be fourth choice. He’s got more new toys than a kid at Christmas and no European tour to worry about. The test for him will be, if we get to Europe, how to use those toys better. And it’s good that our relatively inexperienced coach will have a season or two before he has to worry about managing travel and rotation.

That doesn’t mean RDZ handled it particularly well. A good first half of the season but after the January window the relationship was clearly very broken indeed. TB makes that clear too if you read between the lines.

As for Potter, Europe isn’t really something you have to worry about when you finish on circa 40 points.

 

[Hugo Rune]

A lovely analysis of how Bloom’s long planning phase and execution of the recent transfer window saw us become the highest net spenders in Europe and the profile of player we normally sign totally switch.

Tony Bloom's PSR mastery has made Brighton kings of the transfer market

Brighton were the biggest net spenders in Europe during the summer 2024 transfer window thanks to a long-term plan thought up by chairman Tony Bloom.

www.90min.com

A second European tour, but this time, a shopping one for Brighton’s recruitment team over the summer of ‘24, saw them take amongst the best players and prospects from Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and America.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

A lovely analysis of how Bloom long planning and
execution of the recent transfer window saw us be the highest net spenders in Europe but how the profile of player we normally sign totally switched.

Tony Bloom's PSR mastery has made Brighton kings of the transfer market

Brighton were the biggest net spenders in Europe during the summer 2024 transfer window thanks to a long-term plan thought up by chairman Tony Bloom.

www.90min.com

A second European tour, but this time for Brighton’s recruitment team over the summer of ‘24, saw them take amongst the best players and prospects from Scotland, Netherlands, Germany, Turkey and America.

Good article, that

 

[Han Solo]

Yeah maybe. Fati tho…? On that amount of wages per week? If that is the case, it’s a harsh lesson learned and not one I’d expect TB to have to learn the hard way!

That deal was as unBrighton as it gets. Player has success = can't buy him. Player doesn't have success = not worth the wages.

In the best case scenario we were going to get a one season wonder, and whats the likelihood of that when sharing position with the best player in the team?

Mitoma got injured eventually so it could have been a slick move... if he had got the chance, but he only started one game after returning from injury in January, so he really didn't get the chance (tbf the little he played wasn't exactly brilliant).

If his reported £11,760,547 salary is correct and we payed all of it (and no loan fee), then we paid him £23k per minute of Premier League football. It must be considered one of the worst moves this club has made on the transfer market.

 

[Machiavelli]

Bloom himself says on a link in this thread “Mike was at the forefront…..deciding which players to go for between myself, David and Mike……in terms of players to go for that comes very much from the data, the recruitment team and the scouts”. He doesn’t then add “except for Dahoud, Fati and Igor”. Bloom literally slays the NSC myth and you repeat it on the same thread. Laughable as usual.

Furthermore


I think this explains it. We added European experience into the data. It also explains Milner to some extent.

Ultimately it was our first ever season in Europe and mistakes were made across the board. It’s certainly not unusual. West Ham’s Premier League season was absolutely awful the season they won the Conference League.

Super Fab doesn’t have any of those issues. Two of those players are gone and one will be fourth choice. He’s got more new toys than a kid at Christmas and no European tour to worry about. The test for him will be, if we get to Europe, how to use those toys better. And it’s good that our relatively inexperienced coach will have a season or two before he has to worry about managing travel and rotation.

That doesn’t mean RDZ handled it particularly well. A good first half of the season but after the January window the relationship was clearly very broken indeed. TB makes that clear too if you read between the lines.

As for Potter, Europe isn’t really something you have to worry about when you finish on circa 40 points.

Yes, and worth adding that we won't have that same problem about European experience if we qualify again.

 

[Coldwaltham Seagull]

The narrative about the Fati and Dahoud signings is what I can’t get my head around. If the club’s philosophy is that they identify the players and the coach plays them, why did they agree to those (allegedly) RDZ signings? We all know u don’t mess with TB, so why didn’t the club say to RDZ “no, we’re not signing your crap suggestions - u know the rules!”?

I would imagine for all of them experience of playing European football played into it. Aside from that I can only speculate that Dahoud would have been seen as a lower risk due to signing on a free, and perhaps Fati would have had some commercial influence being such a recognisable name/talent.