Doing the 92 is Daniel Storey’s odyssey to every English football league club in a single season. This is club 80/92. The best way to follow his journey and read all of the previous pieces is by subscribing here
Brighton and Hove Albion recently announced profits of £73.9m despite an increase in transfer spending and the repayment of some substantial debt to owner Tony Bloom. Those figures made Brighton the fourth-most profitable club in Premier League history.
If it sounds a little gauche to open with discussion of money, it matters here. This is a club that finished 91st of 92 in the Football League ladder two seasons in a row, an era of bouncing cheques and protests over ownership sagas that threatened the club’s existence. To be successful is one thing. To do it while making substantial profits through player trading is another entirely.
This is the club that Bloom rebuilt. It was unthinkable then that Brighton might even reach the top division within a generation, let alone finish in its top six, play twice at Wembley in FA Cup semi-finals and top a European group ahead of Marseille and Ajax. In 1997, they were equalising at Hereford United’s Edgar Street on the final day to survive the drop to non-league.
I wanted to understand how a club goes from 35 points in the fourth tier to 62 points in the Premier League having never before finished in the top half of the top flight. Paul Camillin, Brighton’s head of communications, and Paul Mullen, their chief operating officer, were my guides. This is the story of how a club was reincarnated to become a home of sporting excellence and economic ambition.
Know your history
When Brighton moved to the Amex in 2011, it represented the final tangible victory against the struggle from which some who loved the club believed that they would never escape. The temptation in those circumstances is to draw a line in the sand and vow that everything will be forever changed from now on.
But at Brighton, things are a little different. That history is part of their identity and always will be. It is the great contrasts between what was once and what is now that offer the most joy to supporters. Never is that more true than when they are inside the Amex and recall the temporary abodes that Brighton were forced to endure.
The club understands that the supporters are its lifeblood because they were once the only ones keeping it going. That generates a togetherness and spirit that you would be deeply foolish to waste. Instead you keep both at the forefront of your thoughts and your relationships.
“I think the club has put a lot of effort into being open and honest with our fanbase because of its history,” says Mullen. “They might not agree with all of our decisions, but we feel that it is important to respect them by communicating with them on a regular basis whether that’s through the media, fan forums, the fan advisory board or speaking directly to them. We put a premium value on transparency and accessibility because of what those fans have been through.”
That history also provides something else: gratitude. Progress and achievement as part of a continuous plan is brilliant, and that is the aim of the unit as a whole, but within that the individuals should make sure to appreciate just how far Brighton have come. Football is about experiences and working in it should be too.
“I’ve got friends who are Brighton fans and have been all the way through this journey, and when we meet up for a beer with them that’s all they ever say: ‘If you’d told me 20 or 30 years ago that we would be going to Amsterdam and Rome to watch Brighton, I would never have believed you’,” says Camillin.
“It’s an important thing to say, too. For all that the focus is on constant improvement, you have to make sure to enjoy the moments that improvement brings. You have to take a minute to breathe and take it all in. These are the mileposts of your life. Otherwise, what is the point in coming into work?”
Brighton 2-1 Bournemouth (Tuesday 25 February)
- Game no.: 71/92
- Miles: 183
- Cumulative miles: 12,728
- Total goals seen: 187
- The one thing I’ll remember in May: Patrick Kluivert’s actual son being in the Premier League has made me feel old all season. So of course he scored a fabulous goal.
…but embrace your future
For all that Brighton recognise their past, you have to appreciate – should you want to grow your fanbase – that not everybody will connect in the same way. For those Brighton supporters in their late teens or early twenties, all they have known is competing in the Championship or Premier League.
Many season-ticket holders may have gone on the journey, and tales are forever passed down through generations, but Brighton have finished outside the Championship’s top six once in the last 13 years. They are, by most measures, a big club now.
Your next read
“You have to evolve with those people as well,” says Camillin. “I think we do a really good job as a club and fanbase at staying humble. Every year we say that the priority is to get enough points to stay in the Premier League. But you also want a stretch goal and that is aided by the bold decisions of the owner: Graham Potter, Roberto De Zerbi, Fabian Hurzeler. They sent the message that we would never say never, and were never happy to tread water.
“I remember Vic Bragg, one of our youth development coaches, who said in his retirement speech: ‘I’m convinced that one day we’ll win the Premier League’. Now I’m not saying that’s anything more than a dream. We’re behind some absolutely huge clubs. But we have to try and we should never set a ceiling. And we have to have the fan base, the staff, everybody associated with this club in any way, all pulled into that vision. That all comes from Tony.”
Scouting and recruitment
Brighton’s scouting model is the famous birth child of Bloom. The club is a client of Starlizard, Bloom’s own company. Jamestown Analytics is an offshoot of Starlizard that specialises in football player and staff data analysis.
Put simply, Bloom designed a model that used algorithms to create a data-driven global scouting tool that produces lists of players for scouts to assess. It provides Brighton with information that cuts through vast pools of potential signings that you would never be able to cover on an in-person basis. A traffic light system is used for initial categorisation.
Mullen points out that, while people take notice of the players Brighton sign from across the globe at an age where they immediately break into the first-team picture (and he accepts that the club have been very successful in untapped markets), a premium is also put on scouting for talented boys and girls within Sussex and its environs. Solly March, Lewis Dunk and Jack Hinshelwood were all born and raised locally. Those players shape your identity too.
Without trying to take away from Brighton’s data analysis model – it has been revolutionary for this club – it’s important to note that what they are doing isn’t unique and nor are many of the young players that they sign unknown to other clubs around them. Scouting networks at elite clubs all use data extensively. Most talents are on the radar of clubs across Europe.
The difference at Brighton is that the club is prepared to take a risk on young players that richer, bigger clubs may prefer to see develop elsewhere. They provide pathways to the first team for these young players and they are prepared to sell them if their value increases significantly. That makes them popular with selling clubs (sell-on fees), agents and the players themselves.
The process becomes self-fulfilling and thus provokes arguably Brighton’s greatest strength: future-proofing. Brighton sell a player when they want to sell because they have already lined up their replacement. That replacement has likely already been at the club for a year (and possibly two). They are ready.
Player care
A scouting and recruitment model is a vital tool in finding value, but this is a world of human beings not units of sporting talent. Outsiders looking at Brighton’s development tend to focus on how the club brings players into their academy or first-team system and overlook the importance of what happens when they get there.
Brighton is a club where, to an outsider, it seems talent tends to progress smoothly through the club and into key positions in the first team. That’s not a fluke and it’s not straightforward. Creating the perfect working environment for development within the context of Premier League mania is not easy. It’s also made harder when you are recruiting players younger and from across the world.
But Brighton have made it their priority. When you’re looking to add value to players and club (and that really is the Brighton raison d’etre as they look to compete with financial behemoths), you’d be stupid to get the right players in and then fail to give them every tool to fulfil their potential. And you can’t fake that stuff.
“It means constantly being there to offer support, advice, education, life skills on the challenges and positives of various areas of their life: social media, nutrition, safeguarding, welfare, looking after themselves,” says Mullen. “That is happening from when boys and girls are brought in at nine or ten, not just within the first-team setup.
“At the other end, when we bring players in at a later stage, it’s about looking at them in a holistic way. Which means not only caring about what they can do for you now or in the future, but also how we can help them. You have to consider individual personalities, temperaments, and family backgrounds. These are all things that affect how they assimilate into our culture and community.
“That is how you get the best out of new signings. They might be absolutely phenomenal on the training pitch, but there will be a multitude of things in their life that will affect match performance. So you use sports psychologists and player care staff, right from a young age, to aid that process. It’s an entire package and it’s one of our key focuses.”
Revenue generation
Brighton are very lucky to have a benefactor in Bloom who has invested so much into the club, squad, the stadium and the training ground since 2009. None of this happens without that vast investment; nobody is pretending otherwise.
But Bloom also understands the need to extract maximum value out of Brighton if the club is to grow. They do not have the history or brand of some high-profile peers, and thus generating revenue through global marketing and merchandising campaigns comes less easy. Everybody at Brighton is well aware that within their departmental plans, their budgets and their spends that they have to squeeze everything out of what they have.
The player trading model has been extraordinarily successful. Take five players: Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, Ben White, Robert Sanchez and Alexis Mac Allister. They joined Brighton at the ages of 19, 23, 16, 20 and 15 respectively at a combined transfer fee cost of £26m. They were sold, all to Premier League peers, for initial transfer fees of £280m.
This model isn’t easy to maintain. Premier League history is littered with clubs who enjoyed a successful period of player trading but were let down by mistakes (see Southampton down the road for details). So the key lies in maximising the successes by reinvesting in the club and growing off the field as well as on it. That creates more future-proofing: you become established as a Premier League club in every way.
Brighton have focused on revenue maximisation. They seek to improve the matchday experience to attract new supporters and thus increase merchandising revenue potential. They have upgraded hospitality areas and have maintained lucrative sponsorship arrangements. Their most recently posted annual revenue (excluding almost £40m in property income) was another new club record, £222m. That puts them one place outside Europe’s top 20 in a money league (and tenth in the Premier League).
“There’s so much competition in the Premier League every season,” says Mullen. “We aren’t a club that can rest on our laurels. We’re continuing to look at how we can improve, whether that’s on the pitch through recruitment, whether it’s off the pitch through new revenue channels, whether it’s whether we can change some of our facilities to adapt to medical advances. What else can we do to attract the best young talent, boy or girl, to choose Brighton over Chelsea or Southampton? You never see a standstill.”
“It’s also important to point out the long-term planning that went into all of this, way before what you see happening now,” says Camillin. “We had a project that we called Premier League Ready, which was about being prepared for when we got into the Premier League. We never actually talked about promotion, but instead the small p: progress. As long as we kept progressing and moving forward, we would achieve.”
The family
Speaking to numerous employees and supporters at Brighton, one word comes up on repeat: family. It might sound slightly twee, but hear it often enough and you believe it. This is a club that, because of where it has come from and how much of its improvement feels sustainable, is a good place to watch football and to work within it.
The Premier League can be an unforgiving, relentless environment to work in, on and off the pitch. See the last 12 months at Manchester United, and their vast cuts, as evidence of that. Brighton are aiming to keep the familial feel of a community club and combine it with the drive and ambition of an elite one. The principle makes sense anyway: happy workers make for a happy place of work. A happy place of work stimulates growth and wellbeing, professionally and personally.
Brighton do look after their staff; nobody tells me any different about their experience. There is an extensive benefits scheme. Staff are given healthy meals twice a day – breakfast and lunch.
There is a club-wide bonus scheme related to where the team finishes on the pitch that generates togetherness between football and non-football staff. When chief executive Paul Barber and Tony Bloom were developing a vision for 2030, every single staff member at the club was given a chance to be part of it and new employees are surprised at how interconnected the top and bottom of the club is.
“We are also very lucky that we have a well-connected, local ownership who have been engaged with the community,” Mullen says. “That makes all this easier. There has been a stability of messaging, and human beings like that certainty. That’s particularly true in the workplace because it gives them the best opportunity to thrive and pursue their ambitions. We’re all fighting for the same thing here and we’re all facing the same way. That’s very powerful.”
Daniel Storey has set himself the goal of visiting all 92 grounds across the Premier League and EFL this season. You can follow his progress via our interactive map and find every article (so far) here
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/sAxCf9j
Post a Comment
EmoticonClick to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.