No club has been more successful at coaxing money out of Chelsea than Brighton & Hove Albion over the past two years and they maintained their impressive record this week.
Chelsea were told at a Professional Football Compensation Committee (PFCC) hearing that they are required to pay Brighton up to £7.65million ($9.65m) for the signings of teenagers Zak Sturge and Shumaira Mheuka in the summer of 2022: £1m up front for Mheuka, potentially rising to £4.25m, and an initial £900,000 for Sturge with potential add-ons taking the fee up to £3.4m.
The total package for forward Mheuka would be a record for a 14-year-old — his age when he signed almost two years ago — while the award for defender Sturge is also at the higher end of what clubs can typically hope to secure via tribunal when losing a talented teenager from their academy. Both represent better value than Chelsea originally offered Brighton.
Sturge has been a regular with Chelsea’s under-21s since returning from loan (Chris Lee/Chris Lee – Chelsea FC)
“They are two of the higher awards in history, so it shows that we were right not to accept Chelsea’s low offers,” Brighton chief executive Paul Barber tells The Athletic. “We were right to go through a fairly drawn out and painful process to get to a value that we think is acceptable, with future value that is potentially quite lucrative.”
Selling clubs do not always come out of the tribunal process feeling so satisfied. Exeter City were awarded just £1.3m up front for Ethan Ampadu in April 2018, potentially rising to £2.5m, having rejected a previous offer of £3m from Chelsea. “To say that we are disappointed is an understatement,” chairman Julian Tagg said in a statement after the ruling.
Mheuka’s potential fee falls just short of the £4.3m package (£1.2m guaranteed, with the rest possible add-ons) awarded to Fulham as compensation for losing a 16-year-old Harvey Elliott to Liverpool in the summer of 2019, but reflects his status as one of the most talented attackers of his age in the country.
“It is a great outcome for Brighton,” Barber adds. “I think it is the right thing to do sometimes when you have been responsible for finding young players and starting the development of young players. If they do go to a bigger club, the club that starts that development process has the right to get value back.
“It’s always uncomfortable talking about the value of children or young people, but this is a business. Academies are significantly expensive things to run. It’s right that clubs should be able to recoup investment in their young talent.”
But a great outcome for Brighton does not mean a bad outcome for Chelsea and the Elliott example illustrates why. Now two months shy of his 21st birthday, Elliott is in his second season as a real first-team contributor at Liverpool with a market value far in excess of £4.3m. If one or both of Sturge and Mheuka make a similar leap, their tribunal fees will look like bargains.
Elliott holds off Ben Chilwell during last Sunday’s Carabao Cup final (Scott Llewellyn/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Sturge, three years older than Mheuka, is further along on his journey. He is back at Cobham playing for Chelsea’s development squad after an underwhelming first loan spell at League One promotion chasers Peterborough United, where he managed just 260 minutes across 13 appearances and made only one start — in the FA Cup first round against Salford City.
That does not indicate a trajectory towards a first-team career at Stamford Bridge, but development in football is far from linear and Sturge performed sufficiently well under Chelsea development squad coach Mark Robinson last season to attract public praise from John Terry, now an academy coaching consultant at Cobham.
The 19-year-old caught Terry’s eye as a left-sided centre-back in a three-man defence. That may be the position where his long-term future lies, though he arrived at Chelsea as a left-back and the majority of his development squad minutes since returning from Peterborough have been spent at left wing-back.
Sturge in action against Valencia’s under-21s in January (Harriet Lander – Chelsea FC/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)
Mheuka is the more highly-regarded prospect, a reality reflected in his higher fee. The son of Malcom Mheuka, a professional footballer in his native Zimbabwe, “Shimmy” was an early developer physically and consistently played well above his age group in Brighton’s academy.
Chelsea had a tantalising glimpse of Mheuka’s prodigious talent in September 2021 when he scored twice in a 4-2 win for Brighton in the Under-17s Premier League Cup at Cobham. The team he tormented featured many of the club’s current under-18s prospects, including Harrison Murray-Campbell, Somto Boniface, Michael Golding, Donnell McNeilly and Tyrique George.
Remarkably, he was still a month away from his 14th birthday at the time.
The last 18 months have challenged Mheuka to further refine his technical skills at Cobham as opponents close the gap on his physical advantages, often under the watchful eye of his father and his younger brother, Tendah, who remains in Brighton’s academy. Staff have found Shimmy to be a quiet personality but polite and focused on maximising his huge potential.
Six goals in 10 appearances in his first Under-18s Premier League campaign as a 16-year-old this season suggests he is continuing to make positive progress.
Mheuka arrives for an England Under-17s friendly against Spain in Murcia last September (Angel Martinez – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Chelsea regard the fees they are committed to paying for Mheuka and Sturge as simply part of the cost of ensuring Cobham continues to be a destination for elite young talent. The competition for top British teenagers has only increased in a post-Brexit landscape where it is no longer possible to attract European youngsters under the age of 18.
Relative to the eight-figure transfer fees committed by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital to bring Cesare Casadei, Carney Chukwuemeka, Andrey Santos, David Datro Fofana, Angelo Gabriel and Deivid Washington to west London over the past two years, the investment made in Sturge and Mheuka is relatively low-risk regardless of whether they become Chelsea players.
In the ever-growing list of Brighton-Chelsea deals, this might be a rare example of an outcome that leaves both clubs entirely satisfied.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
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