Brighton & Hove Albion have splashed out nearly £200million ($263.2m) on nine new signings this summer. Among all the clubs in Europe’s top five leagues, only Chelsea have spent more, having paid out £220m.
It is an unprecedented scale of spending by Brighton, as they try to achieve their aim of establishing themselves as a top-10 club in the Premier League, capable of competing for domestic and European silverware in knockout competitions. The outlay could yet rise further if they secure the Nordsjaelland striker Conrad Harder, for whom a €20m (£16.8m; $22.2m) bid has been submitted.
But where has the money come from, why are they spending big now and are they taking a financial risk?
How is this being funded?
By smart recruitment and player trading. Put simply, Brighton have reinvested the money they have made over the past two years.
First, let us go back to the 2022-23 season. The main outgoing business centred on Marc Cucurella to Chelsea, Yves Bissouma to Tottenham and Leandro Trossard to Arsenal.
The total raised that year of £117million, based on figures by Transfermarkt, came mainly from those three sales, with substantial profits made on each of those players. Cucurella, for example, cost £15m from Getafe. The package agreed with Chelsea a year later could eventually be worth £63million, taking into account additional clauses. This is the Brighton way: buy young players at relatively low prices from global markets, improve players and sell high.
Marc Cucurella became a Euros winner this summer (Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images)
The major incomings in the 2022-23 campaign were Pervis Estupinan, Julio Enciso, Billy Gilmour, Simon Adingra and Facundo Buonanotte (who has been loaned out to Leicester) for a combined total of £47million — a small price for a group of international players that have already made more than 200 Premier League appearances for the club between them.
The profit on player trading that year of £70million was more or less replicated in 2023-24. The British record transfer of Moises Caicedo to Chelsea, Alexis Mac Allister to Liverpool and Robert Sanchez to Chelsea raked in £160million, before add-ons.
Inward business revolved around another batch of talents from different countries and leagues. Brazilian forward Joao Pedro, defensive compatriot Igor Julio, Dutch goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen, Argentinian left-back Valentin Barco and Cameroon midfielder Carlos Baleba cost around £92.5million in total.
The profit on dealings in and out of £67.5million increased the cumulative profit over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons to a combined £137.5m. Keep that figure in mind with what has happened during this summer’s transfer window.
Buying 19-year-old Gambian winger Yankuba Minteh from Newcastle for £30million — equalling the then club-record outlay for Joao Pedro — was a sign of intent.
Another trio of teenagers have been snapped up: Arsenal winger Amario Cozier-Duberry; Ivory Coast midfielder Malick Yalcouye, who signed from IFK Goteborg and has been loaned to Austrian club Sturm Graz; and Ghana forward Ibrahim Osman, signed from Nordsjaelland and now on loan to Feyenoord for the season.
The stakes have been raised higher with Dutch midfielder Mats Wieffer from Feyenoord, Danish midfielder Matt O’Riley from Celtic, attacking prospect Brajan Gruda from Mainz, and Turkish full-back Ferdi Kadioglu from Fenerbahce, each bought for £25million. Those deals have been topped by the arrival of Georginio Rutter for a new club-record fee after a £40million release clause in the France Under-21 forward’s contract with Leeds was triggered.
It all adds up to £195million. Hang on, though: do not forget two major outgoings. Long-serving German midfielder Pascal Gross left for Borussia Dortmund and Deniz Undav joined Stuttgart after a successful loan. The money for them, £29million, reduces the deficit on trading in the window to £166million — just under £30million more than the £137.5million of profit they made across 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Ferdi Kadioglu was presented to fans before the EFL Cup match against Crawley Town (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
Are they in danger of breaking PSR rules?
Brighton have no concerns about profit and sustainability rules. They made a Premier League record profit of £122.8million in 2022-23 when they reached Europe for the first time by finishing sixth in the table under former head coach Roberto De Zerbi.
The money for Caicedo (£115million) and Sanchez (£25m) does not show until the 2023-24 accounts, a substantial launchpad towards another year of financial health boosted further by an estimated £20m from reaching the last 16 of the Europa League.
The timing of Brighton’s spending spree is not a coincidence. They are capitalising as rival clubs struggle to balance the books. Everton and Nottingham Forest have been docked points for rule breaches, and Leicester face a similar threat. Aston Villa, West Ham and Newcastle have been impacted in their transfer business by trying to stay within the rules. Capturing Minteh from Newcastle was an example of Brighton making hay while the sun shines.
As it stands under PSR, clubs are allowed to lose £105million over a period of three seasons. There will be further assessments when club accounts are published for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 campaigns.
PSR will be replaced from the 2025-26 season by ‘squad cost control’ rules, limiting clubs to spending 85 per cent of their revenue on wages, transfers and agents’ fees. The limits will be anchored to ensure the top teams can spend only a proportion of what the bottom-placed club receive in TV and prize money.
In the end, it all comes down to good housekeeping — and Brighton have been good at that under Tony Bloom. The owner-chairman, speaking at a press conference in July to announce the appointment of former St Pauli head coach Fabian Hurzeler, said: “I don’t like the idea of clubs having points deducted in the middle of the season.
“However, if rules have been broken, the Premier League has to apply the rules. It would be much better if clubs didn’t put the Premier League in the situation where points deductions are necessary.”
Aren’t Brighton already in lots of debt?
Yes, but only to Bloom. The sports betting entrepreneur is a lifelong fan with strong family connections to the club — his late grandfather, Harry, was vice chairman in the 1970s and his uncle, Ray, is a long-serving member of the board of directors.
Bloom acquired a 75 per cent stake in Brighton in 2009, when they were a League One club. Since then, he has invested more than £400million in interest-free loans.
The bumper profit made in 2022-23 meant, for the first time, the club were able to make a payment back to Bloom of £32.2million, reducing the overall debt to him to £373.3million. Bloom has not asked for any money back, but the club feel obliged to pay something back in recognition of the scale of his support.
Bloom, 54, plans to remain at the helm for years to come. He said at Hurzeler’s introductory press conference: “At some point in time, every club will get relegated. I am hoping, by the time Brighton get relegated, I will be a very old man.”
Tony Bloom has made Brighton an exemplar club in the transfer market (Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images)
Who signs off the deals?
The starting point for Brighton’s transfer business is Bloom’s unique algorithm, a closely guarded secret, which identifies potential signings from all over the world that fit the club’s model.
Ultimately, he has the final say, but he puts his trust in chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber, technical director David Weir and head of recruitment Mike Cave to negotiate with other clubs, players and agents.
Barber, who runs the club day to day on behalf of Bloom, was appointed chief executive in 2012. He signed a new contract earlier this year until 2030.
Just how good are these signings?
How long is a piece of string? No amount of due diligence can cater for uncontrollable factors such as injuries or pressures in the private lives of players.
O’Riley suffered ankle ligament damage six minutes into his debut against Crawley in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday — the day after signing from Celtic — and will require surgery.
Having said that, based on Brighton’s track record, the chances are that the Danish international midfielder and most, if not all, of the newcomers will turn out to be a success. What does success look like? Becoming influential players in the first team and/or being improved with an accompanying rise in their resale value.
What does Hurzeler think?
The 31-year-old, speaking at Thursday’s press conference for the visit to Arsenal on Saturday, said: “I feel grateful, I feel thankful to Tony for his decision (to appoint him). It (the spending) shows the ambition of the club, it shows that we want to make the next step together, to improve in some ways on the foundation built in recent years.
“That is what I really like, because I am also a very ambitious guy and, for me, it is the right sign, the right moment, and now hopefully we can achieve something big together.”
The irony of Brighton’s summer like no other is that it has, in effect, been funded by Chelsea, with still a nice profit as well. Eleven Brighton players and staff have been recruited by them in the last two years — including Caicedo, former head coach Graham Potter and former head of recruitment Sam Jewell — for a total of more than £225million.
(Top photos: Yankuba Minteh by Masashi Hara; and Georginio Rutter by Glyn Kirk/AFP; both via Getty Images)
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