Brighton (and Dortmund to some extent) scout players that they can develop, and not ones that are closer to their prime unlike the big clubs. I really admire the way Brighton and Brentford are run in England.
@kloschuessel773 the funny thing about this comment is Leipzig themselves are only 5 minutes old when compared to Brighton which was founded over 122 years ago.
@@JR-sj1jz thats just the age of the club City is old too but havent been peps city or oil money city during that time but only recently And dortmund is an old club that just about 15 years ago got turned around by klopp and co The shift in brightons recruitement and hiring is a recent change. And pretending as if brighton is now doing something special or has been doing so for a long time is weird. And brighton has yet to scout and develop a single world class player during that spell while dortmund had already developed a dozen.
On the MacAllister transfer, it was more than just have him continue to develop in Argentina why he went to Boca Juniors. Brighton purchased him before he had made any appearances for the national team and as such was unlikely to gain a work permit to play in England. So they loaned him out to a big Argentinian team in order that he would develop and make his way into the National side. Almost as soon as he won his first cap, they secured the permit, cancelled the loan and brought him to the club to embed with the first team. It took him a while before he got his debut and he mostly flew under the radar until last year's world cup where for some reason people started paying attention... 🤔
Long story short, they spent £6mil on a player that had no guarantee of ever being able to play in the country because they saw the potential and took the gamble that he would come good
He was on argentina and argentina fans radar for a long time. People were really optimistic about him in the olympic and when lo celso got injured everyone hoped he will fill his role and he did excellently. So to say he came out of nowhere is really far fetched.
I read an article about Brighton doing position specific scouting rather than region specific. Dan Ashworth has started to implement this at Newcastle now as a result of Brightons success.
You ain't gonna find a CB that fits your profile when the population you're scouting ain't got the supply. Scouting is locating and tracking talent, it can not not be bound to a place. Why the f*ck do you think so many clubs are desperate for a quality striker? The supply simply doesn't exist. Supply of position specific quality players doesn't consistently exist in place, only in time!! And being in the right place at the right time, is much more a matter of luck than scouts are willing to admit.
I don’t know why other teams don’t do that because it makes the most sense. Instead of looking for French or German players, you’d want a German/French RW who suits your style. Even if you don’t, it makes more sense to try that instead of filtering through loads of unavailable players.
Basically players will run to Brighton so that they can audition for bigger clubs. I remember Thomas Frank saying he convinces good young players to join Brentford to join his team rather than a big team where they could get minutes, and once they get minutes proper clubs will notice them, and he would not prevent them leaving
hey, as long as the price tag is good, it works. Like Cucurella and Caicedo would realistically be worth half the price based on their ability, but they're tough in negotiations, then they can make huge profits, replace them with a 20m signing each, and spend the rest on different players. I think for every club that isn't the biggest on the planet, players join you with hope of eventually moving on to the bigger club. The best run ones realize it and use it to their advantage to rip off the bigger clubs.
Another thing that might help Brighrons recruitment is the sell on clauses. I think Caciedos was like 20%. So over 20mil. Clubs in poorer leagues are going to see this and it will make Brighton an even more enticing option to sell players too. Rather than a big club who have the power to keep a star player and so dont sell them on or a club that is poor at selling or has players run down their contract and leave for free
Another interesting point is the last one - which flies in the face of another piece of received wisdom - you constantly hear old pros saying ''you can't keep selling your best players' the flipside is that if you don't, then the good players won't come to you in the first place. By showing young players that Brighton will not stand in their way and will progress their career, the club make themselves a top destination (Dortmund is another great example). The counter example is Leicester, which refused to let players leave for fear of weakening the team, leading to players being resentful and running their contracts down, and eventually relegation when the atmosphere turned sour. It takes a leap of faith to do what Brighton are doing, but it clearly works, and is a far better deal for all concerned - the players, the club and the fans.
yeah some reports said he was actually first choice but rejected them. Although De Zerbi is just as good, and is the perfect appointment, considering he already coached a similarly well run, successful club in Sassuolo
Excellent focus on the holistic nature of player development - football fans focus obsessively on the individual player, and the narrative is always 'this player is great/crap' rather than, what is the environment needed for players to succeed. Ths is clearly where Brighton excel, identifying good prospects, yes, but providing the right environment. You could do a follow up of the flipside - why do Chelsea and Man United ruin players? They keep spending tens of millions on players and they don't succeed, and it ooks like they're duds. Almost certainly the opposite to Brighton, providing an unhelpful and unforgiving environment.
Exactly and I don't understand why sending a lot of player on loan is bad thing in FM, like interviewers ai that ask "what you thought on criticism this club send a lot of player on loan" where that question doesn't exist in real life because everyone knows sending player on loan is good thing
@@velderyx2135I found a lot of players I sent on loan come back average. What I mean is rarely I see the progress/development I be expecting. Currently because my team is great shape I keep high potential players around the 1st team squad before I send them on loan. They get game experience of 40% plus games with good coaches, good falicties good atmosphere. After 2 years I sent them out on loan and good clubs will want them. Only weakness is you can only concentrate game time for 2 players but rarely would you have loads of wonderkids fighting for attention and some go onto begin squad players to countiue development
Another great example of this is Borussia Dortmund. The amount of superstars that they have developed over the years is incredible and they are a huge asset to world football.
Problem is Dortmund started focusing on that and not improving their squad so even when they want to keep players, they always end up losing them and end up having their squad gutted. Similar to Ajax.
@@bigrandomun9267 Hmmm true, its just that for Ajax & Dortmund, context is key. Both clubs are required to fight for trophies domestically & even in Europe; it's why I feel they try to retain more & have a slightly different model to that of Brighton. Brighton as a club, at present, their biggest expectation is qualify for Europe, but beneath that they're a midtable side.
All of this centres around the succession plan. Bissouma was replaced by Caicedo; Trossard was replaced by Mitoma; Mitoma will probably be replaced by Adingra etc. This also applies to managers and coaches, see Potter and De Zerbi. Crucially, Brighton will have players lined up to replace urgent outgoings that is not necessarily through the development cycle either. Cucurella didnt have a natural successor as we didnt expect him to go so soon, but when he was sold, the club immediately signed Estupinan. Brighton is simply very good at preparing for the eventuality that another club (cough Chelsea cough) will buy their players. There is no magic formula in that strategic thinking, its just good management.
I have always the belief that there are more talent in the world than the chances available and NOT everyone are in the big clubs are the best. Good to see BHA has implemented that thought greatly.
Absolutely. I think there is FAR more talent in the world than people realize. It's just that most clubs would rather play "proven" players who are good enough right now (but won't improve). The reputation matters more for them, too, rather than seeing actual talent. It's refreshing to see clubs with different approaches
also just look at the amount of players who went on to be good which nobody actually predicted to be good. Like just even look at any FIFA/FM game from a few years back and you'll see some players who have become great since then but in that game they'd never do much. Clearly clubs struggle to see talent unless they've seen something first, generally. Plenty of stories of players being released from academies, too, and then become great elsewhere because thier original club didn't appreciate them enough.
I fully agree. That’s why I always disagree when clubs say they can’t find any suitable players for their team. There are definitely players ready for Liverpool or Chelsea, you just don’t know who they are or where they are.
@@maciejbala477 No there isn't far more talent. It's even the opposite. There aren't many proper top quality players, the entire football population between 16 and 38 provides like 10 to 15 11s worth of top quality => the supply of top players is naturally limited. The talent pool is a pyramid: there are far less potential top players than potential subtop players and so on in a world in which not even 5% of youth players ends up being a professional player because not talented enough. There isn't an elite academy in the world that produces on average a top player a year.
This is interesting, and Brighton are impressive. They are also becoming an extremely competitive team. How high up the league can they get with this model?
If they can keep this up, with the transfer revenue they pull in, top 4. But this model is tough to sustain. Other clubs have tried. Gotten close. And then dropped off.
They'll expand their model and get underappreciated and undervalued big players. Dahoud is an example. They also targeted Koopmeiners and Kudus. Akanji was awesome for City last season. Brighton will try and make a lot of Akanji-like signings.
I feel like the limit is around top 6. Above this teams start having world class players and to compete you need to have some players of this level and bringing in this calibre of player would mess up their business model
@@fangdog29hard, they need to buy top players to even be in top 4. Epl is different from bundesliga whereby dortmund can always be top 2 or 3 because there isnt much team that can compete for the title aside from bayern and rb leipzig. Dortmund is one of many teams that utilise such MO
7:32 Jason Steele ain't a succession option for Brighton, that was a response to Sanchez falling out of favour with De Zerbi because the manager believes Steele is better with the ball at his feet, Sanchez ultimately left the club for far less than what the club would've valued him at a year or two ago when he was playing every game under Potter, but it was unavoidable because the player was unhappy about being benched. Sanchez is undoubtedly a better goalkeeper than Steele, who was only really brought in years ago as a backup/cup keeper. Promoting him to first choice goalkeeper was out of necessity rather than future planning. That's why Brighton brought in Bart Verbruggen this summer, who I expect will soon be playing every league game after a transitional period.
In the past it would have been Italian and Portuguese clubs getting these players. Brighton are that sweet spot at the moment with little expectation(thus they can be patient with players), showcase premier league proven players, and have the cash to attract young players.
As a Brighton fan, I'm so glad that we've taken this approach to recruitment. I've played Football Manager for years, and this has always been exactly how I've done things. It works. Surprisingly well. After a few years you just end up with a conveyor belt of first team players and/or big money sales. Our transfer windows are often quite uneventful because we're not usually making headlines splashing out on big 'marquee' signings, but I would much rather us doing business quietly, buying a string of young unknowns who might go on to become great players in a few years, than overspending on some aging 'big names' just for the sake of it. Sure, we bring in the occasional Danny Welbeck or Adam Lallana or James Milner, but it's always for a purpose. They're an experienced head to fit into our system and help the youngsters. It's not a Stoke City-style 'hey we bought an aging Peter Crouch because he's a big name and he's available, so now we have to _completely change our style of play_ and hit it long to get the most of of him' kind of thing.
Milner is perfect for De Zerbi's system too. He played Gross and Caicedo at fullback last season even though they're usually midfielders. Milner is a midfielder who has often played fullback too, so I'm not at all shocked he's the one playing there this season
What they are doing is incredibly impressive, but the margin for error gets smaller as you get closer to the top. Expectations for players coming in are higher, playing time is more sparse, and thusly development is more difficult. I hope they keep it up, and will be interested in seeing how/if their model changes if the success is sustained.
Great video as always! I'd add to that the fact that they have a satellite club in Belgium that they can send their youth prospects to develop on a lower level.
1. Set a player template 2. Employ coaches that fit the player template 3. Scout & recruit for the said template 4. Use other clubs to develop players 5. Impressive players from no4 are given opportunities towards the end of a season 6. Impressive players from no5 are then integrated into the squad 7. Everybody is happy RINSE AND REPEAT Smart❤
This looks like the Southampton model from a few years ago. They sold players for the high, bought for low and were fun to watch. I hope Brighton lasts longer.
Southampton got their coaching choices wrong after Poch and Koeman... This led to them straying from their recruitment process' and started panic buying players like Walcott..
Mitoma received interests from more than 10 clubs in Europe when he was at Kawasaki, including Manchester City, Burnley, Celtic, several Bundesliga clubs, a dutch big club etc. Mitoma himself said in an interview he chose Brighton because they were the first one to show the interest in the move. They even contacted to Mitoma half a year before the deal was secured.
Mitoma didn't care of money because he had many sponsors already. now his main sponsors are Mercedes Benz and Purma. German companies were aware of his possibility even before he became popular.
One thing that went overlooked but evan ferguson said was that there was so many boys at the big clubs and some fade away and 1st time pathway was much harder. Smaller clubs have an easier time recruiting and they're not looking at the top echelon of talent and looking at a larger pool of varying talent, but also which i believe is more key to recruiting, is that they're developing players at a smaller exposure to pressure and confidence killing situations. They're in all reality building these boys confidence not only in themselves but their talent so that they're more ready for bigger pressure because they've been nurtured more. Top clubs its more of a talent pool grinding stone and only the best make it. Top clubs remind me of Red Bull F1 team, they got their Max but the 2nd driver they're putting them into the seat and sees who can handle the fire and really no one has. Teams in the EPL do it in cycles but never lasts long bc eventually the pressure to either stay up or go for european spots starts to put these teams under pressure and the model eventually falls apart, only teams like Ajax and Dortmund do well because their leagues are way different to the EPL and they can get away with drops in talent for a big and still finish well enough to give young talent opportunities. Top clubs just don't invest enough time into to because they can find top talent and spend top dollar to get it or let clubs like this nurture the talent and buy it. I honestly think a top club could do this but it would take a major revamp in the thinking of the recruitment and academy and honestly how the first team evolves and transitions from one cycle to another.
Its very similar to the way Chelsea evaded FFP under Abramovich. sign many young players with potential at a low price, loan them out, the ones that impress to the level required like Courtois get retained and the ones that cut it like Van Ginkel,Kakuta get sold for profit to balance the account for big spendings like Havertz,Chilwell etc.
The one thing which was in favour of Brighton was most of the teams were in a rebuilding stage & so the successes will be much higher. Within two - three years the shortage of outright strikers will be so high that teams with good strikers will shine. The current year is basically for midfielders. So there'll be periods for certain positions, that's how football is. Still I believe, if brighton could get into the top four somehow then this scouting will be definitely copied by the big 6 teams.
I watched an interview with Dassler Marques a few months ago. He is Liverpool's scout who covers South America. He basically clarified to me the main difference between Brighton, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Dortmund and Liverpool, Manchester City/United and so on. It's obvious they all know about the biggest talents around the world. It's not "secret" unless we are talking about aberrations like 8-year-olds or 13-year-olds. Scouts bring them players with huge potential. The main difference is the group/person who decides to bet on those kids. I'm talking about either the owners or the ones directly involved in transfers, like David Weir and Dan Ashworth at Brighton. All big clubs already knew about Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo when they were 15~16, but not all of them will pay €40~45m for them. You won't find many clubs willing to pay £10~20m for kids. Brighton don't care. They prefer to bet on those types of players and present them an environment where they can develop without pressure. Jude Bellingham choosing Dortmund over basically every big club in Europe is another example.
Caicedo wasn't replaced by anyone and they didn't want to sell him. They don't want to sell Mitoma and Fetguson. But they 're expecting to sell Enciso and put him extra value with no.10. they don't want to sell.
Brighton is great at signing players I'm from south africa but we had a player who has great feet Percy tau the idol of my country He played for Brighton even though he struggled for game time
I know he didn't get to play much and he cost around £20m, but do you think Mwepu would have been a part of this highly regarded group? Very sad how early he had to retire, but the main thing is he's not bloody dead.
The playing and loaning part it so key. I'm a spurs fan and you look at the number of players we bring in or come through the youth and never get any chances at the moment only for them to make it big somewhere else. We used to be good at it but the last 4 years or so, If i was a young player I would never go to spurs. You're not going to be given a chance and 3-4 years later you'll be playing somewhere else having wasted a chunk of your career. I think its the same for a lot of the bigger clubs as well, as a young player you know going to Chelsea you're never going to be picked over the 80 million pound signing.
Brighton really press all the right buttons when they recruit. They press them in multiple ways. A hybrid press if you will. Great pressing from Brighton.
Brighton also sell when players are at the height of their public popularity, when most clubs have decided this player is an essential first teamer not for sale. Won't stop them saying "not for sale"... until the price is right
Solid strategy from Brighton Also can't help but notice the horse drawing Jon customize on his shirt from the Premier League prediction breakdown. Nice catch
What I think is that people like Caicedo and Ferguson would not play ad much as he have done in a team like Man Utd and Liverpool compared to what they did at Brighton. I think that that is one of the reasons why the evolve so much in a team like Brighton
Tottenham have done a few things in attempt to follow a similar model, and some did wel like Udogie and Sarr, but it’s not even close to the level the Seagulls do it
Is it also the fact that they have so many departures that they’re able to have space in the first team to play these young guys? I feel like at a bigger club, you don’t have the luxury of the integration step because you can’t compromise your form to give these guys minutes?
I dont know how long they will be able to keep this system, everything looks fine when its working well, remember teams will start asking for higher prices - sell on clauses now that they know brighton can make huge profit of these transfers, also once transfers from brighton start flopping more often clubs would be hesitant to buy players at the prices they want one more thing to remember is Southampton and Leicester were doing the same thing not too long ago, once their best players/managers leave one bad run of form or few bad transfer windows can push them towards relegation battle, and things get messy there
This approach gives Brighton such a massive competitive advantage to teams around them, and the more successful they are, the more results, and the more money they can get both from being in Europe and prem, but from this model, so realistically, Brighton can establish themselves much more and be a team in the premier league for at least until 2040, possibly even 2050
They scout and more importantly give chances to talent and not only try and get the finished product. Teams in the top 6 etc or the bigger clubs only scout players that others develop or the ones close to being the full package.
thinking about the Mac Allister example has me wondering how they monitor so many players out on loan and what criteria they are using to decide if a player is worthy of coming in to the first team. the sheer number of players they have loaned out must make that a bit challenging. Because they have those specific player profiles i'd guess that they also have certain metrics they expect players to meet and when they sort of pass a threshold they are deemed 'worthy' -if that makes sense
Another benefit of the buy >>> loan is Brighton have way more pull than smaller clubs so these young players will usually do a lot better at these other clubs.
I remember seeing Mac Allister playing for Boca Juniors and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. And when he went to Brighton, it seemed like a mad transfer.
They are amazing, as simple as that, everything falls in place like a puzzle. Clubs like this are what makes football beautiful and that's why they deserved much more love than PSG for example.
Its surprising to see Brighton doing this in PL and succeed at it. I usually look at Dortmund, Ajax or Benfica when it comes to young talents😅 Huge respect to the managements in Brighton.
Very interesting, but we should not forget that just a few short years ago Leicester were the bee’s knees of recruitment, with a successful system in place that was a seemingly the envy of everyone. Do these things last? Southampton and Wolves also had similar seemingly robust systems. The well-run club today is your ill-run club tomorrow that is heading to relegation or that can’t seem to get any transfer right, or that has managed to be laden with a bloated squad it can’t seem to get rid of. Let’s see what happens to Brighton in the next few seasons.
It was an interesting vid unitl you said. ( chelsea do the same thing ) no they dont lol. They spend 60+ m on under 21 players and barelly give them any play time and end up leaving cheaper
And it's also made them an excellent team that genuinely challenges for Europe. Have to think though, clubs will start adding an extra few million now when Brighton come knocking...
This model development for English League are good for certain period. But if one want to prolonge the team fly high, most likely not achievable. The reason behind this is either social environment or economic. This particular model are applicable in certain region with certain environtment such as Germany and environtment there are suitable for this model to continually work for longer period of time.
Brighton is just like RB Leipzig who owns Salzburg as a farm team whiles Brighton owns Union Saint Gilliouse as a farm team in Belgium the problem with the top teams is they sign internationals and ucl experience players so having a farm team is not really good like psg and kas eupen,monaco and cercle bruges or city and girona and now Chelsea owns strassbourg
Is the point of the pathway to eventually lead to footballing success? Or is that 100% down to the coaching staff and the pathway is just a way of giving them easily replaceable tools?
now this makes me curious what are the players on loan currently that belongs to Brighton. But i seriously hope they do not go down the same end as Southampton and the fans do not rush them to try and secure trophies.
A slight correction on Alexis' loans. He was unable to play for Brighton early on due to work permit issues, so had to go on loan. However, the club had recognised his potential and saw he was on the verge of a national team appearance. And as soon as he did, his work permit was approved and he was brought into the fold.
I think it's not just about the talent they scout, it is also the environment they provide. I honestly believe that if you pick all the misfiring players in EPL and take them to Brighton, they will be world beaters!!
Several of Brightons big sales haven't looked nearly as good elsewhere as they did at Brighton. I think they have a knack of getting players good for them rather than good somewher else.
Good at recruitment in my opinion just means, getting players that fit seamlessly into whatever system you want to play. Which Brighton have excelled massively. Making Humongous profits is a result of their hard work
Removing emotions is key. Emotions is why Manchester United is where it is today. Many players do not fit but emotions won't allow them move those players on. Player recruitment is a MESS also
Point out that Neal Maupay was bought for the real reason one recruits- to score goals and win games. £200m value being top scorer and helping keep BHA in the Prem
Good on Brighton. This just highlights the sad reality of Liverpool's academy kids. They have little chance of breaking into first team. Everyone's the next thing then suddenly it fizzles out - ex. Musialowski.
Nah tbf with the Macallister one he didn’t have a work permit so the original plan was for him to be loaned for one season but had another season on loan to get the work permit
