Brighton’s £200m shopping spree is all aggression while other clubs are meek

Their spending has been unprecedented in club’s history– six of the club’s all-time record transfers have come from signings this summer

Brighton’s summer shopping spree has taken them all over Europe, from the Scottish Premiership to the Turkish Super Lig and seemingly everywhere in between. They have targeted players of eight different nationalities, from eight different leagues, and have spent almost £200 million to bring them all together on the south coast.
It has been a truly remarkable period of transfer activity for a club that has, over the past few seasons, been better known for selling players than for buying them. In the last three summers, especially, Brighton have used the transfer window to generate huge amounts of money. This year, they have decided to spend it.
As an illustration of the club’s boldness in the transfer market in recent weeks, consider this: six of the seven most expensive players in Brighton’s history have arrived during this transfer window. Georginio Rutter, Yankuba Minteh, Mats Wieffer, Brajan Gruda, Ferdi Kadioglu and Matt O’Riley have all joined for £25 million or more.
These players have been paid for by the sales that Brighton have made over the last few seasons. Analysis by Telegraph Sport shows that, on player trading alone, Brighton made a profit of around £175 million over the past three years. These sales include Ben White (£50 million to Arsenal), Marc Cucurella (£60 million to Chelsea), Alexis Mac Allister (£35 million to Liverpool) and Moises Caicedo (£115 million to Chelsea).
The question, then, is not how Brighton have been able to spend so extravagantly this summer. That much is obvious. Far more interesting is why they have chosen to do so now. What is it about the transfer window of 2024 that has prompted owner Tony Bloom, a renowned poker player, to bet so heavily on so many new signings?
As ever with Brighton, it is all part of a longer-term strategy. Brighton’s executives have been planning for this window for some time, and they have known for a while that it would be an exciting and busy time for the club.
Telegraph Sport understands that a large reason for this is because so many other clubs in the Premier League are currently holding back in the transfer market. Profit and sustainability rules (PSR) have started to bite, and clubs across the division are being careful with their finances. With five days remaining of the window, transfer spending in the Premier League was down by £800 million compared to last summer.
Brighton, by contrast, have no such concerns about PSR. All that money has been sloshing around their bank account, and those funds have allowed them to be brave at a time when many other clubs are having to be cautious. The competition for talent has been less intense than in previous years, meaning that there is better value in the market for those clubs who can spend more freely.
The £33 million signing of Yankuba Minteh from Newcastle United, for example, was made possible because of Newcastle’s PSR concerns earlier in the summer. Newcastle were on the back foot, trying to balance the books, and Brighton were able to move swiftly and decisively.
The absence of big-money transfers between Premier League clubs has also worked in Brighton’s favour. At the time of writing, only one English team has paid more than £60 million for a player in this transfer window (Dominic Solanke’s move to Tottenham Hotspur from Bournemouth). Last summer, there were six deals in which a player joined a Premier League club for more than £60 million.
With fewer of those bigger deals going through, there has been a reduction in the amount of money trickling down the division. Again, it has allowed Brighton to be aggressive, while others are forced to be meek.
This is not to say that the summer has been easy for Brighton’s decision-makers. Far from it. For technical director David Weir and assistant technical director Mike Cave, especially, it must have been exhausting. All those deals to sort, all those negotiations to do.
Following the departure of head of recruitment Sam Jewell to Chelsea in February, Weir and Cave have effectively been doing the jobs of three people. And that is before one even considers the change of head coach, with Fabian Hurzeler replacing Roberto De Zerbi this summer.
For Hurzeler, all of these new signings provide quality and depth. But the transfer activity also represents a significant challenge, as each of these players must adapt to their new environment and gel with their new team-mates. They have all been signed because they possess the right personality traits and values for Brighton, but they still require careful man-management.
“You can’t treat all the players the same,” says Hurzeler, who takes his side to Arsenal this weekend. “They come from different cultures, growing up in different conditions, different environments. You have to get to know the person behind the player.
“For example, how you criticise a person. It is very different in the culture of Japan [Kaoru Mitoma’s home country], or in the culture of Gambia [Minteh’s home country]. You have to take care of their past, of their education, of their country and their values in their countries.”
Socialising helps the assimilation progress, of course, but Hurzeler says he has no interest in “artificial” team-building exercises. “For me, the most important thing is making memories together,” he says. “On the pitch, last-minute winners [such as against Manchester United last weekend] help to make memories. Outside the pitch, they should go out together. For me always the best way of team-building was when we had a night out.”
There were a few of those nights out, Telegraph Sport understands, on the pre-season tour of Japan. There have also been social events back in Brighton.
If all goes to plan with their new signings, and if Brighton’s excellent early-season form continues over the coming months, then there should be plenty more opportunities for celebration at a club that has pivoted so dramatically from selling to buying.