Is Brighton the Best Run Club in The Premier League?

One of the most fun teams to watch in the Premier League last season and this has been Brighton. Since De Zerbi took the reins, results have really been stacking up. Although that Villa game this weekend was rough.

Brighton is one of those stories that makes you love football. After almost getting demoted from the Championship in the 15/16 season, Chris Hughton was appointed as manager and managed to get Brighton a third place finish and automatic promotion to the Premier League in 16/17.

After narrowly avoiding the drop in 18/19, Graham Potter got the job of manager for the southern club. The following seasons Potter was lauded for the job he did with a squad that was considered sub par. He did so well on the field and developing players that he ultimately got one of the big jobs in England, managing Chelsea.

Improving Every Year

That’s when De Zerbi came in. He took over a squad that people thought Potter had worked wonders with by getting them to ninth. De Zerbi got 6th. 

De Zerbi has done a wonderful job and has gotten a lot of praise. But Brighton the club deserves the real credit. What a well run club.

Since Chris Hughton became manager of Brighton they’ve improved every season, bar one. Hughton got them to the Premier League. Graham Potter made them a mainstay there. And De Zerbi is now continuing the work.

Potter was hyped almost as much as De Zerbi for the work that he did, with the squad he had at his disposal. He overperformed for three seasons. He’s a great manager for under dog squads, remember, he also took little Östersund FK from the third tier of Swedish football to a deep Europa League run.

But when he came to Chelsea he burned out very quickly. Could it be that the same

It’s possible that De Zerbi is as good, even better than Potter. But I would argue that the way the club is run is the reason they have both been doing so well. Not the manager.

Transfer Business

Every summer the club loses their best players. Every summer they replace them with names no one has ever heard of. And every season someone else picks up the baton. The players come through the academy, from the Japanese League or from the .

Look at the incredible players that have left in the past three years:

The club is one of the best at finding, developing and selling talent. They’re selling their best players every summer and still manage to improve each season. For the past three seasons they’ve even had a positive net spend, unlike the other clubs finishing around them.

So, they’ve had a positive net spend. They’ve lost their best players every summer. Yet they continue to improve. How is that possible? Yes, the manager has them playing great football. But Brighton has been a success since long before De Zerbi joined.

They’re one of the best when it comes to recruiting players that will develop and fit into their system. Obviously they’ve got a method for finding the right manager as well.

Academy Products

For a team that is a pretty recent regular fixture in the Premier League, Brighton has an above average output from their academy. Academy products Ben White and Roberto Sánchez have both moved on to Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, pretty big moves.

Currently four players in the Brighton are considered academy products:

• Lewis Dunk (who recently debuted for the England national team)

• Solly March

• Evan Ferguson

• Tom McGill

With the exception of Tom McGill, they’re all nailed on starters for the club. Well as much of nailed on starters as you can be in De Zerbis Brighton.

Ending Thoughts

De Zerbi has Brighton playing fun, fast and successful football. No doubt. But the fact is that it’s Brighton, the club, that is setting up its managers for success. The club has improved with regards to performances every year since Chris Hughton took over.

The club has been incredible at finding and developing talent in the past few years. Buying low and selling high. They’ve been losing their best players every summer but have kept improving nonetheless.

They have been very successful at developing talent through their academy

All of this points to an incredibly well run club. All facets of running a club are dialled in; transfer business, youth academy and manager recruitment.

More on the subject

I thought this interview with Brighton CEO Paul Barber was very interesting, give it a watch if you’re interested in more on the subject!

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