Chelsea have done a huge amount of business with Brighton over the last 14 months.
Firstly the Blues came in for Marc Cucurella. It was a fractious deal, with the Seagulls at one point publicly announcing that no deal was done, despite rumours.
In the end it did happen, and the Seagulls were laughing all the way to the bank.
Next the Blues swooped for Graham Potter and 5 other staff members. Once again, Brighton took the money, then found a better coach to replace Potter.
This summer there was further action – Chelsea battled back and forth all summer, and ended up paying a British transfer record for Moises Caicedo.
Despite a pretty solid year of transfer dealings, and some fans on both sides getting frustrated by the other party, Brighton owner Tony Bloom has insisted that he has no hard feelings:
“We take each situation on its own merits and each one is separate,†he said in quotes picked up by The Athletic.
“When Graham went, that was six of our staff all in one go, but we just look at it all individually and every deal is a separate deal and the fact it happens to be one club is the way it is.
“It’s possible over the next two or three years that we have no dealings with Chelsea. So, for me, it’s not personal at all and each individual deal I’ve got to do what’s best for the football club first and foremost.
“If other clubs are interested in our head coaches, staff, players, I much prefer it that way than no one’s looking at any of our players or staff. So, we’re doing something very right. We do everything we can to keep our best players, but we know in the way of the world that won’t always be the case.â€
We honestly can’t see why he would have any issues… he’s won every battle so far and at this rate will have doubled the value of his club before too long, using purely Chelsea’s cash.
What is the point of this article? Moneybags Chelsea attempted something approaching ‘horizontal integration’ by targeting talent after talent at Brighton. When they got finally them, they ruined most of them and discarded or tried discard them. Sadly Chelsea is simply a toxic club at the moment and their reputation approaches the ‘Everyone hates us; we don’t care’ of `Milwall!
‘We honestly can’t see why he would have any issues… he’s won every battle so far and at this rate will have doubled the value of his club before too long, using purely Chelsea’s cash’.
Have you thought that the issue might be the Club and fans are absolutely fed up with Chelsea relentlessly trying to acquire the best of Brighton? Of course not….. it requires a modicum of emotional intelligence!
I do wish Chelsea fans would refrain from using terms like ‘fleeced’ to describe their dealings with Brighton, as if somehow they are the victims. I don’t remember Brighton ever putting up their staff for sale. It was purely the result of Chelsea FC imposing themselves time and again and insisting on paying ludicrous sums of money for Brighton players and staff who, quite frankly, were never going to perform at their best whilst working within the restrictive confines of a club like Chelsea where instant results and unrealistic targets are expected. It’s about time Chelsea fans turned their attentions on their own Club and ownership to question why their methods are failing rather than trying to pin the blame on a developing club from the south coast who are just minding their own business whilst gradually building a team capable of competing at the upper end of the premier league. The current Chelsea way of spending a billion quid whilst pretending to be victims is really not a good look and makes the club and it’s fans look even more pathetic and even more disliked by fans of every other club than they already were. Please stop it.