Brighton CEO Paul Barber has revealed what his relationship with Todd Boehly is like.
Since Boehly and Clearlake Captial became the new owners of Chelsea back in May 2022 a lot of business has taken place between the two clubs for both players and staff.
The Blues shelled out a British record transfer fee for Moises Caicedo last summer to partner Enzo Fernandez as well as signing goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and Marc Cucurella from the south coast club.
Chelsea spent £21.5m to get Graham Potter and his coaching staff out of Brighton and have also taken off field figures such as Paul Winstanley who is now director of football at Stamford Bridge and most recently Sam Jewell.
With the amount of business done between clubs people have assumed that it left a sour taste in the mouth of the south coast club but Barber has revealed that isn’t the case and he has a strong relationship with Boehly and Behdad Eghbali.
Speaking to The Athletic he said: “Todd was one of the first people at Wembley to come and say hello. We joked about the fact that Tony and I were both wearing red ties. He’s a nice guy, he is a very successful businessman.
“Yes, we’ve probably had a few too many dealings with each other than I would have liked, that he would have liked probably, but that’s business.”
“Tony and I have a good relationship with Todd and Behdad. We understand that we are in a competitive world. We are not going to get too emotional over individuals leaving because the club is bigger than any one individual, the club is bigger than 11 or 12 individuals in the case of Chelsea.”
“It’s flattering in a way that a big club with a good history is coming after our people. It’s annoying in other ways, but we are also realistic that people who are doing good jobs with growing profiles will potentially be poached by bigger clubs, with more wages or opportunities to offer.”
There might be more business between the two clubs this summer as Brighton’s manager Roberto De Zerbi is reportedly a target for Chelsea if they decide to sack Mauricio Pochettino.
Forget De Zerbi. He’s fine, but why would you go after him over someone with far more success like Xabi Alonso at Leverkusen? If you’re going to opt for someone young and relatively new to management then at least go with the guy who looks poised to actually win something, lol!