Tony Bloom interview: Brighton’s £195m splurge, Hurzeler so far, and why De Zerbi didn’t work long-term (2024)

Brighton & Hove Albion splashed out almost £200million in the transfer window this summer.

That was the second-biggest spend in world football, behind only Chelsea, and brought in nine new signings. They had the biggest net spend across the game globally of £139million ($182m), which was at least £35m more than any other Premier League club.

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They are also third in the table after three games under 31-year-old head coach Fabian Hurzeler. In that run, they have manageda home win against Manchester United and a draw away to Arsenal.

Owner-chairman Tony Bloom, who took over in 2009 when Brighton were in League One, English football’s third tier, and who has invested over £400million in his boyhood club via interest-free loans, explains the strategy behind the scale of their spending this summer as well as discussing:

His plan for Brighton
The impact of profit and sustainability rules (PSR)
Manchester City’s arbitration case with the Premier League
Why he has been surprised by new appointment Hurzeler
And why Roberto De Zerbi was “never going to work out long-term”

Here’s what Bloom had to say…

GO DEEPERHow Brighton became Europe's second highest spenders - with £195m paid out this summer

Eyebrows have been raised by Brighton spending nearly £200million in the summer transfer window. What was the strategy there?

Bloom: At the start of the window, we knew there were going to be opportunities, we knew there were going to be quite a few incomings, quite a few changes. We probably did not envisage quite as much.

You never quite know how a transfer window will transpire — whether the players you want to bring in are going to be within the budget and are available — but the circ*mstances have allowed this (to happen).

The PSR circ*mstances of other clubs are well known. Other bigger clubs on the continent have not quite got the budgets to compete with some of the Premier League teams, so some of the players that perhaps would not have been available to us in the past have become available. And the way our transfers have worked in the last two or three windows has meant we lost some key players who we were not always able to replace straight away and we have invested a lot in young players.

You are always looking to improve and I think we have done that with the business we’ve completed. We think we have a great chance of competing at the top end of the table.

How much have the profits over the past two seasons given you that foundation?

Bloom: In the last two seasons, we have sold a lot of players for big amounts. When it comes to players in and out, in terms of accounts, that is always looked at in one season, particularly the sales, as they go into the profit and loss straight away. I look at it over a big period of time. So over a period in terms of the net ins and outs, it is very much in our favour.

In this particular transfer window, this particular accounting period, there is obviously a lot more money going out than in.

Do the future changes to PSR impact your strategy going forward — not just at Brighton but because of what might happen to other clubs?

Bloom: We are always within the limits and we will always be fine while I am chairman. Certainly, we were aware of other clubs and other situations. We’ve had a very odd situation, which I think is a one-off this year, whereby certain clubs had to sell by June 30, which is the end of the year for most clubs’ accounts.

(Yankuba) Minteh was a player we had followed for a while. We were certainly aware of him a year ago when he went to Newcastle (from Odense in Denmark). He had a fabulous season (in 2023-24 on loan at Dutch club Feyenoord). We knew about that and that deadline and we were able to get him in; a superb player, a young player who will hopefully improve as well. We were able to do that at the end of June and that was because of the PSR issues that certain clubs had.

GO DEEPERBrighton signing Yankuba Minteh is a signal - they are a top-10 club

Will the proposed changes to PSR make things better or worse?

Bloom: I think it makes sense. Everyone is asking to have things more real-time rather than sanctions based on a previous season. No one is a fan of points deductions as well — they can still happen, but with the real-time nature of what the new rules will look like, I think the fans will understand it better and it is better for the Premier League as a whole.

Brighton were able to sign Minteh due to the PSR issues at Newcastle (Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images)

As PSR stands, clubs have been trying to find loopholes. Are they gaining an unfair advantage?

Bloom: With any set of financial rules, clubs will try to take advantage of loopholes. As long as it is within the rules, then they are allowed to. It is up to the Premier League when there are loopholes to change the rules to stop them.

I think the new rules — which hopefully will come in over the next six months, for next season and beyond, when it is all one season at a time — will reduce the amount of loopholes, the amount of ways clubs can get around it. So I am just hoping that going forward the rules do allow significant losses for each club, allow for investment, and I am hoping that Premier League (club) owners will stay within the rules much more than perhaps has happened in the past.

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What do you make of Manchester City taking the Premier League to arbitration about APT (Associated Party Transactions rules)? Do you support the league on that, or City?

Bloom: I don’t want to talk too much about that because it has gone to arbitration and we are going to get a ruling on that soon. We (Brighton) are outsiders. Each club, legally, are able to do that. I don’t think it’s great for the reputation of the Premier League, but these things happen. We have to see how the legal process develops. I don’t think it will be helpful for the Premier League to lose the case, but we are going to find out the outcome soon.

What about the way Fabian Hurzeler has started as your head coach?

Bloom: I am surprised about how quickly and how well he has settled. It is a very big move. He has only been a head coach of a professional football team for 18 months (with St Pauli from Hamburg in Germany) in the second division in the Bundesliga.

To come from doing so well there (St Pauli won promotion last season) into the Premier League — the toughest league in the world — has been a really exceptional progression. I am just really excited for him and for the team and what we can achieve, not just this season but beyond that as well.

Bloom with Hurzeler at a press conference in July (Steven Paston/PA Images/Getty Images)

How much are you in contact with him and what do you talk about?

Bloom: We have regular chats, but not daily. He was really easy to deal with (in the transfer window), getting his view on the style of players he needs.

Our role — Mike (Cave, head of recruitment) was at the forefront of it — is deciding which players to go for between myself and David (Weir, the technical director) and Mike and going to get them. Fabian is really helpful at the latter stage when we need players to come and show them the potential of Brighton. He is a big part in explaining their role.

Fabian is more of a head coach. He is aware of players, but the model at St Pauli was that the recruitment is done more by the sporting director and the head of recruitment. In terms of shortlists and players to go for, that comes very much from the data, the recruitment team and the scouting.

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Has that dynamic worked more smoothly so far than it did with Roberto De Zerbi?

Bloom: The process hasn’t changed, the philosophy hasn’t changed, but it is fair to say Fabian has bought into it a lot more than his predecessor. Roberto had thoughts on certain players, but that is not the way we as a club work. The club will decide on the players potentially to bring into the club, in conjunction with the head coach.

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It’s not a situation, the way we work, that the head coach says, ‘I like this player and that player’, and that’s what we do (in terms of signings). If a head coach has some ideas, that comes in as part of the process, but a head coach really liking a player has got to fit many characteristics, it has got to fit with the data analysis we do.

When Roberto came in (in September 2022, after Graham Potter left to manage Chelsea), we explained the process and the philosophy. If there is non-alignment between the head coach and the club, things are never going to work out long-term.

So much of what you do is about forward planning. Of course, you are still young (Bloom is 54). You have already said you are going to be at Brighton for years to come, but what would be the succession plan for the club without Tony Bloom?

Bloom: The great thing is we have great people working across the whole club, so when I am no longer chairman I would be very hopeful that my successor will inherit a very strong, very stable club with a brilliant fanbase and hopefully it can continue to have success for many years.

I foresee myself being here long into the future. Obviously, I could get knocked over by a bus tomorrow and hopefully things would be fine, but I am hoping to still be here in 15 to 20 years.

(Top photo: Steven Paston/PA Images via Getty Images)

Andy Naylor worked for 32.5 years on the sports desk of The Argus, Brighton’s daily newspaper. For the last 25 of those years he was chief sports reporter, primarily responsible for coverage of Brighton and Hove Albion FC. Follow Andy on Twitter @AndyNaylorBHAFC