I can, a few years ago admittedly remember going to watch Charlton play Brighton at the Withdean stadium, it was a midweek match, lashing down with rain , and thinking what a dump, how did it get this bad?
Now they are selling players for 100 million plus, and entertaining European football this season, good luck to them.
I can also remember them giving us a good stuffing (4-0?) at the Valley as they breezed past us, out of this division on their pursuit of the Premier League.
I asked a Brighton fan, how they had done so well, he said it mainly down to Tony Bloom, a gambler who used a successful algorithm, which he had tweaked, and applied to football, hence their recruiting up and coming talent cheaply, and churning in a short space of time to make a vast profit, rinse and repeat time and time again.
Now eventually in the future their luck will run out on recruitment and it will start a downward spiral, so you have to enjoy the good times whilst they are there, and appreciate it at the time, and not take it for granted.
Bur how can they get it so right, and we have got it so wrong?
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Brighton had Tony Bloom.
Charlton had Roland, esi1, esi2,and Sandgaard
We gambled on Mendonca and Ajose...you can't win 'em all but Brighton are on a good winning streak
If you're going to have an owner using those sorts of systems and looking for an edge, then have the bloke who's made his millions from using those type of system and looking for an edge.
Helps he's a fan and so his motivation isn't anything beyond making Brighton better.
Great owner.
Same with Brentford, both are doing fine at the moment, as they're able to replace their outgoings.
But I don't think its possible to last forever.
Eventually it's going to run out , they've just got to make hay whilst the sun shines , if they do well again this season I wonder if they keep De Zerbi
Tony Bloom has three things going for him - he has money, he is a mathematical genius who knows more about that probability of an outcome than just about anybody and he is Brighton born and educated but most of all he is a Brighton fan. If only we had a Tony Bloom.
It can come unstuck very easily for medium sized clubs, Ive said before you only need one bad season, a change of owner or manager and you're back in the EFL spending your way into massive debts to get back up again. Look at West Brom right now. Be interesting to see if Brighton can stay at that level for the next 10-20-30 years...
Plus they sign all sorts of NDAs etc, Bloom sued Matthew Benham for loads when he left to set up a rival company.
May well be the same within Brighton.
Tony Bloom is a gambler and a successful one at that but in the history of football if you continue to sell your best couple of players every season you will drop down the table eventually.
Young Ferguson will be the next one to go probably at the end of this season.
Brentford will be the same way.
https://theathletic.com/3029279/2023/03/30/cold-war-brighton-tony-bloom-matthew-benham-brentford/?amp=1
Dream that a Charlton owner can emulate what's gone on down there
What is great though is that there always seems to be a plan and they never panic. Trossard goes, Mitoma comes in. Cucurella goes, Estupinan comes in. Bissouma goes, Caicedo comes in. Macallister goes, now they have Enciso. Maupay went, and they've unearthed Evan Ferguson who i think will be their next big departure if he continues as he is.
People forget they also sold the likes of Ben White and Dan Burn and no one even noticed. The only transfer mistake i think they've made in recent years was selling Gyokeres to Coventry for about a million. 2 good seasons there and he's now at Sporting Lisbon.
Basically, Bloom and his betting company use low paid "scouts" who simply fill in forms with facts about what actually happened in thousands of games round the world.
A computer analyses all the data and identifies teams or players that are actually better (or worse) than suggested by the usual methods (such as league position, passes completed etc).
Bloom is very good at asking the right questions and tweeking the algorithms.
May is obviously a reasonable bet but he's hardly a 'secret' player that we have plucked from obscurity. We had to pay accordingly.