A season that started with the sudden shock departure of manager Graham Potter to Chelsea will end with Brighton in Europe for the first time in their history after qualification for the Europa League was confirmed in their 1-1 draw with champions Manchester City.
Brighton have done it their own way, playing some of the best football you will see anywhere in England – maybe even Europe – under a manager with a unique style of play that even the great tactical wizard himself Pep Guardiola said he has never seen before.
The charismatic Roberto De Zerbi is the man who has guided Brighton to their highest ever league position of 6th, thanks to his mixture of discipline, leadership, fiery ambition and tactical ingenuity.
But Brighton’s rise is not solely down to one man or manager. What makes the story so compelling is the overall package. Brighton are arguably the best run club in English football right now, leading the way in both player trading and talent identification to develop a squad packed full of players wanted by every big club in the land, a winning culture from top to bottom and a wonderful, vibrant, attacking style of play.
Under Roberto De Zerbi, Brighton’s statistics stand out among the best in any of Europe’s top five major leagues. De Zerbi’s Seagulls average an incredible 16.7 shots per game – only bettered in Europe’s top five leagues by Bayern Munich (18.7) and Real Madrid (17.7).
Their average possession is 63% – fourth best in Europe after Manchester City (65.3%), Bayern Munich (64.7%) and FC Barcelona (64.2%) and above teams like Napoli and Real Madrid. And they have built this all spending less than £50 million in the last two years, less than Chelsea paid for one player, Marc Cucurella (£63 million).
It is an incredible story worthy of a Hollywood movie or Netflix series.
De Zerbi is the leader on the pitch. His teams play an extreme possession-focused style in which the goalkeeper holds onto the ball for as long as possible in the build-up phase, drawing in opponents to break their shape before releasing the ball and quickly playing through the lines.
By destabilising teams in this way it allows Brighton space to create chances using their array of excellent, exciting attacking talents in players like Julio Enciso, Kaoru Mitoma, Alexis MacAllister, Pervis Estupinan, Moises Caicedo, Solly March and forward prodigy Evan Ferguson.
Stopping this style is a challenge for anyone. In the process of qualifying for Europe Brighton have beaten Manchester United home and away, Liverpool twice, Chelsea 4-1 and destroyed Arsenal 3-0 at Emirates Stadium to end their title challenge, completely outplaying them in a stunning win.
Such dominance not only of the ball but in the sheer number of chances they create has led to huge praise. “Pay attention to what I’m going to say because I’m pretty convinced I’m right,” said an enthusiastic Pep Guardiola, “Roberto de Zerbi is one of the most influential managers in the last 20 years. There is no team playing in the way they play – it is unique.”
”I had the feeling when he arrived in the Premier League that the impact would be great but I couldn’t expect he would do this in this short a time. He creates 20-25 chances on average a game. He’s better by far than all the opponents, he monopolises the ball in a way I haven’t seen for a long, long time.”
Such praise is only echoed by De Zerbi’s colleagues at Brighton. “There is no ceiling for him,” Brighton technical director David Weir told Sky Sports. “He’s constantly pushing, day in day out he’s pushing to be better. He’s tactically very good. His attention to detail is very clear, from day one the players know exactly what’s expected of them and what he wants. He’s installed a hunger and desire.”
If De Zerbi is this good, you might be thinking, how did Brighton of all clubs find him in the first place?
To answer that question, you have to look at the top in Brighton’s owner and boyhood supporter, Tony Bloom.
The Starlizard secret weapon
If you had never heard of Roberto De Zerbi prior to this season, you may also never have heard of Starlizard.
Starlizard is the company where lifelong Brighton fan and professional sports bettor Tony Bloom made his fortune, amassing hundreds of millions of pounds through an online sports betting empire that allowed him to invest more than £360 million of his personal fortune into buying Brighton and transforming them from League One strugglers playing at a stadium with a converted athletics track to one of the most attractive teams in Europe.
A company that provides data and statistical modelling for betting companies, Starlizard is the secret weapon that drives Brighton’s success. Brighton pay Bloom’s Starlizard millions per season in consultancy fees (£3 million in 2021/22) in exchange for access to the data they collate that monitors leagues around the world in extreme detail to provide betting insights for their clients.
Using this data, Brighton’s intuitive and wide-ranging scouting system is able to find the hidden gems like Enciso, signed from Libertad in Paraguay for £9.5 million, Facundo Buonanotte and Moises Caicedo, now valued at £70 million after receiving bids in January from Arsenal and expected to leave this summer.
Finding these gems, however, is only one part of the equation. In the age of data and video analysis, any club can scout players. You have to be willing to sign them, take a chance on them and play them.
Brighton are willing to do this. They are guided by smart people like chief executive Paul Barber and they also have the infrastructure in place to allow these players to develop and grow. Bloom bought Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise in 2018 and Brighton often use it as a developing ground for some of their signings. Mitoma and Deniz Undav have spent time there in recent seasons.
This excellence in the transfer market reaps its own dividends. While Brighton have spent less than £47 million since 2021, they have made more than £200m in transfer fees on player sales. Cucurella was sold to Chelsea for £63m. Ben White to Arsenal for £50m. Yves Bissoma to Spurs, £35m. Leandro Trossard to Arsenal, £27m. The list goes on.
This summer the player carousel will continue. World Cup winner MacAllister is expected to join Liverpool. Caicedo could move for £60m or more to Arsenal. Mitoma is another highly-coveted talent.
Brighton may lose players, but they have the replacements already. Buonanotte, only 18, and Enciso, 19, were outstanding against Manchester City. Yasin Ayari signed from AIK. And in Evan Ferguson, discovered in Ireland and signed despite interest from Liverpool and Manchester United, Brighton have a player who could well be the Premier League’s next big star.
Find them, develop them, sell them for profit. Lose one good manager, replace him with another top manager. It’s the Brighton way.
And as they continue to outsmart, out-think and outplay the Premier League’s big clubs, long may this innovative, attractive football club keep punching above their weight.