BRIGHTON have banned some of the club’s own scouts from seeing the data they use to sign players.
SunSport has learned that such is the secrecy surrounding the data has helped propel Brighton from League One to sixth in the Premier League, that even scouts tasked with identifying potential new signings have been denied access to it.
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A number of scouts are understood to have expressed surprise at being told they could not use Brighton’s databank and mathematical models after asking if it could be used to support their own old-school scouting reports.
Brighton declined to comment, but club sources have indicated that the data system introduced by owner Tony Bloom is highly restricted.
Brighton’s data operations are run by Jamestown Analytics, an offshoot of Starlizard, the betting and data company set up Bloom before he bought the club in 2009.
As SunSport revealed last month, Jamestown were also working for Ipswich Town on recruitment until they were promoted to the Premier League this year, but Brighton’s deal gives them exclusivity in the top-flight so that contract was cancelled.
Jamestown’s data experts have transformed Brighton from League One strugglers to a Europa League side last season, while the club have also become the Premier League’s market leaders in the transfer market.
Brighton made record profits of £122million last year based on largely on the sales of Alexis Mac Allister, Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella to Liverpool, Tottenham and Chelsea respectively.
That figure does not include the £115m from Moises Caicedo’s transfer to Chelsea in the 2023 summer window.
Brighton’s smart trading enabled them to fund an unprecedented £194m splurge on players for new manager Fabian Hurzeler this summer, which has been vindicated by their outstanding start to the season.
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Brighton are in the process of making major changes to their recruitment operations, with at least three full-time scouts leaving the club last week, as reported by the Daily Telegraph yesterday.
The surprise changes to a system that has been functioning brilliantly are not thought to be related to tensions over scouts accessing recruitment data.
Brighton sources insist that the club will still use traditional scouts and not be more reliant on data models in the future, but that they are making changes to improve their recruitment.
The scouts who have left are understood to have received pay-offs, and will be replaced by new staff with different skill-sets operating in revised roles.
