Chelsea take (another) Brighton head of recruitment

Chelsea are taking Brighton & Hove Albion head of recruitment Sam Jewell to Stamford Bridge 15 months after Chelsea took Brighton & Hove Albion head of recruitment Paul Winstanley to Stamford Bridge.

Jewell has resigned from his post at the Amex and subsequently been placed on gardening leave by Brighton whilst the clubs agree a compensation package.

Chelsea have already paid the Albion over £230 million for 10 members of staff in the past 18 months since Todd Boehly arrived in West London.

None of those acquisitions have so far come close to repeating the success they enjoyed at Brighton with the Blues. Glow Up Graham Potter and his coaching team were gone within seven months having cost £21 million to acquire from the Amex.

Winstanley has done such a good job that Chelsea already feel the need to take his successor from Brighton. And on the playing front, none of Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo or Robert Sanchez have lived up their price tags.

You might have thought Chelsea would have learned their lesson by now – that it is the culture, environment and systems which bring success to Brighton, rather than people.

But no. Boehly instead continues to chuck more money the way of Brighton, buying anything at the Amex not nailed down. How did somebody so thick become so rich?

Jewell will take on what is described as “a global role in Chelsea’s multi-club operation.” Boehly wants to move to a more data-led recruitment strategy across numerous clubs Clearlake Capital have a stake in.

What Boehly and Clearlake have failed to grasp so far is that Jewell and Winstanley before him had only some insight into how the Albion’s algorithms and data analysis works.

They knew what they needed to know. Just one man understands how it all fits together and works. And Tony Bloom presumably is not going to sell himself for any price… we hope.

Where Spanish-speaking Jewell has earned credit is in being one of the main driving forces behind Brighton focussing on the South American transfer market.

He played a leading role in the acquisition of Caicedo. Alexis Mac Allister, Julio Enciso and Facundo Buonanotte meanwhile were all mined from the continent Jewell specialised in.

Jewell will start at Stamford Bridge in November, by which time he should have a garden good enough to make even Alan Titchmarsh envious.

Brighton have not wasted any time in replacing Jewell. Assistant technical director Mike Cave and scouting and intelligence manager George Holmes have taken over Jewell’s responsibilities.

It is probably easier for us to congratulate Cave on his move from Brighton to Chelsea now, rather than wait until August 2025.

Cave joined the Albion last season from Fulham. Holmes has been at the Albion since 2011 and specialises in European recruitment, including the likes of Jan Paul van Hecke, Simon Adingra and Pervis Estupinan.

Brighton also signed Jurgen Locadia and Alireza Jahanbakhsh from clubs in Europe over the past decade, but let’s not think about that too much.

Instead, consider the fact Brighton are comfortable making internal appointments as showing the faith they have in their systems.

Roberto De Zerbi summed it up perfectly with his famous quote: “The big clubs can buy the players but they can’t buy our soul and our spirit.”

Boehly would probably try, though.