Why have Brighton signed a 35-year-old from Yeovil for their Under 23s?

We’ve become accustomed to Brighton making development squad only signings over the past five years or so.

Ales Mateju and Mathias Normann were relatively big money signings who never made a first team league appearance before being sold on for a profit to Brescia and Rostov respectively.

Henrik Bjørdal. Tyler Hornby-Forbes. Jack Harper. Vahid Hambo. We could be here all day listing players brought in for the development squad who we never saw hide nor hair of in the first team.

Whether you agree with the principle of signing all these young players in a strategy that seems to be as much about selling them on for a profit as it does improving the first team, you can’t deny it works. Who knows, maybe one day a Mateju, a Normann or a Hambo might even make a Premier League appearance.

It’s one thing to buy in as much talent as possible for your development squad. It’s quite another to sign a 35-year-old from Yeovil Town to play as a specialist in an Under 23 team. Welcome to the curious decision to bring Andrew Crofts back to the Albion for a third spell.

The club have described the move as “innovative”. It’s innovative in the sense that no other Premier League 2 side seem to have thought that what can improve their squad is a veteran midfielder from the Conference.

Crofts has signed as a specialist player for the Under 23s. He’s literally 12 years older than the age limit for PL2 football. It’s like getting a bloke who’s 28 to sit a GCSE.

On the face of it, it seems like a decision that’s been taken by somebody who’s had one too many sniffs of a pot of glue. But could it actually work?

The important thing to remember is that Crofts will also be doubling up as Simon Rusk’s assistant manager. That position needs filling after Liam Rosenior’s departure to Derby County.

The Albion have clearly decided that replacing one likeable, experienced professional who knows the club inside out with another is the way to go.

That seems sensible as Crofts is very much cut from the same cloth as Rosenior, as we know from his two previous spells with the Albion which came in the 2009-10 season and between 2012 and 2016.

Crofts was a real leader in that time. One of Gus Poyet’s first decision as manager was to hand Crofts the captain’s armband, despite the fact that he had only been at the club three months.

He ended that campaign being voted Player of the Season and earning a move to Norwich City for £300,000.. Not a bad piece of business for the Albion given Russell Slade had picked him up on a free from Gillingham.

Crofts probably ranks as one of the hardest working players that Brighton have had in recent times as well. He was never the most naturally talented individual, but he more than made up for that with dedication and effort.

The fact that he battled back from two serious cruciate ligament injuries in the space of 10 months during his second spell tells you everything.

Those are good traits to be passing onto the next generation, as is his experience – over 500 games across all four divisions in English football and 29 caps for Wales.

There’s no doubting he’s a good fit as a coach. But as a player? Here’s what technical director Dan Ashworth told The Argus about the decision: “The thinking behind the playing role is to have someone of his experience out there on the pitch alongside our younger players, and to impart that crucial knowledge he has gained from his time in the game.

“To have that experience out on the field, in the pressure situation of a game, will be of enormous benefit to our young players and have a positive impact on their collective and individual development.”

Just how much of a difference will having Crofts play actually make? It’s hard to know, but there is actually a kind of precedence for this sort of thing at the Albion.

Towards the end of the 2017-18 season, Uwe Hunemeier turned out for the Under 23s as they sought to win promotion to PL2 Division One via the play offs.

Hunemeier was Chris Hughton’s fourth choice centre back by this point, behind Shane Duffy, Lewis Dunk and Connor Goldson. While many senior pros would have scoffed at the idea of finishing their season – and by definition, the final few months of their contract at a club – in the stiffs, Hunemeier absolutely loved it.

He was constantly posting on social media about how much fun he was having in the Under 23s. When they eventually secured promotion by beating Aston Villa 2-0 in the play offs, Hunemeir celebrated and revelled in the achievement more than most of the development squad players who had played all season – and he wasn’t even involved that day at Villa Park.

It was that professionalism and enthusiasm that endeared Hunemeier to the Albion faithful so much during his three seasons at the Amex.

But it also made a real difference to the Under 23s. There’s no doubt that having a player of his quality and experience in that side helped Rusk and his players to gain their cherished place among the country’s elite development squads.

This appears to be a step up on that. Hunemeier’s spell with the Under 23s was short and sweet and came about because his first team opportunities were so limited.

Crofts has been signed purely to play for the development squad week in, week out. That’s a move that seems to be without precedence in the country as far as we are aware.

There’s every chance it could work. After all, Ashworth is the man credited with turning England’s national team from something of a laughing stock into a nation that has won multiple world and European titles across junior levels, as well as reaching the last four of the World Cup last summer.

He obviously knows what he’s doing and so we can probably place a lot of trust in the decision. And if Crofts ends up being a similar success to Hunemeier on the playing side or Rosenior on the coaching side, then it will be deemed a success. And if it isn’t a success, then we will at least have a great quiz question in years to come.

Which 35-year-old midfielder did Premier League Brighton sign from Conference side Yeovil Town as a specialist player for their Under 23 side? Answers on a postcard.