I’ll start by saying that my vision for Everton is Champions League football and competing for titles and trophies domestically. Stirring stuff for a club that has finished in the Champions League-qualifying places once in the last 34 years. But I believe we can achieve this by becoming something along the lines of Everton & Hove Albion.

Critically, that doesn’t mean peaking at the same level as Brighton. We’re a bigger club and we can achieve much more.

We all broadly know about the Brighton story. Tony Bloom took over and used his betting industry data analytics for find value in an overheated transfer market. They buy and sell well. But after two seasons of hitting the Hurzeler glass ceiling, it wasn’t clear whether they remained on an upward trajectory or whether they had settled for life as a player trading facility, grooming Champions League style players for purchase by actual Champions League clubs.

It is early days this season, but it looks like they remain on that upward trajectory and could become a real Champions League places disrupter as Leicester were not so long ago.

As the dust starts to settle after the summer transfer window, and squads start to take real shape, it looks to me like Brighton now have the fifth-best squad in the Premier League. To my mind, they have better players (both First XI and strength in depth) than either of Manchester United and Spurs from the "Rich 6".

Obviously, this is completely subjective but, to illustrate, I think the best First XI from these three clubs would be:

Verbruggen, Maguire, Vuskovic, Porro, DeCuyper, Tonali, Fernandes, Fernandes, Minteh, Mitoma, Kostoulas

Six of the starting XI would come from Brighton. And even if you disagree with my selection – I have also excluded a few excellent players from Brighton’s huge squad such as Kadioglou, Gomez, Yalcouye and Ayari who are all heavily courted by Europe’s Champions League giants — and prefer some of the players from other clubs, it’s still hard to argue that Brighton don't have an excellent set of players, many of whom are already Champions League standard.

Assembling this group of players has relied on:

  • Tony Boom’s outstanding data analytics set up;
  • Wider outstanding club operations (player development, use of the loan system, use of sister club in Belgium);
  • Trading players for profit, rather than with a view to getting them into the first team; and
  • Consistent investment in the playing squad.

On that latter note, Brighton’s squad overall cost €568m in transfer fees compared with the €333m we spent on our squad. To contextualise that, it is like having the following players available to us in addition to what we already have (along with some change):

  • Kostoulas €35m
  • Rutter €47m
  • Minteh €35m
  • DeCuyper €20m
  • Kadioglou €30m
  • Vuskovic €54m

You can play around with these options, but you get the principle…

Why is all of this of any relevance to Everton?

Well, whilst Brighton have spent a heck of a lot more than us, they have spent a heck of a lot less than Man Utd and Tottenham.  Spurs have spent in excess of €1bn in transfer fees assembling their squad and Man Utd even more so.

Tony Bloom’s data analytics (and brilliant wider club operations in the loan market, etc) is giving them much more bang for their buck than more traditionally operated Spurs and Man Utd.

A lot of my old articles on ToffeeWeb banged on about the Leipzig and Brighton models, etc and it is a path we should still undoubtedly follow as best we can. It is not just delivering (relative) success for Brighton – this model (or versions of it) is also delivering for Liverpool, Brentford and Bournemouth in the Premier League; Dortmund, Leverkusen and Leipzig in the Bundesliga; Rennes, Lille and Monaco in France; Como and Atalanta in Serie A, etc.

There is no fairytale going on at any of these clubs – they are taking their time, they are investing heavily in the playing squads and club operations, with the point being to assemble genuine Champions League-quality squads at attainable value. Not all of them are managing it consistently year on year but by sticking to their principles they are well placed to rebuild and bounce back.

And one of the main reasons Brighton and many others need to regularly rebuild is that they sell a lot of players. 

The reason for this is usually pure economics. Brighton’s revenues are such that they cannot afford big wages. Once a player becomes heavily courted by richer clubs at home and abroad, they have to sell sooner or later to avoid having an unhappy player or losing them on a free transfer. That is a large part of why the likes of Baleba, Van Hecke, Joao Pedro, MacAllister, Caicedo and Cucurella have all left in recent seasons.

Our economics will be more favourable once our revenue levels have stabilised. We have the seventh-biggest attendance figures in the Premier League, fast improving commercials and decent global appeal (at least compared to Brighton). This will soon allow us to outspend Brighton and retain our best players longer than the Seagulls can.  Logically, it means our ceiling is much higher than that of Brighton, provided we can get close to their recruitment and development standards.

It is not going to make us the new Manchester City – spending (and cheating) our way to trophy after trophy after trophy — but becoming Brighton-plus can make us competitive within upper reaches of the Premier League and in European Competitions (including the Champions League).


Reader Responses

Selected thoughts from readers
Certain off-topic comments may be removed to keep the discussion on track

1  Paul Conway
31/10/2026    16:02:23

I don’t know what kind of formulae they used, other than the Lazarus phenomenon.

I lived there in the mid to late nineties, In Both Brighton and Hove, both my Children were born there.
They literally hadn’t got a pot to piss in.

The board sold the Goldstone Grounds to Property Developers, to pay off depts, without securing a new Home.

They played in Withdean Sadium ( an athletics field), for a while and then they ended up Ground sharing with Gillingham, with supporters having to make a 150 mile round trip.

The Irony of this is, if some of their supporters was the same age as myself ( 70!), they probably aren’t alive today, to witness the Lazarus effect and live the Dream, that they surely wished for.
Let’s hope that some of us senior types, can see success for the Blues a lot quicker.

2  Kevin Molloy
31/10/2026    17:21:49

Interesting Club, Brighton. Highly successful business, and the fans know their place. I'm sure though all clubs are thinking 'we need to wheel and deal more like Brighton',

Easier said than done.

We're all trying to buy low and sell high. Before we get around to that though, we've got other fish to fry in my view. So many other things need fixing at Everton. We need new owners. And for those new owners to be ambitious and competent. Just those things fixed would be a massive step forward. And then we need to get around to the coaching, and the facilities. Long term stuff.

But even if we were to get there, I don't think Brighton is the model for us. Everyone there knows the deal. they buy top kids, give them free rein, drill them, let them make their mistakes. And sell them 18 months down the line. That sort of system is just never going to fly here. We don't tolerate players making mistakes consistently whilst. they settle in, and we want to hold onto our good players for as long as possible. I think Villa is more where we need to head towards.

3  Antony Abrahams
31/10/2026    18:07:08

Do you think that if our club, had a real thought out plan and it involved young players making mistakes because they were getting played instead of consistently sitting on the bench that people wouldn’t buy into it Kevin?

Interesting thought, I’d definitely prefer this rather than what I’ve witnessed during the last however many frustrating seasons, but yes I’d prefer to be like Villa, who have not long won a decent European trophy and are playing in the champions league again this season

4  Kevin Molloy
31/10/2026    18:31:34

I think they'd be all for it in pre season Tony. Any more than two defeats in the season proper cos the kids were playing it around on the six yard box and there'd be grumblings in my view. the commentary would switch, there would be lots of admiring talk about other players at other clubs who get by cos they know what they are doing. we'd be 'naive' and 'wide open'.

5  Kieran Fitzgerald
31/10/2026    19:38:13

It's a business model that works. No PSR or SCR issues. Paying your way with a small stadium and fans base. If you get to a stage where you can keep players for a season longer at a time, you climb the table. Brighton made Europe last season. They're well on track to make Europe again this season. Not bad going in my book.

6  Jerome Shields
01/11/2026    03:12:44

Robert w great article.Brighton aren’t a fairytale. They’re a system: smart recruitment, good coaching, selling at the right time, planning ahead. They sell because they have to, their revenue can’t pay top wages.

Everton’s ceiling is higher. New stadium, bigger fanbase, better commercial potential, TFG stabilising the finances. Get close to Brighton’s recruitment and development standards and “Brighton-plus” is realistic, a proper top-half/European side, not Man City.

But it won’t happen automatically. We’re trying to build this while cleaning up years of financial mess, PSR chaos and squad neglect. The stadium and new recruitment setup are needed, but they’re not enough.

The real problem is culture. Years of survival mode have built little empires. Departments protect turf, info gets hoarded, short-term fixes beat long-term planning, and hard calls, selling a favourite, backing data over the manager, sticking with a long-term hire after a bad run, gets quietly blocked.

So the real test isn’t the stadium opening or one good window. It’s whether we can make and stick to unpopular long-term decisions for two or three windows.

Do that, and the ceiling is high. Don’t, and extra revenue just buys a more expensive version of the same old Everton.

Add Your Thoughts

Only registered users of Evertonia can participate in discussions.

» Log in now

Or Join as Evertonia Member — it takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your thoughts on artices across the site.