Paul Fennessy

A REMARKABLE stat was doing the rounds after Brighton’s 3-1 defeat of Man United at the weekend.

The Seagulls have won six of their last seven matches against the Red Devils in the Premier League.

Even by the standards of the post-Alex Ferguson era, that is an awful record.

Before then, United had won seven consecutive fixtures against Brighton between 2019 and 2022.

It is a testament to how far the Old Trafford outfit have fallen in recent years and how much Brighton have improved.

Given their respective resources, United should be the dominant team, but Brighton have provided them with a lesson in astute decision-making at the top.

It is easy to forget that Fabian Hurzeler’s team are in the Premier League for the eighth year in their history.

The Red Devils, by contrast, have been involved in every English top-flight season since the 1975-76 campaign.

The cause of Brighton’s success is the same explanation for United’s consistent failure.

Smart behind-the-scenes moves by the chairman Tony Bloom and the people who run the club.

Consider the players that Brighton have sold over the years.

They include Anthony Knockaert (€11m), Ben White (€58m), Dan Burn (€15m), Marc Cucurella (€65m), Yves Bissouma (€29m), Leandro Trossard (€24m), Neal Maupay (€11m), Moisés Caicedo (€116m), Alexis Mac Allister (€42m), Robert Sanchez (€23m), Deniz Undav (€26m) and Billy Gilmour (€14m).

In many cases, these footballers were bought for a fraction of what they were eventually sold for.

And often, when perceived smaller clubs part ways with their ostensibly best players, they tend to struggle and get relegated.

Brighton, on the other hand, have steadily improved.

Before the 2021-22 season, they had never finished higher than 15th in the Premier League table.

But they have secured a top-10 spot in two of the last three campaigns and are on course to make it three from four.

The toughest part of football is widely regarded as recruitment, the area where the Seagulls have thrived, replacing quality with quality.

If you were to pick a combined XI from the two teams at Old Trafford last Sunday, it would be dominated by Brighton stars.

They have also not been afraid to go against conventional wisdom.

For a long time in football, and especially the Premier League, it was perceived as essential that a successful team must stick with the same manager.

This was partially because of the famous examples of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, who enjoyed lengthy and trophy-laden spells at the one club.

But football has changed irrevocably since those legendary coaches were in their pomp at United and Arsenal.

Consequently, you might be surprised that Brighton have parted ways with more permanent managers than the Red Devils in the last six years.

At the time, the club were heavily criticised for sacking Chris Hughton, when the ex-Ireland international had overseen Championship promotion and guided them to Premier League survival two seasons on the bounce.

Yet the decision to replace Hughton with the more progressive Graham Potter proved a wise choice.

So while the less high-profile club have been on an upward trajectory in recent years, the opposite has been the case with United, as even Ruben Amorim alluded to after their latest Premier League defeat.

One of the problems at United is that it’s invariably unclear who is responsible for the big decisions.

The Glazers? Jim Ratcliffe? Jason Wilcox? Omar Berrada? Dan Ashworth before he abruptly left? Amorim?

And United’s recruitment has been as poor as Brighton’s has been inspired.

Their signings in recent seasons include Leny Yoro (€62m), Manuel Ugarte (€50m), Matthijs de Ligt (€45m), Joshua Zirkzee (€42m), Noussair Mazraoui (€15m), Rasmus Højlund (€73m), Mason Mount (€64m), André Onana (€50m), Antony (€95m), Casemiro (€70m), Lisandro Martínez (€57m), Tyrell Malacia (€15m), Jadon Sancho (€85m), Raphaël Varane (€40m) and Cristiano Ronaldo (€17m).

Ruben Amorim has struggled under the weight of expectation at Old Trafford. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

It is early days for some, but it is hard to make the case that even one of those transfers has been an unequivocal success.

Man United’s biggest problem is that they are still living in the Alex Ferguson era in many ways.

They believe in the cult of the manager as an all-powerful figure who can single-handedly transform a club.

Consequently, they have signed players to suit the coach and seemingly often at his behest — they did it for David Moyes, Louis Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Erik ten Hag, and it appears unlikely that they will suddenly reverse this policy with Amorim at the helm.

Brighton have taken the opposite approach. They have signed managers to suit the players and identified a specific type of footballer to buy regardless of who is in charge.

That is not to suggest the coach’s identity is irrelevant or unimportant.

It simply emphasises how crucial it is people running the club are on the same page and the work/various responsibilities are delegated appropriately, which rarely appears to be the case at Old Trafford.

While the manager does not necessarily need to stay the same, there should be no deviation from a set of overriding principles.

It is why big teams are always queuing up to buy Brighton’s top players while United usually struggle to offload theirs.

Some former key Brighton players have struggled to live up to expectations since leaving, while managers like Potter and Roberto De Zerbi or football directors such as Ashworth similarly haven’t exactly thrived.

It is another reminder that in modern football at the top level, the environment created within a club tends to supersede any individual, no matter how accomplished or impressive their track record.