Kaoru Mitoma

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SAFMUTD

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Me again. Thank you for asking!

Our chairman, Tony Bloom, founded a company called Starlizard. What Starlizard do is data analysis in sport, using mathematical models to predict sporting outcomes. Very high stakes gamblers commission the company to provide betting analysis and insight into value and probability of big money betting.

Tony “The Lizard” Bloom himself is a lifelong Brighton fan, Poker Millions finalist and had a winning horse at Cheltenham last week (which he himself backed for over £400k, using his company’s own data). Given the odds of the horse, it looks like he won around £1.8m on the bet personally.

Brighton/Starlizard’s/Bloom’s use of data is extremely well guarded for business reasons, but Matthew Benham (Brentford’s owner) is a former Starlizard employee and was Bloom’s protege. They had a big falling out, with Benham setting up with own version of Starlizard, named Smartodds. Allegations of corporate espionage and stealing secrets abound. Now the two hate each other.

The reason I’m saying all this is that you’ll notice both Brentford and Brighton are being noticed and being highly praised for their exceptional recruitment, which is largely data driven.*

The club additionally has a large scouting network and a clear structure for each department within the club. Bloom is very hands off, the “top guy” our CEO Paul Barber (OBE) who is considered by many in the field as one of the best in the business. Under him is a Technical Manager, under him a Head of Recruitment, under that a Head of Data Analysis, under that a team of a analysts, alongside that numerous scouting teams, each with their own analysts and team hierarchies.

It is alleged (no source for this so take it as it comes) that actually watching the player is one of the last things the club does. The theory being that a player can have a poor few games under a watching scout’s eye, but their general ability and level of performance is better measured over time.

The club‘s model is to seek value by recruiting players with high potential, developing them and then when the time is right selling for enormous profit. In the mean time, they reap the rewards of good performances. Sounds easy on paper, eh!

If you see a player tearing up Europe or South America, you expect Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG. We aren’t in that market.

Instead, we’ll have our eye on the guy’s replacement in their reserve team, ten years younger and a fraction of the price. They won’t all come off but five punts at £5-10m each is our style, rather than one at £50m.

TLDR: In my admittedly biased view, we are one of the best run clubs in world football. And it’s all thanks to Tony Bloom’s statistics.

Sorry for another long post!



*I would highly recommend reading the book (or watching the movie) “Moneyball”. What both clubs do is essentially this, adapted for Premier League football.
Thats exactly what I thought when you said its driven by data. Moneyball. Pound for pound Brighton are surely the best team in the league. The way you find, cheap, talent its truly admirable. While also playing great football, amazing really.

You were raid last summer, lost most of your key players in Bissouma, Cucurrella, Trossard even Potter yet you managed to replace them with Estupiñan, Caicedo, Mitoma and De Zerbi. While being 7th on the league and in the FA semifinal. Amazing really.
 

Dannn411

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Much as i'd love to sign him, we don't have a snowball's chance in hell on this one. Brighton will ask for half of Britain.
 

NinjaZombie

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It's strange, especially when you look back at how many years England were crying out for a left sided player.
That's because wingers or wide forwards play on the opposite sides of their footedness these days. In a way, Saka being the only right sided forward of note these days is just a continuation of the rarity of good left footed players in England.
 

UTAretro

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Thats exactly what I thought when you said its driven by data. Moneyball. Pound for pound Brighton are surely the best team in the league. The way you find, cheap, talent its truly admirable. While also playing great football, amazing really.

You were raid last summer, lost most of your key players in Bissouma, Cucurrella, Trossard even Potter yet you managed to replace them with Estupiñan, Caicedo, Mitoma and De Zerbi. While being 7th on the league and in the FA semifinal. Amazing really.
Thank you very much for your kind words. It’s always a pleasure posting on this forum, your fans are largely very knowledgeable about the PL world outside of the “Big Six” and it is a pleasure contributing when I can hopefully give insight into Brighton players/issues.
 

mu4c_20le

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Much as i'd love to sign him, we don't have a snowball's chance in hell on this one. Brighton will ask for half of Britain.
Only chance we have is to unsettle him with higher wages so he forces a move. They are probably paying him like 5k right now so we could easily double that.
 

amolbhatia50k

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We should sign him to train our wingers on how to dribble given he’s studied it so much.
 

SAFMUTD

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Thank you very much for your kind words. It’s always a pleasure posting on this forum, your fans are largely very knowledgeable about the PL world outside of the “Big Six” and it is a pleasure contributing when I can hopefully give insight into Brighton players/issues.
Nice having you here, I've always enjoyed talking with other club fans who have a different point of view. Keep it up that way, you'll be promoted soon. :D
 

ThierryHenry14

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That only happens in Japan :lol: . Still it'll all depend on the fee that Brighton asks, anything above 40-50M i'd say is too much risk.

How does Brighton even find these guys? really amazing scouting.
It is extremely unlikely any PL club will let go their star attacking player for 50m.
 

Lux Thunder

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Me again. Thank you for asking!

Our chairman, Tony Bloom, founded a company called Starlizard. What Starlizard do is data analysis in sport, using mathematical models to predict sporting outcomes. Very high stakes gamblers commission the company to provide betting analysis and insight into value and probability of big money betting.

Tony “The Lizard” Bloom himself is a lifelong Brighton fan, Poker Millions finalist and had a winning horse at Cheltenham last week (which he himself backed for over £400k, using his company’s own data). Given the odds of the horse, it looks like he won around £1.8m on the bet personally.

Brighton/Starlizard’s/Bloom’s use of data is extremely well guarded for business reasons, but Matthew Benham (Brentford’s owner) is a former Starlizard employee and was Bloom’s protege. They had a big falling out, with Benham setting up with own version of Starlizard, named Smartodds. Allegations of corporate espionage and stealing secrets abound. Now the two hate each other.

The reason I’m saying all this is that you’ll notice both Brentford and Brighton are being noticed and being highly praised for their exceptional recruitment, which is largely data driven.*

The club additionally has a large scouting network and a clear structure for each department within the club. Bloom is very hands off, the “top guy” our CEO Paul Barber (OBE) who is considered by many in the field as one of the best in the business. Under him is a Technical Manager, under him a Head of Recruitment, under that a Head of Data Analysis, under that a team of a analysts, alongside that numerous scouting teams, each with their own analysts and team hierarchies.

It is alleged (no source for this so take it as it comes) that actually watching the player is one of the last things the club does. The theory being that a player can have a poor few games under a watching scout’s eye, but their general ability and level of performance is better measured over time.

The club‘s model is to seek value by recruiting players with high potential, developing them and then when the time is right selling for enormous profit. In the mean time, they reap the rewards of good performances. Sounds easy on paper, eh!

If you see a player tearing up Europe or South America, you expect Manchester United, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, PSG. We aren’t in that market.

Instead, we’ll have our eye on the guy’s replacement in their reserve team, ten years younger and a fraction of the price. They won’t all come off but five punts at £5-10m each is our style, rather than one at £50m.

TLDR: In my admittedly biased view, we are one of the best run clubs in world football. And it’s all thanks to Tony Bloom’s statistics.

Sorry for another long post!



*I would highly recommend reading the book (or watching the movie) “Moneyball”. What both clubs do is essentially this, adapted for Premier League football.
Thank you for your time and for sharing this, very insightful and informative. I knew a few things but I didn't have a clue how close the owners of Brighton and Brentford were, although I spotted similarities in their approach to running their clubs respectively.

Also, is it true something like that Brighton and/or Brentford didn't pay too much attention and resources to their youth academy, at least until recently, and that more focus was on the reserve team, signing players to play there until they are ready to replace first team players sold for a profit, rather than wasting time and resources on developing players from a very young age?

To describe it simply, let other clubs develop players from the youth ranks and then offer them a better pathway to first-team football.
 

UTAretro

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Thank you for your time and for sharing this, very insightful and informative. I knew a few things but I didn't have a clue how close the owners of Brighton and Brentford were, although I spotted similarities in their approach to running their clubs respectively.

Also, is it true something like that Brighton and/or Brentford didn't pay too much attention and resources to their youth academy, at least until recently, and that more focus was on the reserve team, signing players to play there until they are ready to replace first team players sold for a profit, rather than wasting time and resources on developing players from a very young age?

To describe it simply, let other clubs develop players from the youth ranks and then offer them a better pathway to first-team football.
Interesting question and thank you for your response.

I wouldn’t say we are too different to yourselves in this regard, truth be told. Back in the day, we didn’t have much of a youth recruitment network; we’d get cast offs from “centres of excellence” of big clubs occasionally, but only once it was very clear they weren’t anywhere near the level required for the clubs they were at. Anyone of talent who started with us locally was poached by bigger clubs (such as Gareth Barry). But the club is unrecognisable from those days now.

Comparatively, nowadays, there isn’t a huge gap in terms of truly home grown players between our two respective clubs.

Locally of course you have the excellent Rashford, and I know McTominay was developed somewhat by you. From our side we have Solly March and Lewis Dunk being born very locally - Brighton and Lewes. I actually played youth football with Dunk and his brother Carl, although Lewis was twice my size and 100x my skill and two years younger!

A lot of our signings are immediately loaned out to Europe, usually for work permit reasons. Mitoma and Caicedo, for example, both spent time on loan in Europe for this purpose before even being considered for our squad. It is useful for the club too, because while Bissouma and Trossard were plying their trade, the conveyer belt was rolling with the next ones to replace to them. We are doing the same right now with Simon Adingra, and a hatful of other prospects out on loan in European leagues.

The club model relies on its “succession planning”. Yasin Ayari, for example (from AIK in Sweden, £1.8m) is being developed clearly as a Caicedo/MacAllister replacement. De Zerbi was already in mind before Potter was even approached, Caicedo was in mind for Bissouma, etc.

Our PL2 (U23’s) side is comparatively weak though, because the ones we seem to have big first team hopes for are out playing in good competition levels mostly in the top leagues of unglamorous European football. Weirdly, the ones who look like they may not make it with us (Khadra, Miller, Richards, Furlong and a few others) have remained in Britain! If one brought back the loanees though and put them in the U23’s we’d have an excellent team.

One thing our club seem to excel at is fostering relationships. For example, a key reason for landing Caicedo was the fact we bought a low risk flop, Billy Arce, from the same club (and same agent), so we had an “in”. Similarly, we got Evan Ferguson based on relationships developed with clubs and agents which gave us first option on exciting prospects.

Whilst we have “boys” teams and always have, even our successful local lads have been recruited back from elsewhere. I can’t think of a single player we’ve had since League Two who has been with us since, say 14 years old. Dunk is the closest.

I hope this answers your question!
 

Lux Thunder

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Interesting question and thank you for your response.

I wouldn’t say we are too different to yourselves in this regard, truth be told. Back in the day, we didn’t have much of a youth recruitment network; we’d get cast offs from “centres of excellence” of big clubs occasionally, but only once it was very clear they weren’t anywhere near the level required for the clubs they were at. Anyone of talent who started with us locally was poached by bigger clubs (such as Gareth Barry). But the club is unrecognisable from those days now.

Comparatively, nowadays, there isn’t a huge gap in terms of truly home grown players between our two respective clubs.

Locally of course you have the excellent Rashford, and I know McTominay was developed somewhat by you. From our side we have Solly March and Lewis Dunk being born very locally - Brighton and Lewes. I actually played youth football with Dunk and his brother Carl, although Lewis was twice my size and 100x my skill and two years younger!

A lot of our signings are immediately loaned out to Europe, usually for work permit reasons. Mitoma and Caicedo, for example, both spent time on loan in Europe for this purpose before even being considered for our squad. It is useful for the club too, because while Bissouma and Trossard were plying their trade, the conveyer belt was rolling with the next ones to replace to them. We are doing the same right now with Simon Adingra, and a hatful of other prospects out on loan in European leagues.

The club model relies on its “succession planning”. Yasin Ayari, for example (from AIK in Sweden, £1.8m) is being developed clearly as a Caicedo/MacAllister replacement. De Zerbi was already in mind before Potter was even approached, Caicedo was in mind for Bissouma, etc.

Our PL2 (U23’s) side is comparatively weak though, because the ones we seem to have big first team hopes for are out playing in good competition levels mostly in the top leagues of unglamorous European football. Weirdly, the ones who look like they may not make it with us (Khadra, Miller, Richards, Furlong and a few others) have remained in Britain! If one brought back the loanees though and put them in the U23’s we’d have an excellent team.

One thing our club seem to excel at is fostering relationships. For example, a key reason for landing Caicedo was the fact we bought a low risk flop, Billy Arce, from the same club (and same agent), so we had an “in”. Similarly, we got Evan Ferguson based on relationships developed with clubs and agents which gave us first option on exciting prospects.

Whilst we have “boys” teams and always have, even our successful local lads have been recruited back from elsewhere. I can’t think of a single player we’ve had since League Two who has been with us since, say 14 years old. Dunk is the closest.

I hope this answers your question!
Yeah, thanks, I possilby mistook you for Brentford, but I read a long time ago about an approach signing let's say "flops" from f.e. Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea academies for the reserve team and developing foundations for the first team there rather than putting too much belief/time/resources in developing through own youth ranks.

I heard about Adingra and knew that Mitoma was there too, so I presume there is some kind of partnership between you and Royal Union SG ? Interesting to see both clubs having very good seasons.
 

Bojan Djordjic

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I would love Mitoma BUT it would be criminally stupid for United to even think about signing a player like him for an exorbitant fee when it's literally the only position where we have great depth and there are holes all over the rest of the team.
 

Munkehboi

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I like the fact that as an inverted inside forward/winger he gets to the byline often and gets close to or inside the opposition box. Very unpredictable. Wish Antony would do it more but he loves to cut inside on his left so often it always seem really predictable.

Cant see this deal happening unless we sell Sancho. Interestingly, I remember watching him play as a fullback for Japan a couple times. Would probably be wasted in that posistion though.
 

UTAretro

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Sell Sancho, buy Mitoma.

Do it, John. That's the most logical way to get him.
If I may, and please don’t think I’m rude for giving my view on this as an outsider to your club.

When star players, such as Sancho, join a huge club like Manchester United, they do so on very lucrative terms. He cost an enormous transfer fee, and is earning a wage packet which only a few other clubs in the world could afford to match.

The concept of selling on the transfer market is classic supply and demand. Sancho cost a reported £72.9m. Realistically, it would be impossible to find a buyer who will even get close to recouping that figure, should your club wish to sell. The player, relative to his transfer fee, so far has not performed as expected by many.

With respect, it’s not as easy as saying “just sell Sancho and get Mitoma”. The problem is nobody, at the time of writing, would actually want him for anything like a fee that would be accepted by your club.

When players win their Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid or PSG contract, if they underperform there is nowhere else to go but back down. And going back down means an inevitably lower transfer fee. Then it also begs the question which “smaller club” thhis current one can pay his wages even if a discounted transfer fee were agreed.

The market is dictating that Mitoma is worth a lot more than Sancho though presently, because one is outperforming the other at time of writing.

As an Englishman and supporter of the national team though, I hope he becomes the best in the world.
 
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Borussia Teeth

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If I may, and please don’t think I’m rude for giving my view on this as an outsider to your club.

When star players, such as Sancho, join a huge club like Manchester United, they do so on very lucrative terms. He cost an enormous transfer fee, and is earning a wage packet which only a few other clubs in the world could afford to match.

The concept of selling on the transfer market is classic supply and demand. Sancho cost a reported £72.9m. Realistically, it would be impossible to find a buyer who will even get close to recouping that figure, should your club wish to sell. The player, relative to his transfer fee, so far has not performed as expected by many.

With respect, it’s not as easy as saying “just sell Sancho and get Mitoma”. The problem is nobody, at the time of writing, would actually want him for anything like a fee that would be accepted by your club.

When players win their Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid or PSG contract, if they underperform there is nowhere else to go but back down. And going back down means an inevitably lower transfer fee. Then it also begs the question which “smaller club” thhis current one can pay his wages even if a discounted transfer fee were agreed.

The market is dictating that Mitoma is worth a lot more than Sancho though presently, because one is outperforming the other at time of writing.

As an Englishman and supporter of the national team though, I hope he becomes the best in the world.
Thanks for your input.

Unfortunately mate, your on a united forum where a large number of posters seem to think we can get 30m for Scott McTominay. This place is full of football manager and fifa players that don't consider wages, current form, injuries etc when making their sales wishlist.

Seen people say: 'sell Martial for 20m.' He's on 250k pw and been injured the best part of 2 seasons! Also, van der Beek. Who's gonna front a purchase when he's been out half a season and on 120k pw.

So don't be surprised about posters saying things like 'yeah, sell Sancho and buy Mitoma.'

Back on topic, I like Mitoma but left wing is not a priority for our summer budget.
 

mu4c_20le

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If we get taken over by Qatar, we will sign who we want, when we want.
 

Strootman's Finger

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Thanks for your input.

Unfortunately mate, your on a united forum where a large number of posters seem to think we can get 30m for Scott McTominay. This place is full of football manager and fifa players that don't consider wages, current form, injuries etc when making their sales wishlist.

Seen people say: 'sell Martial for 20m.' He's on 250k pw and been injured the best part of 2 seasons! Also, van der Beek. Who's gonna front a purchase when he's been out half a season and on 120k pw.

So don't be surprised about posters saying things like 'yeah, sell Sancho and buy Mitoma.'

Back on topic, I like Mitoma but left wing is not a priority for our summer budget.
Yeah I never get this, if we want rid of Martial will probably have to terminate his contract and pay him off.
 

LuckyScout78

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I agree with the guy who mentioned Newcastle shall take a look at this guy and consider him. As a club chasing for top 4 in the future.

Newcastle shall buy football players at the level that is demanding. Top or closest to the top level.


Almiron - new top CAM? - Mitoma + Isaksen


+ A new top CAM
+ A new top LW
+ A new top CDM beside Bruno


Those are 3 positions Newcastle shall strenght in the summer.

Mitoma is my recommend to Newcastle
 

Bojan Djordjic

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I agree with the guy who mentioned Newcastle shall take a look at this guy and consider him. As a club chasing for top 4 in the future.

Newcastle shall buy football players at the level that is demanding. Top or closest to the top level.


Almiron - new top CAM? - Mitoma + Isaksen


+ A new top CAM
+ A new top LW
+ A new top CDM beside Bruno


Those are 3 positions Newcastle shall strenght in the summer.

Mitoma is my recommend to Newcastle
I'll just get on to Eddie and let him know.
 

Hughes35

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Really good player. Only problem is we already have Rashford on the left. Not sure if Mitoma has ever played on the right effectively?
 

SilentWitness

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I agree with the guy who mentioned Newcastle shall take a look at this guy and consider him. As a club chasing for top 4 in the future.

Newcastle shall buy football players at the level that is demanding. Top or closest to the top level.


Almiron - new top CAM? - Mitoma + Isaksen


+ A new top CAM
+ A new top LW
+ A new top CDM beside Bruno


Those are 3 positions Newcastle shall strenght in the summer.

Mitoma is my recommend to Newcastle
We have found @Torino 's mate.
 

andersj

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Really good player. Only problem is we already have Rashford on the left. Not sure if Mitoma has ever played on the right effectively?
We have played with Weghorst as a 10 and Rashford as a striker numerous times this season.

I do think there is a chance that EtH would like to see a winger that is better at progressing the ball than Rashford. More similar to Grealish, Mahrez or even Antony. Or, you could argue, a modern Giggs/Beckham. In a set up like that we would probably need a player like Mitoma. But not just Mitoma. Also a player like Cantona or Sheringham.

I think it is a bit fat fetched, as we are pretty far from there at the moment.
 

Harry190

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Every game, and I mean every game I've seen him in, he has been impactful, either scoring or threading that final ball through. This is more than a purple patch. He is the player we thought Sancho would be. He is better.
 

daba

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Every game, and I mean every game I've seen him in, he has been impactful, either scoring or threading that final ball through. This is more than a purple patch. He is the player we thought Sancho would be. He is better.
Yep what’s so frustrating is Sancho is even more technical. Just pure and simple lacks the mental strength and physical tenacity that someone like Mitoma.
 

Nou_Camp99

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I think we'd be better off just hiring Brighton's recruitment team. We'd save fortunes and actually buy players we can sell on too.
 

Ekeke

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I think we'd be better off just hiring Brighton's recruitment team. We'd save fortunes and actually buy players we can sell on too.
Think we should do both. Obviously try to replicate their system including several personnel from there. But also 1 transfer would make sense
 

Nou_Camp99

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Think we should do both. Obviously try to replicate their system including several personnel from there. But also 1 transfer would make sense
Mitoma is class but plays off the left. We don't need anyone to play there. Between Rashford and Garnacho we are set.

If I was taking anyone from Brighton it would be Evan Ferguson or McAllister. Both play in positions we badly need to bolster.

Mitoma is class though.
 

RuudTom83

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I would hope the recruitment was a little more detailed than looking at which players are currently on form.

Coach what is already there! United have Rashord (prime) Sancho (under performing but talented) and Garnacho (raw talent)
 
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