Brighton news: Opinion – ‘Watching Mitoma is an absolute honour’

Another weekend, another Brighton win over Chelsea, another inquest into how £250m worth of players, management and recruitment staff could have swapped Sussex for Stamford Bridge and yet the Albion still maintain a hold over the Blues.

Easy one to answer. Just start by looking at the Chelsea XI who took to the field for their 3-0 defeat on Friday night. £1.5bn spent and not a fit and available centre-forward.

Robert Sanchez dropped for being a calamity all season. His replacement, Filip Jorgensen, having a Valentine’s Day nightmare by shipping three goals he should have done better with. All while Kepa Arrizabalaga helps Bournemouth in their unexpected push for Europe. Chelsea’s best goalkeeper in the Premier League this season plays for the Cherries.

Somewhere at the heart of this squad and transfer mess is former Brighton head of recruitment Paul Winstanley. And his successor as Brighton head of recruitment, Sam Jewell. Chelsea paid handsomely for both within 12 months of each other, presumably because they thought they were buying the brains behind the Albion’s success.

But Winstanley and Jewell were just cogs in a machine. The brains behind the entire recruitment operation and the only person who knows how all those algorithms fit together is the one bloke who cannot be bought – Tony Bloom.

Todd Boehly can chuck all the money he wants at Brighton but the only way Chelsea – or anyone else for that matter – can replicate the Albion’s success is through purchasing Bloom himself.

Meanwhile, there is one player who Brighton have quite rightly made unavailable for sale. Eyebrows were raised when two bids from the Saudi Pro League were turned down for Kaoru Mitoma in January. Supporters of other clubs balked at Brighton rejecting a rumoured £75m.

Mitoma, though, is irreplaceable – as shown by his stunning opening goal against Chelsea.

In over 30 years of watching Brighton, I am struggling to think of a more technically excellent goal. The first touch was exquisite. The finish almost as good. Lionel Messi-esque.

Mitoma is a special player. Watching him in a Brighton shirt is an absolute honour.

Find more from Scott McCarthy at We Are Brighton