Chelsea poach Brighton’s recruitment head Sam Jewell for multi-club project

Chelsea have poached another key figure at Brighton & Hove Albion after agreeing a deal to appoint Sam Jewell in a senior position in their recruitment team.

Jewell has resigned as Brighton’s head of recruitment, a position he landed when Paul Winstanley left for Stamford Bridge 16 months ago, and is expected to serve out his notice period before starting his new role in November.

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The 34-year-old was tempted to take up a new challenge after being offered a global role in Chelsea’s multi-club operation. Chelsea have made sweeping internal changes since being bought by Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital in 2022 and are keen to build the operation around their co-sporting directors, Winstanley and Laurence Stewart.

The move for Jewell comes as Chelsea await the arrival of Josh Marsh, as their new loans manager. Chelsea have focused on buying young players in the past 12 months and although results have been inconsistent they believe the strategy overseen by Winstanley and Stewart will bear fruit in the long run.

A key ambition is to add more data-driven scouting and bolster the analytics department. In that regard it is not a surprise Chelsea have looked to Brighton’s model. Brighton have repeatedly punched above their weight thanks to smart recruitment.

Chelsea have recruited several people from Brighton. Graham Potter left Brighton to become Chelsea’s manager in September 2022 and brought his backroom staff. Potter was fired in April 2023 but some members of his coaching team stayed at Chelsea. Kyle Macaulay has remained in a recruitment role and Ben Roberts stayed as goalkeeping coach. Roberts was key to Chelsea signing the goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic last summer.

Brighton have made plenty of money off Chelsea. They have sold Marc Cucurella, Moisés Caicedo and Robert Sánchez to them in the past two years.

Jewell, the son of the former Wigan Athletic and Bradford City manager Paul, played a part in Caicedo moving to Brighton, who sold the Ecuador midfielder for £115m last summer. He also helped to spot the Argentina midfielder Alexis Mac Allister. His responsibilities at Brighton will be assumed by the club’s assistant technical director, Mike Cave, and the scouting and intelligence manager, George Holmes.