Brighton make trio of senior scouts redundant

Announcing his own departure on LinkedIn, Bulmer said: “Unfortunately, my time at Brighton & Hove Albion has now come to an end. Firstly, it’s been an absolute privilege to have been part of this brilliant club.

“It’s been a fantastic experience and one I have thoroughly enjoyed. I’ve been lucky enough to meet some fantastic people and gain important contacts throughout the years. 

“Being part of the recruitment that brought in some great additions and helped to get the club into Europe for the first time in its history last year is something that everyone should be immensely proud of and one that will live with me forever. 

“I would like to thank everyone at the club for the opportunity and wish everyone the best of luck for the future. I am looking forward to seeing what the next chapter brings.”

Brighton only have seven full-time scouts and data is fundamental to their scouting process. Scouts receive a shortlist of players from Starlizard, the data analytics consultancy founded by owner and Chairman Tony Bloom, with players graded according to a traffic light system.

Red players are a definite no; ambers are to be monitored and could potentially be pursued; and the greens are genuine transfer targets who are to be watched with live eyes. The data sifting is is a black box system, meaning the scouts don’t know how the ratings were arrived at.  

Speaking in April 2023, Technical Director David Weir gave an insight into Brighton’s scouting process.

“We don’t have people in every country, it’s not how we work, and people would be surprised by how small our scouting network and recruitment department is,” the former Scotland international said. 

“It’s people that know the process, that are active, that understand what we are and what we are looking for and are able to react pretty quickly to situations and find solutions. 

“There is a live element, a video element, a data element: there are many different facets that play their part and you have to establish a lot of trust between the players, the agents and the families as well.”

Weir was Loans Manager and Assistant Technical Director at Brighton before taking the job on a permanent basis in May 2022.

In April 2022, TGG revealed that Brighton were switching to a positional – rather than geographical – scouting system. This was pioneered by former Technical Director Dan Ashworth and ex Head of Recruitment Paul Winstanley.

Four Senior Scouting Managers oversaw a different area of the team, with Bulmer responsible for scouting centre-backs and Tim Coe (who is remaining) overseeing central midfielders, for example. The Senior Scouting Managers worked closely with the club’s recruitment analysts and scouts to produce player reports.

Three Scouting and Intelligence Co-ordinators helped to compile initial shortlists of players for the Senior Scouting Managers and measures that were both objective (data) and subjective (scouting reports) were used.

The latest redundancies have cast the future of this positional scouting system in doubt. Lee McCulloch, who played alongside Weir for both Rangers and Scotland and who managed Kilmarnock for a brief period, has recently joined Brighton as a scout.