Brighton chief issues brilliant Todd Boehly statement amid De Zerbi to Chelsea link

The Blues have regularly been in contact with Albion ever since Todd Boehly took ownership of the club from Roman Abramovich.

In this season’s summer transfer window, Marc Cucurella joined the West London outfit from Brighton in a £56m deal, breaking the world-record fee paid for a left-back.

Then, in September, Seagulls’ head coach Graham Potter also made the move to the capital, succeeding Thomas Tuchel in the Stamford Bridge hot seat after the German was relived on his duties.

Potter’s move, which generated £20m in compensation for Brighton, also lead to the exit of coaches Billy Reid, Bjorn Hamberg, Bruno Saltor and Ben Roberts to the two-time Champions League winners, alongside recruitment analyst Kyle Macauley and head of recruitment Paul Winstanley.

Boehly has not be afraid to splash the cash since arriving in London. So far this season, Chelsea have signed 16 players, spending a total of £558m, as well as the money paid to bring in Potter as manager.

On top of this, Football Insider revealed this weekthatChelsea have a ‘genuine interest’ in current Brighton head coach Roberto De Zerbi, amidst increased pressure on ex-boss Potter due to a run of poor results at the club.

Despite the persistent pinching of Brighton talent by the big six club, Barber said at the Financial Times' Business of Football Summit he would happily pick up phone to Boehly again, joking that he told the club’s cleaning staff they could also be head-hunted.

Barber said: "And I am happy to pick up the phone to Chelsea anytime as well, absolutely fine. Apart from when it's for our coaches. I have told the cleaning staff to be careful, you never know, they may be head-hunted as well.”

Brighton are currently perform above expectations this season. The club are currently seventh in the Premier League table and challenging for European football next season, as well as still be in with a chance of winning their first-ever piece of major silverware, having booked their place in the FA Cup quarter final on Tuesday (February 28).

Barber, who has been a part of Albion’s boardroom setup since 2012, revealed at Thursday’s summit that Brighton’s ability to trade well with footballing heavyweights such as Chelsea has lead them to being in the position they are now.

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He explained: "In all seriousness, a club of our size can only really compete if we trade well. All the other things football clubs should be doing anyway, we should be selling out our stadium, and getting the best sponsors. For us, Premier League revenue is really important, the TV revenue is critical to what we do.

"The only way we can really compete and generate a profit for our owner is to trade well and that means finding players that other clubs are not finding, getting them from markets that are less developed and therefore cheaper, coaching those players well, developing them well and ultimately if they do well selling them on at a profit."