Now in their fifth year as a Premier League side, many fans would consider Brighton & Hove Albion an established member of the top flight.
With a decade old state-of-the-art stadium and training ground to boot, their credentials are clear and obvious.
One man who doesn’t think this though is their manager, Graham Potter.
Speaking to UCFB as part of the LMA Insight Series, Potter said: “People often use the term ‘established Premier League side’, but I always say I think there’s about eight established teams – everybody else is fighting to stay in the league.”
There are six ever-present sides in the top flight – Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur – and this season Brentford became the 50th side to play in the competition.
Potter believes that this is “why the league is so good”. He added: “Swansea City were in the Premier League for seven years and got relegated, Bournemouth recently, it’s just so competitive. For us, we need to make sure that we understand that every year, and that we’re always trying to improve our playing style, how we’re playing and the number of points we get because ultimately that’s important.”
The former Swansea and Ostersund’s boss is realistic as to what is possible for his Brighton side to achieve. In their four seasons in the top flight so far, Brighton are yet to finish above 15th.
Potter said: “We’ve got an idea in terms of how we want to develop the club, how we use our academy, how we use our recruitment. We’re not ever going to be a top ten spending club, so we have to use whatever we spend wisely which means we take a few more risks in the transfer market on players that haven’t quite got to that level yet who we have to help to get there.”
The Seagulls boss says that the reported £50m sale of Ben White to Arsenal this summer was important to help recruit a number of players, but added: “I’m reluctant and certainly wouldn’t refer to us as an established Premier League team.”
