Transfer news: Player recruitment Q&A with former Tottenham technical director

If you have a common way of working, you know your market and the standard of football you are going to play, you are halfway there.

Man City’s success rate after Pep Guardiola came in went up dramatically. Why? Because they had a group of people in Txiki Begiristain, Ferran Soriano, Pep and others who all had a clear idea of what type of player they were looking for.

So consistency, success and money all combined for them.

If you look at Manchester United, which is my club from my childhood, they have lost that consistency.

You don’t know who the coach is going to be from one season to the next. If you have no clear identity through different types of managers, how can you have a clear philosophy when you are trying to recruit players?

Most new coaches want three or four of their own players. All of a sudden you have four different types of players that probably don’t marry with the next coach and what he is looking for. That breeds inconsistency.

We had it at Tottenham. We went from Mauricio Pochettino to Jose Mourinho. Two amazing coaches but two totally different philosophies. If they had gone from Jose to Antonio Conte directly, with Jose’s players and Antonio’s players, it probably would have worked.

If you had gone from Mauricio’s players to Ange Postecogolou’s players it definitely would have worked because they are similar in outlook. Brighton have a clear football philosophy. The manager has to fit that philosophy. As a consequence, you get a clear idea of what type of player works for Brighton.