Trust in Youth Is the Underrated Aspect of Graham Potter's Brighton Revolution

When people talk about Graham Potter's overhaul of Brighton & Hove Albion, the focus tends to be on the style of football, the approach taken to games and the tactical flexibility that the former Swansea City boss has brought since arriving at the Amex 16 months ago.

But that's not all he offers.

Granted, though, Brighton are a world away from the side they were under Chris Hughton in the Premier League.

Hughton never strayed far from 4-4-1-1 or 4-3-3. His starting line ups were so predictable that any scouts sent to report back on Brighton could have nipped to the Palace Pier for the day instead of watching the football and still delivered an accurate report on who played and what they did.

The approach was always keep a clean sheet and try and nick a goal, normally via Glenn Murray. Hughton's side were labelled as boring. In reality, they were pragmatic. Hughton's job was to secure top flight survival and his strategy did that, at the same time as delivering a memorable run to the FA Cup semi finals for only the second time in Brighton history.

Hughton's problem came when Seagulls chairman Tony Bloom decided he wanted more. If the Seagulls were to establish themselves as a top 10 Premier League club as Bloom has publicly stated is the ambition, then they could not simply grind out 1-0 wins and 0-0 draws. They needed to go and win games playing a brand of football more in keeping with the modern day top flight.

Bloom did not feel Hughton could deliver that and so he made a bold change, firing one of the most successful Brighton bosses ever in favour of a man who had just one season of management in England under his belt. Potter arrived with a reputation for attacking football, innovation and tactical flexibility - ticking all the boxes that Bloom was looking for.

There was one other aspect of Potter's CV which often gets overlooked when people talk about why Brighton appointed him - and arguably it has led to the most impressive aspect of the entire revolution that has taken place in Good Old Sussex by the Sea: Potter's belief in youth.

Under Hughton, the average age of Brighton's starting XI and squad was at the older end of the Premier League scale. Even in the Championship, Hughton did not trust young players to come in and deliver.

In his four and a half years in charge, just two academy products were given league debuts by Hughton. James Tilley was handed a token 60 seconds from the bench in a dead rubber on the final day of the 2014/15 season as Brighton drew 0-0 at Middlesbrough. 18 months later and Rob Hunt played for 17 minutes in place of the injured Bruno as the Seagulls won 1-0 away at Burton Albion.

Hughton afforded homegrown Brighton players a grand total of 18 minutes of league football. Between Solly March making his debut under Oscar Garcia at the start of the 2013/14 and Steve Alzate and Aaron Connolly's breakthrough last season under Potter, no academy products had established themselves as first team regulars at Brighton. Six years of nothing coming out of a youth system which had received significant investment.

As well as paying just shy of £100m out of his own pocket to build the Amex Stadium, Bloom also ploughed £30m into building a state of the art training facility 11 miles west along the A27 at Lancing. Opened in 2014, the purpose of the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre was to give Brighton Category A academy status and produce homegrown players good enough so that in the future, Brighton did not need to rely on Bloom's cheque book.

This of course only worked if Brighton had a first team manager who was willing to give these young players in the development squad a chance. Hughton was never likely to be that guy; even when Connolly was topping the scoring charts in Premier League 2 in 2018/19, he still refused to try the Irishman in senior football despite Brighton's over reliance on Murray.

Potter's approach to youth could not be more different. He handed Connolly and Alzate league debuts early into the 2019/20 season and both are now established full internationals for the Republic of Ireland and Colombia respectively.

Ben White was sent to Leeds United with the very clear intention of a season in the Championship preparing him for a crack at the Premier League which has worked out beautifully.

Waiting in the wings you have Jayson Molumby, who starred on loan at Millwall last season. He could be in line for opportunities should Dale Stephens complete a rumoured move to Burnley, as could Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres if Brighton do not manage to sign a centre forward - with Connolly and Neal Maupay the only first team strikers on the books.

With Solly March and Lewis Dunk both homegrown players, Potter could quite feasibly field a starting XI containing seven academy products in the not too distant future. For a club who went six years without a single player breaking through from their development squad, that is a remarkable turnaround.

The dedication to youth does not stop there. Tariq Lamptey was the headline maker in Brighton's 3-0 win at Newcastle United and he looks destined for the top. You have to doubt whether Hughton would have sanctioned the purchase of an 19-year-old right back, let alone thrown him straight into the Premier League bear pit as Potter has done.

Yves Bissouma cost £15m in the summer of 2018 and played semi-regularly under Hughton, one of the few young players that the former manager did actually trust. Bissouma has just turned 24, not that you would know it from the increasingly mature performances he has given since establishing himself as one of the first names on the team sheet post-lockdown. Maupay is the same age with Leandro Trossard and Adam Webster a year older at 25.

Against Newcastle, Brighton fielded their youngest ever starting XI in a Premier League game with an average age of 24.4. No player was aged over 30. The Seagulls' oldest warhorse was Lewis Dunk, an ancient 28. The contrast with Hughton's Brighton side could not be more marked.

Most of these Brighton players are two to three years away from their peak. Given the performance they delivered to destroy Newcastle on their own patch and that they outplayed Chelsea for large parts of the opening game of the season, imagine how good this team will be if Potter can keep them together over the course of the next few seasons.

That is a very big if, of course. Lamptey and White are sure to attract suitors from the big six before long and it would not be a surprise to see the likes of Alzate, Bissouma and Trossard follow if they consistently turn in showings like the one we saw at St James' Park.

For now at least, they all remain Seagulls players. Such a talented, young squad is creating a real buzz around Brighton at the moment and it will be fascinating to see where they go from here; can they deliver week in, week out, or have the last two games been a flash in the pan?

Whatever the outcome, Potter's youthful revolution of Brighton & Hove Albion will continue to be exciting to watch. And it deserves a lot of praise.