Chelsea have unveiled a cheeky marketing campaign to promote their upcoming home clash with Brighton and Hove Albion at Stamford Bridge. Across their social media platforms, the Blues are sponsoring posts encouraging supporters to snap up tickets for the encounter with the Seagulls on September 27.
Their eye-catching approach to doing this will certainly bring a grin to fans’ faces though. The promotional image features Marc Cucurella in Chelsea colours beneath a ‘Friends Reunited’ headline.
The accompanying text reads: “Familiar faces for our fixture versus Brighton.” Naturally, the advertisement references Chelsea’s recent pattern of poaching talent, including management, straight from the coastal outfit.
Graham Potter was brought in as the Blues’ manager after his impressive stint at the AMEX Stadium. Whilst that managerial switch proved unsuccessful, their player signings from Brighton have been outstanding.
Alongside Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Robert Sanchez, Joao Pedro and Facundo Buonanotte have all made the move in recent seasons. Chelsea have equally permitted players to depart for Brighton, with Billy Gilmour joining the Seagulls before his switch to Napoli.
Additionally, Levi Colwill has previously spent a loan spell at the club. The Blues’ choice to acknowledge their apparently unofficial connection with the Seagulls through their social media approach may appear unusual, but Brighton have also made light of it themselves.
During a recent supporters’ forum ahead of the Premier League campaign, the club’s CEO Paul Barber was questioned about why the team appeared determined to offload their top talent – especially to Chelsea. Barber responded: “As I’ve said many times they’re (Chelsea) my best customer.
“The reality is, every club in the world is a selling club at the right price, and anyone that says any different is not someone that really understands football. The reality of our business model has always been the ‘we will buy young players, we’ll hire the best possible coaching staff to develop them, we’ll give them a chance to play in the first team’.
“And when the time is right for the player, but also the club, then we will negotiate the best possible deal. We will build our club sustainably like that because we can’t always rely on Tony (Bloom, Brighton’s owner) to fill in the gaps.
“The only gaps usually in a football club are financial gaps. We have to build a football club that stands on its own two feet, is less reliant on a single person paying the bills.
“In order for a club of our size to do that, we need to have a healthy player trading strategy, and we’ve got one. And the key is to make sure we don’t ever leave our coaching staff with a squad that isn’t capable of competing.
“That’s the real trick. Any football club can sell players and some of the best ones can sell them profitably, but you’ve still got to leave your coaches a good squad to work with.”
The Blues have a challenging schedule ahead, with four consecutive away games before they can focus on Brighton. Their journey begins with a local clash against Brentford, followed by a Champions League trip to Bayern Munich.
A match against Manchester United is next in line, before wrapping up their away streak with a Carabao Cup tie against League One’s Lincoln City.