Future still looks Bright after sales

GRAHAM Potter believes Marc Cucurella’s clubrecord £60m departure to Chelsea shows Brighton have a recruitment process to be proud of.

Albion were reluctant to lose the defender but managed to negotiate a profit of almost £ 45m on a player purchased from Spanish side Getafe less than 12 months ago.

The Seagulls have now received around £150m in transfer fees during the past year following the sales of Ben White to Arsenal, Dan Burn to Newcastle and Yves Bissouma to Tottenham.

“It’s part of our strategy, to allow us to continue to develop,” said head coach Potter, who guided the south- coast club to a maiden top-half Premier League finish last term.

“Buying players is the easy part. Selling players at the right time for the right price is the difficult bit.

“And the last three windows it’s around £ 150m worth of player sales we’ve made which is no small feat, something to be proud of from a recruitment perspective, from a development perspective.

“Credit to the players because ultimately it’s them that play the game and get themselves in that position.

“Our job now is to try to improve, to try to go forward and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Former Barcelona youth player Cucurella was crowned Brighton’s player of the year following an impressive maiden season in English football and was heavily linked with champions Manchester City before switching to Stamford Bridge.

While lucrative, the

24- year- old’s exit just two days before Albion start the new season at Manchester United was far from ideal.

The Seagulls have managed to soften his unwelcome sale by bringing Chelsea’s

England Under- 21 defender Levi Colwill in the other direction on a season- long loan.

“We didn’t want to sell him and we didn’t need to sell him,” added Potter.

“But, at the same time, you understand that if a Champions League club comes with Champions League resources and finance and the player indicates there’s a desire to do it then it’s very difficult for us.”