Brighton ace shows possible Hearts recruits the transfer power of Jamestown as Tony Bloom proves personal side
Brighton is where Tony Bloom made his name as one of football’s top operators.
A Brighton star has shown players that come to Hearts just how far Jamestown will go to see if they have what it takes to be a top recruit.
Tony Bloom invested in Hearts over the summer to the tune of £9.86m and has brought his recruitment analytics software with him to Gorgie. That has helped Hearts unearth hidden gems like Claudio Braga and Alexandros Kyziridis with the Jambos currently top of the Premiership ahead of matches with Kilmarnock and Celtic this week.
Bloom is the owner of Brighton and under his guidance, they have established themselves as a solid Premier League team, with a player trading model the envy of many across football. His investment in Belgian side Royal Union Saint-Gilloise has also inspired them to title glory and they also use Jamestown just like the Seagulls and Hearts.
How extensive is Jamestown recruitment process?
January’s transfer window is only a month away and Islam Chesnokov is already signed up on a pre-contract from Tobol in Kazakhstan. The extent of how far Jamestown will go to unearth all the information needed on a signing has been made clear by Maxim De Cuyper, who joined Brighton from Club Brugge in the summer. He was already aware of Bloom’s work from time at Union but had his eyes opened to the Jamestown process over the summer, as he revealed a personal side to the Hearts investor.
De Cuyper told Nieuwsblad: “What do you all know about me is something I asked on the day I signed. I knew that Union was extremely thorough in their research. 'You don't want to know,' was the answer. It turned out to be a forty-page file.
“They'd called Bjorn Meijer to get some information. That was pretty good thinking, because if a so-called rival spoke positively about you, they could probably draw some conclusions about your character.
What is Tony Bloom like?
"Our first meeting was actually quite funny. It was players' night and the chairman was going to give a speech. Bloom welcomed all the new players but forgot about me. I was the only newcomer actually playing at the time. That same evening, I got a message from him apologising. He's a very sweet man who genuinely cares about us. He has a very positive attitude, too. Just like everyone at the club, by the way."
Tynecastle head coach McInnes said of Bloom earlier this season: “Tony's come up and he's shot from the hip really about his intentions for the club, and it's great for everybody to hear that's connected with the club because we're all ambitious, we all want to do well. We all want a successful Hearts.
“How quickly we can get there remains to be seen, but I think he delivered in his message the confidence that we can get there hopefully as quickly as we can, and there is evidence of that. So I think maybe people can sit up and take notice a bit more of that rather than just me saying we've got off to a good start, so I think that's added to it.”