Brighton head of recruitment Sam Jewell has been put on gardening leave after accepting a new role at Chelsea.
Telegraph Sport exclusively revealed last week that Chelsea made their move for Jewell after also recruiting his predecessor Paul Winstanley, who is still at the club after his appointment in 2022.
Talks over Jewell’s role at Stamford Bridge have been over him having a global scouting position in charge of negotiations at Chelsea and French club Strasbourg, who are also owned by the Behdad Eghbali and Todd Boehly consortium.
“Sam Jewell has accepted a new position at Chelsea FC,” read a statement from Brighton. “Sam has now commenced a period of gardening leave. We thank him for his long service to our club.
“With immediate effect, Mike Cave, assistant technical director, supported by George Holmes, scouting and intelligence manager, will assume Sam’s responsibilities.”
Chelsea have now moved for Brighton’s head of recruitment twice in the space of 16 months.
Jewell, 34, is the son of former manager Paul and has been important to Brighton’s recruitment since arriving at the Amex Stadium in 2016 as Under-21s recruitment head. He moved up to emerging talent scouting manager in 2018 and has been head of recruitment for 14 months.
While at the club, Brighton have signed Alexis Mac Allister, Moises Caicedo, Facundo Buonanotte and Julio Enciso.
Chelsea have looked to Brighton during the post-Roman Abramovich era, with Graham Potter also brought in as manager, along with his backroom staff. Data analyst Kyle Macauley was also recruited from Brighton. They also signed Caicedo from Brighton for £115 million and bought Robert Sanchez and Marc Cucurella from the club.
Jewell spoke to the Brighton website last summer when Caicedo and Mac Allister were sold. “Departures are part and parcel of football,” he said. “And while it was sad to see two really good people leave us, it has opened doors to others, including me. Following Paul’s departure, I took on the head of recruitment role on an interim basis and it was very much business as usual.”