Brighton star aims Chelsea transfer dig after £224m spending spree

Pascal Gross has taken a sly dig at Chelsea ahead of Brighton's visit to Stamford Bridge. The Blues will face the Seagulls on Sunday afternoon as either side looks to climb the Premier League ahead of the New Year.

Chelsea have spent nearly £1billion on new players since Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali bought the club in May 2022. Nearly a quarter of that amount was used to raid the Amex Stadium, signing Moises Caicedo and Robert Sanchez for a combined £140million in the summer and Marc Cucurella the year before for £62m.

The west Londoners also forked out £21.5m to bring Graham Potter and his staff, as well as sporting director Paul Winstanley, to Cobham training ground. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – yet Chelsea head into this weekend's clash six-points behind Brighton.

«They have taken a lot of our players from us,» said Gross, as quoted by the Daily Mail. «They have more money than us so they can do that but that doesn’t matter on the pitch.

»Brighton is a happy place," the Seagulls midfielder added. «I don’t know about Chelsea, I concentrate on my club. Brighton is a good place to be. We are growing. We fight for each other. We have a lot of good people and great times ahead.»

Earlier this week, Mauricio Pochettino was quizzed on Caicedo, Sanchez and Cucurella facing their former club. The Chelsea manager said: «If you talk about Robert, in the last three or four months [at Brighton] he didn't play and then he arrived late in the transfer window.

Chelsea news and transfers LIVE – Victor Osimhen blow, Christopher Nkunku return, Lampard mistake

England's EURO 2024 group stage opponents confirmed as Gareth Southgate given major challenge

»Moises also arrived when we had already played games in