Why Chelsea are trying to beat Man United to Brighton chief Sam Jewell amid Dan Ashworth plan

Chelsea have made an approach to bring Brighton's head of recruitment Sam Jewell to the club. That is according to a piece this morning from the Telegraph, who say the Blues are once again looking to raid the Seagulls.

The west Londoners brought Jewell's predecessor Paul Winstanley to Stamford Bridge in 2022 to help form a new-look Chelsea under Todd Boehly's ownership. Winstanley and Laurence Stewart have spearheaded the club's recruitment drive over the past three transfer windows and have both come in for some criticism amongst Chelsea supporters.

The club have largely brought young and inexperienced talent to west London under Boehly – a strategy that has been widely criticised with Chelsea struggling to find any sort of consistency. However, the report states that if Jewell did come in, it would not necessarily be to replace Winstanley, who started his job role at Chelsea in December 2022.

The offer is reportedly a global scouting role that would be in charge of negotiations for Chelsea and their sister club Strasbourg, who are now also owned by Boehly and Behdad Eghbali. Chelsea are said to have made the move with fears that Manchester United are looking to bring him in alongside former Brighton sporting director Dan Ashworth.

Jewell has worked closely with Winstanley before. At Brighton, Jewell joined the club in 2016 as Under-21 recruitment manager, where he worked with Winstanley, John Morling and Simon Rusk very closely, before taking the job as the Seagulls' emerging talent scouting manager two years later.

He also worked closely with Ashworth – who is said to be on the verge of moving to Manchester United from Newcastle United. So when Ashworth and Winstanley left the Amex Stadium, Jewell had to step up. But it