Technical director David Weir has said that Albion beat a number of big clubs to the signing of Valentin Barco.
The Argentina international joined us in January when he followed in the footsteps of Alexis Mac Allister, Moises Caicedo, Julio Enciso and Facundo Buonanotte as recruits from South America in recent years. Barco made six Premier League appearances after debuting in the FA Cup tie against Wolves in February.
“Valentin’s signing is a really good example of us competing at the top end with some bigger, historic clubs," Weir said.
“By putting our case forward, by being on the ground and being in front of the people to try and explain what our process is, what our idea is and why we think it would be a good idea for Valentin to come here takes time, effort and support from the club to facilitate.
“It reflects well on a lot of aspects of the club that we can go and compete with very big, successful clubs to persuade the player and help them to understand that we could be a good opportunity for them.
“There’s a still long way to go after that. With Valentin, Julio and Facundo previously and Moises and Alexis before that it doesn’t have to happen overnight. It can take time - in some instances such as Simon [Adingra] and Kaoru [Mitoma], there could be a loan in that process as well.
“Recently that’s not been the case. Julio and Facundo have come in and stayed in, but we do have the patience to allow them to adapt, to start to understand the English culture and to understand the Premier League. We also have a degree of patience before making a decision about whether they’re good enough.”
Despite Albion’s successful recruitment from South America, Weir has said Albion don’t have any dedicated scouts on the continent.
He added, “That surprises a lot of people. It’s generally not how we work. We recruit from all over the world and we’ve done a lot of good business in South America recently.
“It’s not a coincidence, because there are a lot of good players there, but we’ve probably got a good reputation there. I’d imagine we’ve got a good reputation in Japan as well with the recruitment of one player in particular.
“It’s about having an awareness of where the talent is and where the opportunity is and South America is very competitive and very difficult. We have had some good success there, but that’s not to say where the success will be in the future.
“You look recently at [the signings of] Carlos Baleba, Ibrahim Osman and Simon Adingra. That’s a slightly different pathway and we think they’re going to be really good players for us. It's about having that awareness everywhere and understanding what is possible and where the opportunity lies.”
You can hear more from David on the Official Brighton & Hove Albion Podcast.