Brighton & Hove Albion are poised to name Jason Ayto as sporting director after parting company on Friday with technical director David Weir.
The significant shift in direction comes four games into the new Premier League season and within a fortnight of the close of the summer transfer window.
It stems from a desire to keep progressing and a revised target for what the club can expect over the next five years.
Here, The Athletic explains why change has happened.
Why are Brighton appointing Jason Ayto?
In the words of owner-chairman Tony Bloom, they want to “refresh” the technical department with “new leadership and direction”. Ayto fits the bill for their next steps.
Ayto has a wide range of experience after 11 years at Arsenal, which followed recruitment and technical roles with Norwich City and Chicago Inferno.
At the Emirates Stadium, he progressed from being a scout and chief scout to assistant and then interim sporting director. His career took off when former midfielder Edu joined Arsenal’s board, initially as technical director, in 2019. The Brazilian was hugely impressed by Ayto’s work. There was an immediate connection, as Ayto, whose wife is Brazilian, is a fluent Portuguese speaker.
Jason Ayto rose through the ranks at Arsenal (David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Edu told The Athletic last year: “When I started to talk to Jason, I felt: ‘Wow, there is something special with this guy’. The way he behaves, the way he talks, the way he wants to help the club, the way he wants to progress in his career.
“Everything I asked the guy — helping me with contacts, presentations, research — he had the skills to do it. He knows a lot of people in football. He is really, really smart, able to find solutions.”
Ayto did a lot of the groundwork for the signing of Kai Havertz from Chelsea in June 2023. He also collaborated in the recruitment process to bring in Jurrien Timber from Ajax a month later.
When Edu resigned as Arsenal’s sporting director last November to take on a new role at Nottingham Forest, Ayto was promoted to the post on an interim basis. Despite being regarded as a strong candidate to land the job permanently, former Atletico Madrid executive Andrea Berta was appointed instead.
Ayto was a contender for the vacant sporting director role at Newcastle United. The Athletic reported in July that he held a follow-up interview for the post, but they went for Ross Wilson at Nottingham Forest instead. Edu is now Forest’s head of global football, which adds an intriguing twist to Brighton’s trip to their City Ground at the end of November.
Why did they part company with David Weir?
Weir had been technical director since May 2022, following the departure of Dan Ashworth to Newcastle (and subsequently Manchester United).
The 55-year-old former Rangers, Everton and Scotland defender joined the club as loans manager in 2018. He was fast-tracked into the technical director role after a brief period working as Ashworth’s assistant.
An unassuming and calm character who is highly respected within the game, his qualities gelled with the club’s ethos — but on reflection, his promotion probably came too quickly. He had just achieved a master’s degree in sport directorship from Manchester Metropolitan University, but he had no experience as a sporting director.
David Weir’s departure was announced on Friday (Gareth Fuller/PA Images via Getty Images)
The idea was for Weir to learn the ropes for two or three years under Ashworth before taking over. When Ashworth left, the succession plan was brought forward, leaving gaps in Weir’s experience in some aspects of the role. The internal view was that he had done a very good job in many respects, but some of the gaps remained.
The trigger for making a change is a ‘2030 vision’ of how the club can kick on again over the next five years. Replacing Weir with Ayto — who is 15 years younger and has an analytical background — is part of that process in an environment where data is increasingly driving the club’s player recruitment.
What is the aim of the ‘2030 vision’?
Paul Barber, chief executive and deputy chairman, has conducted an overview of key areas for the past 18 months, which was ratified by the board at the summer annual general meeting.
The purpose was to identify the next steps needed to raise the bar for the club. Another level has been added to the existing objectives of the men’s team — becoming established as a top-10 club in the Premier League — and the women’s side — to be a top-four club in the Women’s Super League.
They want both senior teams to be frequently pushing for Europe. The men’s team qualified for Europe for the first time under former head coach Roberto De Zerbi by finishing sixth in 2022-23, going on to reach the last 16 of the Europa League the following campaign. In Fabian Hurzeler’s first season, they narrowly missed out, finishing eighth.
Bloom, right, with Barber in February 2024 (Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images)
Ayto’s brief at Arsenal also involved being part of the managerial recruitment process for the women’s team. Brighton will soon announce where a dedicated new women’s stadium will be built, with a site close to the Amex Stadium a leading contender.
The appointment in April of Mark Loch as the club’s first chief technology officer also arose from the new five-year plan. The IT expert was formerly chief product officer for British Airways. He had also worked for more than nine years in different director roles for Tesco.
The timescale of the project marries with the new contract agreed by Barber in April 2024, which runs until 2030.
Why make the change now, a fortnight after the end of the summer transfer window?
They did not want to disrupt the boardroom before the window, because the settling-in process would have been too short for Weir’s successor to understand how the club works.
So, the status quo was maintained. Shortly after the window ended, Bloom and Barber reconfirmed it was the right decision and the right time to act.
Weir was informed by Barber on Friday morning, before the club’s 10am announcement of his departure. Weir sensed in recent weeks that a change was coming. He has left with no hard feelings about the club’s choice. He will take stock before deciding whether to have a break or go straight into another job. He is unlikely to be short of offers.
From Ayto’s perspective, he is said to be delighted by the opportunity. He sees Brighton as the perfect club for him at this stage of his career and is happy with the timing too, rather than in the middle of a transfer window.
There has been no official announcement from Brighton yet. The club and Ayto wanted to show respect to Weir, with his departure still raw, but the former centre-back has been in football long enough to appreciate the ruthless nature of the game and Brighton are renowned for their planning.
The job title has changed to sporting director in line with contemporary football parlance — Weir was Brighton’s second ‘technical director’ after Ashworth. The combination of Ayto and 32-year-old Hurzeler — whose side lost 2-1 at Bournemouth on Saturday in his 50th game in charge — brings a freshness to key positions.
The impending arrival of Ayto is a further indication of the club’s determination to keep moving forward and finding ways to gain a competitive edge over bigger and wealthier rivals.
(Top photo: Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images)
