How Portsmouth, Brighton, Matt Clarke and Christian Burgess created the unlikeliest transfer of the summer

Yet the presence of Christian Burgess was also noted.

Brighton captured the highly-coveted Clarke for £3.5m in June 2019, yet his central-defensive partner and accompanying performance data had caught the eye elsewhere.

What unfolded was one of the more unlikely lower-division transfers of the summer of 2020 so far.

Certainly Momentum Sports Management, run by Phil Korklin and Brian Howard, had never before overseen a client’s move outside of the UK.

Royale Union Saint-Gillois, a Belgian First Division B club, represented a surprise destination for the 28-year-old Burgess.

Nonetheless, a pay rise, the security of a three-year deal plus 12 month option, and challenge of playing abroad, had persuaded the Pompey favourite to sign a pre-contract agreement.

Incidentally, Union’s majority shareholder is Tony Bloom – the owner of Brighton.

‘Union felt Christian was a good age and a good character to go and help build the club. said Korklin, one of Burgess’ two agents.

‘These days, you can go from scouting a player with your eye to looking at data.

‘Union have huge data capabilities and, interestingly, Christian also has a very similar data profile to Adam Webster, who Brighton last summer signed from Bristol City.

‘We’ve had other analysts run the data and see who Christian is similar to – and they told us Webster.

‘Once you’ve examined the data profile, which is the technical aspect, you look at the rest of the picture. You assess references, someone’s digital footprint, and Christian is an impeccable individual.

‘He came up massively from a data perspective in terms of how Union want to play.

‘Sometimes players don’t understand that there’s kind of nowhere to hide these days. Perform well and do your job to the best of your ability because you never know who is watching.

‘Those performances will be put into data profiles and, as long as you carry on doing well, if people are looking for a certain type of player then you may have that opportunity.’

Burgess’ pre-contract agreement with Union which kicked into action on July 1 – one day after the scheduled expiry of his Pompey deal

However, complications arose when the coronavirus crisis forced the English season to be extended.

That meant a first-leg League One play-off semi-final against Oxford on July 3.

It threw up the curious scenario of Burgess requiring permission from his new club to sign a new short-term Fratton Park deal to fulfil their play-off commitments.

Korklin added: ‘I wouldn’t say it was difficult to get permission, I would say it was complicated.

‘Logistically, no-one has ever faced a pandemic that stopped a season from starting or finishing.

‘In football there are a hell of a lot of unknowns, but the one known is that playing contracts run from July 1 until June 30.

‘You could sign for a new club on July 1 and 99.99 times out of 100 it is a given that would be fine. However, the pandemic stopped football in its tracks.

‘Union massively understood the situation. They just had doubts because of having previous players who had appeared in international tournaments and become injured, players they then had to rehab.

‘All the risk was on them in terms of allowing Christian to play for Pompey.

‘However, the reasons behind him wanting to feature in the play-offs were precisely why they were signing him.

‘They felt if they didn’t allow him to finish the season off at Pompey then they’d be going against the reasons why they were attracted to him in the first place.

‘They made the judgement call to say “We're aware of the risks, however, we’ll allow the variation to his contract to happen.

‘Pompey were superb, with Mark Catlin, Tony Brown and Anabel Roman very helpful, while Union’s sporting director, Chris O’Loughlin was incredibly supportive. Everyone worked together.’

Within 72 hours of Pompey’s play-off elimination, Burgess was heading to Folkestone to catch the Eurotunnel to Calais on his journey to his fresh footballing adventure.

The following day he was booked in for a double training session, before that Saturday featuring for 45 minutes against Crossing Schaerbeek in Union’s first pre-season friendly.

As for the Blues, the hunt is on to replace The News/Sports Mail’s Player of the Season, with Jack Whatmough and Paul Downing presently the senior centre-halves on their books.

Brian Howard added: ‘Christian is enjoying his life in Belgium. He has thrown himself straight back into it to get over the disappointment of the play-offs.

‘We had to make a decision to take the contract early because of everything going on. Taking away the sentiment of his performances and his relationship with Pompey, it was the most sensible thing to do.

‘He signed a pre-contract agreement and, given what has happened since, there is no way he would have been on the same deal at Pompey.

‘I advise my players to work. If there’s a contract to be signed, get it done because there are going to be so many left by the wayside.

‘I’m taking so many calls a day from players and clubs saying “Where are we? What’s going on?”.

‘If I can get a player working and into a contract he is happy with, then I’ve done my job. I can’t be advising people to hold fire at the minute because it’s not the right advice.

‘As agents, it has been a good learning curve and you might see more and more British players begin to follow the same route abroad as Christian.

‘I’m not sure salary caps will come in overseas, while a number of young English players are now moving to Germany, with others also being looked at.

‘I definitely feel you may now see more League One and lower Championship players going abroad because the contract offers will be better.

‘Christian is absolutely gutted that he didn’t go out with another promotion with Pompey on the CV, but I think he has performed impeccably throughout.

‘He loves Pompey – and still has hopes of coming back one day.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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