[Getty Images]After Brighton beat Chelsea 3-0 at the Amex, I put my GCSE maths B grade from Oakmeeds Community College in Burgess Hill to good use.
Including transfer add-ons, Marc Cucurella cost the Blues £62m. Graham Potter and five of his staff £21m. Robert Sanchez £25m. Moises Caicedo £115m. Joao Pedro £60m.
Making a grand total of somewhere in the region of £283m paid by Chelsea to the Albion since 2022 for various members of staff.
Remarkably, the true figure is probably even higher. Those calculations do not include recruitment figures like Paul Winstanley and Sam Jewell.
Nor does it stop there. Liam Rosenior is a former Brighton full-back. Ex-Albion goalkeeper Casper Ankergren now works as a coach at Stamford Bridge.
After Facundo Buonanotte was deemed surplus to requirements this summer by Brighton as fourth choice number 10, Chelsea signed him on loan.
In 2023, they hijacked Albion's deal to buy Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall at the 11th hour when the Leicester midfielder was on route to Sussex for a medical.
BlueCo also bought Julio Enciso and Valentin Barco from Brighton for Strasbourg. What are the odds on that pair swapping France for Stamford Bridge in the not-too-distant future after impressing in Ligue 1?
The only conclusion you can possibly draw now is that Chelsea are obsessed with Albion.
Dare I say it, but this obsession and the asset stripping of anything not nailed down at the Amex means I take as much delight from humiliating them as I do Brighton beating Crystal Palace these days.
And there has been plenty of humiliation done recently. Three consecutive Premier League victories for Brighton over the Blues by an aggregate score of 9-1 alongside eliminating them from the FA Cup last season.
At some point, you might think the penny will drop for Chelsea. That it is not the people who make the Albion successful, but the systems put in place by the one bloke overseeing it all.
Todd Boehly and co. might have all that money. Brighton have Tony Bloom. Good luck buying him.