Brighton chief reveals plans for 'quite-complicated' pre-season tour this summer

Brighton and Hove Albion chief executive and deputy chairman Paul Barber is keen for another pre-season adventure this summer.

Albion tuned-up for this campaign with a Premier League Summer Series on the east coast of America with friendlies against Chelsea, Newcastle and Brentford.

Roberto De Zerbi’s team played in front of packed stadiums at the Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta and also the Red Bull Arena, Harrison, New Jersey. It was ultimately a successful tour and helped Albion increase their profile on a wider stage and provided great experience for younger players such as Jack Hinshelwood.

This summer Barber is keen to go in a different direction and head for the Far East and utilise the pulling power of star player and Japan international Kaoru Mitoma.

“This summer we are hoping to go to the far East,” said Barber speaking to the Albion podcast. “It's quite complicated as there's various things going on over there with others clubs. “We are hoping to go there and while we have Kaoru [Mitoma] it would be fantastic to go to Japan.

"And then some point in the future it would be fantastic to go out to the US. We have two very big sponsors with headquarters in the United States, so it always good to go back for American Express and Nike in particular.

"There is more we can do and we are seeing more of our merchandise going to overseas markets. We are seeing more people from all over the world hitting ourt websites and social media.”