'Huge interest' - Brighton chief provides update in search for Graham Potter replacement

Albion are currently searching for a new manager after Potter was named Chelsea boss last Thursday.

Barber, who has been on the club’s board since 2012, said: “There has certainly been a huge amount of interest and I’m not surprised.

“Partly because over the last three years, probably since we joined the Premier League actually, the club’s profile has changed significantly.

“I think it’s the style of football we have been playing has meant we have won a lot of admirers over the last few years.

“As a consequence of that we have attracted a lot of interest already that perhaps we wouldn’t have done maybe three years ago, let alone five or ten.

“That is credit to Graham but also credit to the way the club has developed over the last decade and the chairman’s influence and vision for the club that has put us in this position now where we will have a lot of choice.”

HAVE YOU READ THIS?

Who is Kjetil Knutsen? Front runner to replace Graham Potter at Brighton

'Switch my phone off' – Brighton chief reveals very first conversation with Todd Boehly on Graham Potter to Chelsea move

Brighton chief Paul Barber outlines time frame for appointing Graham Potter successor

Potter leaves Brighton after three years in charge of the Seagulls. The 47-year-old took the club to their highest ever top-flight finish last season (ninth) and leaves them in fourth place this season, having lost just one of their first six games.

Barber admitted the timing of Potter’s departure was ‘far from ideal’ but said the club understood this was how elite sport worked.

Barber said: “It was disappointing and the timing was far from ideal, I’m not going to try and shy away from the facts. It has happened.

"The progress of the club has been steady and sure and as we have always said there are going to be bumps in the road.

“There are going to be blips, there are going to be situations that we are going to have to overcome, whether that is on the field or off the field.

“We are very realistic about the way top level sport works. The best clubs, in my experience, should not be judged when things are going well.

“They should be judged when there is a bump in the road and they should be judged on how resilient they are to overcoming that bump.”