Scouting? - Mauricio Pochettino explains why he and the Chelsea transfer chief were spotted in the crowd at Brighton last night

Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino and former Brighton transfer expert Paul Winstanley were spotted in the crowd at the Amex Stadium to watch Brighton vs Roma in the Europa League.

The Seagulls won the match 1-0 – thanks to Danny Welbeck’s excellent first half strike – but crashed out 4-1 on aggregate to the Italians.

The presence of the Chelsea manager and Winstanley, who is now director of global talent and transfers at Stamford Bridge, immediately started rumours of a scouting mission.

"No, no, it’s not my job to scout,” Pochettino responded. “No, we wanted to go because in three weeks, we play Brighton in Brighton.

“And of course it was a good opportunity to watch live football, because we don’t have time.

“We love to watch football in our life and it was a great opportunity because it’s only 45 minutes from here, from Cobham, and we decided to go at the last moment.

“I think it was good to watch a game where you are only a spectator and you enjoy the game rather than to suffer when you are on the touchline.

“But I think it was good, it was good to watch Roma, Brighton also.”

Chelsea have made quite a habit of signing Brighton talent of late. Moises Caicedo, Marc Cucurella and Robert Sanchez have all joined for huge sums, while off the pitch head coach Graham Potter, coach Bruno Slater, assistant technical director Sam Jewell, goalkeeping coach Ben Roberts, coach Billy Reid, coach Bjorn Hamberg, analyst Kyle Macaulay and Winstanley all made the switch from Brighton.

Brighton are set to play Chelsea at the Amex Stadium in the Premier League on April 20.