5 reasons why Brighton signing Adam Lallana is a brilliant piece of business
Brighton bringing in Adam Lallana from Liverpool is unlike any other transfer that the Albion have made since becoming a Premier League club.
Younger players often from abroad on cheaper terms has been the favoured market in which Tony Bloom has spent his cash. The Netherlands and Belgium have been raided with frequency with the Seagulls’ top earners picking up somewhere in the region of £50,000 per week.
Which is perhaps why some Albion fans are so sceptical of the newest face through the door at the Amex. Adam Lallana is 32 years old, he has hardly completed a 90 minute match in three seasons and although he is said to be taking a significant cut on his £100,000 a week wages at Liverpool, he will still be Brighton’s biggest earner.
It all has shades of Vicente to it. A brilliant player who will be the best technical footballer in the squad – but how much football will the Albion actually get out of him over the next three years?
The answer is that it doesn’t really matter. Lallana’s arrival at the Amex is about much more than minutes on the pitch or Potterball. Here are five reasons why Brighton signing Adam Lallana from Liverpool is an excellent piece of business.
Signing Lallana makes sense financially
The problem that a lot of Brighton fans seem to have with bringing in Adam Lallana from Liverpool is the finances of the deal.
Yet in the madder-than-David-Icke world of football finance, you could argue that the Albion are actually getting something of a bargain.
We know that Lallana will be dropping from £100,000 a week. Say that drop is only £10,000 a week and Brighton are willing to pay him £90,000 over a three year period.
Lallana will be costing Brighton £14,040,000 during his time at the club, plus whatever signing on fee he has been given.
Compare that to Alireza Jahanbakhsh. The Iranian international was signed for £17,000,000 in the summer of 2018 and earns around £50,000 a week on a five year deal. By the time his contract is up, Jahanbakhsh will have cost £30,000,000 plus a signing on fee.
Obviously, the two situations aren’t strictly comparable. Brighton might claw some of that investment in Jahanbakhsh back if they can find a suitor for him this summer, which would also cut how much Bloom has paid him in wages.
But the point is that Brighton have picked up an England international who has won the Premier League and the Champions League for less than half of what Jahanbakhsh would cost should he see out his five years at the Amex.
Lallana’s wages might seem big – and that £90,000 a week figure is pure speculation based on the highest amount he would likely receive – but in Premier League terms, the overall outlay for a player of that quality is quite modest.
Lallana is perfect for Potterball
Lallana’s talents do not need any introduction. Brighton fans were privy to them when he was a League One player at Southampton, especially in the penultimate home game of the 2010-11 campaign.
Gus Poyet’s He Who Must Not Be Named’s Albion had already beaten the Saints to the League One title and were now looking to become the first Seagulls side ever to reach 100 points in a season.
Brighton went into half time with things going well. They were 1-0 up through an Ashley Barnes goal and looking relatively comfortable against Nigel Adkins’ visitors.
That was until Adkins threw on Lallana for the second half. The game was completely turned on its head, not even League One’s best defensive midfielder in Liam Bridcutt could lay a glove on Lallana and Southampton ended up winning 2-1. It was a one-man show.
34 England caps and a £25 million move to Liverpool followed. Jurgen Klopp may love to deliver soundbites that he hopes will result in headlines, but his description of Lallana as a Liverpool legend reflected just how important the midfielder was in turning the Reds into a side capable of playing Klopp’s brand of football.
Potter is attempting a similar revolution on the pitch at the Amex. Who better to turn Potter’s ideas into reality on the pitch than Adam Lallana, with his repertoire of passing, his playmaking skills and his ability to gegenpress?
A fit and firing Lallana is better than any of Brighton’s current options as an advanced midfielder. The Albion just need to get him fit and firing.
Lallana adds leadership to a squad lacking Premier League experience
Brighton have been shorn of a lot of experience in recent seasons. Think back to the squad that first entered the Premier League under Chris Hughton for the 2017-18 season and you had Bruno, Steve Sidwell and Liam Rosenior, all of whom have since retired.
Glenn Murray and Shane Duffy seem likely to depart this summer. Andy Naylor has said with increasing frequency over the past few weeks that Dale Stephens’ future isn’t secure and if Lewis Dunk is going to make a move to a bigger team to enhance his international chances, it has to surely happen this summer given he will turn 29 in November.
All of which could leave Brighton looking seriously short in leadership for 2020-21. Potter has blooded many young players aged 24 or under; signings like Neal Maupay, Adam Webster and Leandro Trossard and academy products like Steve Alzate and Aaron Connolly. Ben White and Jayson Molumby could be added to that list next season.
Alan Hansen saying you win nothing with kids is routinely mocked given he was talking about Manchester United’s Class of 92 and they ended the year as Premier League champions, but Hansen is right – you need experience and leadership to succeed.
There have been games in the 2019-20 season when Brighton have thrown away points through naivety. Burnley at home and Aston Villa away saw the Albion concede two woeful goals in injury time because they didn’t do the basics. With Bruno, Sidwell or Rosenior on the pitch, would those concedes have happened?
When Klopp played an inexperienced youth team against Everton in the FA Cup back in January, Lallana was their leader. He had the captain’s armband and he guided the Red’s young stars to a famous 1-0 win against what was a near-full strength Toffees side. Klopp called Lallana’s performance that evening “unbelievable”.
“These young players, when they talk about their most important things in the future, what happened in their first two years, they will mention Adam Lallana, 100 per cent,” the Liverpool manager added.
Brighton could have a young, talented and exciting team for 2020-21. Lallana adds leadership and experience to it, which alone makes him worth the money.
What Lallana brings to the part off-the-pitch
Brighton have had to fight off competition from several other Premier League clubs to sign Adam Lallana from Liverpool. Part of the reason that the Albion have succeeded is because of the plans that Dan Ashworth has sold Lallana for his post-football career.
The Albion have a good track record of offering their current and former players coaching roles at the end of the careers. Rosenior, Sidwell and Andrew Crofts have all been handed their first coaching jobs with Brighton and it seems likely that Lallana will follow suit.
He is the sort of intelligent player who could make an excellent manager in the future. Offering an individual like Lallana a coaching role once his playing days come to an end is the sort of forward planning that breeds success, given everything he can pass onto Brighton’s academy players.
The Albion’s current players will also benefit from working with Lallana on the training pitch. Klopp has described Lallana as “one of the most influential players on the training quality I have ever had in my life.”
When the German first took over at Anfield and began running brutal training sessions to build his new team’s fitness and verse them in the demands of gegenpressing, a lot of players couldn’t handle it – especially English players. The exceptions? James Milner and Lallana.
Lallana might be involved in only half of Brighton’s games over the course of his three years at the Amex. What he brings every day to the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre which goes unseen by supporters could be priceless.
Lallana is a statement signing that Brighton need
If Brighton are to achieve Bloom’s aim of becoming an established top 10 side in the Premier League, then they need to attract a higher quality of player.
A signing like Lallana can help to bring in better players going forward. A young striker joining Brighton to link up with Adam Lallana is a much more attractive option than a young striker joining Brighton to link up with Dale Stephens.
Lallana’s arrival is a statement that the Albion is a place for Champions League winners, Premier League winners and England internationals to come and play their football.
Which is why Brighton signing Adam Lallana from Liverpool can only be a good thing.
