Five Under 23 players who might get a chance under Potter
18 minutes. That’s how much playing time in league football Chris Hughton gave to the two academy graduates who made their debut under him during his four-and-a-half-years as Brighton and Hove Albion manager.
Defender Rob Hunt played 17 of those when an injury to Bruno forced Hughton to introduce him away at Burton Albion on Saturday 17th September 2016. James Tilley was the lucky man to get the other minute when coming on away at Middlesbrough in a dead rubber for the final game of the 2014-15 season.
No player has broken through from youth team to first team regular since Solly March six years ago now. Tony Bloom’s appointments of Dan Ashworth and Graham Potter are clearly designed to improve that pretty pathetic record.
Ashworth after all was the man credited with transforming the England set up, delivering various world titles across different age groups and ultimately creating the pathway that has seen so many exciting young talents progress to Gareth Southgate’s senior squad.
Potter meanwhile is a manager who isn’t afraid to put his trust in youth. At Swansea City, he threw a whole host of the club’s promising young players into the first team with the result being that four are now full internationals and two of those – Daniel James and Oliver McBurnie – are being linked with big money moves to the Premier League.
There is clearly plenty of ability in Simon Rusk’s development squad. Only Everton and Arsenal finished above the Albion in Premier League 2 this season, meaning that we technically have the third best Under 23 side in the entire country.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has seen the money invested in both the training facilities for developing young players and the sums spent on snapping up talent from across Europe.
Still, it takes a brave manager to trust in youth in the cut throat world of the Premier League. Is Potter that man? His track record suggests so. And if that is the case, then who could we expect to see make the jump from Under 23s to first team squad?
Here are five players who might get a chance under Potter.
Aaron Connolly
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past year, then you’ll have heard of Aaron Connolly. He was named as PL2 Player of the Season for 2018-19 and finished as the competition’s top scorer with 11 goals despite missing half the season through a combination of injury and a loan spell with Luton Town. He notched a further six goals in the Premier League International Cup and the Checkatradeeeeeee Checkatrade.com Trophy to finish the season with a total haul of an impressive 17 from 20 appearances.
That sort of form hasn’t gone unnoticed. Manchester City, Manchester United and Hoffenheim were all said to be interested in securing his services before he signed a new three-and-a-half-year deal with the Albion in January. Hughton took Connolly as part of the travelling party for the first team’s away game with Cardiff City in November, but he is yet to make the bench for a league fixture with his two senior appearances so far both coming as a substitute in the League Cup against Barnet in 2017-18 and Southampton last season.
Given how little we’ve seen from Jurgen Locadia since his £14m arrival from PSV Eindhoven in January 2018, there is a school of thought that Connolly can’t be any worse than the Dutchman, so why not give him a chance? Whether he gets that opportunity under Potter will hinge hugely on what we do in the transfer market this summer.
It’s no secret that the Albion have been looking for a striker to ease the burden on Glenn Murray for the past two years. If the club can finally find and secure a deal for an alternative to the veteran, then Connolly may find himself spending the year out on loan. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing; he is only 19 after all and managed just two substitute appearances during his time at Luton due to injury.
But if Ashworth, Potter and Paul Winstanley fail to bolster their attacking options, then the new Albion boss might find himself turning to the Under 23’s talisman.
Viktor Gyokeres
Swedish forward Viktor Gyokeres is the Under 23 player who Hughton gave more game time to than any other, using him four times in the Albion’s run to the FA Cup Semi Finals as well as the customary League Cup appearances that were handed out to development squad members. Hughton also named him on the bench in the Premier League on a handful of occasions.
Gyokeres scored eight times in 24 outings for the Under 23s in 2018-19 and he achieved the impressive feat of making his international debut for Sweden before he’s played a competitive league game, although whether his two appearances count is a matter for debate given that they both came in matches not officially recognised by FIFA.
His first game for his country was a 1-0 defeat to Finland on January 8th this year and his second saw him score his first goal in the famous yellow shirt, notching in a 2-2 draw against Iceland. Both matches were played in Qatar as the Nordic FA’s look to build links ahead of the 2022 World Cup.
Gyokeres arrived in Sussex from Swedish second tier side IF Brommapojkarna in January 2018 for a fee believed to be around a cool £1 million. In a rather quaint story, his girlfriend Amanda Nildén moved to England with him, had a trial with the Albion’s women’s side and ended up being signed as well. She happens to be extremely fit, as is Viktor actually.
His strongest positions remains through the middle but he can also play down either flank, which again leads to comparisons with Locadia and even Alireza Jahanbakhsh. Just like with Connolly, you can justifiably ask the question of can he be any worse than those two expensive purchases? If Potter decides the answer is no, then 2019-20 could be a breakthrough year for the Swede.
Max Sanders
Max Sanders is one of the younger players in the Under 23s squad at just 20 years of age, but such is the esteem in which he is held by Rusk and his assistant Liam Rosenior that Sanders has regularly captained the side, including in the play off final at the end of the 2017-18 season in which the Albion won promotion to the top flight of Premier League 2.
He can play as either a deep lying or a more traditional central midfielder and will already be familiar to Ashworth as a regular in England’s Under 19s squad, including representing the Three Lions at the European Championships in Finland last summer.
Sanders was named on the bench for the FA Cup Quarter Final against Manchester United in March 2018 and was among the substitutes when Liverpool won 1-0 at the Amex in January. He is still waiting for his Albion debut in any competition. Whether that comes under Potter remains to be seen, but he is clearly highly regarded.
Leo Ostigard
Leo Ostigard didn’t get off to the best of starts in England. The Norwegian centre back picked up an injury in his first training session after moving from Molde which ruled him out for six weeks. He overcame that setback relatively quickly and was named among the substitutes for the FA Cup fifth round victory over Frank Lampard’s Derby County.
The 19-year-old has captained Norway at Under 20 level and is capped all the way up to Under 21s. The Albion paid a relatively big fee to bring him in and he was placed on a three year deal, which marks him out as somebody that the club have high hopes for.
Ostigard may well appeal to Potter as he would appear to fit into the new Albion manager’s desire for playing football. A lot of talk has centred on whether Shane Duffy can play in a side which involves passing out from the back and if not, will Potter look to dip into the transfer market to replace him? He might not need to if he is suitably impressed with Ostigard once he gets a look at him.
Anders Dreyer
Now, you should always take the talents of a player who has impressed in Scotland with a pinch of salt. Remember Steve Thompson? Or Graeme Smith? Or Fran Sandaza? All individuals who came with glowing references from those north of the border but who turned out to be Sunday League standard players in England.
Brighton sent Under 23 winger Anders Dreyer on loan to SPL side St Mirren for the second half of the 2018-19 season and he picked up some pretty decent reviews before injury curtailed his spell at the imaginatively named St Mirren Park. He scored once and claimed two assists from eight games in a struggling side who finished second bottom.
The Denmark Under 21 international weighed in with four goals and three assists in 14 Premier League 2 games before that spell in Scotland having previously scored 23 goals in 49 senior appearances for Esbjerg in his homeland. That form convinced the Albion to part with nearly £2m for his services and should Potter deploy the 4-2-3-1 formation he sometimes used at Swansea, then Dreyer could emerge as a potential surprise pick in one of the wide positions.
