£6m and not a single first team appearance – is the Albion under 23 squad delivering?
We’re over half way through the January transfer window and the only signing Brighton and Hove Albion have made so far is defender Warren O’Hora.
The Republic of Ireland Under 19 international arrived for an undisclosed fee from Irish side Bohemians and chances are we won’t be seeing him at the Amex anytime soon as he is yet another signing for the development squad.
Since 2015, the Albion have spent approaching £6,000,0000 on bringing in young talent from across Europe to play in the under 23 side. A grand total of zero of those have made the breakthrough to the first team squad so far. This season, Simon Rusk’s expensively assembled side needed extra time to see of Southern Combination League strugglers East Preston in the Sussex Senior Cup.
A few of these players arrived with great fanfare. We were even contacted by Nando’s on the signing of a certain forward from Real Madrid, saying that the player would be a regular at their latest Brighton restaurant and could we publicise it in exchange for free chicken. The restaurant in question? Goldstone Retail Park. They’d done their research, clearly.
The man in question was Jack Harper who all Albion fans will remember even if he never even made a first team squad. But how many of these do you actually recall? And can any of the ones at the club become the first player to break through to the first team since Solly March arrived on the scene five years ago?
Viktor Gyokeres – £500,000
O’Hora isn’t the only January arrival as he will be joined in the under 23s by striker Viktor Gyokeres. The deal to sign Gyokeres was completed in the last transfer window for a cool £500,000 but he ony links up with Simon Rusk’s squad now. The forward was the joint top scorer at the European Under 19s Championships last summer, hitting three goals in three games for Sweden. He joins from Brommapojkarna for whom he scored 20 goals in 56 appearances in Sweden’s top flight.
Ales Mateju – £2,500,000
By far and away the biggest purchase made for the development squad is full back Ales Mateju. At an undisclosed fee of around £2.5m from Viktoria Plzen, he is the joint sixth most expensive signing in Brighton history alongside Sam Baldock, costing more than first team defenders Bruno, Uwe Hunemeier and Connor Goldson. He cost over a million quid more than his Czech compatriot Jiri Skalak, so fingers crossed he offers more than Skalak has for the last year on the pitch at least, as a brief social media search suggests he does not have a girlfriend anywhere near as fit as Skalak’s.
Soufyan Ahannach – £550,000
Dutch left winger Ahannach arrived for just over half a million pounds in the summer from Almere City of the Netherlands’ second tier. Since making his debut at 17, he racked up 85 games and 28 goals for the Sheepheads, which must be in the top five nicknames in European Football. That convinced the Albion to splash out on the 22-year-old, whose only contribution so far has been to bring an even better beard than Bruno’s to the party.
Mathias Normann – £350,000
Another summer signing, the midfielder was purchased for an undisclosed fee believed to be in the region of £350,000 from Norwegian second tier club FC Bodo/Glimt. According to Wikipedia, Bodo/Glimt supporters are known for carrying huge yellow toothbrushes to games. Normann won’t be being greeted with oversized blue and white dental accessories anytime soon – he was immediately loaned by Brighton/Hove/Albion back to Norway, helping Molde to a second placed finish in the 2017 season under the management of Ole Gunnar Solksjaer.
Tyler Hornby-Forbes – £75,000
Fleetwood’s second choice right back decided he should go his own way when moving to Brighton in 2016. He played 33 times for Fleetwood between 2014 and 2016 and had six games on loan at Accrington Stanley from the Albion last season. There was a real buzz over his arrival owing to the fact that he sounds like a model railway.
Henrik Bjordal – £300,000
We like players from Norway. 18 months before Normann’s arrival, wide man Henrik Bjordal was purchased for £300k from Aalesunds FK, wearers of a quite amazing orange and blue striped kit. The 20-year-old actually managed to make the first team squad once, traveling to Birmingham for that famous game last season when Glenn Murray’s late, late winner sparked scenes of joy in the away end and for one member of the WeAreBrighton.com team, a pair of split trousers. He spent part of 2017 on loan with IFK Gothenburg, making 14 appearances without scoring for the 18 time Swedish champions as they endured a difficult season in which they came 10th in the Allsvenskan.
Ben Hall – £220,000
The Northern Irish defender signed from Motherwell in the summer of 2016 for an undisclosed fee of just over £200k. He was given his debut at Fir Park by former Albion boss Mark McGhee, who certainly knows defensive talent having been the man who turned Dan Harding and Adam Hinshelwood into England under 21s, made Joel Lynch and Adam Virgo first team regulars and, er, signed Georges Santos. Hall shares his name with one of Australia’s most famous bushrangers.
Vahid Hambo – £500,000
Striker Hambo earned the nickname “The Finnish Zlatan” in his home country for his similar background, looks, long hair, height and goal scoring ability. He bought all of those things to the Amex when he signed in the summer of 2015 bar the most Important one, the goals. Left the club after two seasons to return to Finland with SJK, where he currently sports the flair squad number of 99.
Jack Harper – so undisclosed we can’t even find a rough estimate
Ah, the YouTube generation. The internet nearly exploded when the Albion signed the Great Hope of Scottish Football (Lord knows, they need one) Jack Harper from Real Madrid for a fee that was so undisclosed we can’t even find a rough estimate. But what a coup! He’s trained with Cristiano Ronaldo! He’s the next Robin van Persie! Look at him on YouTube! The reality of course was rather different. Harper’s decision to swap the Santiago Bernabeu from the Amex was largely based around Real scrapping their C team of which he was a member. He lasted just 18 months at the Albion, scoring four times in 25 games for the under 23s before returning to Spain with Malaga a year ago.
Other players to have been purchased from other clubs for the under 23 squad are:
Billy Collings. Goalkeeper signed from Reading
Josh Kerr. Defender signed from Celtic
Jordan Davies. Defender signed from Wrexham
Steven Alzate. Striker from Leyton Orient
Jonah Ayunga. Striker from Dorchester Town
