Brighton and Hove Albion’s Belgian success stories
Given that two of the most expensive signings that Brighton and Hove Albion have ever made have come from the Low Countries and turned out to be abject failures, it might be wise for Seagulls supporters to greet Leandro Trossard’s £18m arrival from Genk with cautious optimism rather than unbridled joy.
Jurgen Locadia cost the Albion £14m from PSV Eindhoven in January 2018 and has so far managed a grand total of three Premier League goals.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh meanwhile has been even more of a disaster. Nobody needs reminding of the figures that were involved in his arrival from AZ Alkmaar, but sod it here are they again anyway – £17m for a player who contributed zero goals and zero assists in any competition in 2018-19.
When you throw the likes of Elvis Manu, Danny Holla and Roland Bergkamp into the mix, it makes you wonder why the Albion bother signing players from the Netherlands.
The crucial word in that sentence is the Netherlands. Because for reasons that don’t actually make much sense, Brighton’s recruitment from just across the border in Belgium has been spot on so far.
Anthony Knockaert
Anthony Knockaert was the first player that the Albion raided Belgium for in January 2016, although it was some typically petulant behaviour from the Frenchman that actually paved the way for his £2.5m move from Standard Liege.
He had only joined the Belgian giants six months previously on a free from Leicester City. On the pitch, Knockaert was in sparkling form in that time, scoring seven times and claiming six assists in 27 games.
Off the pitch was a different matter though. Knockaert reacted furiously on Twitter to being substituted in a match against Oud-Heverlee Leuven and although he continued scoring and assisting, the writing was on the wall somewhat.
Standard’s decision to cut their losses was very much the Albion’s gain. Knockaert was of course Championship Player of the Season as Chris Hughton’s side won promotion to the Premier League in 2016-17. He’s since become one of the most popular players in the club’s history.
Maty Ryan
Maty Ryan technically arrived from Valencia for £5m in the summer of 2017, but he is to all intents and purposes a product of the Jupiler League.
The Albion number one first moved to Europe from Australia with Club Brugge where he spent two seasons, winning two Jupiler League Goalkeeper of the Season awards as well as lifting the Belgian Cup.
That saw him secure a move to Valencia in 2015 but he was in and out of the team during two seasons at the Mestalla.
In January 2017, he returned to Belgium with Genk – where he played alongside Trossard – before the Albion bought him from his Spanish parent club at the end of the season.
Capturing Ryan for such a low fee has been one of the best pieces of recruitment carried out by Paul Winstanley and his team.
Ryan has hardly put a foot wrong in his two years at the Amex so far and proved to be an upgrade on David Stockdale in every way imaginable, except for the loss of profits that Gregg’s in Lancing have suffered.
Jose Izquierdo
The closest signing to Trossard that the Albion have made from the Jupiler League is Jose Izquierdo, who cost £13m when moving from Club Brugge.
Izquierdo had spent three seasons in Belgium with Club, playing 117 times in which he scored 38 goals and claimed 19 assists.
He made a slow start to life in England, but exploded onto the scene with a stunning goal for the Albion in the 3-0 win away at West Ham United in October 2017.
Izquierdo has gone onto become a key component when fit thanks to his unpredictability and his eye for the spectacular, although sadly we haven’t seen as much of him as we might have liked thanks to a succession of injuries, the latest of which has seen him require surgery on his knee and which will rule him out for the start of the new season.
Why have players signed from Belgium been a success?
Why have players from the Jupiler League been so much more successful than their Eredivisie counterparts? Good question.
It isn’t as if the Jupiler League is significantly stronger – they’re both probably around the same standard, with the exception of Ajax’s outstanding young side which is being decimated this summer anyway.
You could argue that it is because Belgium have developed some of the finest young players in the world over the last decade.
Their national team is therefore stronger than the Dutch, but seeing as hardly any of Roberto Martinez’s Belgian squad ply their trade in the Jupiler League, that’s a bit of a moot point. Trossard in fact is one of the few who does, although he is yet to make his debut despite receiving several call ups.
There doesn’t seem to be any logical explanation for it. What we can say with certainty though is that Genk have an outstanding record of producing young players which reads like a who’s who of some of the biggest names in European football.
Kevin De Bruyne. Thibaut Courtois. Yannick Carrasco. Divock Origi. Wilfred Ndidi, Kalidou Koulibaly. Christian Benteke. They all came through the Genk academy, which puts Trossard in some pretty exalted company.
Look at that list and you might begin to get excited about Trossard’s potential. While it would be wise not to get too carried away given recent disasters in the transfer market, that coupled with Brighton’s Belgian success stories gives reasons to be confident that he won’t be another Jahanbakhsh or Locadia.
