Could Brighton go Greek to find some bargains in the transfer market?
This summer transfer window is expected to be particularly important for Brighton. Graham Potter is already looking for a replacement for Yves Bissouma and he might need to find another Marc Cucurella in case Manchester City get their way to sign him to the Etihad Stadium.
No doubt Potter and his scouts will have some solutions in mind from every corner of the globe. So, who could the Seagulls seek from Greece to play at the Amex in 2022-23?
Greece has talent and is used to producing footballers who eventually end up playing abroad. Maybe not as many Greek exports play in the big European leagues as they once did, but there are still players from our country who can make the step up to a big club like Brighton.
The names of the past include Kostas Kastouranis at Benfica. George Karagounis was also with Benfica and will be familiar to English football fans for his spell with Fulham. Giourkas Seitaridis played for Porto and Angelos Charisteas had a good career in the Netherlands and Germany.
Let us not just live in the past. Greek names of the present include young Costas Tsimikas, now the most famous of our footballers abroad after scoring the penalty which won Liverpool their first FA Cup in 16 years.
Dimitris Giannoulis has become regular at Norwich City. The Carrow Road club must like us Greeks as they invested more than £10 million in Christos Tzolis from PAOK.
Konstantinos Mavropanos has done well for Stuttgart. Pantelis Chatzidiakos is an AZ Alkmaar regular alongside Greek teamate Vangelis Pavlidis, who scored 18 Eredivisie goals for AZ in 2021-22 and was nominated for last year’s Puskas Award.
A special mention must be made to Giorgos Giakoumakis, the top scorer in the SPL with Celtic. The goals of Giakoumakis helped Celtic to the Scottish title with him proving a good successor to striker Odsonne Édouard who was once in Brighton’s sights. Could the Seagulls look again at Celtic Park for a new striker and decide to buy Giakoumakis?
All of these players are already making their name outside of Greece. In Greece, the Super League has many players with great skills wanting to seek their fortune elsewhere.
Two of these may be of interest to Brighton to fill the vacancy left by Yves Bissouma and to strengthen Potter’s goalkeeping hand.
Sotiris Alexandropoulos is a 20-year-old defensive midfielder from Panathinaikos who is being talked about as the future of Greek football.
His style is similar to Bissouma. He reads the play, wins tackles and always finds a teammate with a pass. He has played nearly 75 games already for Panathinaikos and made four assists last season.
Alexandropoulos has been a regular in the Greek national team for over a year and been watched by AC Milan. He would be available for a relatively low fee as players from Greece do not fetch big money. If not Brighton, it seems certain Alexandropoulos will join one of Europe’s big teams soon.
If Potter desires better competition for Robert Sanchez, then experienced goalkeeper Alexandros Paschalakis has left PAOK and is available for free.
Paschalakis is of the same height as Sanchez. He has incredible reflexes, intervenes when high balls come into his area and is an intelligent player with a high footballing IQ which means he rarely makes mistakes.
Although not as good as Sanchez, he would increase competition under the beams and would do well standing in if the Brighton number one were to be injured.
Finally, how about a Greek international to come to the Amex as a full back if Cucurella does move to Manchester City?
George Baldock of Sheffield United recently started playing for Greece through his grandmother. Baldock knows English football and did well in the Premier League for the Blades, plus his brother Sam would surely have only good words to convince George to join Brighton!
Looking at Greece can provide Brighton with different thinking to other Premier League clubs. Our country has hidden talent that could be a goldmine for the Seagulls in building on a brilliant 2021-22 season.
Brighton are only going up and it would be great if they went Greek along the way.
Dimitris Manakos @dimitris_manakos / England365.gr
