Alexis Mac Allister joins Liverpool for £55 million

Alexis Mac Allister has completed his move from Brighton to Liverpool, joining the Reds for a fee said to be worth around £55 million if all bonuses are met.

Albion fans might have been expecting the Seagulls to receive more for one of the stars of their 2022-23 season and World Cup winner.

Mac Allister though had a clause in his contract which enabled his release, explaining the low amount. Despite walking like a release clause, looking like a release clause and quacking like a release clause, it is important to note that Liverpool actually triggered a release mechanism.

Presumably, this is due to them proudly telling the world for the past year that Brighton “don’t do” release clauses in contracts. Just mechanisms.

The clau… sorry, mechanism, was included in the new deal Mac Allister signed with the Albion in October. Whilst some Seagulls supporters have questioned the wisdom of setting what now appears to be a low figure for a player of Mac Allister’s ability, it is worth remembering the context that contract was signed under.

Mac Allister agreed a deal running until 2023 upon his arrival from Argentinos Juniors. Presuming Brighton had the option of an extra year through to 2024 as seems common practice these days, that would have left him entering the final 12 months this summer.

It better suited the Albion’s interests to insert a release clause mechanism even for £35 million rising to £55 million to guarantee that income, if the alternative option was Mac Allister refusing to sign and departing for a cut-price figure of £25 million, ala Leandro Trossard and Yves Bissouma.

Whatever the ins and outs, Liverpool appear to have landed themselves with something of a bargain. Brighton paid £7 million for Mac Allister in January 2019 and he arrived a year later after loan spells back with Argentinos Juniors and Boca Juniors convinced the authorities to grant a UK work permit.

With Boca having forked out £2 million to borrow Mac Allister for a year and Brighton neglecting to put a recall clause (or should that be mechanism?) in the arrangement, that left the Albion in the strange position of having to pay a fee for their own player to Boca.

Since that farcical situation was resolved and Mac Allister was legally allowed to enter England, he has gone from a promising number 10 to one of the most complete midfielders in the Premier League, capable of fulfilling any role in the middle of the park.

Like most of the young players Brighton sign from foreign lands, Mac Allister was eased slowly into English football. His debut came in a 0-0 draw at Wolves in March 2020, just a couple of weeks before the 2019-20 campaign came to a three month pause because of Covid-19.

Mac Allister chose a good moment to score his first Premier League goal, popping up with a last minute equaliser in a 1-1 draw behind closed doors at Crystal Palace in October 2020. He had previously notched in the Camila Cabello Cup past both Portsmouth and Preston North End.

It was not until January 2022, two years after his arrival at Brighton that he became a first team regular, however. Two goals and a match winning performance as Brighton won 3-2 at Everton meant Graham Potter stopped moving Mac Allister in and out of his starting XI and installed him as one of the first names on the team sheet.

Mac Allister soon worked his way into the Argentina national side, helping La Albiceleste win the 2022 Finalissima against Italy at Wembley.

At the World Cup in Qatar, Mac Allister sat out the opening game as his country suffered a shock defeat to Saudi Arabia.

He came into the team for the second group match, a 2-0 win over Mexico, and scored as Argentina beat Poland by the same scoreline to progress to the knockout stages.

From there, the rest as they say, is history. Argentina reached the final, played out a thrilling 3-3 draw with France before defeating the holders on penalties. Mac Allister became the first ever Brighton player to win a World Cup in the process.

Aside from the small matter of his time spent in Qatar, Alexis Mac Allister enjoyed an excellent 2022-23 season on the domestic front for Brighton to earn his move to Liverpool.

He plundered 12 goals from midfield in all competitions to end the campaign as the Seagulls’ top scorer. A significant number of those came from the penalty spot, including last minute conversions under immense pressure to draw 3-3 at home to Brentford and beat Manchester United 1-0 at the Amex.

When not netting from 12 yards, Mac Allister does have an eye for the spectacular. His 25 yarder against Leicester City rivals that David Lopez effort in the St Patrick’s Day Massacre for best free kick seen at the Amex.

Mac Allister was an Enock Mwepu fingernail from joining a exclusive club of Brighton players to score top flight hat-tricks that afternoon.

A wonder volley crashed in from miles outside the box was controversially disallowed when VAR found Mwepu – who played no part in the goal at all – was a millimetre offside.

He marked his return from the World Cup with a very different but nonetheless impressive finish, scoring one of his two goals against Middlesbrough in the FA Cup with a cheeky backheel.

Just three weeks after playing in front of 88,966 at the Lusail Stadium and a global television audience of 1.5 billion, Mac Allister was delivering in the slightly less glamorous surroundings of the Riverside.

That sums Mac Allister up nicely. A humble professional who never gives less than 100 percent and remained totally focussed on Brighton, even through a potential post-World Cup hangover and all the recent transfer speculation surrounding him.

The way Alexis Mac Allister has conducted himself and the very obvious love and respect he has for Brighton means he departs for Liverpool with every Albion fan wishing him all the best.

Those tears he shed after his final appearance for the Seagulls on the last day of the campaign at Aston Villa showed the connection Mac Allister has forged with Brighton.

He will be missed but at the same time, he deserves to double his wages and play for one of the biggest clubs in the world who should be consistently challenging for Premier League and Champions League titles.

It is doubtful Mac Allister will forget the part Brighton played in getting him there and nobody who was fortunate enough to watch him across his 112 Albion appearances