Brighton complete Adam Webster deal for a club record £18m
It’s official. Brighton have broken their transfer record to sign Bristol City defender Adam Webster for an initial £18m.
That fee eclipses the £17m paid for Alireza Jahanbakhsh last summer. With various add-ons included, it could rise to as much as £22m should the Albion and Webster achieve a number of targets during his time at the Amex.
Many eyebrows will be raised at forking out so much on a central defender from the Championship, especially with Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy already on the books.
Dunk of course could still yet leave – and we stand by the fact he’d be mad not to want to go to Leicester City if they swoop in with an offer – but the noises from the club suggest that the Albion captain won’t be going anywhere.
Webster’s signing therefore points to the fact that Potter is leaning towards playing with a three man defence. After all, he’d be hard pressed to find a reason to drop either Dunk or Duffy. And we aren’t going to be spending north of £20m on a bloke to sit on the bench < insert joke about having done that with Jahanbakhsh here >.
With that formation in mind, Webster seems like the perfect fit. Watch some of his performances for Bristol City last season and you’ll see a centre back who reads the game well and is more than comfortable bringing the ball out from defence.
We saw Potter encouraging Dan Burn in particular to do that at every opportunity in the 4-0 friendly win over Birmingham City.
A genuine, ball playing centre half who loves to step out of the back line with possession is a tantalising prospect in Potter’s brave new era.
He’s versatile too. Over the past few seasons, has been used on the left side of a back three, as a sweeper and even as a defensive midfielder. That midfield role highlights just how comfortable he is on the ball.
Webster began his career with Portsmouth, making 81 appearances for the Albion’s south coast neighbours between 2012 and 2016.
In that time, he played across the Championship, League One and League Two for Pompey as well as enjoying a 24 game loan spell with Aldershot during the 2013-14 season.
His form in the Pompey side which missed out on promotion to Plymouth Argyle in the League Two play off semi finals at the end of the 2015-16 season was enough to convince Ipswich Town to pay £750,000 for his services that summer.
Webster played 53 times over two seasons at Portman Road before Bristol City parted with £3.5m for him last year. That has turned out to be an astonishingly good bit of business from Lee Johnson as 12 months later, they are making a potential £18.5m profit on him.
The defender played 47 times across all competitions for City as they fell just sort in their bid for a top six finish in the Championship. He was named the Robins’ Player of the Season as a result of his efforts.
Webster was also named in the WhoScored.com Championship Team of the Season having achieved an average score of 7.3 for his appearances across the 2018-19 campaign – the highest of any defender in the division.
Clearly, he is an individual of considerable talent. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised though looking at his family. Dad Kevin is a successful car mechanic, mum Sally has run for local elected office, sister Rosie became a reality television star and his other sister Sophie was the first lesbian to ever live in Weatherfield.
