Brighton & Hove Albion Summer 2020 Transfer Window Round Up

To say that Brighton & Hove Albion’s summer 2020 transfer window polarised opinion would be a slight understatement.

On the one hand, you have supporters who are delighted with the Seagulls’ business in securing some of the most talented young players in Europe at a fraction of what they will cost in two to three seasons time – if they reach their potential.

If is the key word there. Which also explains why there are fans with the complete opposite view of the summer 2020 transfer window, who fear Brighton are doomed to relegation due to concentrating too much on players for the future instead of signings to improve the here and now.

The most glaring position in which Graham Potter needed reinforcements for his squad was in attack. Glenn Murray departed on a season long loan to Watford, meaning that the Albion are just a Neal Maupay and Aaron Connolly injury away from having to negotiate parts of the 2020-21 season without a recognised senior striker.

It is not an ideal position to be in, although Brighton have of course been here before. We got through last season relying almost solely on Maupay and Connolly due to Potter’s phobia of using Murray.

In 2017-18, Sam Baldock spent the first half of the campaign on the treatment table which left Murray and Tomer Hemed as Chris Hughton’s only senior centre forwards.

That backfired only once, when Hemed was suspended at the same time as Murray was injured, leading to the disastrous sight of Izzy Brown playing as a false nine at Arsenal away.

Murray was one of a number of senior players who had found their game time limited under Potter to depart this summer whilst only two players who are oven-ready for Premier League football have come in.

This will no doubt please Tony Bloom as he has trimmed both the wage bill and brought in cash through transfer and loan fees. That money has been reinvested in some of the continent’s best young players.

Placing so much faith in these youthful talents is a huge risk, however – especially as a lot of the Albion’s relegation rivals appear to have strengthened, pushing the quality of the teams towards the bottom of the table up.

Should the gamble on the likes of Jakub Moder, Michal Karbownik, Lars Dendoncker, Reda Khadra and Jan Paul van Hecke pay off, then Brighton could have one of the most exciting teams in England in a few years time.

Or they could have slipped into the Championship by focussing too much on the future. Only time will tell which way it goes.

 

Brighton and Hove Albion players in, summer 2020:

 

Adam Lallana – Liverpool, free transfer
When people discuss Brighton & Hove Albion signing Adam Lallana, they usually trot out the line, “Great signing if Brighton can get him fit.”

Not for us, Clive. Lallana is a great signing even if Brighton don’t get him fit. He adds so much more to the Albion than just his contribution in 90 minutes every Saturday, Friday, Sunday or whatever other time Sky Sports decree we should play.

As a Premier League and Champions League winner, Lallana’s experience is invaluable to such a young squad. He brings leadership having captained Southampton whilst Jurgen Klopp described him as one of the best players he has ever worked with on the training ground. Brighton’s players will now be exposed to that level of professionalism every day.

All of this is why Lallana was handed a three-year contract. Brighton clearly see his potential as a coach and want to help him take the first steps in the next chapter of his career. The Albion could well have signed a future manager as well as a current number 10.

It is a shrewd bit of business – and based on what we have seen so far, Lallana can still play a big part on the pitch. His tidiness in possession and his footballing brain make him perfect for Potterball and he has already delivered some encouraging performances in the game time he has been given.

 

Joel Veltman – Ajax, £900,000
There were two major questions surrounding Joel Veltman’s signing. Firstly, why on Earth did he have a £900,000 release clause in his Ajax contract? And secondly, how come Brighton were the only side who seemed to know to trigger it?

Signing a Dutch international and a Champions League semi finalist for less than a million pounds represents an excellent bit of business for the Albion – especially when you consider that Veltman had been linked with several big money moves to Italy in the year preceding his arrival at the Amex.

He seems unlikely to usurp Tariq Lamptey at right back anytime soon, so centre half is where Veltman will probably find himself making a mark. Given the way the Albion defended in their 4-2 defeat at Everton, a first team opportunity cannot be far away.

 

Andi Zeqiri – Laussane-Sport, £3.5 million
For all the criticism of a lack of attacking reinforcements, Brighton did actually bring a striker to the Amex in 21-year-old Kosovan centre forward Andi Zeqiri who arrived for £3.5 million from Laussane-Sport.

Zeqiri is capable of playing through the middle or on the left of a front three. At 6’1, his height marks him out as a long-term heir to Glenn Murray. He possesses the target man stature that the Albion have been crying out for.

Initially, it appeared as though Zeqiri would be joining up with the Under 23s. This would have been a logical move – there is a world of difference between scoring 17 times in the Swiss second division and leading the line in the Premier League against some of the world’s best defenders.

It now looks like Zeqiri will be asked to bridge that sizeable gap. When his signing was confirmed, the Albion handed him the number 29 shirt and there was no talk of him being an arrival for the development squad. Zeqiri is seemingly here to provide competition for Maupay and Connolly.

Nobody other than Potter and Dan Ashworth will know whether this is by design or default. Do the club rate Zeqiri so highly that he was always coming straight into the senior set up, or have they been forced to chuck him in at the deep end because there is quite literally nobody else?

Whatever the reasoning, it is probably best not to expect too much straight away. Zeqiri looks like one for the future – which is why so many Brighton fans remain unconvinced about the recruitment team’s efforts in the strikers department during the summer 2020 transfer window.

 

Jakub Moder – Lech Poznan, £9.5 million
The most intriguing summer 2020 transfer window signing that Brighton have made is Polish midfielder Jakub Moder, who at £9.5 million becomes the eighth most expensive player that the Albion have ever bought and the biggest import ever to leave the Ekstraklasa.

Moder is 21-years-old and already a full Poland international. He will be loaned back to Lech Poznan until January to play in the Europa League, an arrangement that was the apparently the deal clincher.

According to reports in Poland, Moder’s destination was either Brighton or a little German club called Bayern Munich. The European champions refused to sanction a return to Poznan, the Albion were happy to allow Moder to stay in Poland for at least six month and so Lech sold him to the Seagulls.

That Moder nearly moved to the Allianz tells you all you need to know. He is 6’3 and can play as a box-to-box midfielder, a holding midfielder, a number 10, down both flanks and even as a centre forward.

His highlight reel is a collection of blockbuster goals, outrageous skills and clever passes – although the usual disclaimer applies here about it being best to take anything on YouTube with a pinch of salt as even Jurgen Locadia can look good in a video.

Having said that, he could be the real deal. It will be fascinating to see what impact he has when he eventually arrives in England.

 

Michal Karbownik – Legia Warsaw, £5 million
Michal Karbownik had a list of suitors longer than a large intestine. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur, Napoli, Dynamo Moscow, Sevilla, PSV Eindhoven, Real Betis and Celtic were all reportedly interested in the 19-year-old, who Brighton have paid £5 million to Legia Warsaw for.

Karbownik was a regular in the Legia side who won the Ekstraklasa title last season and will remain in the Polish capital for the 2020-21 season.

As with most of Brighton’s young signings, Karbownik is versatile. He is predominantly a left back but can also play on the right and as a holding midfielder, drawing comparisons with Germany’s World Cup winning captain Phillip Lahm.

After centre forward, left wing back is the position in which the Albion have looked most in need of reinforcements. Bernardo has been out of form for the best part of a year and Dan Burn was very much a square-peg-in-round-hole at left back last season.

Solly March has begun the current campaign well, but whether he can deliver consistently is up for debate. It seems as though Potter is content to muddle through with those three options in 2020-21 before Karbownik comes to the Amex for the 2021-22 season, where he and Tariq Lamptey could make for a talented double act down the flanks.

 

The other young players to join Brighton in the 2020-21 transfer window…
Zeqiri, Moder and Karbownik are not the only young players to sign for Brighton in the summer 2020 transfer window. 19-year-old Belgian midfielder Lars Dendoncker joined from Club Brugge; 20-year-old Dutch defender Jan Paul van Hecke signed from NAC Breda and was instantly loaned back to the Netherlands with Heerenveen where he is earning rave reviews in the Eredivisie; and 19-year-old Reda Khadra arrived for an undisclosed fee from Borussia Dortmund.

All are among the best young players in Europe but none will be near the Albion first team this season. The question when it comes to Brighton’s incoming transfers then is have the club concentrated too much on building a team for 2024 at the expense of 2020?

 

Brighton and Hove Albion players out, Summer 2020:

 

Glenn Murray – Watford, loan
Glenn Murray’s departure was hardly a surprise but that did not lessen the disappointment. Murray is in the final throes of his football career and needs to be playing regularly, something that was never going to happen under Potter who decided very early into his reign that he did not have a need for the veteran.

We would politely disagree with Potter on that point. The Albion create plenty of opportunities; the problem is that we waste a huge proportion of them.

Wastefulness in front of goal is not something you could ever accuse Murray of. In 2018-19, Murray was the third most clinical striker in the Premier League, converting 24.1% of the chances he had – a figure better than Mo Salah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sergio Aguero. Only Anthony Martial and Sadio Mane were more deadly than Murray.

Murray’s finishing ability had not deserted him, as his crucial equaliser in February’s 3-3 draw at West Ham United showed. Give him a run in a side which fashions so many chances and we still think he could hit double figures.

Unfortunately, we will never find out. After 111 goals in 287 matches, Murray’s Albion career is over. It is the end of an era and all we can do now is will him on to fire Watford to promotion.

 

Shane Duffy – Celtic, loan
Loaning Shane Duffy to Celtic was a move that made sense for all parties. For Duffy, he gets the first team football he needs to remain in the Republic of Ireland picture ahead of Euro 2020 (in 2021) with the added bonus of playing for the club he supports.

Celtic get their hands on a defender who is far too good for the Scottish Pub League, paying a token loan fee and around 50 percent of his wages. And Brighton retain ownership of a defender whose only crime is that he isn’t comfortable playing in triangles on the edge of his box.

Should the Albion find themselves needing a new manager at any point in the next year – either because Potter has done so well to be poached or so badly to be fired – then his replacement may value Duffy’s heading ability and no-nonsense approach more highly. Duffy might then find himself with a future at the Amex after all.

As he would if the Albion went down and Dunk, White and Webster were all sold. By keeping Duffy on their books, Brighton would have the best defender in the Championship ready to walk back into their team after a year at Celtic Park. It’s clever business.

Not that everyone is happy. Some fans would have Duffy walk back into the team right now, hailing him as the answer to Brighton’s inability to defend set pieces.

He isn’t. What those trumpeting Duffy’s cause overlook is that in the 2017-18 season, we were even worse when it came to conceding goals from free kicks and corners.

The 2-0 defeat at West Bromwich Albion in January 2018 was the low point as the Baggies won for the first time in over 20 attempts under Alan Pardew with both goals from set pieces.

Duffy would be sixth choice centre back at the Amex this season if he stayed. It is best for everyone that he spends 2020-21 helping Celtic saunter to their annual treble before a more long-term decision can be made about his future next summer.

 

Dale Stephens – Burnley, £1 million
Up until December 2019, Dale Stephens was one of the first names on Potter’s team sheet – as he was under Chris Hughton and Oscar Garcia.

Yves Bissouma blossoming into one of the finest defensive midfielders outside the big six and the emergence of Steve Alzate means that in nine short months, Stephens had gone from automatic pick to fourth choice in the pecking order.

Once Burnley revived their long-standing interest, Brighton were right to sell. Stephens was out of contract in the summer so the £1 million fee that the Albion received was about all they could hope for. Allowing him to leave though was about much more than the money.

Stephens played over 200 times for the Albion and was an integral part of the club’s promotion to the top flight. No central midfielder in Brighton history has been a regular for such a long time at such a high standard, other than Jimmy Case.

By allowing Stephens to join Burnley, Brighton were recognising those years of service through granting him the opportunity to go and play regular Premier League at a relegation rival. It would be nice to think that a crowd will get to see Stephens at the Amex in a Burnley shirt at some point in the not-too-distant future to give him the goodbye and thanks that he deserves.

 

Anthony Knockaert – Fulham, £11 million
Anthony Knockaert had spent the 2019-20 season on loan at Fulham, but it was only in the summer 2020 transfer window that his move from Brighton was made permanent.

The Albion received £11 million for the services of the French winger, making him the most expensive sale in Albion history. Throw in the £4 million loan fee that the Cottagers paid and the deal was worth a total of £15 million – an excellent return for a player signed for £2.5 million and who did not exactly set the world alight at Fulham.

So much so that he is being linked with a departure from Craven Cottage. No prizes for guessing where – Chris Hughton is reported to want to make Knockaert his first signing as Nottingham Forest boss.

That’s a guaranteed way for Forest to secure the support of most Albion fans as our second team for foreseeable future.

 

Aaron Mooy – Shanghai, £4 million
Shanghai signing Aaron Mooy came a bit of the blue. It soon transpired that the Australian midfielder had a release clause written into his contract which allowed him to move to the Chinese Super League for £4 million and when Shanghai triggered it and offered him £60,000 a week, it was a no-brainer for Mooy to move to the land of eating bats.

He and his young family suddenly found themselves much closer to Australia, an important consideration given the amount of international football crammed into the calendar.

At 29, the move represented Mooy’s last chance for a big payday and despite being one of Brighton’s better players in 2019-20, there were questions about where he would fit into the side in 2020-21.

Lallana’s arrival looked set to reduce his game time, as did Potter’s switch from the 4-2-2-2 in which Mooy had thrived to 3-5-2 where there did not seem to be a natural role for him to fulfil. Mooy’s departure was therefore another one to file under good moves for all parties.

 

Martin Montoya – Real Betis, free transfer
For Martin Montoya, we could just copy and paste what happened to Stephens. Montoya too was a regular who suddenly found himself usurped by a younger player, a certain Master Lamptey.

From the moment that Lamptey made his debut in June’s 0-0 draw at Leicester, it was obvious that he was the Albion’s best right back. As a former Champions League winner, Montoya was clearly too good to spend 2020-21 sitting on the bench at the Amex and so he needed to leave for first team football.

In a touch of class, Brighton waived a transfer fee and allowed Montoya to return to Spain with Real Betis on a free transfer.

 

David Button – West Bromwich Albon, £1 million
Brighton selling David Button to West Bromwich Albion was a summer 2020 transfer window deal that really should have raised more eyebrows than it did.

Under normal circumstances, flogging your third choice goalkeeper for £1 million would be considered good business. The Seagulls though had just seen Christian Walton pick up a serious leg injury, ruling him out for at least three months and meaning that Button was promoted back to number two behind Maty Ryan.

If Ryan now picks up a long-term injury, Potter would find himself having to summon Jason Steele from a pub in Hove or the 16th green at Singing Hills to play in goal in the Premier League.

Steele might have equipped himself well in the Albion’s run to the Carabao Cup fourth round, but there is a world of difference between keeping clean sheets against Portsmouth and Preston North End and facing Manchester City and Liverpool.

We would have kept Button until January and then facilitated a sale for him once Walton is off the shelf – even if that meant losing out on a transfer fee. For all the talk of injuries or suspensions to Maupay and Connolly being damaging because of a lack of alternatives, losing Ryan would be one hundred times worse.

 

Leon Balogun – Rangers, free transfer
Another Brighton defender to make the move to the Scottish Pub League, Leon Balogun joins Connor Goldson at Rangers. Balogun was a bit of a disaster in an Albion shirt, making an average of one wonderful mistake per game.

His time at the Amex though will always be remembered for him scoring with his first touch just 45 seconds after coming on in the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace in December 2018. Hero status is assured for that moment alone.

 

Beram Kayal – released
Alongside Stephens, Beram Kayal was the key midfielder in Hughton’s promotion winning Brighton season. He struggled to make much of an impact at Premier League level, although it is still a surprise that he is yet to pick up a club since the Albion released him. It wouldn’t be a shock to see him wind up at Forest in the coming weeks if Hughton is looking to get the band back together…

 

Ezequiel Schelotto – released
Ezequiel Schelotto was a colourful character during his three seasons at the Amex. It was therefore quite fitting that he bowed out in entertaining style with a fantastic Twitter spat with Andy Naylor over his departure.

Naylor said that Schelotto had been released. Schelotto said that it was a mutual agreement because he wanted a longer deal than that which was on offer.

Schelotto is still without a club, which is a shame. He deserves one for his superb trolling of Wilfried Zaha in February, which was enough to see him voted our WeAreBrighton.com February 2020 Player of the Month.

 

Tudor Baluta – Dinamo Kiev, loan
A number of Albion youngsters have gone out on loan, including Viktor Gyokeres to Swansea City, Alex Cochrane to Union Saint-Gilloise and Jan Mlakar to Maribor.

The player we want to finish our Brighton summer 2020 transfer window round up with though is Tudor Baluta. The Romanian midfielder offers a reminder of the risks associated with signing talent for the future.

Brighton paid £2.5 million for his services and he arrived at the Amex already a full international and having attracted the attentions of some of Europe’s top clubs. The comparisons with Moder in particular are there for all to see.

Baluta has since struggled to make any impact in England, playing just one competitive game for the Albion away at Bristol Rovers in the Carabao Cup. He had a nondescript loan spell in the Netherlands with Den Haag in the second half of 2019-20 which was cut short when the Eredivisie season was curtailed and will now spend 2020-21 with Dynamo Kiev.

The rumour goes that included in his loan deal is a clause giving Dynamo the option to buy next summer. If true, then Brighton have paved the way for the sale of a young player who arrived amid much fanfare as “one for the future”. Baluta will have made a single League Cup appearance.

That would be a stark reminder that putting most of your eggs in a basket marked Young Players Who Might Be Good in a Couple of Years is a strategy fraught with risk.

 

Brighton & Hove Albion summer 2020 transfer window scorecard

Positives:

• Brighton did not sell anyone during the summer 2020 transfer who they wished to keep, including Lewis Dunk and Ben White who both instead signed long term deals
• An English international and a Dutch international with over 50 caps between them have been signed for a combined fee of £900,000
• A number of high earning fringe players have been cleared off the wage bill
• For the first time since the summer of 2014, the Albion have turned a profit on their transfer business – and without seriously weakening the squad
• Some of Europe’s most exciting talents have been bought and put on long term contracts

Negatives:

• At the start of the window, striker and left back were the two positions that most required strengthening. Neither has been.
• Brighton are relying on a 21-year-old from the Swiss second division to cover for and challenge Neal Maupay and Aaron Connolly
• Misfortune striking down Maty Ryan would cause a serious problem until Chris Walton is back in training
• For parts of last season, the Albion were crying out for new players with pace. Adam Lallana and Joel Veltman do not bring that

 

WeAreBrighton.com Transfer Window Rating: 5.1/10