Brighton & Hove Albion’s £62m summer 2018 transfer window

The summer of 2018 saw Brighton & Hove Albion go big in the transfer window. Tony Bloom forked out £62 million on 10 new players with the aim of pushing the Seagulls higher up the table than the 15th spot they had managed on their return to the top flight in the 2017-18 season.

Three years on and only five of the new faces signed remain at the club. And just two of those could be considered successes who have made a lasting impact on the first team.

So desperate have Brighton been to get the other five off their wage bill that they have even restored to releasing some on free transfers after paying seven figure sums for their services.

The summer 2018 transfer window must therefore go down as the worst Brighton have ever had, the ultimate result being that Hughton lost his job after an 18th placed finish come the end of the season.

Whilst the second half of the campaign was dire to watch, when you consider the players he was given for the 2018-19 season – who Graham Potter has subsequently got rid of – then perhaps more questions should have been asked of the recruitment team. Paul Winstanley could consider himself lucky not to be getting his P45 alongside Hughton.

The good news is that Brighton seemed to have sorted themselves out on that front. From 2019 onwards, the Albion have made some excellent acquisitions at decent market prices, seemingly helped by the arrival of Dan Ashworth as technical director and Potter bringing his own recruitment expert, Kyle Macauley, with him from Swansea City.

That is yet to translate to huge improvements in league standings – Potter has not bettered Hughton’s 15th place in his two attempts so far – but the hope is that a couple of decent signings will see Brighton kick on in 2021-22.

Back to that summer 2018 transfer window though as we take you through the £62 million spent by Brighton on a lot of footballers not good enough for the Premier League. Poor Tony’s wallet…

Alireza Jahanbakhsh – AZ Alkmaar, £17 million
Brighton broke their transfer record in the summer 2018 transfer window to sign Alireza Jahanbakhsh for £17 million from AZ Alkmaar. Jahanbakhsh had been top scorer in the Eredivisie the previous seasons but as we all know, there is a world of difference between finding the back of the net regularly in the Netherlands and doing it in the Premier League. Just ask Jurgen Locadia.

In his first season, Jahanbakhsh failed to score a single goal or register a single assist. His supporters said that this was because of Hughton’s defensive tactics and once Brighton appointed a more attack-minded manager, the Iranian international would flourish.

This proved not to be the case. Potter did not give Jahanbakhsh a Premier League start until matchday 20 of the 2019-20 season and although he scored twice over Christmas and New Year – including THAT bicycle kick against Chelsea – those were the only Premier League goals he managed during his three seasons with the Albion.

When you combine his transfer fee with wages of around £45,000 per week for three seasons, Brighton spent £24 million on Jahanbakhsh for a return of two Premier League goals in 50 appearances. You do not need a degree in mathematics to realise that equates to £12 million per goal.

Jahanbakhsh was clearly a nice guy, had an exemplary attitude and was desperate to succeed in England. That meant that when he was sold for £5 million to Feyenoord, virtually every Brighton fan wished him well on kick starting his career again back in the Netherlands. Nobody could argue though that his signing was anything but a disaster from a money point-of-view.

 

Bernardo – Red Bull Leipzig, £9 million
Bit of a weird one, Bernardo. Once he established himself in the Albion’s first team in early winter 2018, he looked like an excellent acquisition and was one of the few players to emerge from the second half of the 2018-19 season with any credit.

As an attacking full back, he looked exactly the sort of player who should have thrived under Potter. Potter though never took to Bernardo, affording the Brazilian just one start from the opening four matches of 2019-20.

Bernardo then underwent surgery on a knee problem. When he returned around Christmas, he spent the next year giving a number of bewildering performances on the rare occasions he was given an opportunity.

Sometimes he looked like the player who had shone under Hughton; other times he resembled a Sunday League defender playing off the back of 20 pints of Stella and 40 Benson & Hedges Silver.

This culminated in him being shipped out on loan to Red Bull Salzburg in January 2021. That move became permanent with Brighton waiving any transfer fee just to get his sizable pay packet off the wage bill.

Nothing sums up that summer 2018 transfer window better than a £9 million signing essentially released on a free by Brighton three years later.

 

Martin Montoya – Valencia, £6 million
Martin Montoya was a solid-if-unspectacular acquisition who barely put a foot wrong during his two years with the Albion. He arrived in Brighton with just one hour of the summer 2018 transfer window left after the Seagulls hijacked his proposed move to Fulham which merely required a signature.

After taking over from Bruno as first choice right back in 2018-19, Montoya would himself be replaced a year later by a talented young full back by the name of Tariq Lamptey.

Montoya was therefore the bridge between the best right back Brighton have ever had and a man who could go onto take that accolade over the next couple of seasons.

Once it was clear that Lamptey would be undroppable all the time he remained fit, Brighton did the decent thing and allowed Montoya to move to Real Betis on a free in the summer of 2020 so that he did not spend the prime years of his career sat on the Albion bench.

 

Leon Balogun – Mainz, free transfer

Leon Balogun arrived at Brighton on a free transfer and he departed Brighton after two years on a free transfer, since becoming a Scottish Pub League champion with Rangers.

Hughton used him as backup to the unbreakable Lewis Dunk/Shane Duffy partnership and you could normally count on him making one glaring error a game when he got on the pitch.

Potter realised this very quickly and he barely featured at all in the 2019-20 season, slipping further down the pecking order behind Adam Webster and Dan Burn.

Balogun did though ensure that his name is written into Albion folklore forever thanks to scoring within seconds of his introduction as a first half substitute in the famous 3-1 win over Crystal Palace.

 

David Button – Fulham, £4 million

The departures of Tim Krul and Niki Maenpaa in the summer of 2018 left Brighton needing to sign back up for Maty Ryan in the transfer window.

Two players arrived in the goalkeeping department, the first of whom was David Button. The Albion paid £4 million to Fulham for the services of the Tyson Fury look-a-like and he proved to be a capable deputy in cup matches and when Ryan was away at the Asian Cup in January 2019.

Button left the Amex last summer, moving to West Brom for £1 million having done the job that was asked of him during his two years with the Albion.

 

Dan Burn – Wigan Athletic, £3.5 million
We are now onto those players who remain at Brighton having been signed in the summer 2018 transfer window and where better to start than Big Dan Burn?

The 6’7 defender cost £3.5 million from Wigan Athletic but seeing as he had a broken foot, he was loaned straight back to the Latics for the first half of the 2018-19 season to recover and then gain match fitness.

Burn did not play a minute of Premier League football from his arrival at the Amex in January until the end of the campaign as Hughton stuck with his tried-and-tested Dunk/Duffy partnership with Balogun as third choice.

The appointment of Potter changed all that. Burn has since become one of the most underrated players at Brighton, capable of doing a decent job as a centre back, a left back or a left wing back on his good days. On his bad days, he can be a complete liability.

This unpredictability though is half the fun of Burn, along with the fact that his lockdown hair made him look like Princess Diana. His transfer has been an undoubted success and not just because of that resemblance to the Peoples’ Princess.

 

Jason Steele – Sunderland, free
If your definition of success is making a difference to the first team, then Jason Steele’s signing has not been a success. If your definition of success is entertainment, then Steele deserves 10/10 for his performance in January’s FA Cup third round trip to Newport County alone.

Having spent 120 minutes looking like a man who had never played football in his life before – including a hilarious 92nd minute mistake which gifted Newport an equaliser to take the game to extra time – Steele suddenly transformed into prime Gordon Banks in the shoot out.

He saved four of Newport’s penalties to ensure that the Albion avoided the embarrassment of exiting the competition against League Two opponents. Nobody in Brighton history has managed to go from the ridiculous to the sublime quite as quick as Steele that night.

Off the pitch, his arrival on a free transfer from Sunderland provided a real boost to the hospitality sector in Hove through increased pint and pizza consumption in The Station. Takings at Singing Hills and West Hove golf clubs are also up, further justifying the decision to bring Steele to Sussex.

 

Percy Tau – Mamelodi Sundowns, £2.8 million
Percy Tau cost Brighton £2.5 million in the summer 2018 transfer window. It would be another 30 months before he was able to make his Albion debut as work permit rules forced the Lion of Judah into a loan journey around Belgium, taking in Union Saint-Gilloise, Club Brugge and Anderlecht.

Tau was finally able to enter Britain legally in January and since then he has been handed a grand total of 102 minutes of Premier League football.

In that time, he has given Manchester City something to think about and claimed an assist when teeing up Danny Welbeck for the Albion goal in May’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.

That suggests there is some talent there. Whether Tau gets further opportunities to impress in English football will depend on the accuracy of rumours saying that the Albion are open to selling him to Anderlecht for £4 million this summer.

If Tau does depart after one Premier League start and two substitute appearances having taken so long to get to England, then the two-and-a-half year wait to get him here will have to go down as being completely and utterly pointless.

 

Florin Andone – Deportivo La Coruna, £5.2 million
The Brighton career of Florin Andone has certainly not been dull since his arrival for £5.2 million from Deportivo La Coruna in the summer 2018 transfer window.

Andone has scored as many goals (six) as he has missed games through suspension. He received a retrospective ban for swinging an elbow into the head of West Brom’s Sam Field and lasted less than 30 minutes on his most recent Albion outing before nearly shattering the leg of Southampton’s Yan Valery.

That little incident came only three games into Potter’s reign but it convinced the new Brighton boss to get rid. Andone was sent to Galatasaray, gave an interview saying he hoped he never played for the Albion again and blamed Hughton, Potter, Glenn Murray, Jurgen Locadia, Christopher Biggins, the Cheeky Girls, Pope Francis and Oti Mabuse for his misdemeanours and lack of form.

There is of course still a chance that Andone’s signing might work out. He remains a Brighton player after injuries wrecked any hopes that Galatasaray might take him permanently.

Some Albion supporters even believe he could be the answer to the striker conundrum, although he would need to get and then stay on the pitch for that to happen.

Still, things could be worse. The £5.2 million Brighton paid for Andone was a relatively low amount made possible by a relegation clause in his Depor contract.

The Albion had come close to forking out £17 million for Andone the previous summer. Had that fee been paid for a player who makes Donald Trump look like a stable man with a calm temperament, then it would have been a deal so bad to be on a par with the Jahanbakhsh transfer.

 

Yves Bissouma – LOSC Lille, £15 million

Mother always told me to save the best until last and so rounding off our list of Brighton signings from the summer 2018 transfer window is a certain Yves Bissouma.

The Albion forked out £15 million to Losc Lille for his services and three years on that looks like an absolute bargain. After an inconsistent first 18 months at the Amex, Bissouma has blossomed into one of the best holding midfielders in the Premier League.

His list of suitors is longer than the Trans-Siberian Railway. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint Germain are all rumoured to be interested. If Brighton did decide to sell, they could expect to fetch as much as £50 million for the services of the 2020-21 WAB Player of the Season.

Brighton might have spent a lot of money on a lot of not-very-good footballers in the summer of 2018, but the capture of Bissouma undoes a lot of those failures who were signed at the same time.

One of the best signings that the Albion have ever made arriving in the same window as some of the worst when it comes to value-for-money? Typical Brighton.