Brighton’s January 2019 Transfer Window Round Up

Chris Hughton said it would be a quiet January transfer window for Brighton and Hove Albion and he wasn’t wrong as the Seagulls didn’t bring in one player to strengthen their squad for the immediate future.

That’s a reflection of where the club is currently. The Albion should have too much quality to go down this season and in order to improve the current squad, they need to spend big on players who can push for a top 10 spot.

Those sorts of individuals tend not to be available in January or if they are, they cost vastly inflated sums compared to in the summer window. As a result, Brighton’s only new arrivals have been three young players who have been loaned straight back to the clubs from which they were signed until the end of the season.

Here’s the full run down of the quietest transfer window we can ever remember Brighton having.

Brighton and Hove Albion players in, January 2019:

Alexis Mac Allister – Argentinos Juniors, £7m
It says much about Brighton’s new found financial strength as the 29th highest earning football club in the world that we can now merrily spend £7m on an untested 20-year-old Argentinian and it seem like a drop in the ocean. By our reckoning, Alexis Mac Allister is the seventh most expensive signing in Albion history and we’ll have to wait a little while longer to see him as he’s been loaned straight back to Argentinos Juniors for the the remainder of the season. Capable of playing as an attacking midfielder, a number 10 or a second striker, Mac Allister is considered one of the hottest young talents in Argentina and he has eight goals in 57 appearances for Argentinos to his name. Presumably, when he finally arrives at the Amex in the summer he will provide competition to Pascal Gross, although it’s anybodies guess how he will get on – we’re still haunted by memories of the last big money signing we brought in from Argentina, the one and only Federico Turienzo.
 

Tudor Baluta – Viitorul Constanța, £2.5m
The most intriguing of the three January arrivals is Romanian international midfielder Tudor Baluta, a £2.5m capture from Viitorul Constanța. Despite being just 19-years-old, Baluta has already represented his country and will go to this summers UEFA European Under 21 Championship’s as one of the stars of a highly-rated Romania team. Viitorul themselves are an intriguing club having been founded by Gheorgie Hagi in 2009 as a vehicle for giving the brightest young talent in Romania exposure to first team football. Hagi bankrolls the team, is chairman and manager so Baluta’s footballing education cannot be questioned and he will spend the rest of the season with Viitorul. Romanian football journalist Alexandru Avram says that Baluta excels as the deep lying midfielder in a 4-3-3 and with Hughton seemingly keen to persist with that as the Albion’s formation going forward and no stand out candidate yet to fill the defensive midfield role, it will be interesting to see whether Baluta is fast tracked into the first team when he arrives in England next summer.
 

Jan Mlakar – Maribor, £2.5m
The one position that most Albion fans would say needs strengthening is up front, but 20-year-old Slovenian striker Jan Mlakar isn’t the answer we’re looking for right now. Mlakar began his career with Italian giants Fiorentina but with first team opportunities limited, he moved back to his home country with Maribor at the start of this season. The goals have flowed since then, 12 in 28 appearances to be precise and Mlakar will look to continue banging them in for the rest of the season as his side hunt down a 15th Slovenian league title before he joins the Albion for 2019-20.
 

Brighton and Hove Albion players out, January 2019:

Ezequiel Schelotto – Chievo, loan
The popular Argentinian has fallen so far down the pecking order that Hughton preferred to play development squad midfielder Will Collar at right back in the Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton back in August. In truth, Schelotto never seemed to recover from the post traumatic stress disorder he suffered at the hands of Wilfried Zaha and Crystal Place in the 3-2 defeat at Selhurst Park last April. This loan move back to Italy with Chievo Verona, who Schelotto spent the 2014-15 season with, probably signals the end of his Albion career as he is out contract this summer and doesn’t appear to have any future at the Amex, especially after posting on his Instagram feed “Some decisions have been made about me without any explanation. things that I will never understand but always respect. I leave the best to my colleagues in the brighton and the fans who have always respected me.”
 

Markus Suttner – Fortuna Dusseldorf, loan
Just like Schelotto, Markus Suttner was a full back who found himself surplus to requirements. And just like Schelotto, he’s secured a loan move in order to play first team football. The Austrian left back has returned to Germany to link up with Fortuna Dusseldorf in their battle to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga. It looked like Suttner was going to undergo something of a reinvention in the summer as Hughton used him predominantly as a winger throughout pre-season, but his spell in a more advanced role didn’t extend beyond a couple of friendlies and with Bernardo and Gaetan Bong firmly ahead of him in the pecking order, he’s found first team opportunities limited. Suttner’s future beyond the next six months with Dusseldorf is less clear as he still has another year remaining on the three-season deal he signed when joining from Ingolstadt for £3.8m in 2017.
 

Aaron Connolly – Luton Town, loan
Perhaps the most important piece of business that the Albion did in January was tying Aaron Connolly down to a new long-term deal. The 19-year-old striker has 17 goals so far this season from 19 appearances for the Under 23’s, form that had attracted the attention of the likes of Hoffenheim, Manchester City and Manchester United. Rumours began circulating that Connolly felt his career prospects might be best served by a move to Germany where his chances of playing first team football would be increased, but Hughton has managed to convince him to stay at the Amex and he’ll now get to test himself week-in, week-out against League One players with a loan move to promotion chasing Luton Town. Connolly has already bagged five goals in three games in the Checkatrade Checkatrade.com Trophy against the likes of Luton Town, McDons and Peterborough United so we’ll be watching his progress at Kenilworth Road with interest.
 

Brighton and Hove Albion January 2019 Transfer Window Scorecard

Positives:

• Aaron Connolly has signed a new long-term deal and now has the opportunity to play regular first team football with a side pushing for promotion to League One. That should give us a better idea of just how good he can be.
• Alexis Mac Allister is said to be one of the most promising talents in Argentina. If he adapts well to the English game when he arrives, he could prove a steal at £7m.
• We haven’t sold anybody, with the only departures being two third choice full backs. How Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy haven’t attracted serious interest remains a mystery.

Negatives:

• Have we got enough firepower to stay up? Getting a striker in is difficult at the best of times, let alone in January, but an injury or suspension to Glenn Murray or Florin Andone and we could look very light in attack.
• There doesn’t seem to be any timescale for when Jose Izquierdo will be fit, Anthony Knockaert has been poor this season, Alireza Jahanbakhsh has done nothing so far to justify his club-record fee and Jurgen Locadia isn’t a winger. We could’ve done with another wide man.
• It’s all very well spending money on young players with potential, but the development squad has had over £10m showered on it already and hasn’t delivered a player who has played one minute of Premier League football yet. The three new arrivals have to buck that trend.

WeAreBrighton.com Transfer Window Rating: 6.1/10