How would Brighton’s loan army fare as a Championship team?

It has been well documented that Brighton & Hove Albion has an army of players out on loan. The club has a clear policy of buying young affordable talent from around the world, rather than splashing out £20 million plus transfer fees on recognised stars.

Some of these young talents will make the first team and play in the Premier League. Others will fall short of the required level and will be sold to clubs in the Championship or to clubs abroad. Unfortunately a handful will disappear into obscurity, or in the case of Billy Arce, a South American prison.

If every year at least one young talent joins up with Graham Potter’s squad, it makes the hard work of the scouts and David Weir’s loan team worthwhile.

The policy has worked for Steve Alzate, Robert Sanchez, Taylor Richards and Haydon Roberts. Once in a generation the club will hit gold – £50 million worth of gold that is – as we did in the case of Ben White.

The policy is clear, relatively transparent and already proven to be successful. Step by step we will climb up the football ladder. Incremental growth. It is the only way to progress without a petrodollar investment.

I for one am very excited to see how our players will progress in the Championship this season. We are surely all going to check Stoke City’s result every game to see if Abdallah Sima has added to his goal tally?

Are West Brom walking back to the Premier League with Jayson Molumby bossing midfield and Matt Clarke leading their defence? Will Blackburn Rovers reach the playoffs with Reda Khadra excelling on the right wing?

We all know and agree that the Championship is a highly competitive league. With that in mind, I totally miss the point of sending Moises Caicedo to Belgium and Michal Karbownik to Greece.

How will they benefit from once again having to get used to a new culture, a new language and playing in a competition far removed from the pace of English football and with less intensity than the Championship?

Shipping Andi Zeqiri off to the Bundesliga makes slightly more sense. Bayern Munich will surely make a record offer for him next summer to replace an ageing Robert Lewandowski. You heard it here first.

Now imagine a world where all our loanees could be kept together and play in the same team even. Copying Graham Potter’s preferred 3-4-3, how would this team perform in the Championship or League One?

‘Brighton B’ as we will call them could line up with Christian Walton in goal. A back three of Jan Paul van Hecke, Leo Ostigard and Clarke.

Khadra on the right, Karbownik on the left, Molumby and Caicedo in the middle with a front three of Sima, Zeqiri and Kaoru Mitoma if he were granted a British Work Permit. On the bench, Alex Cochrane, Teddy Jenks, Jenson Weir, Ryan Longman and Carl Rushworth.

There are 10 different nationalities in that starting line-up. The United Nations will have posters of this team throughout its New York HQ. Call me biased but I would say this team would do rather well.

Ostigard and Clarke already have Championship experience and did not look out of place at that level last season. Van Hecke is highly thought of in the Netherlands and performed well last season for Heerenveen.

The Dutch League is too easy, you say? Strikers from the Eredivisie might struggle to bring their form to England, but do not forget that it is where Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Mathijs de Ligt (Juventus) and Stefan de Vrij (Inter Milan) learned how to defend.

I would choose those three over England internationals Tyrone Mings, Michael Keane and Connor Coady any day of the week. Van Hecke will impress, trust me.

Any team with the pace of Khadra and Karbownik on the wings will be great to watch. Molumby has been capped for the Republic of Ireland and Caicedo played in the Copa America for Ecquador. That forward line combines pace with trickery, work rate and the ability to hit the back of the net.

Brighton B in the Championship is not as far-fetched as it may seem at first. Technical Director Dan Ashworth has spoken before about the benefits he sees in allowing Premier League clubs to field reserve sides in the Football League. It was something he was keen to try and push through during his time working at the FA.

In Spain, Barcelona B plays in the Segunda Division B. This is only one level below La Liga. Athletic Bilbao and Villareal also have ‘B’ teams competing at this level.

Lionel Messi, Andreas Iniesta and Xavi all represented Barcelona B before becoming global superstars who dominated world football for so long.

In the Netherlands Ajax, PSV Eindhoven and AZ Alkmaar have U23 teams in the second tier of Dutch Football. The next Frenkie de Jong is hiding in one of these teams.

I would say it is highly likely that at least one of those players currently in a Dutch B team – but probably more – will in five years time be sold to a club in one of Europe’s top leagues at a highly inflated price.

Brighton & Hove Albion B in the Championship or League One? If it is good enough for Spanish football and helps to make the next Messi…