Pervis Estupinan can bring further fireworks down the Brighton left
How do you replace a player as exciting as Marc Cucurella? Brighton have decided that the answer to that questions lies in the £14.9 million signing of Villarreal left wing back Pervis Estupinan.
Cucurella enjoyed an incredible one season with the Albion. His swashbuckling style down the flank made him an instant fan favourite, earned him Players’ Player and Supporters’ Player of the Season awards and saw Chelsea decide to pay a world-record fee of £62 million for a full back to secure his services.
Big boots to fill. And yet in Estupinan, Brighton appear to have captured an even more attack minded full back who boosts the growing South American contingent at the Amex.
Estupinan is an international teammate of Moises Caicedo and Jeremy Sarmiento with Ecuador. At 24 years old, he has much more experience than his two younger compatriots, including playing a starring role for Villarreal last season in their run to the semi finals of the Champions League.
Brighton have held a longstanding interest in Estupinan, going back to when he was a Watford player. The Albion were first linked with him in the summer of 2020.
Graham Potter had identified that a back three with wing backs was the best way to utilise the talents of Lewis Dunk, Adam Webster, Ben White and Tariq Lamptey.
The Albion though were short of left sided options. They never firmed up their interest, and instead Estupinan left Vicarage Road in September 2020 for Villarreal for a fee of £15 million. In a sign of how much the Yellow Submarine wanted his services, Estupinan signed a seven year contract.
Estupinan burst onto the scene as a 17-year old with LDU Quito in his homeland in 2015. He made 45 appearances in all competitions for his boyhood club, sealing a move to England with Watford in July 2016.
A loan odyssey around Spain followed. He spent 2016-17 with Granada, 2017-18 with Almeira, 2018-19 with Mallorca and 2019-20 with Osasuna. Over those four seasons, Estupinan racked up 91 La Liga appearances and 45 in La Liga 2. Those 136 matches yielded four goals and 12 assists.
Estupinan has spent most of his career playing as a traditional left back. His undoubted strength is attacking however, which is why the prospect of him being deployed regularly as a left wing back is so exciting.
Despite having his naturally tendency to attack clipped by the way Villarreal were set up, Estupinan completed more crosses than any other Yellow Submarine player in 2021-22.
Playing with the freedom to attack that made Cucurella such a hit can bring out the best in Pervis Estupinan, especially if Danny Welbeck stays fit or Brighton add another target man style forward to their squad.
Potter spoke about this earlier in August. It is rare for the Brighton manager to ever talk about signing a new striker in public, and yet he broke cover to say in relation to Neal Maupay moving to Nottingham Forest that if anyone does come in it will be a Welbeck-type player. Read into that what you will.
One major difference between Estupinan and Cucurella would appear to be in their versatility. Cucurella was so valuable by the time he completed his big money move to Stamford Bridge because he could also play as a left sided centre back.
Estupinan has never played anywhere other than down the left in his life. It is worth remembering though that neither had Cucurella until Potter decided to redeploy him in the new year.
It will be fascinating to see if the Albion head coach fancies his chances of retraining another player and significantly increasing their market worth.
Pervis Estupinan has signed a five year contract with Brighton, so Potter has more than enough time to work his magic. In a city full of pervs, he should fit right in.
Whether he sees that length of deal out remains to be seen. Both Spurs and Manchester United have also considered signing Estupinan at various points.
And as we have seen with Cucurella, one good season at the Amex can be enough to convince the European Super League Elite Six to make an offer too good to turn down.
