Tau & Mac Allister are commodities we may never see play for Brighton

With the news that both Alexis Mac Allister and Percy Tau are unlikely to qualify for British Work Permits again for the 2019-20 Premier League season, many Brighton fans are beginning to question just what was the point in buying them?

Mac Allister was signed amid much fanfare back in January for a cool £7m from Argentinian side Argentinos Juniors. Tau meanwhile cost £2.5m last summer from Mamelodi Sundowns in his native South Africa. There is also the forgotten Billy Arce, a £1m signing from Ecuadorian club Independiente DV in August 2018.

That’s over £10m spent on players who can’t legally play Premier League football. Each individual case is different, with Tau probably the closest to being qualified – not that it’s saying much.

The Lion of Judah needs South Africa to crack the top 50 in the FIFA World Rankings – something which they could do with an unlikely Africa Cup of Nations triumph in this summer’s tournament.

Alternatively, he can continue picking up work permit points by being loaned to a side who competes in either the Champions League or the Europa League.

With Argentina in the world’s top 50, Mac Allister’s best route to a work permit appears to be by becoming a fully fledged international regular.

Then, the Albion will be able to lodge an appeal for him to be granted a special work permit as a young player of considerable talents.

This is the route that they went down successfully with Jose Izquierdo, who only had a handful of Colombia caps at the time of his arrival at the Amex in the summer of 2017.

Mac Allister could alternatively move on loan to a top European side to gain the necessary qualifications. That is the only option available to Arce as Ecuador, like South Africa, are ranked outside of the top 50.

You’ve probably resigned yourself then that it’s unlikely we’re going to see those three in a Brighton shirt anytime soon. In actual fact, they might not ever play for the Albion. They could end up being commodities we’ve simply signed in order to try and make a profit from.

It’s a trick that the Albion have pulled already in a transfer that seems to have gone under the radar somewhat. In 2017, Brighton signed Czech right back Ales Mateju for £2.5m from Viktoria Plzen.

A year later, he was loaned to Brescia. Part of the agreement stated that the Italian club would pay £4m for his services this summer.

That’s a £1.5m profit on a player who never made a league appearance for the Seagulls. Even more remarkably, it means Mateju is responsible for the second biggest transfer fee that Brighton have ever received, behind only the £8m that Leicester City paid for Leonardo Ulloa in 2014. Tau and Mac Allister could easily follow suit.

Take Tau for example. After a good 2018-19 season in which he won the Proximus Player of the Year award, the Albion can probably expect to find a Belgian top division club to take him on loan this season – Anderlecht were said to be interested after he’d helped Union Saint-Gilloise eliminate them from the Belgian Cup with a star showing in September.

If he moves to Anderlecht and has a stellar season in the Jupiler League, then he is going to be worth a lot more than the £2.5m we paid for him. Alireza Jahanbaksh cost £17m after one good campaign in the comparative Eredivisie. Genk want the Albion to pay £18m for their top scorer, Leandro Trossard.

Should the Lion of Judah bang in the goals out on loan in a European top flight division in 2019-20, it won’t matter that he doesn’t qualify for a British passport as the Albion will almost certainly be able to sell him to a club on the continent for a big profit.

The same is true of Mac Allister. He was initially loaned back to Argentinos Juniors for six months after the Albion forked out their £7m for him and now looks set to step up a level by joining Boca Juniors on loan.

Boca are the most famous club in Argentina, so should Mac Allister impress there then he might turn the heads of scouts from other clubs in countries he is eligible to play in. Suddenly, a tidy profit on him doesn’t look out of the question.

Of course, the other side of the coin for Mac Allister is playing well for Argentina’s biggest club should improve his chances of being capped by his nation which in turn may help him get a work permit. That’s very much all ifs, buts and maybes at the minute.

One thing we do know is that Tony Bloom and Paul Barber aren’t stupid. They won’t go out and spend big money on a player, only to realise afterwards that they’ve signed someone who can’t actually work in Britain legally.

They’ll have been aware exactly what they were doing when signing Tau, Mac Allister and Arce. And that might well have been with the intention of turning a profit on players who may never play for the Albion. It’s something we may well have to get used to, rather than berating the club for their apparent waste of money.