The WAB Brighton Summer 2020 Transfer Deadline Day Live Blog
Welcome to our Brighton & Hove Albion summer 2020 transfer deadline day live blog, where we will be keeping you up-to-date with all the latest news and rumours as the European transfer window prepares to slam shut.
It is a bit of a weird one this year as although today represents the final opportunity clubs have to buy and sell players to Europe, a domestic-only window runs for another 11 days in which English sides can continue to trade with each other.
So if Brighton fail to bring in another striker or left wing back from the Dutch League (God help us) on transfer deadline day, then it may not matter too much. Paul Winstanley and the recruitment team can still pick a talent from the Championship up until October 16th.
We don’t yet have the technology to make this page automatically refresh, so if you’re sticking with us all day then please hit F5 every now and again for updates
Neal Maupay ends Matteo Guendouzi’s Arsenal career
Looking away from the Amex for one moment and we cannot help but laugh at Matteo Guendouzi’s fall from grace. The Sideshow Bob look-a-like spent Arsenal’s visit to Brighton back in June telling the Albion players how he earned more money than them and that they would never win as many trophies in their career as he would.
When Neal Maupay then rattled in a 95th minute winner, Guendouzi decided to throttle our French striker after the final whistle. Gunedouzi’s behaviour prompted Maupay to say in a post-match interview that Arsenal needed to learn some humility.
Guendouzi will now be doing that with Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga. So unimpressed was Mikel Arteta by the midfielder’s attitude at the Amex that day that he hasn’t played a competitive game since and has now been shipped on loan to Germany – all whilst Maupay has four goals in four games so far this season.
Auf Wiedersehen, Matteo. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
11:24 – Alex Cochrane moves to Union Saint-Gilloise on loan
Under 23s left back Alex Cochrane is off out on loan, joining Tony Bloom’s Belgian club Union Saint-Gilloise until the end of the season where he will provide competition for Sebastien Pocognoli, he of Queens Park Rangers away free kick fame.
The Lion of Judah Percy Tau enjoyed a very fruitful season with Union in 2018-19 and the hope will be that Cochrane can do similar. As well as furthering his football career, the lucky bastard can also spend the next year eating cheese, scoffing on chocolates and drinking mind blowing 12% Belgian beers.
10:30 – Ryan Sessegnon won’t be Brighton’s new left wing back
One player who won’t be joining Brighton on transfer deadline day is Ryan Sessegnon. The Tottenham Hotspur player was linked heavily with a loan move to the Amex earlier in the window, where he would have provided competition to Solly March at left wing back.
Sessegnon has instead moved to Hoffenheim on loan until the end of the season. Supporters of the German club will be hoping that he does better than the last loan player they brought in from the Premier League on deadline day – a certain Jurgen Locadia, who was so bad in the Bundesliga that Hoff decided they no longer wanted him after four months.
Locadia is now with FC Cincinnati in the MLS. The Albion could received £3 million for him if Jaap Stam decides to turn the deal permanent. That is a pretty big if, as anyone who has seen his succession of horror misses on Twitter can testify to.
09:40 – Seagulls swoop for Polish midfielder Jakub Moder
Brighton on the verge of making their first transfer deadline day signing with Polish midfielder Jakub Moder set to arrive for £10 million from Lech Poznan.
The deal was first mooted by Polish football journalists on Twitter last night and Andy Naylor has since confirmed it is happening, although with the usual caveat of “my sources tell me it is a significantly lower fee than that being reported.”
It is little wonder that the Albion do not want fans thinking we are spending such a sum on a player who will be loaned immediately back to Poznan until the end of the season.
The current financial climate has been cited as one of the reasons as to why Brighton cannot buy a “silver bullet” striker – and yet here we are making a 21-year-old Pole who will not be seen in a Brighton shirt for at least another year the seventh most expensive signing in Albion history.
Moder has attracted interest from a number of clubs across Europe including Galatasaray and he made his senior international debut for Poland against the Netherlands last month.
Clearly, he is a talented player – but is he someone that the Albion should be spending such a significant amount on in an area of the pitch in which we are well stocked?
Moder may not be the only young player to arrive from the homeland of Pope John Paul II either. 19-year-old Micahe Karbownik of Legia Warsaw is also reported to be of interest.
06:47 – What would we like to see Brighton do today?
Tony Blair once said “Ask me for my three priorities for government and I will tell you; education, education, education.” Ask us for our three priorities for transfer deadline day for Brighton and we will tell you; sign a striker, sign a striker, sign a striker.
Yes, the Albion completed a £3.5 million deal for Kosovan centre forward Andi Zeqiri, but it will asking a huge amount of a 21-year-old who has scored the majority of his career goals in the Swiss second tier to make an impact straight away in the Premier League.
If Neal Maupay and Aaron Connolly both picked up long-term injuries in training tomorrow, Graham Potter would find himself having to negotiate three months of the season without a fit senior centre forward. No sensible top flight club puts themselves in that sort of position.
Finding a striker is obviously easier said than done. Potter and the club have used the phrase “silver bullet”, as if a mythical 20-goal a season man does not exist and we are all insane for thinking the Albion could sign one.
And they may have a point. You have to spend big to get that sort of player, like the £28 million that Aston Villa shelled out on Ollie Watkins. A hat-trick against Liverpool in Villa’s stunning 7-2 win has almost paid that fee off already.
Brighton do not necessarily need a forward of Watkins’ price tag or calibre. Maupay has begun the season in fine form and is nearly halfway to his 2019-20 goals tally with just four games of the current campaign played.
What the Albion require is another body to ease the burden on Maupay and Connolly and provide cover should injury or suspension bite the front two.
Aside from the striker situation, Brighton can be relatively pleased with their business so far. Zeqiri at £3.5 million is a low-risk investment in a player who seemingly has a lot of potential for the future and the signings of Adam Lallana and Joel Veltman mean the Albion have picked up two full internationals with over 50 caps between them for £900,000.
The only other position in which Brighton need reinforcements is on the left. Solly March is in some of the best form of his career currently but Bernardo has flattered to deceive in the Carabao Cup. Big Dan Burn can do a job at left back, but as a roving left winger he looks like a giraffe trying to do a quartic equation.
If Potter is going to persist with a back three and wing backs, some genuine competition for March would not go amiss. If he switches to a back four, then some genuine competition for Burn would not go amiss.
Whatever happens over the course of the day, you can keep up with it here. Apart from between 8.05pm and 8.35pm when EastEnders is on. Max and Linda having an affair, what is that all about?
