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‘Winning’ the transfer window has become a very real yet largely meaningless exercise for supporters of football clubs across the world to invest another layer of partisanship into.
The continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has meant the 2021 summer transfer window took its time to capture the imagination, but that has not stopped it being used as an early indicator of which Premier League clubs are in for a successful season, and Brighton and Hove Albion are no exception.
Last season’s 16th-place finish was by no means an entirely accurate reflection of how Graham Potter’s group of players had performed for much of the campaign, but it was felt additions would be needed if the head coach’s progressive brand of football was going to result in higher finishes in the league table.
A club-record sale, the departure of several players brought in by predecessor Chris Hughton who never truly lived up to expectations, and some smart-looking, typically-Brighton signings have arrived to bolster the squad.
The financial impact of the pandemic quite possibly affected the Seagulls pursuit of a striker, but Brighton still managed to make some intelligent moves, adding both depth and quality in important areas of the team.
Whilst much of the attention was on what the Premier League’s wealthiest clubs were doing in the final days of the window, the Seagulls’ sustainable transfer business might just have left Potter with the required tools to ensure his project at the Amex Stadium takes another step forward this season.
What players did Brighton need?
Brighton’s issues in front of goal in the 2020/21 season were comical from the outside but they ultimately meant Premier League survival was not secured until far later in the season than it should have been.
Although signing a new striker is not always the silver bullet solution that it is often presented as in terms of increasing a team’s goal tally, there was an expectancy among supporters that at the very least competition for Neal Maupay and Danny Welbeck would arrive to either light fires beneath their respective backsides or to even take one of their places in the starting 11.
Ben White had been linked with moves to some of the biggest clubs in England since his impressive, promotion-winning spell at Leeds United in the 2019/20 season, and his eye-catching full England debut in a EURO 2020 warm-up friendly against Romania only increased the likelihood of him moving on.
A £50 million move to Arsenal was agreed relatively swiftly following the tournament, and having played 36 games last season, it was clear that either a replacement would need to be sourced or Potter would have to bring in a player in another position and adjust the team accordingly, as is so often the case.
Despite the former Swansea City boss having an undeniable capacity to make do and mend, Brighton were light in terms of natural full-backs for much of last season. Tariq Lamptey was a revelation as a right wing-back but did not play a game after December due to a serious hamstring injury. Whilst Solly March has looked at home in the same position on the left, he also missed 17 league games last season due to injury.
Dan Burn and Joel Veltman filled in admirably in less familiar roles but they are both naturally centre-backs and had either of them sustained an injury, it could have potentially derailed the Seagulls’ season.
Even though midfielder Pascal Gross has largely done well when stationed at wing-back, the fact that he was used at left-back for the season opener at Burnley was an indication of the lack of options Potter had in that area of the pitch.
The German being left in the dust of Everton’s Demarai Gray on the winger’s way to opening the scoring in Saturday’s 2-0 win for the Toffees at the Amex was perhaps an indication that Gross is better used further up the field.
The endless improvement of Yves Bissouma under the stewardship of Potter meant that many expected him to be the big-money departure at the beginning of the summer, and even though the sale of White lessened the financial pressure to sell the Malian, sourcing a replacement seemed an appropriate idea given Bissouma is surely on the radar of some of Europe’s finest recruitment departments.
Departures
Potter would have undoubtedly liked to keep a defender as talented and full of potential as White, but the size of the offer from Arsenal was simply too large to turn down. It arguably represents the first example of Brighton losing a player they did not want to move on since they were promoted to the Premier League, but a club-record sale for the academy graduate should soften the blow.
That significant windfall made the subsequent cut-price departures of Mat Ryan, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Davy Propper, Jose Izquierdo and Percy Tau more palatable.
Although Mat Ryan’s contribution during Brighton’s first two years in the Premier League means he probably deserves better than to be grouped with a fairly forgettable collection of Hughton signings, his fall from grace at the start of last season, coupled with the rise of Robert Sanchez, means it is unlikely he will be considered a significant loss.
Brighton completed Transfer Deadline Day with an almost Chelsea-like number of players being sent out on loan, signifying Potter’s preference for a tighter squad and a belief that many of the club’s promising young talents would be better suited playing first-team football elsewhere than featuring sporadically in the Carabao Cup or in under-23 fixtures.
Of those likely to have been involved with the first team, Leo Ostigard, Moises Caicedo and Matt Clarke were all granted temporary moves away from the South Coast, although it was the number of forward players allowed to depart that caught the eye.
23-year-old Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres left permanently for Coventry City whilst the versatile Andi Zeqiri, lesser-seen Romanian forward Florin Andone and summer arrival Kaoru Mitoma from J-League side Kawasaki Frontale all found loan moves, a possible indication that Potter did not see any of them as immediate solutions to the team’s goal-scoring issues.
Arrivals
After months of consternation, concern and downright panic, a striker did eventually arrive at the Amex on Deadline Day.
Slavia Prague’s Abdallah Sima was signed following some impressive performances for the Czech side in the Europa League last season and a goalscoring record of almost one goal every two games in the 2020/21 Fortuna Liga campaign. However, the Senegalese forward was immediately loaned out to Stoke City, meaning Brighton ended the summer with the exact same forward options they had begun it with.
Having unsuccessfully chased the signatures of Celtic’s Odsonne Edouard, who ultimately signed for rivals Crystal Palace, Benfica’s Darwin Nunez and Nicolas Gonzalez of Stuttgart, it was seemingly decided among the club’s hierarchy that no potential incoming represented enough of an upgrade on Potter’s current striking options to justify a significant outlay.
They did invest in other areas of the squad though, and the two most expensive arrivals appear intelligent acquisitions at face value.
Enock Mwepu, a 23-year-old Zambian midfielder acquired from RB Salzburg at the beginning of the window, was expected to be a replacement for Bissouma but it now appears he could be an effective partner for him instead.
Although he was taken off at half-time of the win against Burnley after struggling in the opening 45 minutes at Turf Moor, a delightful pass to pick out Jakub Moder for the opening goal against Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup second round was an indicator that he could increase the number of goals and assists arriving from Brighton’s midfield.
The second exciting arrival had to wait until the final day of the transfer window. Marc Cucurella is a product of Barcelona’s world-famous La Masia youth academy, and after successful spells at Eibar and Getafe in La Liga and five appearances for Spain at this summer’s Olympics, a big-money move became inevitable.
Having played both at left-back and further up the pitch during his time in Spain, Cucurella appears a perfect fit for Potter’s tendency to change either formation or the positioning of his players within games, and given the issues at full-back that have occurred over the past 12 months or so, greater depth will be welcomed.
What did they miss out on?
With Deadline Day starting and ending with no additions to the first team’s forward options, it can be no great surprise that some supporters felt frustrated, particularly when a seemingly useable addition in Sima was brought in and then immediately shipped out on loan.
Perhaps another striker would have helped catapult this promising side to the giddy heights of upper midtable, but with Maupay starting the season well and Potter so far preferring to use one main forward with two advanced midfield players supporting him rather than two up top, it would be doing a disservice to the progress the club has made since the change of manager two years ago to become too hysterical about the situation.
After Shane Duffy’s strong start to the season following his return from a loan spell at Celtic, there can be little surprise that it was felt that no further reinforcements were required at centre-back, and both defence and midfield now look well-stocked thanks to the signings of Cucurella and Mwepu.
Was it a successful window?
Just as ‘winning’ the transfer window can often be an inaccurate predictor of on-field success, knowing the true impact Brighton’s summer business will have on their season has to wait until further down the line.
It could be argued that a glaring, season-defining hole in the squad has been left unresolved but incompetence is not something that has ever really been associated with Tony Bloom’s stewardship of the club.
Should the current forwards suffer similar issues in terms of confidence, suspension and injury as those of last season, a new forward will surely arrive in the January window. However, Welbeck has more than shown his value when fit and available, and Aaron Connolly and Maupay are both still young and malleable enough to be moulded into bonafide Premier League strikers by a talented developer of players in Potter.
Adding flexibility has offset the departures of several bit-part players in a wage bill friendly manner, whilst also improving the quality of the squad, arguably leaving Potter with a group of players better equipped to carry out his inventive game plans.
With the transfer market now in hibernation until January, it is up to Brighton’s talented young head coach to bed in his new arrivals, adjust to the departure of one of England’s most promising defenders and find solutions to ensure the decision to not bring in a new forward does not become a damaging theme of the 2021/22 season.
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