When Roberto De Zerbi said towards the end of December that he felt Brighton needed to sign three or four new players in the January 2024 transfer window, he was probably not meaning three 19-year-olds and two 18-year-olds.
Yet that is what the Albion have done, focussing very much on the future rather than the here and now. They have bought players who will benefit De Zerbi’s successor (or maybe even his successor’s successor) rather than their current head coach.
Tony Bloom is well known to dislike doing business in the winter transfer window. Even so, to not make a single signing who can enter the disco room at Pryzm when the over 21s rule is in place seems like a gamble for where the club are right now.
Brighton have failed to score in three consecutive Premier League matches, played without any wingers because of the unavailability of Kaoru Mitoma, Simon Adingra, Ansu Fati and Solly March.
The Albion have also looked lightweight through the middle of the park on occasions this season since both Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo departed in the summer.
Other than the raw and not-yet-ready Carlos Baleba, Brighton lack a proper defensive midfield ball winner sitting in front of their back four.
It is a glaring weakness ruthlessly exposed by both Luton Town and Aston Villa sticking 10 goals in two matches past the Seagulls.
Brighton seem to have completely ignored the midfield issue at the same time as putting all their eggs in a basket labelled wait until Mitoma, Adingra and Fati are back and hope they don’t get injured again.
Does that meet De Zerbi’s expectations? How many of the five new signings will we actually see in the first team between now and the end of the campaign?
And perhaps the most pressing question of all – have Brighton given themselves a deep enough squad with enough quality to challenge in the Premier League, Europa League and FA Cup over the next four months?
Brighton and Hove Albion players in, January 2024:
Valentin Barco – £7.8 million, Boca Juniors
“Argentina are one of world football’s historical powerhouses,” a September article on the Scouted Notebook website begins.
“They have a long list of elite talent in every position, save one: full-back. But now, into the void of world-class Argentinian full-backs steps 19-year-old Valentin Barco.”
Wanted by Manchester City, Liverpool and Juventus among other, Brighton were the club who triggered the £7.8 million release clause in Barco’s Boca Juniors contract to bring him to England.
What makes Barco so special is the way he combines the speed, flicks and tricks of a traditional winger with the reading of the game and defensive abilities of a full back.
Boca have even inverted him into midfield on occasions, meaning Brighton could have in theory signed one player capable of filling both their problem positions out wide and ball winning.
No wonder Albion fans are giddy with excitement about Barco. Some of those expectations need to be tempered, however, based on the fact he is a teenager leaving home for the first time to move to a strange foreign country.
Alexis Mac Allister took two years to become a first team regular at the Albion. Moises Caicedo 18 months. Facundo Buonanotte is still learning and adapting a year after arriving from Rosario Central.
One game Buonanotte bangs in a world class, Lionel Messi-esque goals against Sheffield United. The next he looks totally lost at Luton and is hauled at half time.
Brighton will give Barco the time and patience he needs to fulfil his apparent world class potential. If he does, that £7.8 million fee will look an absolute bargain in a few years.
But he is probably not the ready-made solution De Zerbi was hoping for when making those comments about new signings.
Kamari Doyle – Southampton, “in excess of” £1 million
Other than Barco, every other signing made by Brighton in the January 2024 transfer window was recorded as being for an undisclosed fee.
What we do know is that the Albion paid in excess of £1 million to Southampton for 18-year-old midfielder Kamari Doyle ahead of his contract with the Saints expiring in the summer.
Doyle will already have fond memories of the Amex,. He made his professional debut at the stadium for Southampton in a six-minute substitute cameo back in April. Brighton beat the already-relegated Saints 3-1 that day, guaranteeing European football in the process.
He has since made one further first team appearance for Southampton, coming off the bench at half time in a 3-1 League Cup defeat at Gillingham in August.
Opportunities have otherwise been limited for Doyle because of a combination of injury and the Saints’ flying form. They are currently on a club record run of 22 games undefeated as they eye an immediate return to the Premier League.
Doyle has though shone for the Under 21s, scoring three times and assisting two from just four Premier League 2 appearances.
Coming through the ranks at Southampton, Doyle was apparently mentored by James Ward-Prowse. Brighton might finally start doing more than crashing every set piece into the first opposition player, if/when Doyle breaks through into the first team squad.
Caylan Vickers – Reading, undisclosed fee
19-year-old striker Caylan Vickers has played 14 times for Reading in League One, scoring once. It is hardly a record which screams potential world class talent, but then again Vickers was being linked with a move to Real Madrid as recently as December.
Vickers found more joy in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, where he netted twice in four matches. One of those goals came in a 5-2 win over Arsenal Under 21s, which apparently piqued the Gunners’ interest in securing his services.
With a giant of European football (and Arsenal) interested in signing Vickers, Reading had been looking to demand a fee of at least £1 million plus a hefty sell on clause.
Like Doyle and the rest, what Brighton have paid to steal a march on Real and Arsenal to secure the services of Vickers in the January 2024 transfer window is undisclosed. Should it touch seven figures, that would be a sign of how highly rated he is by the Albion.
Josh Robertson – Sunderland, undisclosed fee
With Josh Robertson set to be out of contract at Sunderland come the summer, Brighton have taken advantage to secure the 18-year-old attacking midfielder who has spent a decade in the Black Cats academy.
Robertson is set to join the Albion U21s, even though he has played only once for Sunderland U21s in his fledgling career so far.
His numbers for the Under 18s at the Stadium of Light are decent enough, with eight goals and four assists from 31 appearances.
Robertson has never been capped at youth level, but he is eligible for both England and Cyprus. The Albion will be hoping he turns out to be slightly better than the last Cypriot they signed, a certain Alexis Nicolas.
Steven Hall – Adelaide United, undisclosed
Brighton might have no fit and available wingers and be blatantly missing a defensive midfielder, but the club ensured they will never be short of goalkeepers by signing yet another during the January 2024 transfer window.
19-year-old Steven Hall arrived for an undisclosed fee from Australian A-League side Adelaide United, meaning the Albion now have eight goalkeepers across their first team and development squads.
Jason Steele, Bart Verbruggen, Tom McGill, Kjell Scherpen, Carl Rushworth, James Beadle, Killian Cahill and now Hall. Wonder if De Zerbi has thought to ask whether any can do a job out wide?
Hall set an A-League Record as the youngest goalkeeper to ever play in the competition when making his debut for Adelaide aged 16 years and 350 days on New Year’s Day 2022. He went onto make two more appearances in that 2021-22 season, but has not featured in the first team since.
With so many good young goalkeepers already at Brighton, Hall is going to need to be something special to break through at the Amex.
To much more important matters than football and Hall does have by far and away the best hair of any Albion player, being the only teenager in the world outside of Tennessee to have willingly grown and sculpted a mullet.
Brighton and Hove Albion players out, January 2024:
Mahmoud Dahoud – Stuttgart, loan
After just six months, 14 matches, one assist and one head loss of a red card, Mahmoud Dahoud leaves Brighton in the January 2024 transfer window to join Stuttgart on loan.
Dahoud was not even at the Amex for long enough to grow what the media in Germany once described as his “terrible moustache.”
There is said to be a buy clause in the deal set at around £8 million should the Bundesliga club want to take Dahoud on a permanent basis in the summer.
De Zerbi pushed hard for the signing of the German midfielder in the summer, over the Albion’s famous transfer algorithms and data-led approach. It will be interesting to see how much attention the recruitment department pay to De Zerbi’s wishes going forward.
Some Albion fans have decried the departure of Dahoud as making the squad weaker in midfield. That is not really the case; since Dahoud was sent off against Sheffield United in early November, he has played only 45 minutes of football. De Zerbi disregarded him as an option long ago.
In truth, he never looked suited to fill the ball winning gap in the Brighton midfield. Dahoud is more a technical player in the mould of Pascal Gross and Billy Gilmour – and he was never going to displace either of those two in the starting XI.
A case of decent player, wrong time. He will undoubtedly now have a sparkling second half of the season alongside Deniz Undav as Stuttgart qualify for the Champions League.
Imari Samuels – Fleetwood Town, loan
When Brighton had what felt like a thousand players capable of playing full back all ruled out at the same time, there was an expectation that Imari Samuels could be handed a first team spot.
De Zerbi instead found a way to muddle through. With Pervis Estupinan now fit again, Igor Julio having looked decent at full back and the signing of Barco, Samuels finds himself loaned to League One side Fleetwood Turn for the rest of this season.
The deal did at least provide one of the highlights of January 2024 transfer deadline day via Brian Owen on The Argus live blog.
Owen posted at 10.19pm with the window 40 minutes away from shutting: “I believe we are not done yet.” Cue excitement amongst Brighton fans.
Had the Albion found a way right at the last minute to get a £40 million deal for Leicester midfielder Kieran Dewsbury-Hall over the line? Was Spurs winger Bryan Gil set to arrive to ease the problems Brighton have out wide?
Brighton transfer deadline day heritage #BHAFC pic.twitter.com/P0003XxFJo
— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) February 1, 2024
No and no. 14 minutes later and Owen updated with: “Albion defender Imari Samuels off to Fleetwood Town on loan for the rest of the season. That should do it for deadline day.”
Amazing.
Jack Hinchy – Shrewsbury Town, loan
Joining Samuels in heading out on loan to League One was Jack Hinchy. There were probably some Shrewsbury Town fans delirious that they had signed Jack Hinshelwood, only to later realise Hinchy and Hinshelwood are actually two different people. No shame in that; it took me about three months to get my head around it.
Hinchy has been in and around the first team squad this season, coming on away at Stoke City in the FA Cup. It is the Albion Under 21s captain’s first loan move and he will link up with Brighton legend Elliott Bennett at The Croud Meadow.
