If I had a penny from every Brighton fan who had mentioned how the Albion were in a strong position going into the opening month of the summer 2024 transfer window thanks to PSR, I would be a very rich man.
Admittedly, a lot of this money would be my own. Towards the end of last season, several WAB writers picked up their quills with excitement over what PSR could mean for the Albion’s recruitment plans.
National media also covered the advantage Brighton apparently held. Alex Crook said in his talkSPORT transfer notebook back in February: “Tony Bloom has ambitious recruitment plans for the upcoming summer transfer window as he bids to transform the Sussex side into an established European outfit.”
The theory was pretty straightforward. June 30th is the date when the 2023-24 season accounting period comes to an end. Under Premier League profit and sustainability rules, clubs are allowed to lose no more than £105 million over a three years.
Clubs sailing close to the wind were expected to enter a desperate scramble to offload players, banking profit to ensure their losses do not exceed £105 million.
Brighton in contrast came into the summer sitting on record-breaking profits for the 2022-23 season alone of £122.8 million, leaving the Seagulls with no PSR concerns.
This could have benefited the Albion in two ways. Firstly, by getting significant business done before June 30th whilst other clubs had their spending hands tied until the accounting period reset.
Secondly, the Albion could have picked the bones of those Premier League rivals needing to sell. Another club needs money to reduce losses. Brighton have plenty of cash on the hip.
Here is £20 million for your player you desperately need to sell to become PSR compliant and avoid a future points deduction. Like those suffered by Everton and Nottingham Forest last season. Pleasure doing business with you.
Except it has not worked out like that. Clubs with PSR concerns have colluded in a number of controversial swap deals helping to reduce their losses.
Aston Villa are paying £37.5 million for Ian Maatsen from Chelsea, giving the Blues a huge profit to show on their books immediately.
In return, Chelsea are buying 18-year-old midfielder Omari Kellyman from Villa for £19 million. Villa therefore bank a big profit of their own for a teenage academy player with only 148 minutes of first team football to his name.
When the talk was all about the genius of Tony Bloom in setting Brighton up as the club with the most spending power going into the summer, nobody was expecting creative accounting to help PSR-threatened clubs circumnavigate the rules.
And now it feels as though said clubs are only willing to negotiate with themselves for PSR reasons, in effect locking Brighton out of the market.
Having failed to sign Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall from Leicester City in January, the Albion must have been confident of getting their man at the second time of asking thise summer. Instead, Chelsea have hijacked the deal at the 11th hour.
What should have been a prime example of club with PSR worries – Leicester – reducing their losses by selling to Brighton has resulted in a long-term Albion target moving to Stamford Bridge.
The emergence of swap deals though does not fully explain why the Albion have not made the most of the advantage a lot of people thought the PSR deadline would give them.
There were six weeks between the 2023-24 season ending and the PSR deadline. Euro 2024 has played a part in the slow start to the transfer window.
But Brighton now enter the final 48 hours of June without having made a single addition in a period where most expected Bloom to put his apparent ambitious recruitment plans into action.
With the Dewsbury-Hall transfer seemingly deader than the Conservative Party’s election hopes, can the Albion get any other deals with PSR-threatened clubs done before Sunday night?
One potentially intriguing option is Newcastle United winger Yakubu Minteh. The Saudi Sportswashers are looking to sell the highly rated 19-year-old for big profit on the £6 million they paid one year ago, slapping a £40 million price tag on his head.
Minteh spent 2023-24 on loan with Feyenoord, where he scored 10 goals and registered six assists from out wide.
He was almost involved in one of those aforementioned controversial swap deals. Newcastle held talks with Everton over the sale of Minteh with Dominic Calvert-Lewin going the other way from Goodison Park to Tyneside. No agreement could be made on Calvert-Lewin leaving Everton though and so the transfer collapsed.
Newcastle still need to sell before June 30th. Lyon and Marseille have emerged as potential destinations for Minteh. According to Andy Naylor, Brighton also have a long-standing interest.
The Albion would probably need to pay in excess of the £30 million club-record fee forked out for Joao Pedro last summer.
Whether Brighton believe that is good business for a teenager off the back of blistering form in the Danish Superliga and a good season for Feyenoord remains to be seen.
Bloom and the Albion never pay over the odds. Nor are they likely to panic buy, even with the PSR deadline looming.
Hopefully, they have an ace up their sleeve before Sunday night. Otherwise, the financial advantage expected to improve Brighton’s squad and elevate the club back into European contention may end up being no advantage at all.
