With two weeks still to go before the summer 2024 transfer window closes, it is too soon to make any definitive assessment of how Brighton have performed.
Indeed that assessment may only come once the 2024-25 season has ended. What cannot be questioned is Tony Bloom’s commitment to spending.
The Albion are set to hit the unbelievable mark of £200 million in new signings, leaving some supporters like myself struggling to keep up!
With the new campaign about to get underway and more signings apparently on the way, now seems like a good time to try and catch up with the significant reshaping of the squad seen so far.
Midfield has undergone a particular transformation. Moises Caicedo and Alexis Mac Allister went last year.
The sad departure of Pascal Gross and the likely signing of Billy Gilmour by Napoli left the club asking a lot of young Carlos Baleba and grizzled veteran James Milner.
Of course, many of the existing squad are capable of playing in different positions. And a lot of the new signings are equally versatile, giving them the ability to fill in the gaps left by Caicedo, Mac Allister, Gross and potentially Gilmour being sold.
Pinning down a players position is like nailing jelly to a wall in the days of tactically adept coaches like Roberto de Zerbi and Fabian Hürzeler.
Feyenoord are the club the Albion has done most business with this summer, signing 24-year-old Netherlands midfielder Mats Wieffer to boost the Dutch contingent alongside Bart Verbruggen, Jan Paul Van Hecke and Joel Veltman.
Wieffer impressed in the Villareal game after a slightly shaky start against QPR a week earlier. His fee is believed to have been around £25 million.
In the opposite direction, Ghanaian winger Ibrahim Osman has joined Feyenoord on a season long loan.
Osman was signed in the January window from Nordsjaelland for £16 million and the size of the fee meant most Albion fans assumed he would become a part of the first team squad.
Many were excited at the prospect of seeing Osman play, but the 19 year old needs game time and with a lot of competition in wide positions, he was unlikely to get that at the Amex.
Osman will hopefully enjoy similar success in Rotterdam to fellow winger Yankuba Minteh, who spent last season on loan at De Kuip from Newcastle.
He then joined Brighton for around £33 million having never featured for the Saudi-owned Geordie side.
The 20-year-old Gambian is already scoring goals and staking out a place in the starting eleven. Clearly a huge talent, let’s not vote for him to be Player of the Season in April, eh?
Like Minteh, Amario Cozier-Duberry signed from the up-and-coming ranks of our Premier League rivals, in his case Arsenal.
Kept out of the first team by Bukayo Saka, a player many have compared him with, the 19-year-old has played around 20 times for England international youth sides after joining the Gunners academy at Hale End in 2019.
Another winger, Cozier-Dubbery showed in Japan why many rate him highly. I predict his free transfer will be the bargain of the summer for us and maybe the entire Premier League.
18-year-old central midfielder Malick Yalcouye is another prospect, signed for £6 million from IFK Gothenburg.
However, it is thought the Mali-born player is likely to join our loan army for the coming season as he develops.
Anyone who has watched compilation reels of Brajan Gruda will be very excited indeed to see what he can do.
The 20-year-old German winger joins from Mainz for £25 million after a successful season in the Bundesliga, where he impressed Fabian Hurzeler.
But for a calf injury, he was expected to graduate to the full German national side for the Euros this summer, and deservedly so.
Very likely to join Gruda in coming through the door sometime very soon is Turkish all-rounder Ferdi Kadioglu from Istanbul giants Fenerbahce.
Kadioglu can seemingly play literally anywhere, although he has been most commonly used in midfielder or at full back. He appears an obvious replacement for the Gross-sized hole in the squad.
The 24-year-old is highly valued by fans and management of the Yellow Canaries, but seems intent on making his mark in the Premier League.
Although starting as a Netherlands youth international having been born in Arnhem, Kadioglu was in the Turkish squad for the Euros. He would be a huge signing having been eyed by clubs including Manchester United.
Another potential Gross replacement is Celtic midfielder Matt O’Riley. Despite the Irish name and having been born in Hounslow, he is a 24-year-old Danish international having opted to play for the country where his mother was born.
Albion’s interest was enough to make the front cover of Scotland’s Daily Record, but the signing of Brajan Gruda for a similar position and fee now makes that less likely.
Julio Enciso’s Paraguayan teammate Diego Gomez has long been rumoured to be on the Albion’s target list, though the 21 year old midfielder is committed to Inter Miami till the end of the MLS season in December.
It was confirmed on Thursday that Brighton have activated the £40 million release clause in the contract of Leeds forward Georginio Rutter. If/when persona terms are agreed, Rutter would become the Albion’s record signing.
There was brief excitement last week over the possible signing of Mats Hummels, the veteran Bayern Munich and Germany centre back on a free transfer, after Fabian Hürzeler’s confirmation of talks.
However, there would be competition both from bigger clubs, a high wage bill and the desire of the 35-year-old to retire after an illustrious career in the Bundesliga.
Of course, other signings may well be in the pipeline, far below the radar of people like Fabrizio Romano.
I would expect at least one of the possibles, probably Kadioglu, to happen. Shrewd spending and selling put the Albion in a prime position to compete under the new Profit and Sustainability Rules this season, with clubs like Newcastle being forced to sell prospects such as Minteh.
Splashing all this cash incredibly means the Albion are in the top eight in Europe for summer transfer spend, above Paris Saint Germain, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Arsenal and ironically De Zerbi’s new club Marseille.
Would De Zerbi have been more inclined to try and put aside his differences with Bloom and Paul Barber if he knew how much Brighton were prepared to spend? We will probably never know.
Although offset by income from outgoings – not least Todd Bohely’s £115 million for Caicedo and millions more for Graham Potter, Robert Sanchez and others over the past two years – that is an enormous and ambitious investment by Bloom in a young squad ready to challenge for Europe again.
Of course there is always the risk of big clubs with bottomless cheque books pouncing for the likes of Joao Pedro or Kaoru Mitoma before the 31st, but overall the view from this summer’s transfer window so far is excellent.
Warren Morgan @WarrenBHAFC
