The Premier League is a weird place. It’s made up of tiers with every club desperately trying to get into the tier above and avoid being pulled down. In order to climb tiers, normally one of three things happen: Spend a lot of money, have one player or one unit in the team suddenly take a massive leap or a series of smart moves in the transfer market.
Brighton & Hove Albion certainly fall into the latter category, in fact you could make a pretty solid argument that pound for pound the Seagulls are the best run club in the Premier League.
This trait has been a hallmark of owner Tony Bloom’s regime and looks to be in full effect this summer.
Two of Brighton’s best players, Yves Bissouma and Marc Cucurella are being linked with moves away from the club. Aston Villa’s interest in Bissouma has gone cold but reports suggest Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Newcastle United will all express their interest in the 25-year-old Mali international.
Bissouma signed for Brighton from Lille in the summer of 2018 for a fee of around £15 million and has grown and evolved into one of the best ball-winning midfielders in the Premier League.
Now reports suggest Brighton will look for a fee in the region of £30 million, over double what they paid for him.
Cucurella is a similar tale. Brighton saw the value in the defender/midfielder and triggered his release clause, again around £15m. Now they want circa £50 million if they are to let him leave given that he has been with Brighton for only one season. Premier League champions Manchester City are thought to be the front-runners, alongside Chelsea and Tottenham.
Both players have flourished under Graham Potter and while some would want Cucurella to spend one more year with the manager, it’s hard to argue that they’re not already prepared for a move to a bigger club.
Cucurella has shown that he is capable of thriving in the physically rigorous Premier League, and you know Pep Guardiola would love to manage someone like him. Signing Cucurella would allow Guardiola to utilise three central defenders more (the Spaniard can play as a wing-back or centre-back) and he can play at left-back which would allow Joao Cancelo to move back over to right-back. At Chelsea and Tottenham he would also be ideal in the systems that Thomas Tuchel and Antonio Conte want to play.
Depending on which of these two players, or any others leave, this will become the second summer of sales in Brighton’s “Moneyball” era even though they’ve been buying aggressively for closer to five. Despite some early misses, the machine is running very smoothly. After selling Dan Burn and Ben White for a combined £65m there will be more money coming in.
Some of that has already been spent. While not necessarily like-for-like replacements Moises Caicedo, Jakub Moder and Enock Mwepu were brought in for a combined £35m. Brighton could end up having three players for the price of Bissouma with change. Who would bet against one or more of that trio being sold for vast profit in a few years? Not us that’s for sure.
If Cucurella goes (which you’d imagine Brighton would push hard against) reports are linking them to Sergio Gomez of Anderlecht. The 21-year-old has flourished since leaving Borussia Dortmund last summer and has a good case for being one of the best players outside Europe’s top five leagues right now. He would fit seamlessly into Cucurella’s role and should help Brighton avoid getting hampered by losing too many key cogs.
You can imagine Brighton will have watched Gomez while keeping tabs on Belgian top scorer Deniz Undav, who they signed from Union SG (who have the same owner as Brighton) in January. Brighton are still looking for a long-term option up front despite the presence of Neal Maupay. It may or may not be Undav, but it’s certainly more smart business.
And it’s not just players. Oil-rich Newcastle made an aggressive approach for Dan Ashworth but Brighton simply promoted David Weir, who had been with the club’s scouting and personnel team since 2019. The continuity is there. Whilst there have been no reports, you have to imagine that there is a very clear succession plan when it comes to Potter.
What may come in terms of departures, Brighton will be prepared. They’ve always got a player on the timeline, whether they’re ready to immediately contribute or need a season or two to develop. They are the model of sustainability for clubs right now and a ninth-placed finish last season, ahead of a lot of clubs with bigger wage bills, is testament to their work.
One thing that must be pointed out when discussing Bissouma is that he is part of an ongoing police investigation. The arrest took place in October and whilst Bissouma was released pending investigation there hasn’t been an update since April.
A statement from Sussex Police on April 6 said: “A man in his forties from Brighton who was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault has had his conditional bail extended until Monday 6 June.
“A man in his twenties, also from Brighton, who was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault, has been released under investigation while inquiries continue.
“No further information is available at this time.”
Bissouma kept playing for Brighton and was released to play in the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations.
