Is the Premier League ready for Simon Adingra?
The Albion are back for pre-season and that means loads of photos of the players going through their drills at the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre. Normally, a load of blokes running around a field is not much to get excited about. But then Simon Adingra popped up in full Brighton training kit and, well…
Adringa has followed what is from now on going to be known as the Kaoru Mitoma Pathway. Mitoma was signed for £2.7 million from J-League side Kawasaki Frontale in the summer of 2021 and loaned immediately to Union Saint-Gilloise for a season.
Likewise, Adingra. Bought for £6 million from Danish outfit FC Nordsjaelland, he then spent the 2022-23 campaign in Brussels with Tony Bloom’s Belgian side.
Brighton have already confirmed that Simon Adingra will be part of Roberto De Zerbi’s first team squad in 2023-24, which will hardly come as a surprise given the numbers he put up with Union.
Numbers which have Albion supporters very excited, hence the reaction to the first image of Adingra on the training ground in Brighton kit.
In 51 matches in all competitions for Union, Adingra contributed 15 goals and 15 assists. Mitoma in his year in Belgium played 29 times, scored eight goals and assisted four.
Don’t worry if your maths is not all that, we have done the sums for you. Mitoma averaged a goal every 3.6 games and an assist evert 7.2 Adingra’s numbers are better for both, one goal per 3.4 appearances and one assist per 3.4.
If Adingra has delivered a better season in the Jupiler League than Mitoma managed, and Mitoma was such a success in the Premier League, imagine how good Adingra could be in England.
Such comparisons are of course not an absolute science. Deniz Undav for example managed 27 goals and 13 assists in 41 matches for Union in the 2021-22 campaign.
Undav struggled at first in English football, although there were signs that he was finding his feet in the final month of 2022-23 with five goals from eight appearances.
What that shows us is that some players need time to adapt to the Premier League. For Undav, it took the best part of nine months and a startlingly honest interview in which he said he had not found a single kebab or sausage he liked in England.
Hopefully, Adingra discovers his favourite foods for sale somewhere in Brighton & Hove to ease his acclimatisation to life in the Premier League.
Anyway, let us forget about Undav and the fact he has clearly never had the mixed shish kebab from Ali Baba in Southwick Square.
Simon Adingra is back in Brighton. 😎🇨🇮 pic.twitter.com/9qrA3BYrLI
— Brighton & Hove Albion (@OfficialBHAFC) July 6, 2023
Comparing Adingra with Mitoma rather than Undav is a more worthwhile exercise in any case. The reason being that they are exceptionally similar players.
Adingra was most frequently used as a left winger last season by Union. To watch some of his highlights is to see a player blessed with pace, balance and a willingness to run at full backs with the ultimate aim of cutting inside and making something happen with his favoured right foot. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
The good news for Adingra – and De Zerbi – is that he is versatile enough to play across the front line. If it were a case of Adingra and Mitoma fighting it out for a single spot on the left wing, then even with additional Europa League commitments for Brighton in 2023-24, one of them would be missing out on a lot of football.
15 of Adingra’s 51 appearances for Union came as a central striker. He was also used on occasions down the right during his year in Brussels. With Nordsjaelland, Adingra’s time was split almost equally between left wing and right wing.
All of this suggests that Adingra does not appear to be in direct competition with Mitoma; if anything, he looks like a Leandro Trossard replacement with the ability to fulfil almost any forward role.
Where De Zerbi sees best to use him will be fascinating. Facundo Buonanotte looked a square peg in a round hole deputising for Solly March on the right at the end of last season; Adingra would be a much better fit there.
Or will he get a run of games through the middle? Brighton look well blessed for forward options for the first time since Glenn Murray, Tomer Hemed and Sam Baldock were tearing up the Championship.
Danny Welbeck brings experience and intelligence. Undav has belatedly settled. Evan Ferguson is one of the hottest young strikers in Europe right now. And there is £30 million signing Joao Pedro to fit in somewhere, either as a central striker or number 10.
Finally, a word on one number from Adingra’s 2022-23 season that has been quietly overlooked in all the giddiness over his goals and assists exceeding Mitoma’s for Union.
To play 51 matches in a single campaign is a phenomenal effort. 30 of those were in the Jupiler League and six in Belgium’s weird end of season playoffs nobody can seem to make head nor tail of.
Four in the Belgian Cup, two in Champions League qualifying and nine in the Europa League. With Brighton about to embark on their own Europa League adventure, De Zerbi needs a deep squad and players who can handle the workload. Adingra has proven he can do that.
The Albion already enjoy a stellar reputation for finding young gems with potential from across the world, polishing them into diamonds and then selling them on for mega fees.
Simon Adingra has the potential to be the next cab off the rank at Brighton. How else do you explain getting so excited over a pre-season training photo…
