The WAB Brighton January 2020 Transfer Deadline Day Live Blog
Welcome to our Brighton and Hove Albion January transfer deadline day live blog, where we’ll be keeping you up to date with all the latest on one of the maddest days in the football calendar.
Today represents the final opportunity that clubs across England have to buy and sell players in 2019-20. Signings made today can often make or break a season and given that Brighton seem to be slipping towards the Championship currently, this January deadline day could be one of the most important that we’ve had for some time.
We don’t yet have the technology to make this page automatically refresh, so if you’re sticking with us all day – and there’ll be no announcements of “international strikers” (brought to you by eToro) only for it to be a women – then please hit F5 every now and again for updates
17:38 – Brighton recall Jurgen Locadia from Hoffenheim
The pieces are in motion for Jurgen Locadia’s January deadline day move from Brighton to the mighty FC Cincinnati. The Dutch striker has been recalled by the Albion from his loan at Hoffenheim.
Brighton will now re-register him as a Premier League player which will then in facilitate his move to the MLS. He won’t end up breaking the FIFA rule that states you can only register with two clubs in a single season because the MLS kicks off a new campaign in March, so technically it is a new season in North America.
FC Cincinnati are rumoured to be willing to pay £4 million for Locadia should the deal be a permanent one, so just the £10 million loss there.
No doubt Andy Naylor and Brian Owen will “understand the fee is significantly higher than that being quoted” as the Albion try to save face over what has turned out to be one almighty transfer cock up.
There could of course be another reason behind Locadia’s recall – Potter’s had a change of heart and wants to start him up front away at West Ham United tomorrow. The meltdown that it would cause would almost be worth paying his wages for another six months.
14:13 – Sky Sports News link Albion with striker Serhou Guirassy
Just a few hours after Andy Naylor brazenly told us that “The Athletic” understood that no new striker would be incoming… so Sky Sports News go and link us with a move for a striker.
The player in question is Amiens forward Serhou Guirassy. He’s 23 years old and has been linked with virtually every single club in the bottom half of the Premier League over the course of the last year.
Guirassy has five goals and one assist to his name in 17 Ligue 1 appearances to date, which isn’t exactly a great record from where we’re standing with an overall career record of 34 goals in 134 games for Cologne, Lille, Auxere, Amiens and Stade Lavallois.
Brighton were linked with him earlier in the window with a source saying he is “an interesting young player we’ve been aware of for a while” according to Naylor.
Given all the paper talk, he’s clearly got a very overexcited agent who is desperate to push him the Premier League’s way. Interestingly, his manager at Amiens is Luka Elnser who was employed by Tony Bloom as boss at Union Saint-Gilloise last season.
Who knows what’s going to happen with this one, but it’s certainly livened up a very dull lunch hour involving a brie and bacon panini at Costa. Their prices are nearly as disgraceful as the Amex’s £3.20 for a bag of Starburst.
11:25 – Andy Naylor says Brighton aren’t signing a striker
According to Andy Naylor, Brighton will NOT be bringing in a new striker this January deadline day after Graham Potter confirmed yesterday that Glenn Murray would be remaining with the club.
No striker will be signed by Brighton after @TheAthleticUK revealed yesterday Glenn Murray is staying. #BHAFC
Source says they've had an eye "on one or two, they're not available in this window." #BHAFC— Andy Naylor (@AndyNaylorBHAFC) January 31, 2020
This is either very bold or very stupid on the part of the Albion. Nobody needs reminding of our struggles for goals so far this season and all it takes is an injury or suspension to Neal Maupay, Aaron Connolly or Murray if he ever gets give a chance to play and we could be up a very famous creek without a steering device.
And even if all three remain fit, we’re still effectively down to two. Potter has talked about Murray’s quality and what he brings, but he hasn’t trusted him to start a game since September.
When Potter rotated his squad through December’s hectic schedule, he still didn’t give Murray a start.
Murray had a promising cameo away at Everton in which he was Brighton’s best attacker. Potter’s reaction? Given him nine minutes out of 180 in the next two must-win fixtures against Aston Villa and Bournemouth.
Brighton are gambling their Premier League future on goals coming from a 20-year-old in his first season of senior football who hasn’t notched since October, a striker with less than 20 games of top flight football under his belt and a geriatric in footballing terms who could probably still chip in with a few, but who the manager doesn’t rate anyway.
Hopefully Naylor’s got it wrong. Yes, we’ve been desperate for a centre forward since winning promotion to the Premier League in 2017, but never before have we looked so short in that department. It could be a long four months ahead.
10.29 – Alexis Mac Allister says his goodbyes to Boca Juniors
Drink it in, Seagulls fans. We’ve win a bidding war for our own player!
Via Google Translate #bhafc https://t.co/pKAh6QnaUh pic.twitter.com/8huNGQPvdk
— Sam Wilson (@MrSamWilson) January 31, 2020
09.38 – Jurgen Locadia heading Stateside?
Could it be goodbye to Jurgen Locadia? Reports from the United States are suggesting that the Dutch forward is set to move to MLS side FC Cincinnati.
Nobody seems to know whether this would be a permanent deal or a loan deal. Locadia has fallen from favour at Hoffenheim in recent weeks were he is currently on loan, playing just a handful of minutes since the Bundesliga returned from its winter break.
Despite this, there has been a growing clamour for Locadia to be recalled and thrown into the relegation battle. Apparently, a player who cannot get a start in a Bundesliga which is far weaker than the Premier League is in fact going to the be the goal scoring saviour we need to keep us up.
The fact that Locadia might be dropping as low as an MLS franchise who are only in the second season of their existence is telling about what he football world really thinks of his ability.
A move to America would probably suit all parties. FC Cincinnati get a player who should score goals at the level. Locadia gets a move to America where he can try and become the superstar music producer he’s always dream of being.
We got rid of a player who is taking up valuable wages on the wage bill. And when Locadia scores a hatful in the MLS, his supporters can tell us that his goals record in America proves that we were all wrong about him being rubbish.
While ignoring the fact that Bradley Wright-Phillips continually topped the scoring charts in the MLS.
06.56 – The Overnight Rumour Mill has been busy
Morning all. A January transfer window that had so far been quieter than Prince Andrew talking to the FBI suddenly sparked into life late last night for Brighton, meaning that we could be in for a busy deadline day.
Firstly, Gaetan Bong left the Albion to sign for Nottingham Forest. Bong has struggled for game time since Graham Potter’s arrival as manager and this was seemingly a move that suited all parties; Brighton get an undisclosed fee for a player who was out of contract in six months, Bong gets first team football which he needs at the age of 31 and Forest get a player who will be a solid addition to any Championship squad.
Bong posted an extremely heartfelt message on Twitter following his departure, expressing his love for the club and the fans.
Given that certain sections of those fans cheered him being substituted in his final appearance for the Albion against Sheffield Wednesday, Bong could have been forgiven for being relieved to get out of here. That he still went to the lengths to write a touching statement says everything about the man. A class act.
Have a bloody read of that
What a guy pic.twitter.com/eQw70bZnTi
— We Are Brighton (@wearebrighton) January 30, 2020
Onto potential signings and Brian Owen at The Argus was reporting late last night that his sources in Argentina claim a deal has been struck to end Alexis Mac Allister’s loan spell at Boca Juniors and bring him to England.
Brighton are rumoured to be paying £675,000, a quarter of which is dependent on us staying up. Only the Albion could find themselves in the position whereby we’re having to spend the final 48 hours of the January transfer window in a bidding war to sign one of our players.
A spectacular cock up, no matter how you look at it but one which thankfully might be heading towards a positive conclusion.
The other rumour doing the rounds is that Chelsea’s young right back Tariq Lamptey is set to sign for £6 million after turning down a new contract at Stamford Bridge.
19-year-old Lamptey had been in talks with Lille about signing a pre-contract agreement with the French side, which would have allowed him to walk out on the Blues for nothing this summer. According to The Sun, the Seagulls have swooped in with an offer which would mean Chelsea getting a fee and allow Lamptey to remain in England.
Lamptey is currently third choice in the pecking order at Chelsea behind Cesar Azpilicueta and Reece James. He’s looking to move to a club where he has a better chance of playing first team football, and presumably if we’re willing to make him our 10th most expensive signing of all time, he won’t be another youngster going straight into the development squad.
Lamptey has played once in the Premier League for Chelsea and it was a bloody impressive performance too, a half hour cameo as the Blues came from 1-0 behind to win 2-1 at Arsenal back in December.
Should he sign, we’d expect him to be challenging Martin Montoya and Steve Alzate for the right back slot. And while we’d prefer to be bringing in additions with Premier League experience to haul us out of the relegation fight, he does seem like a player with a lot of potential.
Whatever happens over the course of the day, you’ll be able to catch up with it all here. Apart from when EastEnders is on between 8pm and 8.30pm, obviously.
