Brighton

[The_Rev]

Yeah, they probably roll their eyes at bit at Villa because we are a bogey team for them (they've beaten us once in about 40 years and  we cost them the Championship title in the last minute of the entire season)  but that's about it.  

 

Their run in is brutal too.  From the FA Cup semi to the final day of the season sees them playing 10 games in 35 days,  and during those games they've got to play the top four, including Manchester United twice, the bottom three and us.  The only "on the beach"  opposition they'll have is Wolves but every other game between now and May 28th is against someone who really needs the points.  

[rjw63]

Yeah, I can see the custard bowl nobbers bending over and giving Brighton easy lubricated access.

[Keyblade]

4 hours ago, Tommo_b said:

Completely disagree with this, Brighton fans don’t care about us at all and certainly not jealous. Plus only really got one forum they use, North Stand Chat. 

That's the one I read. They're so cynical on there. 

You remember how in the Championship, fans of other teams suddenly became accountants and were obsessed with our spending and financing? Seems like you can count Brighton fans in that.

Lots of jibes about our spending, which is weird because they've spent quite a bit too since promotion. It's almost like people forget how much crap they bought in the Hughton years. It's like they think because they've unearthed some good players recently and sold them for big profit that they're basically Bournemouth and haven't spent much.

[Villatillidie95]

So they have agreed a deal with Watford to sign Jao Pedro for £30 million at the end of the season, which is unusually pricey for them. They are also getting Milner in on a free and will probably sell Caicedo and Mac Allister for £100 million. Some of their fans and players are worried that Di Zerbi wants to go back to Italy to take the Inter Milan job. Read an article mentioning that he has begun to get used to the idea of data driven recruitment but that he also believes in the old school method of watching the player live, assessing in person if that person has the characteristics to play for him and will fit in.

[Tomaszk]

2 hours ago, Villatillidie95 said:

So they have agreed a deal with Watford to sign Jao Pedro for £30 million at the end of the season, which is unusually pricey for them. They are also getting Milner in on a free and will probably sell Caicedo and Mac Allister for £100 million. Some of their fans and players are worried that Di Zerbi wants to go back to Italy to take the Inter Milan job. Read an article mentioning that he has begun to get used to the idea of data driven recruitment but that he also believes in the old school method of watching the player live, assessing in person if that person has the characteristics to play for him and will fit in.

This is what all well run, well off clubs do! Especially ones like Brighton.

[Villatillidie95]

2 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

This is what all well run, well off clubs do! Especially ones like Brighton.

It was interesting reading because it implied that they weren't going out to watch the players as much previously, if at all, and merely went off the data. Di Zerbi mixing it up will only be a positive though. I think he was basically saying that sometimes you should complement the data with the old school method and other times, disregard the data if your intuition/in person observation is not up to the standard.

[Tomaszk]

11 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said:

It was interesting reading because it implied that they weren't going out to watch the players as much previously, if at all, and merely went off the data. Di Zerbi mixing it up will only be a positive though. I think he was basically saying that sometimes you should complement the data with the old school method and other times, disregard the data if your intuition/in person observation is not up to the standard.

Regarding some of the players they've signed, it's probably a matter of needing to move quickly to get them. I'm sure they'd love to watch a player they like 10 times, but if Benfica and Udinese are also right there looking to get the player as well, you have to go for it. Plus, at pretty much every professional level you can watch hours of video of these players, that'll have been done thoroughly with every single signing.

When Leverkusen signed Piero Hincapie they did so without seeing him live. They didn't want to, but it was a case of trust all their data and video, or miss out on the player totally. I think he's probably now worth five or six times what they paid.

If a senior scout or whoever goes to watch a player and comes away with negative thoughts because of something they've seen that was missed, I would imagine a club would have huge reservations about moving forward.

[It's Your Round]

Outside of the games at Villa Park and the Amex, has anyone ever met a Brighton fan? I haven’t, and although I believe they do exist, they’re not in great numbers. 

[Vancvillan]

12 minutes ago, It's Your Round said:

Outside of the games at Villa Park and the Amex, has anyone ever met a Brighton fan? I haven’t, and although I believe they do exist, they’re not in great numbers. 

I know one. He lives in Portugal. Makes it even more confusing.

[Tommo_b]

2 hours ago, It's Your Round said:

Outside of the games at Villa Park and the Amex, has anyone ever met a Brighton fan? I haven’t, and although I believe they do exist, they’re not in great numbers. 

I live in Brighton, see them everywhere

[KAZZAM]

Shocked they are getting Milner in tbh. He's always looked bit of a clogger in recent Liverpool games. 

Thought Milner would end up back at Leeds in the championship or sommat. 

[Villatillidie95]

I thought Milner would have made a good signing for Burnley and would have got plenty of game time, think he would have fit in well there in a footballing side and obviously worked with Kompany before and some guaranteed goals and assists for first season back in the prem. Don't think he will get so much game time at Brighton but they seem to value experience in the dressing room as they have Lallana also who dosent play every game due to injury and seem to be happy enough with him. He is also from the North West isnt he so that would have been a good move for them i reckon.

[avfc1982am]

Good chance they'll be in Europe next season. Milners experience will come in handy.

[Tommo_b]

Just signed Joa Pedro from Watford for club record. Seems a strange signing to me.

[duke313]

51 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

Just signed Joa Pedro from Watford for club record. Seems a strange signing to me.

A change in their recruitment policy it would seem. Probably thinking they will need more established players if they are to compete in the top half. This is where things can backfire for selling clubs if the player flops, Brighton can afford a £5m flop, but not a £30m one.

[VillaChris]

On 04/05/2023 at 07:38, It's Your Round said:

Outside of the games at Villa Park and the Amex, has anyone ever met a Brighton fan? I haven’t, and although I believe they do exist, they’re not in great numbers. 

I used to work with one who worked in their media department for 18 months. Believe it or not she actually supports Crystal Palace! (one of the most bizarre rivalries in football).

[VillaChris]

18 minutes ago, duke313 said:

A change in their recruitment policy it would seem. Probably thinking they will need more established players if they are to compete in the top half. This is where things can backfire for selling clubs if the player flops, Brighton can afford a £5m flop, but not a £30m one.

As said above they actually signed loads of players in 10-15m range when they were first promoted. Not too many were great successes but back then they were defensive first under Hughton until Potter evolved them into more of a possesion confident team.

Jose Izquierdo 16m- Actually did really well first season and got call up for 2018 World cup for Colombia but then picked up an injury and barely played for two years.

Raphael 12m- No idea on this one. Apparently signed him from FC Zurich in summer 2017.

Jurgen Locadia 14m- Flopped.

Bissouma 15m- Big success regardless of how he's done at Spurs.

Ali Jahanbakhsk 17m- Wasn't terrible but compare to Mitoma who signed for a tenth of that fee.....

Maupay 20m- Has plenty of critics but I thought he did a solid job at Brighton, tended to average 10 a season alternating with Welbeck which isn't a terrible return these days.

Webster 20m- Think we were linked to him in summer 2019 but I was sceptical given the amount we were signing from championship. He's been fantastic for them in back 3 and more standard defence so no doubt another Southgate will continue to ignore while calling up Dier and Maguire.

So Brighton are no strangers to forking out those sorts of fees. I can see them having a really good european run next season as their style will suit the competition so they'll probably drop a few places in the league with lack of strength in depth.

Will take many things to go wrong for them to be in a serious relegation battle. They're where Southampton were in about early 2014 and think their first brush was 2017/18 season so generally for solid mid table clubs it takes about three years of poor managerial appointments and signings in key areas to drop to bottom six of premier league.

[Villatillidie95]

I think as Pedro is only 21, they will be banking on the value increasing in future whilst they get a few years out of him, the data driven recruitment will have indicated him as someone who will do well in their system. If he develops into the player they hope he will be then someone will no doubt pay 60+ million for him in the next 5 years, they will then invest that money rather than ask tonybloom for more money. They are still massively in profit from player sales over the last few seasons so can afford to splash out once in a while

[VillaChris]

46 minutes ago, Villatillidie95 said:

I think as Pedro is only 21, they will be banking on the value increasing in future whilst they get a few years out of him, the data driven recruitment will have indicated him as someone who will do well in their system. If he develops into the player they hope he will be then someone will no doubt pay 60+ million for him in the next 5 years, they will then invest that money rather than ask tonybloom for more money. They are still massively in profit from player sales over the last few seasons so can afford to splash out once in a while

Pretty sure Newcastle were very close to signing Pedro last summer but couldn't agree a fee with Watford. Not sure if they'd have signed Isak on top so wonder how their season would've turned out as they needed Isak to step up when Wilson went through that dodgy spell after the World cup.

He's a cert to get some Brazil caps soon you'd imagine so that will increase his value by 15m straight away.

[HanoiVillan]

Pedro is a very good prospect and I don't think £30m is in any way excessive in 2023. It's mostly just surprising moves away kept faltering and he ended up staying at Watford all season.