Brighton’s transfer window: Caicedo conundrum, keeping Colwill and Sanchez’s grumbles

Brighton & Hove Albion’s renowned forward planning has been highlighted by their preparations for the extra demands of competing in the Europa League as well as domestically next season.

Although the summer transfer window doesn’t officially open until this Wednesday, four deals have already been done.

The signing of 21-year-old Brazilian forward Joao Pedro from Championship side Watford for a club-record fee of £30million ($37.7m) was announced on May 5, and 2022 World Cup-winning Argentina midfielder Alexis Mac Allister completed a move to Liverpool last week in a deal worth up to £55m.

Two further additions to the squad are in place, although they have not yet been confirmed officially by the club.

The arrivals of multi-tasking 37-year-old James Milner and Mahmoud Dahoud, 27, on free transfers from Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund respectively, will increase the midfield options for head coach Roberto De Zerbi after losing Mac Allister.

It’s just the start of what will be a hectic couple of months at the Amex Stadium, with more players coming in and one or two more probably leaving in the Italian’s first summer transfer window at the club before the September 1 deadline.

Past three summer window spends

2022: £40m (Pervis Estupinan, Julio Enciso, Billy Gilmour, Simon Adingra; Levi Colwill loan from Chelsea)
2021: £46m (Kaoru Mitoma, Jeremy Sarmiento, Marc Cucurella, Enock Mwepu, Abdallah Sima, Kjell Scherpen)
2020: £15m (Adam Lallana, Joel Veltman, Jan Paul van Hecke, Jakub Moder, Andi Zeqiri, Michal Karbownik)

How much money is likely to be available this summer?

Impossible to say, because that partly depends on whether Moises Caicedo leaves or not.

The new contract signed by the Ecuador midfielder in March — which runs until June 2027 with the option, on the club’s end, of a further year — doesn’t contain the type of mechanism included in the deal Mac Allister put pen to paper on last October, which helped to facilitate his move to Liverpool.

Brighton will expect more than Arsenal’s £70million bid in January to be offered for them to contemplate losing Caicedo, whose defensive skill set is rare, and makes it harder for them to cope with losing him than Mac Allister’s exit.

Irrespective of what happens, owner-chairman Tony Bloom will give De Zerbi as much support as possible without driving a coach and horses through the club’s well-established policy of ensuring that transfer fees paid out are aligned with the second lowest wage bill in the Premier League.

It’s not about spending big for Brighton so much as spending smartly.

Who makes the key decisions over signings?

Ultimately, it’s De Zerbi. Brighton won’t sign a player he doesn’t want.

Bloom’s unique data model will help to identify targets who are good fits for the head coach’s style of play.

De Zerbi initially brought in Salvatore Monaco as assistant head of recruitment in October, shortly after succeeding Graham Potter, who took several members of backroom staff with him to Chelsea. Some tensions were created in De Zerbi’s first transfer window with Brighton in January because their process of player recruitment is different from the way a lot of clubs operate.

Chief executive Paul Barber says: “What we don’t do, in the way that other clubs do, is charge around the world, constantly watching matches looking at players, which is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. What we try and do is focus on the areas for improvement, focus on the players that we feel can fill that gap and then send our eyes, our scouts, to look specifically at those players.

“We don’t tend to do what some scouts do around the world, which is constantly circle the world looking. I think that was more Salvatore’s, sort of, previous style of operating.”

De Zerbi, having grasped the set-up, sanctioned Monaco’s exit in April.

Technical director David Weir and head of recruitment Sam Jewell will play leading roles in relation to signings, while Barber primarily takes care of departures.

Which positions are the priority?

Cover and competition are needed at left-back for Pervis Estupinan. Right-back is an issue as well, should Tariq Lamptey leave (Sporting Lisbon wanted him on loan in January). That would leave only Joel Veltman for that role. One of the many reasons for signing free-agent Milner is that he made nearly half (44 per cent) of his 332 appearances for Liverpool as either a left-back or, less frequently, a right-back.

Yasin Ayari, 19, was bought from AIK of Stockholm, Sweden in January, with the potential in the long-term to succeed Caicedo. And if the South American does leave, there will be the scope for further midfield reinforcements.

It’s also worth bearing in mind how many midfield options (defensive, orthodox and attacking) there are for De Zerbi on the books currently that haven’t been available to him regularly so far because of injuries/loans, and the presence of Mac Allister and Caicedo — Adam Lallana, Billy Gilmour, Jeremy Sarmiento, Jakub Moder, Steven Alzate and Kacper Kozlowski.

Who are known or plausible targets?

A move was made in January for Ukraine’s left-sided centre-back Mykola Matviyenko, who played under De Zerbi at Shakhtar Donetsk in the 2021-22 season.

While he has signed a new contract at Shakhtar that runs until December 2027, that won’t necessarily rule the 27-year-old out of Brighton’s thinking if Plan A — turning Levi Colwill’s just-ended season-long loan from Chelsea into a permanent move — doesn’t come to fruition.

Who is an outside name to keep an eye on?

Tino Livramento.

Brighton were keen on the England Under-21 right-back when he joined Southampton from Chelsea two summers ago.

He’s only recently returned to action after 14 months out with an ACL knee injury sustained playing against Brighton at the Amex. While that’s a bit off-putting, Livramento is still only 20, has lots of potential and there’s less reason for him to stay at Southampton after their relegation to the Championship.

Who could be heading out?

Caicedo apart, the situation regarding Robert Sanchez is up in the air after he lost his starting place to Jason Steele and then refused to sit on the bench as No 2 goalkeeper towards the end of this season.

De Zerbi isn’t forcing him out, but Chelsea (yes, them again) could be prime candidates if Sanchez decides he wants to leave.

A move to Stamford Bridge would reunite the Spain international with Ben Roberts, Brighton’s former goalkeeping coach. They had a close bond when they worked together here.

Chelsea are also understood to be targeting Caicedo. Factoring Colwill into the equation as well, there could be plenty of activity with the west Londoners for the second summer running.

It was this time last year that left-sided Spanish defender Cucurella went to Stamford Bridge in a deal that could earn Brighton £63million. He was followed a month later by head coach Potter and five of his backroom staff, including Roberts, after Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel.

(Top photos: Getty Images)