As a Brighton fan, the comments here are an almost carbon-copy repeat of the Cucurella/Ben White threads on the Chelsea/Manchester City/Leeds forums. It’s very interesting to view other team’s opinions on our players, especially bigger teams than us like Manchester United.
Can I just clarify a few things about our club, to hopefully help a little with your understanding of how the Albion operate?
Our policy is essentially moneyball, we sign and develop these very promising young players by giving them a development plan into first team football. Ben White played one season of Premier League football - sold for £50m. Cucurella one season of PL football - sold for £60m.
Our chairman Tony Bloom has a policy of “nobody is for sale” with our best players. We don’t slap price tags on players, we simply reject bids until they become impossible to decline financially. Anything you read in the press about “Brighton demanding X figure” is clickbait nonsense.
Brighton rejected bids of £25m, then £30m from Leeds for Ben White, eventually getting double the original offer. We rejected a £30m bid from Manchester City, eventually getting double the original offer.
Which brings me to fan expectations of bigger clubs when it comes to securing our players. There is an expectation from some (not all) fans of clubs like United, that they just need to come in and make a bid with a price tag *they* feel is acceptable, and the deal will be done.
“Let’s just pay £30m and get Caicedo”.
This is never how it has worked with our club under Tony Bloom. Caicedo will not be available for £30m.
Even when Manchester City’s shenanigans trying to force a move (their manipulation of Fabrizio Romano via Cucurella’s agent) were apparent, and drew a transfer request from the player, Brighton’s transfer and contract policy completely protected them from lowball offers.
Brighton transfer policy is very clear, they offer long contracts (4-5 years), they do not allow release clauses, they do not allow buy-back clauses when purchasing or request them when selling. Every deal is a one and done, straight shot.
Whether it’s Manchester United, Real Madrid or PSG the policy is the same. We only sell if we don’t want the player, or if the offer becomes outrageous.
£30m, as an example given above by an optimistic poster, is not a realistic offer.
Caicedo, aged 20, with three years left on his deal, playing in the top league in the world, with no release clauses, with the club having no financial need or obligation to sell… realistically the transfer fee would be in the £60-80m region.
I know lots will know this already, but I’m already seeing the same comments repeating from the other forums. The days of big clubs going and taking talent from the “lesser” clubs for pennies is over I’m afraid guys.
So typical.
