[Albion] £100m January Warchest

[Hugo Rune]

Under Potter, we spent around £55m on recruitment in his first season moving on many players of note such as Andone, Knocky, Hemed, Balogun, Kayal, Locadia, Sutner and Towels.

That was more ‘revolution’ than ‘evolution’.

The figure in the title represents what I think Tony might invest (we’ve received £40m on Maupay and the management team alone in the last few weeks).

However, this is a very different squad. Surely the manager is coming in because he suits the current squad, not because he has (like Potter) the insight to rebuild it.

In essence then, the squad needs very little spending on it, it’s probably the on the future 25/26 squad where we’ll see the spending.

That said, who would Knuts or De Zerbi (the two interviewees for tomorrow*) want to bring in? Is there a Welbeck style forward coming in Aubameyang-to-Tuchel style? (Note: we’ve already grabbed Knuts’ Boniface for USG).


*based on pure speculation.

 

[macbeth]

should trossard leave in january would love to see de zerbi bring mykhaylo mudryk over from shakhtar. elsewhere, noah okafor from salzburg would be a lovely 'welbeck mk.ii'

 

[junior]

Love the fact the 'which striker will we sign in January' has already started, and can run now all the way until the end of January when we don't actually sign a striker.

 

[Hugo Rune]

should trossard leave in january would love to see de zerbi bring mykhaylo mudryk over from shakhtar. elsewhere, noah okafor from salzburg would be a lovely 'welbeck mk.ii'

From De Zerbi’s back catalogue…..

Welbeck mk.ii could be this youngster from Shakhtar:

https://youtu.be/AEBpvZkmXZQ

Left footed progressive centre back to replace Colwill when Potter snatches him back January:

https://youtu.be/cSfKzLt5KpI

And maybe another giant keeper to apply more pressure to Sanchez:

https://youtu.be/Q3TrwqTA2bc

Sorry Shakhtar……I’ve got asset stripping on the brain for some reason!

 

[Hugo Rune]

Love the fact the 'which striker will we sign in January' has already started, and can run now all the way until the end of January when we don't actually sign a striker.

Better than this constant lamenting over Potter and Bruno et al which frankly, I’m growing increasingly tired of.

 

[Jolly Red Giant]

The recruitment under Potter was very good - and that has to be maintained. But the reality of the PL is that you have to spend a lot of money just to stand still. If you don't you might get away with it for a season or two - but eventually it will catch up with you in the ass.

On the upside - there are some good kids coming through - and if Ferguson fulfills his potential (which I believe he will) it will solve the most difficult problem that all PL clubs have - scoring goals. The only question then would be how long could Brighton hang on to him.

 

[Hugo Rune]

The recruitment under Potter was very good - and that has to be maintained. But the reality of the PL is that you have to spend a lot of money just to stand still. If you don't you might get away with it for a season or two - but eventually it will catch up with you in the ass.

On the upside - there are some good kids coming through - and if Ferguson fulfills his potential (which I believe he will) it will solve the most difficult problem that all PL clubs have - scoring goals. The only question then would be how long could Brighton hang on to him.

We mostly deal in ‘futures’ now rather than worrying about ‘standing still’. The ‘upside’ as you state it is out central transfer strategy. That is because, our teenage targets (from across the globe) need to have some world class potential for us to be interested.

 

[studio150]

We won't be spending anywhere near £100m in January, I would expect any transfers will be on a buy and immediate loan back to summer 2023.
Any main targets will be left to the summer,

 

[El Presidente]

If we ignore the £1m a week the club lost during 2019/20 and 2020/21 the £100m spend is a piece of cake

 

[Blues Guitarist]

should trossard leave in january would love to see de zerbi bring mykhaylo mudryk over from shakhtar. elsewhere, noah okafor from salzburg would be a lovely 'welbeck mk.ii'

Okafor would be a good fit for Brighton. He's been transformed since Salzburg moved him from midfield to the forward line. He's in a rich vein of form, having scored in his last three games (including the Champions League match against Milan) and he provided the assist for Sesko's winning goal against Liverpool in the pre-season friendly.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

As El Pres implies, anyone that thinks there is a £100m so called 'war chest' to spend on players is deluded. That money will mostly cover last seasons losses. The whole idea is to buy low and sell high to make the club financially sustainable.

 

[jcdenton08]

(Note: we’ve already grabbed Knuts’ Boniface for USG).

Absolute filth.

 

[Perkino]

As El Pres implies, anyone that thinks there is a £100m so called 'war chest' to spend on players is deluded. That money will mostly cover last seasons losses. The whole idea is to buy low and sell high to make the club financially sustainable.

We always buy someone who is first team ready. Estupinan, Gilmour, Undav, Cucurella, Mwepu all purchased within the last 12-15 months. Most cost £10-15m each. I think we will buy some but would be surprised if we breached £50m in total, obviously not including the few £5-9m talents that we add to the academy

 

[Justice]

As El Pres implies, anyone that thinks there is a £100m so called 'war chest' to spend on players is deluded. That money will mostly cover last seasons losses. The whole idea is to buy low and sell high to make the club financially sustainable.

True, but you don’t really want to run a PL club in the black.

 

[The Fits]

We will not be spending 100 million in January.

 

[El Presidente]

True, but you don’t really want to run a PL club in the black.

There’s possibly a sweet spot between £1m a week losses and running the club in the black though.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

If we ignore the £1m a week the club lost during 2019/20 and 2020/21 the £100m spend is a piece of cake

Ask the expert time...
How do the club view the Covid losses?
Is this something which needs to be paid off (loans etc) or is it just a loss within that ficscal year to be covered by TB?

 

[Vicar!]

I fear for our midfield in the next window. I guess the refurb will start there.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

Ask the expert time...
How do the club view the Covid losses?
Is this something which needs to be paid off (loans etc) or is it just a loss within that ficscal year to be covered by TB?

I'm far from an expert, but recent sales are in that ballpark.

I'm also someone who doesn't know Tony personally and doesn't have a backdoor into his thought process on this. But I've watched and listened over the years and what I think he wants is sustainability. I think (and it's of course a guess) that he is happy he's not getting the one off costs, like Covid, the stadium and training facility back. But what he doesn't want is to be losing £50m+ per year and have those losses structured in.

I'm also pretty confident he doesn't view it in one year cycles, so if one year we lose £30m and one year we gain £30m, that's the normal slings and arrows of running a football club. The loans which we take are to help with cashflow and as someone who runs a property business, in which cash becomes available at a much slower timeframe than you need it to be able to successfully run a football club, that makes sense.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

The only thing I'd add is that we've been pretty lucky to have a manager who doesn't outwardly insist on transfers. Our bargaining position has taken a knock.

Any manager who has a choice of clubs, is very likely to be asking for assurances on transfer (and players wages) budget. We can explain our model all we like, but it's a tougher sell to a prospective manager than at other clubs, where their chairmen are likely to be making incredible promises of future spending.