[Albion] 2025 January Transfer Window OPEN - incoming/outgoing

[GT49er]

Naylor reporting that Yalcouye is NOT coming back in January. “Brighton considered triggering a January recall option in the versatile 19-year-old’s season-long loan with Sturm Graz before deciding to leave him with the Austrian Champions League participants for the remainder of the campaign.”

Just a thought - did his appearances in pre-season friendlies and the U21s in the former Paint Pot Trophy for us stop us moving him to a third club, due to the rule about not playing for three clubs in a season? Or do friendlies and U21 matches not count?

 

[pigmanovich]

Maybe paywalled, but just so you have a source link for that.

Last paragraph

Brighton’s Carlos Baleba is highly-rated – their strength in depth means they can plan for an exit

Brighton have exceptional depth in midfield, which can only impact plans for Baleba

www.nytimes.com

I used archive ph!

 

[Zeberdi]

This is f***ing crazy, Gyökeres mk2.

We've all seen what Evan can do when he's on it, many of us were there v Newcastle at home.

I'd suggest it's man management & confidence building that's main issue and thats on Hurzeler.

If Arteta still sees the player we know he can be, and thinks he can revive that talent, then shirley the issue is our management of him.

I want our Evan back not Out.

I disagree. We know his potential but he’s still coming back from longterm injury/illness and has needed to earn his place in the team again behind Danny.

But I don’t think we would be parting with any key players (and not any that are injured (if he really is) ) in the winter window unless we have an exceptionally good offer for him that makes it non-sensical to turn down - remember Arsenal with Caicedo last January? TB really doesn’t like to do business in January.

Also Ferguson’s injury issues will cause some concern for any club coming for him now and not in the summer - Arsenal/Man City/Liverpool will probably loan him out (which won’t appeal to Ferguson) and WHU will want a fit 9 to start immediately/by the end of the window.

 

[schmunk]

Just a thought - did his appearances in pre-season friendlies and the U21s in the former Paint Pot Trophy for us stop us moving him to a third club, due to the rule about not playing for three clubs in a season? Or do friendlies and U21 matches not count?

Friendlies do not count as "official matches" so would not prevent him playing for two other clubs, however I believe U21 Cup matches will count - that's only on my reading, so happy to be corrected by someone with more knowledge!

Reg 5.4: "Players may be registered with a maximum of three clubs during one season. During this period, a player is only eligible to play official matches for two clubs. As an exception to this rule, a player moving between two clubs belonging to associations with overlapping seasons (i.e. start of the season in summer/autumn as opposed to winter/spring) may be eligible to play in official matches for a third club during the relevant season, provided they have fully complied with their contractual obligations towards their previous clubs, and provided that the provisions relating to registration periods (article 6) and the minimum length of a contract (article 18 paragraph 2) are respected. Limitations as per this paragraph do not apply if a player wishes to be registered based on the exception as per article 6 paragraph 3 a). Competition Regulations for the FIFA Club World Cup™ may establish further exceptions."

Definition 5: "Official matches: matches played within the framework of organised football, such as national league championships, national cups and international championships for clubs, but not including friendly and trial matches."

Source (FIFA Regs):

https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/696d877ea35ca761/original/Regulations-on-the-Status-and-Transfer-of-Players-January-2025-edition.pdf

 

[Hotchilidog]

If Arsenal make us a ridiculous offer for Evan I could see it, but West Ham or Fulham no way. If he is good enough for them he should be playing for us. We currently have no fit dedicated CF getting rid of Ferguson would even have me questioning the club decision making.
If Evan does leave there has to be a replacement lined up, we are woefully short in the striker department, even if we do have goalscorer elsewhere in the squad.

 

[Hiheidi]

 

[Han Solo]

This is f***ing crazy, Gyökeres mk2.

We've all seen what Evan can do when he's on it, many of us were there v Newcastle at home.

I'd suggest it's man management & confidence building that's main issue and thats on Hurzeler.

If Arteta still sees the player we know he can be, and thinks he can revive that talent, then shirley the issue is our management of him.

I want our Evan back not Out.

Hi. Here's the other essay you didn't ask for.

Evan Ferguson has been playing more football than he deserves and less than he needs so some kind of solution needs to be found for him. If Arsenal are willing to pay I think we're willing to listen. £30m-£40m might be his price tag now and it is almost pure profit given that he came young and for little money.
The current financial rules in the Premier League gives financial-competitive advantages for selling your academy players and buying the fancy one you wants and while that is horseshit, it is also the reality we're dealing with.

If Evan has another year like the one he has had, his value drops to the bottom, we wouldn't be able to get £10m for a player who is always injured or not playing well. Sure, if he comes back and is as good as when he broke through, we might have a £100m+ player. But the club needs to take a qualified guess/decision on the likelihood of that happening.

The other realistic option (Evan staying probably isn't one unless his injury is bad) is a loan, which is a potentially very benefical but also very risky business.
From a business perspective I can see the club selling him if Arsenal asks "£35m + £10m bonuses?". Absolutely - its a gamble for everyone but its a guaranteed win for Brighton.

Its a bit sad the whole thing around Evan. He needs to perform like everyone else and he has not, but I don't feel club and country has made it easy for him.
Playing him on painkilling injections when he's already been poor for several months. Given lots of football by a manager (RDZ) that didn't really seem to like him all that much. Not going on a loan either last January or especially this summer when adding a ton of new players.

It is easy to just blame De Zerbi for it; playing him when injured, taking a piss on him in some comments. That kind of stuff. At the same time, De Zerbi is of course required to play academy players like Graham Potter was and Hurz may or may not be, it is a club policy (academy players needs to be given at least x amount of minutes) and quite possibly written in their contracts either as necessities or bonus worthy.

Thats normally something you have to keep in mind and when one of Dunk and March gets a long term injury, someone needs to eat the amount of minutes given to them. Hinshelwood gets quite a few and then gets injured and a not particularly fit or well-playing Fergie is suddenly eating more minutes than he deserves.
And there's just so much a manager can do. Pop in the odd Offiah or Peupion... well.

The academy is excellent and producing some top players but not to the extent that you can tell the academy minutes eating goalkeeper (Robert Sanchez) to f*** off for Jason Steele, not looking at Alzate and get some very long term injuries and then get away with it without playing players who shouldn't be playing Premier League football for one reason or another.

Last season we came down to a scenario where either a maybe non-fit non-deserving but Premier League-compatible Evan eats the minutes or play some kid who maybe wouldn't be starting if loaned out to League One or Two. And since the latter isn't really fair to the team, the kid, the people watching, Zerbian dreams of going to Barca - you go with the first one.

(all of this is of course unless this policy was abandoned at some point)

And then Ireland putting in their present fortunes in his hands... also not very fair.

Evan is young, has some very good qualities and should become a top player but a lot of things, including possibly Evan himself, and circumstances has been working against him in the last year. Zooming out it looks like everyone might have f***ed up a little bit. Maybe things are a little broken.
Or maybe Danny Welbeck is God and difficult to outcompete, I wouldn't bin that theory either.

TLDR: If Arsenal comes along with a bag of money for Evan, we might do business.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

Sturm Graz belting ahead at the top of the Austrian Bundesliga, means we’ve triggered a recall option I suppose but it doesn’t sound like he’ll be replacing anyone too soon and may go back out for another loan spell at the end of the season or even be sold prematurely.

I used to compare the Austrian Bundesliga to Scottish football, but I think I was being overly generous to Austrian football.

This year, RB Salzburg, Sturm Graz and LASK have all won just 3 points each in European competitions, with Rapid Vienna doing better with 13 points in the Conference. Meanwhile Celtic have 9, Rangers have 11 Hearts have 7 points.

So this suggests that Malick Yalcouye's development might be better at Brighton, or in a more competitive league.

 

[Han Solo]

I used to compare the Austrian Bundesliga to Scottish football, but I think I was being overly generous to Austrian football.

This year, RB Salzburg, Sturm Graz and LASK have all won just 3 points each in European competitions, with Rapid Vienna doing better with 13 points in the Conference. Meanwhile Celtic have 9, Rangers have 11 Hearts have 7 points.

So this suggests that Malick Yalcouye's development might be better at Brighton, or in a more competitive league.

The Austrian league is definitely better than the Scottish.

Sure, in retrospect maybe he should have gone to a higher level loan immediately. But he has been moving around a lot in the last two years, is playing games and seemingly happy... could be worse. Not a thrilling decision but seems reasonable enough.

 

[Zeberdi]

Hi. Here's the other essay you didn't ask for.

Evan Ferguson has been playing more football than he deserves and less than he needs so some kind of solution needs to be found for him. If Arsenal are willing to pay I think we're willing to listen. £30m-£40m might be his price tag now and it is almost pure profit given that he came young and for little money.
The current financial rules in the Premier League gives financial-competitive advantages for selling your academy players and buying the fancy one you wants and while that is horseshit, it is also the reality we're dealing with.

If Evan has another year like the one he has had, his value drops to the bottom, we wouldn't be able to get £10m for a player who is always injured or not playing well. Sure, if he comes back and is as good as when he broke through, we might have a £100m+ player. But the club needs to take a qualified guess/decision on the likelihood of that happening.

The other realistic option (Evan staying probably isn't one unless his injury is bad) is a loan, which is a potentially very benefical but also very risky business.
From a business perspective I can see the club selling him if Arsenal asks "£35m + £10m bonuses?". Absolutely - its a gamble for everyone but its a guaranteed win for Brighton.

Its a bit sad the whole thing around Evan. He needs to perform like everyone else and he has not, but I don't feel club and country has made it easy for him.
Playing him on painkilling injections when he's already been poor for several months. Given lots of football by a manager (RDZ) that didn't really seem to like him all that much. Not going on a loan either last January or especially this summer when adding a ton of new players.

It is easy to just blame De Zerbi for it; playing him when injured, taking a piss on him in some comments. That kind of stuff. At the same time, De Zerbi is of course required to play academy players like Graham Potter was and Hurz may or may not be, it is a club policy (academy players needs to be given at least x amount of minutes) and quite possibly written in their contracts either as necessities or bonus worthy.

Thats normally something you have to keep in mind and when one of Dunk and March gets a long term injury, someone needs to eat the amount of minutes given to them. Hinshelwood gets quite a few and then gets injured and a not particularly fit or well-playing Fergie is suddenly eating more minutes than he deserves.
And there's just so much a manager can do. Pop in the odd Offiah or Peupion... well.

The academy is excellent and producing some top players but not to the extent that you can tell the academy minutes eating goalkeeper (Robert Sanchez) to f*** off for Jason Steele, not looking at Alzate and get some very long term injuries and then get away with it without playing players who shouldn't be playing Premier League football for one reason or another.

Last season we came down to a scenario where either a maybe non-fit non-deserving but Premier League-compatible Evan eats the minutes or play some kid who maybe wouldn't be starting if loaned out to League One or Two. And since the latter isn't really fair to the team, the kid, the people watching, Zerbian dreams of going to Barca - you go with the first one.

(all of this is of course unless this policy was abandoned at some point)

And then Ireland putting in their present fortunes in his hands... also not very fair.

Evan is young, has some very good qualities and should become a top player but a lot of things, including possibly Evan himself, and circumstances has been working against him in the last year. Zooming out it looks like everyone might have f***ed up a little bit. Maybe things are a little broken.
Or maybe Danny Welbeck is God and difficult to outcompete, I wouldn't bin that theory either.

TLDR: If Arsenal comes along with a bag of money for Evan, we might do business.

Sorry - Only got to second paragraph.

The rumours floating round were that Brighton were wanting an obligation to buy from any loan deal with the Hammers - no one knows whether he’ll be scoring goals again or not being the reason I guess or we would consider a flat out sale to Arsenal/Spurs (which isn’t going to happen unless it’s for silly money) but no one is going to agree a loan deal for an injured striker.

Exclusive: West Ham share truth on move for Brighton star Ferguson

Club issue major striker update amid reports

www.hammers.news

 

[Zeberdi]

I used to compare the Austrian Bundesliga to Scottish football, but I think I was being overly generous to Austrian football.

This year, RB Salzburg, Sturm Graz and LASK have all won just 3 points each in European competitions, with Rapid Vienna doing better with 13 points in the Conference. Meanwhile Celtic have 9, Rangers have 11 Hearts have 7 points.

So this suggests that Malick Yalcouye's development might be better at Brighton, or in a more competitive league.

Yep, if he’s that far ahead, it is hard to see how he can progress further in the Austrian League but maybe that is off set by having regular starts (cf to a tougher loan option that might have him sat on the bench)

(They are not likely to get through the group stage and they are currently 29 in the UEFA League table)

 

[GT49er]

The Austrian league is definitely better than the Scottish.

Sure, in retrospect maybe he should have gone to a higher level loan immediately. But he has been moving around a lot in the last two years, is playing games and seemingly happy... could be worse. Not a thrilling decision but seems reasonable enough.

Having already played for us this season, apart from staying at Sturm Graz, it seems the only alternative is coming back to us and playing in PL2 whilst joining the long queue of new players waiting to get fit/be shoe-horned into the team.

 

[Zeberdi]

Having already played for us this season, apart from staying at Sturm Graz, it seems the only alternative is coming back to us and playing in PL2 whilst joining the long queue of new players waiting to get fit/be shoe-horned into the team.

He could go on loan to any other Club that has a different/overlapping transfer window I think - Turkey?

I may have that wrong though

I think I have - it’s only an advantage if we were wanting to loan out a player after the window has shut in the other top European leagues but the 2 Club competition rule would still apply I think Someone with more knowledge of the rules will confirm either way.

 

[Springal]

The Evan Ferguson thing is so weird. Surely Roberto hasn’t broken him so badly he needs a change of scenery

 

[GT49er]

He could go on loan to any other Club that has a different/overlapping transfer window I think - Turkey?

Without knowing all about which leagues play when, I think that at this time of the year the options would be rather limited, certainly if we're looking for a 'better' league.

 

[Merlin57]

Agree. Looked lightweight against Crawley in pre-season, another loan at a higher standard sounds right

Agree, looked way off PL levels

 

[Zeberdi]

more rumour grist for the mill relating to @Hiheidi ’s post above

Brighton submit third bid for Arsenal target as Seagulls eye impressive deal

EXCLUSIVE: Brighton are hoping to bolster their defensive ranks this month by acquiring one of Brazil's top central defenders.

www.express.co.uk

Discussion

[Albion] - Vitor Reis - £20.7m cb with pace

If we genuinely made an actual offer then the player is/was interested in principle.

www.northstandchat.com

 

[BluesRockDJ]

more rumour grist for the mill relating to @Hiheidi ’s post above

Brighton submit third bid for Arsenal target as Seagulls eye impressive deal

EXCLUSIVE: Brighton are hoping to bolster their defensive ranks this month by acquiring one of Brazil's top central defenders.

www.express.co.uk

Discussion

[Albion] - Vitor Reis - £20.7m cb with pace

If we genuinely made an actual offer then the player is/was interested in principle.

www.northstandchat.com

Him and Igor Brazilian central defence partnership anyone ?

 

[Hiheidi]

Barber:

"Evan's injured at the moment and therefore has been unlucky not to get the minutes that he deserves. But there will be others in the squad that perhaps feel the same way. We'll see how the month pans out. It's a decision for our technical staff and we'll see where we go."

"As always, where we can strengthen our squad, we will. Where we can make sure the players in our squad get opportunities to play football, maybe elsewhere in certain situations on loan, we'll look at that as well.

"But I don't expect this January to be anything like the summer months thankfully."

 

[Zeberdi]

Portuguese sports newspaper, Record ( and Abola )claiming last night FC Porto haven’t been in conversation with Brighton or Barco over a loan deal at all.

“FC Porto did not make any contact with Brighton, not even with Valentín Barco, in view of the hiring of the Argentine left-back, Record found.

García Pimienta, Sevilla coach, confirmed this Friday that Valentín Barco asked not to be called up for the King's Cup match against Almería, since his departure from the club is being treated. The Spanish press, as well as the Argentine press, put him on the Dragon route, but our newspaper knows that there is no conversation in this regard.”

Notícia Record: FC Porto sem negociações para contratar Valentín Barco

Lateral está de saída do Sevilha e foi colocado na rota do Dragão

www.record.pt

Sticking with my initial feeling that any Option to Buy deal with Porto especially for the low fee rumoured is complete Bollix … (Until we hear otherwise. )

Two sources rubbish claims over Brighton transfer - Not even in contact with Seagulls - Sport Witness

It would appear nothing about Valentín Barco is ever simple. After his loan to Sevilla turned into something of a disaster, although he managed to get engaged off the pitch so that’s something, the media closest to the Spanish club have explained Barco has been packing his bags and will return...

sportwitness.co.uk