[Albion] Dante Vanzeir (22) - Union SG

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Im sure he did know him before they bought Union together. He is also the Chairman. They also say the clubs have no connection with each other. I'm sure we have a slight advantage over other clubs if we wanted to buy a player from them, but we won't get it for free and im sure they wouldn't take a player of us because we tell them too. They are two seperate clubs/

I'm not entirely sure why you imagine the clubs are so separate that BHA won't have the upper hand when it comes to player movement. Even the late Hercule Poirot can see that we are the senior partner in this totally separate relationship

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

This is a little out of date but:

Tony Bloom has been Union’s majority shareholder since May 2018, and it would be easy to assume the club are buying their place back at the top. However, so far investment from the Brighton & Hove Albion owner has been modest. Chairman and minority shareholder Alex Muzio oversees day-to-day affairs at the club, who take pride in their success scouting players like Vanzeir and Undav.

“The amount of work that we do in the recruitment of players is incredible,” says O’Loughlin. “We spend hours and hours and hours watching players and creating reports. We’re putting all this work in because we want to bring good footballers and good people. That’s very important for us, we think with good people you can do good things.”

Union have only ever loaned in two players from Brighton, Percy Tau in 2018 and current defender Alex Cochrane- who has been injured since January. With Brexit complicating British work permits, in theory Union could be used by the Seagulls to loan out players. However, O’Loughlin says that will never be the case.

“In terms of links, other than Tony Bloom and a friendly phone call with one or two people in Brighton that’s as far as it goes. We have our completely own separate vision, philosophy, strategy, recruitment targets and ambitions. We’re two separate clubs, we’re not a sister club or a satellite club. We’re Union Saint-Gilloise, the third ranked team in the history books with titles in Belgian first division football.”

https://www.copa90.com/en/read/union-saint-gilloise-the-belgian-leeds

A heartwarming tale for the benefit of the football authorities, taxes and indeed common sense. Why should Tony interfere with the runing of USG for the merry hell of it? Why make USG think they are second best? Why run a club day to day when you can find trusted business associates or employees to do the job. And why sink a load of money into a Belgian club for no tangible return?

 

[schmunk]

Mate, just shrug your shoulders and agree that it's pure coincidence that since Tony Bloom bought USG, a club virtually no-one in Brighton had previously ever heard of, no less than four Brighton players have gone there; not gone to Alderlecht, Genk, Vitesse Arhnem or wherever to experience European/Belgian football - but straight to USG! That's a partnership (albeit an officially informal one) - or mutual co-operation if you prefer - that's working well.
Of course, if you know for a fact that it's an absolutely certainty that it's all pure coincidence that numerous Brighton players spend time at the other club their owner owns, well, there's no arguing with that!

We loaned Tau to Anderlecht last season and Brugge the season before; we've loaned Caicedo to Beerschot this season.

 

[GT49er]

We loaned Tau to Anderlecht last season and Brugge the season before; we've loaned Caicedo to Beerschot this season.

Yes, I know.

Tau needed an upgrade from the Belgian 2nd. division so we moved him on from USG, and we've already got one on loan at USG this season, who'll hopefully be ready for us in 12 months time.

 

[nwgull]

We loaned Tau to Anderlecht last season and Brugge the season before; we've loaned Caicedo to Beerschot this season.

Tau was loaned to Anderlecht because USG weren't in the Belgium top flight until this year and it wouldn't have helped much with his work permit. Not so sure about Caicedo; maybe USG didn't think they'd be able to give him the game time that BHA wanted.

Muzio had no affiliation with USG before going in with Bloom on this project, and I'm sure they chose them as a club to buy for more than altruistic reasons. In the case of them having a player who was good enough for the PL, the club owned by the same man would absolutely be in pole position for his transfer.

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

This arrangement is great for Brighton.

I don't think it should be allowed though. One person shouldn't own more than one club.

 

[S'hampton Seagull]

This arrangement is great for Brighton.

I don't think it should be allowed though. One person shouldn't own more than one club.

Cat is well out of the bag on that one unfortunately (I kinda agree though). Red Bull have made a business model out of it!

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[macbeth]

This arrangement is great for Brighton.

I don't think it should be allowed though. One person shouldn't own more than one club.

Agree, but if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

 

[nwgull]

This arrangement is great for Brighton.

I don't think it should be allowed though. One person shouldn't own more than one club.

Probably right, but perhaps it’s tricky to implement across different federations unless teams are competing in the same continental competition. I know that is not allowed by UEFA.

 

[sparkie]

Cat is well out of the bag on that one unfortunately (I kinda agree though). Red Bull have made a business model out of it!

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Man City and Leicester also have teams in the Belgian league.

 

[andy1980]

Mate, just shrug your shoulders and agree that it's pure coincidence that since Tony Bloom bought USG, a club virtually no-one in Brighton had previously ever heard of, no less than four Brighton players have gone there; not gone to Alderlecht, Genk, Vitesse Arhnem or wherever to experience European/Belgian football - but straight to USG! That's a partnership (albeit an officially informal one) - or mutual co-operation if you prefer - that's working well.
Of course, if you know for a fact that it's an absolutely certainty that it's all pure coincidence that numerous Brighton players spend time at the other club their owner owns, well, there's no arguing with that!

All of which they took not because we told them to, but because they were of benefit to them. They had the choice to reject them.

 

[Baldseagull]

Mate, just shrug your shoulders and agree that it's pure coincidence that since Tony Bloom bought USG, a club virtually no-one in Brighton had previously ever heard of, no less than four Brighton players have gone there; not gone to Alderlecht, Genk, Vitesse Arhnem or wherever to experience European/Belgian football - but straight to USG! That's a partnership (albeit an officially informal one) - or mutual co-operation if you prefer - that's working well.
Of course, if you know for a fact that it's an absolutely certainty that it's all pure coincidence that numerous Brighton players spend time at the other club their owner owns, well, there's no arguing with that!

Clearly there are better than average relations between the 2 clubs, but to say they are a feeder for Albion is without evidence. They were not useful in any way to Brighton in bringing Tau to the UK, unless the UK had stayed in the EU single market, and we had waited 5 years to get him over here, then the first year at USG would have counted under the Belgian residency and EU freedom of movement rules. The Tau deal looked more like a bit of financial doping of the Belgian club by a PL club, than a feed for Brighton.
With Mitoma, there is a clear path by being at USG to qualify for a UK work visa, however, I don't believe we would have struggled to have placed him at any Belgian top flight club, and possibly have got a better loan fee.
Ahannach was coming back from a nasty leg break, was loaned on a season long loan in September, but they sent him back in January and we terminated his contract, not clear what went on, but it doesn't seem they did us any favours with him.
Cochrane is a good quality young defender, and would have been a benefit to USG, but got a season ending injury after a couple of months. Good for us to get him game time, but again, we don't have any problems getting lads like him into clubs where they can grow a bit.

It looks far more like we feed USG than the other way round, and the only clear benefit seems to be that we can say to a potential signing without a work permit, that we have a good relationship with USG and they will be happy to have you there till we can sort it, rather than us gambling a little on being able to agree a loan deal, if USG say they will have the player on loan and pay x amount, their word is trusted.

There is an overtly stated relationship of co operation between us and Hibs, neither is a feeder for the other, it is just felt that there are benefits to both clubs by having a close relationship and building some trust. I don't think the relationship between Albion and USG is as close as that, or being cultivated to be so.

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

From which season do the Belgian and Dutch league’s merge?

 

[Biffer]

Good time to bounce this.....

 

[Badger Boy]

Good time to bounce this.....

In what way?

 

[HCxUK]

https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/19...-atlanta-union-sgs-inform-striker/?ref=twtrec

 

[Driver8]

https://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/19...-atlanta-union-sgs-inform-striker/?ref=twtrec

Safe to say he won’t be going to Brentford I would think.

 

[Springal]

Something a bit smelly about this for me.... and slightly unethical. How does the Union SG manager feel about his top striker being sold to Tony Blooms 'other' team ?

 

[macbeth]

Something a bit smelly about this for me.... and slightly unethical. How does the Union SG manager feel about his top striker being sold to Tony Blooms 'other' team ?

well it depends what we'd pay. if we're offering fair market value then it won't be any different to any other club signing him. only 'advantage' I think Tony owning both clubs would give us is perhaps first dibs on him should they decide to sell.

that being said, with all the prize money from Europe and whatnot, I'd be very surprised to see them sell in Jan.

 

[Pevenseagull]

I don't care if he's any good, it's a absolute FLAIR name