(scroll down to the bottom to skip out on the reasoning and go to my predictions)
Brighton had one of the biggest squads in the league last season and with four new signings and returning loanees, we now have a squad of at least 37 players who expect to see first team action somewhere:
Goalies: Verbruggen, Steele, Rushworth (3)
Defenders: Lamptey, Igor, Dunk, Webster, Barco, Veltman, Van Hecke, Estupinan (8)
Midfielders: Milner, Gilmour, Dahoud, Leonard, Hinshelwood, Gross, Baleba, Moder, Buonanotte, Ayari, Koslowski, Wieffer (12)
Forwards: Welbeck, Ferguson, Joao Pedro, March, Mitoma, Sima, Enciso, Undav, Adingra, Minteh, Cozy Blueberry, Sarmiento, Mazilu, Osman (14)
Could probably add a couple of players from the U23 team as I don't see players like Ed Turns, Offiah, Peupion and arguably a couple of others as likely to want to stick around and play youth football the entire season. I've also removed one first team player, Tom McGill, from this list as there's nothing indicating he expects to see any sort of action anywhere.
As we can see, both midfield and attack are really crowded right now and I guess there's where most of the cuts will have to be done.
We could perhaps assume that this lot is moving away: Pascal Gross, Kasper Koslowski, Yasin Ayari, Marc Leonard, Deniz Undav, Adrian Mazilu.
However, this still leaves us on 31 players in a league where most teams have no more than 20-21 players playing regularly over a season.
Looking at the "probably going" category, we can try to remove another few: Dahoud, Sima(?), Rushworth, Steele (if there's anything in the Saints stuff)
Still, 27 players left "expecting" first team football.
This is when it gets more useful to think of players staying:
Absolutely staying: Dunk, Estupinan, Gilmour, Barco, Hinshelwood, Baleba, Milner, Buonanotte, Wieffer, Welbeck, Ferguson, March, Minteh, Adingra, Julio Enciso (15)
Almost certainly staying (like a 90%+ chance): Verbruggen, Webster, Van Hecke(?), Veltman, Mitoma, Joao Pedro (6)
The above means 21.5 players (1.5 goalie + 20 outfield players). To that we want another goalie and ~3 outfield players, taking the squad to a solid 25.5 players (McGill or any other 3rd keeper is the 0.5).
This means AT LEAST (more if we make first team signings and I think another 2 will come) two out of these need to get loaned or sold somewhere:
Igor, Moder, Sarmiento, Osman, Cozy Bear.
I would not be surprised to see four of them go as two other outfield signings come in, with one of Osman or Cozy (likely the latter) going on loan.
BLA BLA BLA SO WHO THE FECK IS LEAVING THEN?!?!?!?!
Jason Steele
Carl Rushworth
Alibigor
Jakub Moder
Mohamed Dahoud
Yasin Ayari
Kacper Koslowski
Marc Leonard
Pascal Gross
(*googling*) .."Cozier-Duberry"
Jeremy Sarmiento
Adrian Mazilu
Deniz Undav
Abdallah Sima
Brighton had one of the biggest squads in the league last season and with four new signings and returning loanees, we now have a squad of at least 37 players who expect to see first team action somewhere:
Goalies: Verbruggen, Steele, Rushworth (3)
Defenders: Lamptey, Igor, Dunk, Webster, Barco, Veltman, Van Hecke, Estupinan (8)
Midfielders: Milner, Gilmour, Dahoud, Leonard, Hinshelwood, Gross, Baleba, Moder, Buonanotte, Ayari, Koslowski, Wieffer (12)
Forwards: Welbeck, Ferguson, Joao Pedro, March, Mitoma, Sima, Enciso, Undav, Adingra, Minteh, Cozy Blueberry, Sarmiento, Mazilu, Osman (14)
Could probably add a couple of players from the U23 team as I don't see players like Ed Turns, Offiah, Peupion and arguably a couple of others as likely to want to stick around and play youth football the entire season. I've also removed one first team player, Tom McGill, from this list as there's nothing indicating he expects to see any sort of action anywhere.
As we can see, both midfield and attack are really crowded right now and I guess there's where most of the cuts will have to be done.
We could perhaps assume that this lot is moving away: Pascal Gross, Kasper Koslowski, Yasin Ayari, Marc Leonard, Deniz Undav, Adrian Mazilu.
However, this still leaves us on 31 players in a league where most teams have no more than 20-21 players playing regularly over a season.
Looking at the "probably going" category, we can try to remove another few: Dahoud, Sima(?), Rushworth, Steele (if there's anything in the Saints stuff)
Still, 27 players left "expecting" first team football.
This is when it gets more useful to think of players staying:
Absolutely staying: Dunk, Estupinan, Gilmour, Barco, Hinshelwood, Baleba, Milner, Buonanotte, Wieffer, Welbeck, Ferguson, March, Minteh, Adingra, Julio Enciso (15)
Almost certainly staying (like a 90%+ chance): Verbruggen, Webster, Van Hecke(?), Veltman, Mitoma, Joao Pedro (6)
The above means 21.5 players (1.5 goalie + 20 outfield players). To that we want another goalie and ~3 outfield players, taking the squad to a solid 25.5 players (McGill or any other 3rd keeper is the 0.5).
This means AT LEAST (more if we make first team signings and I think another 2 will come) two out of these need to get loaned or sold somewhere:
Igor, Moder, Sarmiento, Osman, Cozy Bear.
I would not be surprised to see four of them go as two other outfield signings come in, with one of Osman or Cozy (likely the latter) going on loan.
BLA BLA BLA SO WHO THE FECK IS LEAVING THEN?!?!?!?!
Jason Steele
Carl Rushworth
Alibigor
Jakub Moder
Mohamed Dahoud
Yasin Ayari
Kacper Koslowski
Marc Leonard
Pascal Gross
(*googling*) .."Cozier-Duberry"
Jeremy Sarmiento
Adrian Mazilu
Deniz Undav
Abdallah Sima