Brighton and Hove Albion will not be as busy in the next transfer window as they have been in the previous three summers.
That is just about the only certainty in their short-term planning, with so many unknowns swirling around football as a consequence of coronavirus.
Owner-chairman Tony Bloom provided an element of clarity in Brighton’s approach to the next transfer window during one of the club’s weekly press conferences via Zoom.
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Bloom said: “We don’t have to cash in per se and it may not be the best window to sell players. We don’t know how the market will look, we don’t know when the market will be.
“So I think it will be quite quiet. I don’t see us being as active as previous seasons. I don’t think the market will be nearly as active and I think the total transfers will be a very small percentage of what it was the previous couple of summers.“
The vast majority of Brighton’s transfer business normally takes place in the summer window.
There is nothing normal about current circumstances, of course. In common with the rest of the Premier League, Brighton have no idea if, when or how the season is going to finish.
They also cannot be sure whether they will still be in the same division next season. They were two points and three places above the relegation in the pre-pandemic table with nine matches to play.
Player recruitment plotting continues behind the scenes so that Brighton are ready for the next opportunity to improve the squad, whenever that might arise.
Premier League clubs voted in February for a change to the summer transfer window closing date for 2020-21, reverting to the end of the first month of the campaign.
Since 2018-19 the shutdown has been on the eve of the season. The window was supposed to open this time on June 10 and close at 5pm on September 1 (August 31 is a Bank Holiday) before COVID-19 caused calendar chaos.
A look at the first-team players still on Brighton’s books shows just how active they have been in the past three summer transfer windows, with around £35 million spent on six players in 2017-18 and roughly £60 million the following season on a further 10.
Last summer, more than £50 million was splashed on Adam Webster, Matt Clarke, Aaron Mooy (initial loan), Leandro Trossard and Neal Maupay.
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So with Bloom saying the club with be “quiet” whenever the next window comes, what will their priorities be?
Brighton were attempting to strengthen their striker options at the end of the most recent transfer window in January but that did not happen because potential targets were either not available or deemed not to be enough of an improvement to justify the outlay.
They ideally want a more mobile version of Glenn Murray, who signed a one-year contract extension at the beginning of February until June 2021. The wily target man will, by then, be three months away from his 38th birthday.
Although head coach Graham Potter has relied on Maupay and Aaron Connolly following the loan departures of Romanian Andone and Dutchman Jurgen Locadia, reinforcements are still needed.
Frenchman Serhou Guirassy has been a player of interest for a while. The 6ft 2ins tall 24-year-old of Guinean descent struck a rich vein of form for Amiens in French Ligue One once the January transfer window closed, with five goals in his last seven appearances — including two in a 4-4 draw at home to Paris Saint-Germain, the second a late equaliser.
Guirassy, a former French junior international, has scored a respectable nine Ligue 1 goals in 23 games overall this season in a struggling side.
Bloom can keep tabs on his progress via Amiens manager Luka Elsner, who was in charge last season of the chairman’s Belgian club Royal Union Saint-Gilloise.
Another left-back is an area worthy of closer examination for Potter as well after Gaetan Bong’s move to Nottingham Forest at the end of the January window.
The towering Dan Burn, better known as a central defender, has been a revelation at left-back or left wing-back but that still has the feel of a temporary fix.
Brazilian Bernardo, sidelined for three months in the early part of the season by a knee injury, has yet to prove he is a regular solution. However, The Athletic is not aware that any targets have been identified given the uncertainty around coronavirus.
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The capture in January of Chelsea teenager Tariq Lamptey increased the options on the other side of the defence, where Spaniard Martin Montoya has not been entirely convincing.
Further attention in that position could hinge on whether Argentinian Ezequiel Schelotto, 31 in May, has done enough since recovering from seven months out with knee damage to earn another year. His contract expires at the end of the season.
Nigerian central defender Leon Balogun, loaned to Championship club Wigan in January for the rest of the season, and Israeli central midfielder Beram Kayal are also reaching the conclusion of their contracts.
The 31-year-olds both operate in positions where Brighton have plenty of competition and cover.
Balogun’s circumstances highlight potential complications caused by coronavirus involving players with contracts due to expire on June 30.
He has performed well for Wigan so the smooth outcome would be an agreement to extend his contract, and therefore the loan, month by month, assuming the Championship club can still afford to pay his wages.
But what if another club, from Germany for example, where Balogun played previously for Mainz, Fortuna Dusseldorf and Werder Bremen, offered him the security of a permanent deal?
Locadia is in limbo for a different reason. The Major League Soccer season had just started and he had only made two appearances when it had to be shutdown. Cincinnati’s option to convert his loan into a permanent move in July is now clouded by uncertainty.
Hughton sometimes used Locadia as a wide striker in a 4-3-3 formation but more often than not operated with recognised wingers down the flanks.
Potter is less dependent on natural wide players though. Trossard, after a promising start, and Alireza Jahanbakhsh still have a lot to prove. Solly March has not progressed and Jose Izquierdo, sidelined for a year, has undergone three knee operations.
And so a lot will depend on Alexis Mac Allister to provide a creative spark together with Pascal Gross, although the German has gradually become a more peripheral figure.
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Mac Allister demonstrated on his debut in the last 10 minutes of Brighton’s last game, the 0-0 draw at Wolves on March 7, that he is not afraid of taking responsibility.
The 21-year-old Argentine was soon demanding the ball and delivering set pieces. If he proves as influential as Gross was in his debut campaign at the club in 2017-18, when he contributed seven goals and eight assists, then he is certainly another exciting option.
And so with Bloom signalling a less-than-active next window, whenever that may be, Brighton may only be considering moves for a striker and left-back, with the onus on the rest of the squad, in particular the young players, to take their chance.
(Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
