Sussex World reporters Jacob Panons and Frankie Elliot discuss all the latest news from Brighton and Hove Albion including their emphatic win over Wolves and their upcoming fixture against West Ham United.
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00:00 So I've got sports reporter Frankie Elliot with me here and we're going to be
00:04 speaking a bit more about the latest about the coming ins and going outs with
00:07 Brighton and Hove Albion. So obviously Frankie the thing people want to know is
00:11 who's going to be coming in to replace Caicedo? Yes so Caicedo, it's been a week
00:16 since Moises Caicedo left the club and they've got a list of apparent
00:21 replacements that they want to bring in before the transfer window closes on
00:25 September 1st. It seems that one of those players is almost definitely going to
00:29 be signed by the club at the end of this week. Carlos Belber, the Lille 19 year
00:34 old midfielder, they have had a bid reportedly accepted of £25 million
00:41 or north of £25 million. So he's going to be flying over to
00:45 the UK this week to complete a medical. Personal terms don't seem to be an issue
00:49 for the player so he looks like he could be the first one through the door.
00:53 Very young player, 19 years old as I said, has only played one full season
00:58 in professional football. He made his debut for Lille last year and
01:01 impressed in a side that did very well in Ligue 1 last year so he looks like
01:05 he could be through the door. And there might be even one more coming in as well
01:09 Fabricio Diaz, a 20 year old Uruguayan from a team called Liverpool in his home
01:15 country. He is another player that they hope to sign for a little
01:19 fewer sum of money of £8.5 million. He is a player that has
01:25 capped in the Uruguayan under-20 side to a World Cup win last year in
01:29 Argentina. He's got a lot of people in South America who are very
01:33 confident he will go on to be a great player. Again another player that's
01:37 coming in that's not quite the finished article. So two very young players
01:40 coming in we expect before September 1st. So not a Moises Caicedo
01:45 replacement that's ready to come in straight away and challenge the first
01:48 team but two very exciting players for the future that's for sure.
01:50 And what can Brighton fans expect from those two signings? Well they can expect
01:55 them to be players that don't go into the first team straight away as I said.
01:59 We've seen that a lot with Brighton that players come in and then maybe a
02:02 year down the line once they've had a bit more experience playing either in
02:06 England or just playing more professional football in general. Whether
02:09 that be with the club or on a loan move elsewhere. So it will be a slow
02:13 burner I expect with both players. But both are expected to do the same sort of
02:17 role that Caicedo did last year which we saw which was be a bit more defensive
02:20 minded. Breaking up attacks, looking to read the game, read the play to
02:25 make interceptions and start counter-attacks for Brighton. They're
02:29 both very very athletic, both very quick and agile. So we can again see that
02:34 athleticism that we saw from Caicedo last year. So they are basically
02:37 coming in to fill the void that Caicedo left. I don't think they'll be
02:41 doing it straight away because obviously De Zerbio will want players that are ready to
02:45 play at the highest level and I don't think they're quite there. But somewhere
02:49 down the line I think they'll be key members of the Brighton first-team
02:52 squad. There's obviously a couple of players as well who look like they might
02:55 be leaving Brighton on loan this transfer window. Yes, before Brighton's
03:00 previous game against Wolves, De Zerbio said that three players were likely to
03:04 leave the club before the end of the window and already those players have
03:07 seemed to move on quite quickly since then. So the first one is Facundo
03:11 Buonate, the Argentinian attacking midfielder. He was signed just in
03:17 January for £9.5 million. A lot of expectations of him, a lot of talk
03:21 in Argentina of him being one for the future for the national team. He had a
03:25 quite a strong six months with the club to be fair, considering he's not played
03:28 in England before. He scored one goal and got two assists
03:33 in about 15 appearances which is impressive for a teenager. And he wants
03:38 to get more football it's believed this season and De Zerbio can't offer him that
03:41 with a very, very competitive squad that he has. So Buonate is joining Leeds United
03:45 in the Championship on loan, as is his fellow teenage compatriot
03:51 Yassir Maiari, another player who was signed in January, this time from Sweden
03:55 AIK. He was featured less in the first team last year and made it in about four
04:00 or five appearances all from the bench. Again a very talented technical player
04:04 but not quite up to speed with the English game at the moment. So he's
04:08 spending a season out on loan at Coventry City again in the Championship
04:11 to play, as De Zerbio says, up to 40-50 games this season which he thinks he needs
04:16 to improve as a player. The final man who will be leaving is Stephen Alzate. A lot
04:21 of Brighton fans will know Alzate as the man who scored the goal at Anfield that
04:25 got him that famous victory against Liverpool back in 2020 during the Covid
04:29 season. He went out on loan last season because he found first team opportunities
04:34 quite difficult. He actually impressed for the team he was playing for.
04:37 Standardly aged in Belgium, he was a regular player for them in the central
04:41 midfield. He came back into the first team squad for their pre-season tour of
04:45 America and many in the club and outside of the club as well also
04:50 felt that he would be a key member of the first team squad this year
04:54 because of course Brighton are competing in four competitions so they'll need that
04:57 rotation. But De Zerbio feels that he can find better players elsewhere or maybe
05:02 doesn't trust Alzate yet so is likely to send him out on loan and possibly may
05:06 even be sold if the right bid comes in of around £10 million. The two
05:10 clubs that are most interested in Alzate are Sevilla and Fiorentina. We're not
05:15 sure whether they are for permanent deals or for loan moves but we can
05:18 expect to see Alzate move before September 1st.
05:21 I wanted to ask as well, so with Alzate obviously they signed him when Roberto
05:25 De Zerbio wasn't around and Brighton were on a very different trajectory and
05:28 they've shot up since then. Do you think Steven Alzate is still good enough to
05:32 perform and start with this Brighton squad? I think there's gonna be some
05:36 question marks now. I think coming back from pre-season the club said that he
05:40 had joined back up with the first team. I think they felt that he had an
05:43 opportunity to really cement himself as being a part of this club that is now
05:46 challenging at the higher end of the table. As you said when Alzate was at the
05:50 club they were very much fighting off relegation. It seems to me whether it be
05:53 through the sporadic appearances he had in the friendlies in
05:57 America or during training sessions, De Zerbio's not really taken a fancy to
06:03 the young midfielder. So the fact that after not even playing him in
06:07 any of the Premier League games so far, I think he might have come on for the last
06:10 15 or 20 minutes against Luton, he clearly doesn't see enough in him.
06:14 Obviously De Zerbio's word is the most important word at the club. So if he
06:17 doesn't see him as being good enough yet, I think if this loan move doesn't work
06:22 out for him or maybe a permanent deal comes in, it's a clear sign that they
06:26 don't see Alzate as having a future of this club that's now trying to
06:30 achieve at the higher end of the table and go far in cup competitions. So it's
06:34 just a reflection on how far Brighton have come since signing players
06:37 like Alzate but it would be disappointing for him of course.
06:41 On that note do you see Buonanotto and Iari breaking into the first team in the
06:44 next couple of seasons? Yeah I think it's a bit different in their situation
06:48 because like I say both of them have come over with very very little
06:50 experience of adult football to be honest, let alone professional football.
06:54 You can see the talents there in the games they have played, you can
06:57 clearly see they've got the technical ability to play at the highest level
07:00 but just maybe lack the sort of physicality and the gamesmanship
07:04 almost of English football to really sort of compete with the Brighton
07:09 first-team squad at the moment because that's obviously what they're looking
07:12 for as they say they're competing at the higher end of the Premier League
07:15 table. Thank you Frankie and that's everything from part one of latest TV
07:20 news. Make sure you tune in later as we'll be discussing Brighton's win
07:23 against Wolverhampton Wanderers as well as their upcoming home match against
07:27 West Ham United.
07:30 Welcome back to part two of latest TV news. I've got sports reporter Frankie
07:40 Elliott with me here and we're going to be speaking about Brighton's emphatic
07:43 win over Wolves as well as their upcoming match against West Ham United.
07:47 So Frankie what did you make of Brighton's win over Wolves? It was
07:51 scintillating. This is the team that's bang in form at the moment.
07:54 They're picking up from where they left off at the end of last season.
07:58 Obviously the 4-1 win at Luton was great but many people would have put
08:01 that down to the fact they were playing a team that doesn't have much proven
08:04 Premier League quality. Against Wolves, again a team that many would see
08:09 struggling this season but putting a very good performance against Manchester
08:12 United at Old Trafford in their first game and have a lot more sort of Premier League
08:16 proven players and European quality players in their squad but yet again
08:20 Brighton managed to score four goals and comfortably beat them so it's
08:24 really impressive start to the season. Not only that they're winning both of
08:28 their games but winning them comfortably and scoring eight goals in the process.
08:31 And what were the key strengths you noticed in Brighton's win on the weekend?
08:35 Their counter-attacking, especially in the second half, was phenomenal. I think
08:39 last season a lot of their quality and the reason they won
08:43 games was down to the midfield duo of Kayseri and McAllister helping them to
08:47 keep the ball for long periods of games and dominate possession. This season it
08:52 seems obviously they've lost both those players. They're relying on the fact
08:54 they've got so much attacking quality in their arsenal. Obviously Jal Pedro, the
08:59 £30m signing, he didn't even start on the weekend but we had
09:02 Julio Enciso, the young Paraguayan, he was electric playing behind Danny Welbeck
09:07 who linked up the play brilliantly in attack. And then Solly March and Karim
09:10 Matoma, two wingers that we knew last season were brilliant and clinical.
09:15 They seem to continue that this season as well. Matoma scored one of the best
09:19 goals we'll see this season, adding end product to his brilliant dribbling
09:23 ability. And Solly March as well continues on his rich goal-scoring run
09:27 of form with two excellently taken goals. As I said, both off the back of
09:32 Wolves trying to score about 10-15 seconds earlier, a quick counter-attack
09:36 and Brighton scored twice within a couple of minutes. So that counter-attacking
09:40 quality and the speed and the tenaciousness of their
09:46 attacks and the clinicalness of their attacks is really something to behold
09:49 and it's very, very exciting as well. And who do you think Brighton's standout
09:53 player was in that fixture? There was a couple but the main one for me was Julio
09:56 Enciso. De Zerby called him the best player, or the man of the match so to
10:01 speak, in his post-match press conference but he was very, very impressive for me
10:05 and I think again it highlights how much strength and depth Brighton have this
10:09 season going forward. We've always said, pre-Roberto De Zerby,
10:14 how Brighton really struggle to score goals. I think having players like Enciso
10:18 who is not afraid to have a shot, is very quick, is very dynamic in his
10:22 dribbling but also has great end product with his passing and crossing. To have
10:26 someone like that who didn't even start the first game of the season when you've
10:29 got people like Gial Pedro and even Evan Ferguson as well, the Irish
10:33 striker who is talked about as being one of the best up-and-coming strikers in
10:37 European football. To have those players waiting in the wings alongside your team
10:42 scoring eight goals in two games, as I said, is very, very exciting for all
10:45 Brighton fans. And on the other hand, do you think there's anything Brighton could
10:49 improve upon ahead of their game against West Ham United? Well the one thing I
10:52 think they would be disappointed by was obviously the fact they haven't kept a
10:56 clean sheet yet, especially in those two games where they dominated so much.
11:00 The Wolves, they were 4-0 up and cruising. I think at that point
11:04 there's about 25-30 minutes left in the game. You're looking, right, can we
11:09 keep that clean sheet? That's our motivation to make sure this
11:12 performance is an excellent one from start to finish. And they didn't really
11:15 do that. They let Wolves back into the game. They had a number of opportunities in the
11:18 last 20 minutes and obviously grabbed a goal as well. So that would be
11:22 the one thing that would disappoint them. But we know with De Zerby, he's not that
11:26 concerned about defensive stability and clean sheets. He wants to just score more
11:30 goals in the opposition and they've done that quite comfortably in those two
11:34 games. But from looking at the game as a perfectionist, I think
11:40 they would consider that they're looking to win games but also not
11:43 concede any, to be honest. And in terms of players, starting for
11:48 Brighton, would you make any changes ahead of the West Ham game? Well we've
11:51 noticed already, as De Zerby said before, the Wolves game that he's already
11:54 considering making more changes than he did last year. It felt very much last
11:58 season that he had a set 11 players that he wanted to use and trusted and he's
12:01 trying to expand on that this season. Obviously they've signed five players,
12:05 could be six or seven by the end of the window. So he's bolstered his squad,
12:08 there's more depth in it and now he can chop and change as obviously they start
12:12 to play three games a week from September. So we may see Jal Pedro back
12:15 into the side for Julián Cissé. We may see Evan Ferguson start his first game
12:20 of the season because we know Danny Welbeck is not quite up physically to playing
12:23 regular football every week. So I could expect those two to maybe come in in the
12:28 midfield. Obviously Gilmour started this week ahead of Mo Dahoud, had a
12:32 brilliant game. Maybe we could see Dahoud back into the side as well, maybe
12:36 for Pascal Gross dropping out, we should wait and see. I also expect to see a
12:40 change at right-back as well, simply for the fact that James Milner again has
12:44 been excellent these first two games but is 37 and they want to rest his leg. So
12:48 maybe Joel Veltman returning back into the side or possibly even Tariq Lamptey
12:52 as he's been seen back in training after four months out with a knee injury. So
12:56 three or four changes maybe but at the same time you know they've been so
12:59 brilliant in the first two games. None of those players deserve to be
13:03 dropped from the side. So we can also expect to see maybe just one or two or
13:08 maybe no change at all. But like I said, Brighton are in a really
13:11 healthy position right now because they can make those changes because there's
13:15 so much depth and quality in their squad. And looking ahead to West Ham, how do you
13:19 see that match playing out? Well again, it feels that each week they're
13:23 playing a team that brings them a different challenge and a bit more
13:26 quality to them. Obviously West Ham have won a game this season, unlike the
13:30 Wolves team that are still struggling to score goals or find a win. West Ham
13:35 have come off the back of a brilliant victory at home to Chelsea.
13:40 A lot of people were worried maybe after the sale of Declan Rice earlier this
13:43 summer. They seem to have recruited quite well. I think James Ward-Prouse is an
13:47 excellent addition to the side, as is the Ajax midfielder Alvarez. I think he'll be a
13:51 great addition. So they've made some good signings and they still obviously have a
13:54 lot of those players that helped them win the Europa Conference League last
13:58 season. So it helps Brighton again that it's at the Amex. I think obviously
14:02 playing at the London Stain would make it a bit more of a difficult game for
14:06 them. But I feel that West Ham have got more quality and have got more
14:11 confidence going into this game than say Wolves or Luton may have had. So it'd be a
14:15 bit more of a challenge but again the way Brighton are playing, you would still
14:18 see them as favourites. We noticed one thing with West Ham on the weekend in
14:21 that win against Chelsea is that their full-backs were getting penetrated quite
14:25 a lot by those wingers and you're thinking if you put in Solih Marsh in the
14:28 time of day against Soufalle and Emerson, it could be quite scary and it
14:31 looks like Brighton could really attack quite well down the wide, down the
14:35 flanks. Absolutely. I think the one thing that West Ham may, their biggest
14:39 weakness is probably their defending. As you said, although Chelsea lost 3-1,
14:43 they actually created a fair few opportunities, especially in the first
14:45 half when obviously Fenzo Fernandes scores that penalty before the break, it
14:50 changes the whole complexion of the game. So obviously I'm sure De Zerby will
14:54 look at that and see that as a key weakness to exploit down the wide areas
14:57 with two of his most penetrative players in Matoma and March who are in such great
15:02 form at the moment. So that's how they look to win the game. But on the
15:06 flip side, West Ham's set-piece delivery is an excellent now. Their
15:10 heading ability in the box with their centre-backs and obviously people like
15:13 Antonio and Cech as well, they have a real threat going in from
15:18 free kicks and corners and obviously James Ward-Prowse, their new signing, is one of
15:22 the best dead ball specialists in the Premier League. So that will be that West
15:26 Ham will be trying to see to win the game as well. So both sides will see
15:30 the opponent's weaknesses as their strengths in some respects and both
15:34 sides will feel they're confident of winning the game. So it should be a
15:36 really, really good game at the Amherst Stadium on Saturday. I think this is the
15:40 sixth Premier League season both teams have been in the same league and I don't
15:44 think West Ham have won against Brighton yet. Mentally, how do you think that's
15:47 going to benefit Brighton on Saturday? Oh it definitely will
15:50 benefit. A number of those players, especially at Brighton, have been
15:53 there throughout that whole period. Obviously Soli March and Lewis
15:57 Dunk will have pretty much played all of those games. So that will feed
16:00 into the psychological battle before the game but also at the same time
16:05 a lot of those games have been draws. I mean last year they won both games
16:09 Brighton, don't get me wrong, but if you look throughout the whole six years that
16:12 Brighton have been in the Premier League a lot of those games against West Ham have
16:14 mainly been draws. So West Ham won't want to read too much into it. They'll be
16:18 buzzing off what was a fantastic performance at the London Stadium
16:22 against Chelsea on Sunday and look to kick on and try and get another three
16:25 points this weekend. So obviously for Brighton's sake and for the fans' sake
16:30 that's something that will give them confidence but they'll be wary of
16:34 what this West Ham side can do if they don't turn up and play as well as
16:37 they have done. If I've got to twist your arm here, what result, sorry, scoreline
16:41 would you put on Saturday's game? Yeah it's a tricky one this one. I think I'm just
16:46 going to go for a Brighton win just because like I said they're playing so I'm
16:48 going for a 2-1 Brighton win. I feel it would be one all into the last 15-20
16:54 minutes and I can see someone like Matoma or even March again grabbing
16:57 the winner. Brilliant, thank you. That's everything from us here at
17:01 Latest TV News. Thank you for tuning in. If you'd like to read more stories from
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