Latest TV: Brighton and Hove Albion 2024 preview

SussexWorld

Transcript

00:00 [Outro Music]

00:29 Welcome back to the Christmas special of Latest TV News and I'm Sam Morton here with

00:36 Henry Bryant to talk about Brighton's upcoming year and we made some predictions of how we

00:40 think it's going to go. So Henry, it's a fast start to January with an FA Cup tie away at

00:45 Stoke and a away trip to West Ham in the league. On the FA Cup tie, how did you assess that

00:52 draw away at Stoke?

00:53 Well it was slightly underwhelming wasn't it? It wasn't the sort of star striking teams

00:59 that we've got and because we're so used to playing in Europe now and we're cruising and

01:06 we're sort of used to doing well against the big teams it seems like something that will

01:12 be a breeze for us. I hope that I don't go to bite my words and swallow my pride in that

01:19 aspect but I think that it's slightly underwhelming and just a few games that we need to progress

01:25 with and get through in the best possible fashion. Hopefully with a few young players

01:30 making appearances and even debuts.

01:32 Yeah and the FA Cup itself, Terby has commented that he wants Brighton to be competitive in

01:38 every competition and he was angry when they were beaten by Chelsea in the Carabao Cup.

01:43 But when you consider the number of competitions they're playing in, the number of injuries

01:47 and suspensions they've had, do you think the FA Cup will take any priority at all?

01:54 Well I think it all depends really because I don't want any upsets in these next few

02:01 games in the FA Cup and I'm sure that De Zerby doesn't or neither does his squad or any other

02:06 fan but if there was the situation where we did get knocked out of Europe and we were

02:11 still in the FA Cup then I think that that domino would then fall onto the priority of

02:18 the FA Cup and doing well in it and obviously last year we managed to get to the semi-final,

02:23 lost out to Manchester United on penalties which was a gutter and although the FA Cup

02:28 meant a lot to us last season because of how well we did, I think that the Europa League

02:33 is just that step ahead right now in the priority list for De Zerby at the moment.

02:40 And as you mentioned, Man United came out on top in that semi-final last year, is that

02:45 going to be playing on their mind do you think if they were to get to the latter stages?

02:48 They really want to put that right because they were so, so close to making an FA Cup

02:52 final and just to win a trophy would be fantastic wouldn't it?

02:56 Absolutely, I think having some silverware would back up the performances that we've

03:02 been putting in and also just put a stamp of credibility on us because we're a team

03:08 that is pushing to be one of the top clubs, not in terms of money, not in terms of history

03:15 but in terms of just the form right now and I think having an FA Cup or a trophy similar

03:22 to that or even a Europa League trophy would be something that shows the world who we are,

03:27 who Brighton Over Albion are.

03:30 And we've mentioned West Ham as the first league game of the season, it's obviously

03:35 going to be a tough one that one, just generally going into that month from what we've learnt

03:40 this few months with the injuries and suspensions, who do you think Brighton, what areas do you

03:45 think Brighton need to strengthen in the Magindri transfer market if they can?

03:49 Well I think that we need to shore up the defence a little bit, I think that we've got

03:53 a lot of young players playing at the moment and despite them doing exceptionally well

03:57 for us, when we've got that many players injured you need a few quality starters that

04:03 are going to be able to secure victories and not players that might make a few mistakes

04:09 that will cost us an entire game and if we've got a run of games coming up every few weeks,

04:14 almost two a week, most weeks, it's going to be hard for us to not have a player or

04:20 a few players that can step in and be the difference in terms of quality so I think

04:26 some defenders would definitely be useful and I think even a striker, to be honest with

04:31 you, I think a striker would help and benefit because although we've got a João Pedro

04:36 that's doing brilliantly at the moment, you need to think of the way that we're performing

04:42 in general and hoping that we've got a few more players coming back in terms of Evan

04:48 Ferguson finding his feet because he was injured for a little bit but I still feel like we

04:54 need someone of a good quality and maybe use a bit of that Caicedo money to show what sort

05:00 of team we are and boost that.

05:02 Obviously the future of Denis Undov is in the air a little bit, he's been out on loan

05:06 at Stuttgart this season, there's some that think that was a bit of a mistake letting

05:09 him leave on loan when you consider Welbeck's been out for a long period of time, Evan Ferguson's

05:13 had injuries, obviously João Pedro has stayed fit for that entire time but you do wonder

05:18 if Undov has still been there, if he'd have actually got the minutes he probably craved

05:21 when he considered leaving.

05:24 So just a word on his future, would you like to see Brighton bring him back as soon as

05:28 possible?

05:29 I think that he would be great to bring back, the issue with him at the moment is because

05:33 he signed that loan deal he also had a release clause in that which is just over £10m so

05:41 for us to get him back we've also got to convince the club he's at at the moment to basically

05:46 hand him over and I think there isn't a lot of chance that that's going to happen to be

05:51 honest because in his last 10 games to recalling date in December he's got 8 goals in 10 games

05:58 and it's been the difference, there was a 2-1 victory on the weekend where his side

06:03 played and he was able to get a goal in the 72nd minute so he is making the difference

06:08 right now and potentially Brighton could look back at this and think 'ah we have made a

06:13 little bit of an error there, we didn't really see this sort of happening with injuries to

06:18 our first team strikers at the moment'.

06:21 Ansi Fati's obviously been out with an injury, hopefully coming back this month in January,

06:26 so how important will he be? We're not sure how long Brighton will have him, we presume

06:33 he will go back to Barstow at the end of the season, so to have him back in January, how

06:38 brilliant do you hope he'll be? Do you really think he'll show his best form?

06:41 I hope so, De Zerby's already said that he isn't at his best just yet and he always expects

06:48 more from Ansi Fati which is fair enough because he's a quality player and a world-class potential

06:54 player so for him to do well in this second part of the season would be not only vital

07:00 for him and potentially rectifying his career because this is a big test for him being at

07:05 Brighton, this is a deciding point basically for Barcelona to see how he performs but also

07:10 for us because we do really need him to make some of these results go our way in the second

07:16 half of the season so my hope is that he finds form, hits the ground running and to have

07:21 I hope potentially 10 plus goals from him because that would be the difference right

07:27 now, we've wanted him to be the difference but he's not quite there yet, can I redo that

07:34 bit? Yeah, do you want to start from that sentence again?

07:41 But he's not quite there just yet, I don't think he's there just yet so we'll have to

07:46 see.

07:47 And just on Evan Ferguson and Karim Matoma, both of them probably haven't been at their

07:52 best so far this season but they've shown in their times at Brighton how amazing they

07:58 can be, we've seen Hatrick from Evan Ferguson against Newcastle and we've seen Matoma absolutely

08:04 rinse defences on a weekly basis and as I say he's obviously not been at his best in

08:09 recent weeks but how important is it that Brighton keep hold of especially those two

08:13 players and how influential can they be in 2024?

08:16 Well Evan Ferguson is now an £100 million player and Tony Bloom will not want to sell

08:22 him at all because of the age he's at, the potential he has and also the quality he's

08:28 shown whilst being at the Albion so for us really it is all about making sure that we

08:33 say to these other teams, no they're not for sale and kind of shutting the door on any

08:39 speculation really, especially with Matoma as well, there was talks of him potentially

08:43 going to Manchester City in the summer, that didn't come into fruition and we just need

08:49 to make sure that the players that have made results count for us are in the squad for

08:55 January because otherwise we're going to be playing with a load of youngsters and whilst

09:00 we've got such a good academy we'll not be able to compete at that level that we're looking

09:05 for if we do that.

09:07 I think it'll also be something that Dezerby won't like either if we end up selling a lot

09:12 of those players because he wants to build something and there's every chance that if

09:16 we do he'll become frustrated, get an offer from a big club that will keep their players

09:20 because of the history and the money power that they have and he'll be gone.

09:26 Just in terms of your predictions for the year then, where do you see Brighton finishing

09:30 in the Premier League to start?

09:32 Well I feel like in terms of where we're at right now, eighth at the time of recording,

09:37 it's going to be tough for us because of the run of games we've got and we need to see

09:42 if we can keep some of the players that have been pivotal to us.

09:46 I think if we got seventh position that would be a victory and a really, really successful

09:51 season for us to have been in Europe and secure Europe in an aspect for the next season would

09:58 be really cool and also help us rebuild and still have that influence for the summer transfer

10:03 window as well with a bit of football in Europe for players.

10:07 How about the Europa League?

10:08 How far do you see Brighton going?

10:10 Is the final in Dublin a realistic aim?

10:13 The ticket's already signed, sealed and delivered but in seriousness I feel like we can make

10:19 it to the final, I really do.

10:21 Brighton are a magical club and they're a club that can always push through and make

10:26 sure that they have a fighting chance and there's every possibility, there's always

10:32 a possibility with Brighton, there's always a way and I think that we can get to the final

10:38 and we can win it and that's my prediction.

10:40 Excellent.

10:41 Thank you very much for watching latest TV news.

10:44 For the latest news from across Sussex, visit sussexworld.co.uk.

10:48 [Music]

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10:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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