Matt1892

As someone else has said, any sell on clause will be on the profit we make on him which isn’t going to be much.

As it stands, we have Lascelles, Dummett and Krafth out of contract at the end of the season leaving us with Botman, Schar, Burn who is first choice left back and Murphy who is a young kid who would benefit from a loan to get games. I expect us to buy another centre back but that still won’t give us the depth we need. Lascelles is dependable and good enough to be fourth or fifth choice if he is happy with that.

We should be offering him a new contract rather than getting rid for a nominal fee, especially if no replacement is coming in.

What really surprised me about Tonali was how bad he was on the ball at times, he seemed to give the ball away way more than any of our other midfielders.

The thing with Tonali is that if he was average in all of his performances I wouldn’t be worried as I would put that down to him needing time to adapt to the league and style of football; however, his performances have been the complete polar opposite in some games, from excellent in some to embarrassingly shite in others. Hopefully it is a language issue and understanding the role asked of him but I do find the mad fluctuations in performances a concern.

Johnson’s price would also reflect his potential though, he signed for Spurs having not long turned 22 and he only had one season in the Premier League, when before that he was named the Championship young player of the year the season before I think. Gibbs-White is 24 in a few days and is moving out of the potential bracket, don’t get me wrong I think playing under Howe will potentially see a bigger improvement to what we had with Gordon but that is down to the setting here. I can see why they would have a similar value.

Both are out of contract in the summer so we can’t expect to get much for them, if anything. How far away is Targett away from returning? I can see him being sold and Lloyd Kelly coming in.

I went to watch them at home to Bournemouth just before Christmas as part of me and my boy trying to do the 92 football grounds, definitely an air of inferiority complex in the stadium that they are not seen as a big club any more.

Forest in talks to sign Reyna from Dortmund on loan with an option to buy so he could be the Gibbs-White replacement.

Krafth is good enough as back up, if he leaves in the summer then we look to replace then.

I think people forget how small of a club Brighton are in football terms, I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way either as what they have done is unbelievable.

• Both are capable of playing as a #8 and a #10 and can link up midfield and attack • Have good engines that means they have a high work rate that they use to break forward at pace • Have good close control to get out of tight spaces and take players on • Capable of defence splitting passes Is Paqueta more skilful with the ball at his feet? Absolutely he is. Is Gibbs-White more prepared to chase back and put the extra effort in for the team? I don’t think there is any doubt. That doesn’t mean they are not a similar type of player that shares some key attributes; however, I am interested to hear who you think both Gibbs-White and Paqueta would be seen as similar to from the eye test.

Give it a rest about Maddison.

Gibbs White has a high level of technical ability, the difference being he is less flash than Paqueta.

Gibbs White is similar in style to Paqueta.

It is worth watching this one again, it shows the work out in developing the Under 21s so players can interchange in to a number of positions and Ashworth played his part in that. Gordon and Gibbs-White were an important part of the success last summer and both have similar qualities, with Gibbs-White being the better player on the ball.

Gibbs-White has more potential than Gordon, he would be an excellent signing.

We do have limitations though and knew that when putting together our summer spending plans. We signed Barnes when we had bought Gordon in the previous window and Joelinton who was one of our better players wide left last season, that money should have been spent upgrading the right side of midfield. These players would not get anywhere near another starting eleven team challenging for the top four, yet we think we can achieve it again with them starting week in week out.

Didn’t Yasir Al-Rumayyan say in the Amazon documentary say that the aim this season was to improve on last seasons finish? They clearly want to take the club places and are doing that off the pitch, the performances are down to the manager and the players and whilst they can say that injuries have derailed the first half of the season, there are still things that are holding us back, like going in to the season with Burn and Almiron as first choice players.

I am comfortable with this one either way and would have no issue leaving it to Trippier to decide, we already have his replacement and I wouldn’t stop him from making the move if that is what he wanted.

The issue is there are some people who have no middle ground with it, they need to have a 100% strike rate or they are labelled a fraud. Pizza Rob clearly knows someone within the club and picks up bits from them, I think he went through a period where the attention went to his head so he speculated on some bits which didn’t do him any favours. I know someone high up within adidas so I get told various bits of their football activities including the dealings with us and Villa, I did put some bits on here about us serving notice on castore to go to adidas but people behave in a weird way about it so I haven’t bothered sharing anything since. I am looking forward to the 40% discount next season on our gear though.

Onana has looked really good in the games I have seen him this season, he is also young with plenty of room to develop. I understand reservations about us going for physical attributes over ability on the ball but is the type of midfielder Howe prefers.

He isn’t. Tactically he is very good and is continuing to perform at a high level despite Brighton making nearly £100 million profit on transfers in the summer. It is easy to forget how small of a football club Brighton are. The other thing is that whilst he joined Brighton after Ashworth had left to come here, the way Brighton plan it is likely that Ashworth had identified him as a coach to watch long before he left, it wasn’t as if there was rumblings about Potter going long before he did and he was linked with every vacant position. I like Brightons football but some of our fans at home might find it frustrating the lack of urgency it has, as it is designed to be possession based around the back and then to counter when pressed. He also comes across as a down to earth guy.

He was one of our most important players last year, if anything it appears he was rushed back too soon this year and we have paid the price for that. Outside of Bruno a fit Willock is our most important player in the midfield.

Is there a player that we could realistically sign over the next 12 months that is similar in attributes that can play on the opposite side to him? Yes, I know he can play there.