Sussex World reporters Jacob Panons and Frankie Elliot have shared their thoughts on the upcoming Premier League season while also looking ahead to Brighton and Hove Albion's fixture against newly promoted Luton Town.
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00:00 Hello and welcome to our Sports Chat. I've got sports reporter Frankie Elliott with me
00:07 here and first of all we're going to be speaking about some of the latest from Brighton and
00:10 Hove Albion. So there's been a pretty major sale hasn't there Frankie?
00:14 Yes, finally the club have sold Robert Sanchez, their goalkeeper. It's been a transfer deal
00:20 that's been rumbling on for quite a while now but he's finally gone. He sold for around
00:24 £25 million to Chelsea, the club he was expected to leave. It's a player they wanted to get
00:30 out the door as quick as possible so it's mission accomplished on that front and he
00:35 joins up with Chelsea now and another deal between these two clubs.
00:39 Do you think it was a good deal on Brighton's part?
00:41 Well it works perfectly for them because they wanted to get him out. He was a player that
00:45 was very unhappy ever since he was dropped by Roberto Deserbi in March. He was the first
00:51 team goalkeeper for the last 18 months before March of this year. He was dropped and then
00:57 didn't take that very well. He was asked to be left out of the squad for the end of the
01:03 Premier League season just gone and also the pre-season tour that we've just had of America.
01:08 So Brighton clearly had lost that relationship with Robert Sanchez and he wanted to leave
01:13 as well. So it works perfectly for them because they've got someone out of the club that doesn't
01:17 want to be there and that's the most important part.
01:20 Do you think Brighton fans will be quite sad to see the back of Robert Sanchez after he
01:24 was a fan favourite for a period of time?
01:27 Yeah, he certainly was but unfortunately the way he's behaved in the last couple of months
01:32 I think a lot of fans have fallen out of love with him. I think from the club's perspective,
01:37 financially speaking, they're still very happy to have got £25m for him. It seems like that's
01:42 a very good deal for them considering he hasn't played much football for six months, he's
01:46 become their third choice goalkeeper and to still receive £25m with two years left still
01:52 on his Brighton deal as well, really works well for them. For Brighton fans themselves,
01:57 they won't be too disheartened because they've obviously got Jason Steele there who was Sanchez's
02:01 replacement from March onwards and he was playing brilliantly towards the end of last
02:05 season and also the new goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen who they signed for £16m from Anderlecht
02:10 in the summer. So they'll be happy to see that they've got a back-up for the sale of
02:14 Sanchez and also be happy to see the back of someone who doesn't want to be at the football
02:18 club as well.
02:19 Obviously we can't have one of these sports segments without talking about Moises Caicedo,
02:23 what's the latest with him?
02:25 So yes, we've rumbled on again, we're another week into this saga, we're a week away from
02:30 the Premier League season and Moises Caicedo is still a Brighton player. However, in the
02:36 last week or so we obviously had the issues regarding Caicedo, what he said at the end
02:42 of season player awards in which he said he wanted to leave Brighton despite winning
02:47 player of the season both from the fans and his team-mates as well. So that was the first
02:53 indication that Caicedo had actually said out loud in public that he wanted to leave
02:57 the club. He's gone one step further this week and he has not turned up to training
03:02 on the Monday of this week. Now we do not know if that was because of his injury that
03:07 kept him out of Sunday's pre-season game at the Amex Stadium, the final pre-season
03:12 game for Brighton before the start of the Premier League campaign. But it is apparent
03:17 that Caicedo is trying to force this move through. But Brighton as ever will stay firm
03:22 on their stance that they want £100 million for Caicedo and will accept nothing less.
03:28 We believe that Chelsea are preparing their fifth bid of the summer, having obviously
03:32 had the first four rejected. That fourth and final bid was around £80 million so they
03:37 still need to bump it up by at least £20 million if they're going to see an offer
03:42 accepted. We're not sure if that will be the case but proposal is being prepared and
03:48 they are still very keen to get Caicedo signed with a Stamford Bridge contract before the
03:54 start of the Premier League season this weekend. But as we stand, Brighton are not changing
03:58 their stance on the Caicedo deal and he is still a Brighton player and he will be expected
04:03 to be a part of the first team squad for their first game against Luton Town on Saturday.
04:07 Do you think there's any chance with, like you said, Caicedo maybe forcing through a
04:11 move that Brighton might lower their asking price?
04:15 I still don't think so. Brighton have always had a very, very firm stance on the sales
04:19 of their players. They were happy to let them go but only for the right price and that price
04:25 is £100 million. That is their stance. They see that Caicedo has signed on to a long-term
04:31 deal. He's signed that long-term deal over this year. That means their hands are not
04:35 tied in being forced to sell him. He may be unhappy but he's still contracted to the club
04:41 and he must be aware that that contract still runs for three and a half years so if he doesn't
04:46 get the deal, if Chelsea don't come up with the £100 million before the end of the transfer
04:52 window, he'll be expected to still play for Brighton until January at least. So I don't
04:57 think Brighton work that way. Obviously it depends how far Caicedo takes this of course.
05:02 If you're looking at him as a player, he's still got a lot to enjoy this season. He's
05:05 going to play Europa League football with Brighton. He's still playing in a club that
05:09 was one of the best running the country and playing some of the best football last season.
05:14 So there's not too much to deter him from doing that again. But we'll have to wait and
05:19 see on how far he pushes this, whether he dint turn up to training yesterday because
05:23 he chose not to or because he was injured, will really deter what his mindset is going
05:28 forward.
05:29 And obviously bringing us forward to this Saturday, first game of the season at home
05:33 against Luton Town, do you think he'll start in that fixture?
05:36 I don't think he'll start. Mainly because what we were told by the club is that he's
05:42 carrying a knock at the moment so that'll be the first reason. I don't think he'll be
05:45 fit enough to play. He hasn't really played a full 90 minutes since the end of last season
05:49 either. Pre-season has been a bit chop and change all over the place because of obviously
05:55 these Chelsea transfer dealings. He's not played a lot of minutes on the pitch. But then on
05:59 top of that I think all the noise that's surrounding this potential fifth bid by Chelsea for him
06:05 may mean that Deserve wants to just keep Caicedo on the bench. And we may be seeing Caicedo
06:10 on the bench or being used sporadically until the transfer window is closed because it's
06:15 a good way to keep him out of the noise that surrounds, the drama that surrounds the end
06:20 of the transfer window and obviously this deal in particular. So my bet would be he'll
06:25 be in the matchday squad but I don't think he'll be starting.
06:27 And like you said, with that noise, there's going to be, you know, we've spoken about
06:31 it week after week, Sky News, it's all over the place. The whole footballing world is
06:34 talking about what's going to happen to Moises Caicedo. Do you think that disrupts the team
06:39 a little bit and kind of puts them on edge because they don't know if their team-mate
06:41 is going to be there tomorrow or for the next fixture?
06:44 I think the fact that Brighton are so used to selling their best players in the last
06:48 two or three years, I think they're probably too experienced of dealing with these situations
06:53 that the squad I think will be fine. I think Deserve is very well aware that Brighton is
06:57 a selling club still. It's obviously not got the power of the big six clubs where it can
07:01 keep hold of its best players. So he would have been prepared for this and was aware
07:05 that Caicedo would be a part of these transfer stories. I think the squad, most of the players,
07:10 you look at people like Lewis Dunk, Soli Marts, they're used to seeing great players come
07:13 in and leave. So they would have been used to these sort of stories circulating around
07:17 players as well. So they'll be used to it. I think the person that would be drained the
07:21 most by this story would be Caicedo. And that's why I think it might affect his performances
07:26 at the start of the season to be playing in games where he would rather be further afield
07:31 or there are potential new passes for him still on the horizon.
07:36 Brilliant. Thank you, Frankie. And make sure you tune in to part two of Latest TV News
07:41 as Frankie and I will be discussing how we see the rest of the Premier League season
07:44 panning out. And we'll also be talking a bit more in depth about Brighton's opening game
07:48 of the season against Luton Town.
07:58 Hello and welcome back to part two of Latest TV News. I've got sports reporter Frankie
08:02 Elliott with me here and we're going to be talking about Brighton's first Premier League
08:05 game of the season against Luton Town. And we'll also be discussing how we see the rest
08:09 of the season panning out for all 20 teams in the Premier League. So Frankie, Brighton's
08:14 first game at home against Luton Town on Saturday. What do you think the result will be there?
08:18 Yeah, I mean, Brighton are clear favourites, obviously. Playing at home for one is always
08:24 going to put them in a favourable position. They play very, very well at the Amex and
08:28 finished very strongly there at the end of last season under Roberto Di Zerbi. But obviously
08:33 they're playing Luton Town as well, who not only are a promoted side, which always is
08:38 a difficult thing to come into the Premier League as, but it's the first time they've
08:41 been promoted to the Premier League in 30 years. So this is a team, they're a surprise
08:45 package. They very much shocked a lot of people by getting promoted last year. I mean, less
08:50 than six years ago, they were playing League Two football and they have a number of their
08:54 squad that were a part of that League Two team. So there's a number of players that
08:58 have never played in the Premier League before. They haven't been able to recruit many major
09:03 players or stars that have played Premier League football before. So there's a lack
09:06 of experience at the top flight, playing against one of the best teams from last season. So
09:10 you would fancy very much Brighton to win that first game.
09:13 And like you spoke about, obviously they've just got promoted. It's been a fairy tale
09:17 story. Adrenaline's going to be running with the fans, with the staff, with the players
09:21 as well. Do you think that could be quite difficult? Because we've seen in the past
09:24 that these promoted teams, the first two or three games of the season, give any team in
09:28 the Premier League a run for their money.
09:30 Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because it's all very exciting for them. I'm sure there's
09:34 going to be a lot of Hatter's fans coming down to the South Coast for that weekend.
09:39 I'm sure they're going to bring a lot of noise and a lot of energy and the Luton players
09:42 will be hoping to take that in with them to that game. And like you say, Brighton, as
09:47 brilliant as they were last season, they're not used to being favourites. In fact, if
09:50 you look at their results towards the end of last season, all their defeats and all
09:54 their poor performances came against teams they were expected to beat from the lower
09:58 half of the table who were fighting relegation. We expect Luton to be one of those teams this
10:01 year. But they'll be going into it obviously on zero points, same as Brighton, so they
10:05 will fancy their chances for sure. But a lot of pressure going into that game, but you
10:10 still fancy Brighton because of the quality of the players they have and the quality of
10:13 their manager to come out with the three points.
10:16 And do you think there could be an issue with Brighton playing against a team like Luton?
10:19 Obviously we saw it towards the end of this season with that devastating loss at home
10:23 against Everton. And Everton play quite a game where they don't want the ball all the time
10:27 and Luton are quite similar. Do you think that could be something that could be quite
10:31 difficult for Roberto de Zerbi's men?
10:33 Well, absolutely. That would definitely be the tactic. I expect Brighton to have over
10:38 60% possession, as they always do. That is Roberto de Zerbi's style of football. And
10:43 Luton Town will try to catch from the break. The issue Luton Town will have is whether
10:47 they have the attacking firepower to get the goal. Obviously Brighton last year had much
10:53 more experienced Premier League players going forward to grab those five goals at the MX
10:57 Stadium. We don't see that in the Luton front line. But like you say, that is the best way
11:02 to beat Brighton, is to invite them on, invite the pressure on and then hit them on the counter-attack.
11:07 So it would be interesting to see if they can pull it off. But the golfing class should
11:11 probably tell too much at the end of the day.
11:13 If I had to twist your arm and you had to give me a score prediction, what would you
11:16 go for?
11:17 I would go for 3-1 Brighton.
11:19 3-1 Brighton. Any goal scorers?
11:21 I think Jal Pedro will open his account for the season. Obviously the new £30m man. I'm
11:28 assuming he will be making his debut out front. I can see him grabbing a goal. I would also
11:32 go with Soli March as well, coming back off a long-term injury. I think I'd like to see
11:36 him grab a goal. I would also go for Karim Moutoma, one of Brighton's best players last
11:41 season. I think he'll get off to a firing start as well.
11:43 Fantastic. Obviously, if we're looking ahead to the rest of the Premier League season,
11:47 how do you see it panning out for Brighton, obviously now in four competitions?
11:50 Well, they've got a good start to the season. They only play one of the big six in their
11:56 first six games of the campaign. That's against Manchester United. So there's a chance for
12:01 them to get off to a good start. There's also an opportunity for them to cement their position
12:07 in the higher end of the table before the Europa League campaign kicks off in September.
12:11 That's when we expect the season to get more difficult. They'll be playing three times
12:15 a week. Obviously playing Thursday and then Sunday as well, which has eaten up a lot of
12:19 teams previously who haven't had the big squads of the big six to deal with that challenge
12:26 of playing European football and domestic football at the same time. So I imagine that's
12:29 when their season will start to waver in their Premier League form. But there's a lot of
12:34 quality in this side still. They've still got one of the best managers in Europe as
12:39 well who's brought this brilliant style of football to the Premier League. We hope he
12:43 can carry it on. He's signed some brilliant players over the summer. Five players you'd
12:47 expect to challenge the first team almost instantly from going into this game against
12:52 Luton Town on Saturday. I still think Brighton will finish in the top ten this season. I
12:56 think that should be their first aim. But I don't think it'll be as brilliant as last
13:00 season. I would imagine they'll finish somewhere around eighth or ninth.
13:04 And how do you see them performing in Europe and performing in the League Cup and the FA
13:08 Cup as well? Obviously getting to the semi-final of the FA Cup this season.
13:12 In Europe, I think, obviously as with any club who enters Europe for the first time
13:17 ever or has very rarely entered Europe, you're looking to get out of the group stage. The
13:21 good thing for Brighton is the fact they qualified for the Europa League is actually they need
13:25 to finish in the top three of their group this time around because obviously the top
13:29 two would go through to the Europa League knockout stage but third place would get them
13:33 to the Europa Conference knockout stage, obviously the third biggest competition in Europe. So
13:39 they would obviously go down a level but still playing in Europe. So I think that should
13:43 be their aim. Obviously under Roberto Di Zerbi he'll be aiming to win the group and go on
13:47 as far as possible. But if they can get out of the group stage then you never know with
13:51 knockout football. It's all going to be very, very exciting. The Amex will be an amazing
13:55 atmosphere for any game whether it be knockout or group stage. So I would see Brighton having
14:02 the quality to do it obviously depends on their draw. If they are drawn in a tough group,
14:06 you don't know how they will compete away from home in Europe. That's a very difficult
14:10 thing to manage. But if they went into the drop into the Conference League in a third
14:14 place you would really fancy them to go really far in that competition due to the quality
14:18 of the teams in that competition. So I think for me there is a potential there to do very
14:24 well in either the Europa League or the Conference League. But we'll have to wait and see come
14:30 the draw at the start of September.
14:32 And obviously there's a lot of competitions they're competing in. Do you think there's
14:34 a chance Di Zerbi might pick one and might think we'll play some younger players, we'll
14:38 play maybe a weaker team because we want to sort of drop those fixtures as quickly as
14:42 possible?
14:43 No I don't think that's the way he works. I think we saw, so he was manager for both
14:48 their League Cup and FA Cup exit last year. Obviously he took them a lot further than
14:52 the FA Cup to the semi-final. But it was a key moment when they lost in the quarter-final
14:57 of the League Cup to Charlton, League 1 Charlton at the time and who were struggling. They lost
15:02 to them on penalties and it was just after the World Cup and Di Zerbi had actually named
15:07 quite a strong team for that game. And for a number of weeks after that exit he kept
15:11 on referring to that as a really missed opportunity. He was very upset by the fact they got knocked
15:15 out of the League Cup which is of the four competitions they're going to be in this year
15:19 the smallest and most, you would say the least important to fans and the club in general.
15:27 But Di Zerbi will see it as an opportunity to grab silverware which is obviously how
15:30 most managers' success is managed. So I think you will see young players used throughout,
15:36 whether they come off the bench or whether they maybe start games here and there in both
15:40 the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup and even the Europa League. But you will always
15:45 see a very, very strong team name because Di Zerbi wants to win, he wants to do well
15:49 and he wants to stamp his authority as being one of the best managers in Europe.
15:53 And if we divert our attention back to the Premier League, generally speaking how do
15:57 you see it panning out? Who's going to win? Who's going to finish in the top four? Who's
16:00 going to get those European spots?
16:01 Well it's hard to see past Manchester City as always. I think treble winners and playing
16:08 always their exceptional football. But more than that they're just born winners. They're
16:12 born winners and they showed that even when they were behind Arsenal at Christmas and
16:17 in February, they always knew that when it comes to those final 10, 11 games of the season
16:23 they can get on that run of winning game after game and just chasing any team down.
16:28 You'd still fancy Arsenal to be up there as well. I mean they've recruited well over the
16:32 summer with Timba coming in, Kai Herverts as well, Declan Rice the major signing midfield.
16:38 They seem to have recruited in all the right areas and building on the success of last
16:42 year where they obviously finished second and came in with a whisker of challenging
16:45 City. So I think they'll come back again bigger, better and stronger.
16:48 And outside of that I don't really see much challenge to Manchester City if I'm being
16:53 truthfully told. Your third best choice would probably be Manchester United. Obviously under
16:59 Eric Ten Haag they made a lot of progress last year, managed to get a trophy for the
17:03 first time in seven years and managed to get Champions League football. If they continue
17:08 to develop under him and play more in his style as he continues to grow and get the
17:13 club back to where they were, you feel they might also be in with an outside chance. But
17:18 I think it's a season two soon for them and the rest of the clubs you would say are still
17:22 playing catch up to this brilliant Manchester City side.
17:25 Thank you Frankie and thank you for tuning in. That's everything from us here at Latest
17:30 TV News. If you'd like to read more stories from across the county, please visit Sussex
17:34 World online.
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