[Albion] Mercurial, majestic, magnificent Mitoma [20/10/23: New deal signed]

[tigertim68]

Brighton are keen to keep him might be the key sentence in there...

I don't know, the guy surely can't play out his career at a midtable premier league club, his skills should be gracing the champions league and title challenges. There is no downside with Kaoru. There is no 'he's a good player but..' - he's a great player full stop.

All players have their price and 45 million euros will be half the going price
we don’t have to sell any player at the moment, so clubs will have to pay a premium rate if they want him

 

[GT49er]

As much as I laud very highly Plettenberg as a transfer journalist, I honestly think €50m (£42m) we are supposed to have indicated as the transfer value for a world class winger (that we are keen to keep) with 2 years left on his contract is a ridiculously low figure. It’s only €5m below the Transfer Market value and that’s saying something!

Bayern will be among half a dozen teams ‘interested’ and the Saudi Pro will probably still be sniffing, so this figure is a stalking horse figure imo. Liverpool (with Salah out of contract) and Chelsea who could do with an upgrade will be ‘looking’ no doubt as will PSG and several other European teams who have the Champions or Europa next season.

You may laud Plettenberg very highly - but Arsenal fans clearly don't! (see the replies to the Tweet linked on #Dwayne's post)

 

[Berty23]

The only positive of him going to Arsenal would be the fact that he benched Trossard at Brighton and now he could bench him at Arsenal. At least Trossard managed to force his move to win a trophy though.

 

[peterward]

They definitely want to Sign Rafaele Leao.

Got a mate whose a Brighton STH, says Mitoma is Shitehouse.

 

[Zeberdi]

No, losing our best players doesn't automatically lead to 'transition' seasons. It didn't with Bissouma or Cucurella or Trossard or Caicedo and Mac. What we have every now and again is a 'reset' season, where we decide the previous era of BHA has come to an end, and we adjust styles and squads and move into the next era. A bit like a reincarnation of Dr Who

Our first premier league era was under Hughton, solid defence, tricky wingers and a big guy up front. Our second started with the appointment of GP and ran through to Rome -posession football, building up from the back and probing away. And now we are in the third era with appointment of Fab, and still in that transitional first season but we can see signs of more direct, more power, higher defensive lines and so on.

Each of these eras isn't defined by individual players but by systems and types of players. Obviously there are stars within each team, but these leave and new ones arrive, it doesnt necessitate transition. We've got a greek striker and Korean whizz kid and Kadioglu and Boscagli and Yalcouye and Osman and Watson and loads of others we know next to nothing about who are all on the way in. Players churn, systems last. First era ended with staying up and a Cup semi, second ended with a European quarter and top half, were now on another journey.

That's how I look at it anyway

IMO - New managerial styles means ‘transition’ while existing players adapt and windows are used to change our DNA. It does not happen overnight and takes at least one or two seasons to develop - often with new players better suited to the style replacing existing players who can’t adapt and some existing players improving because they are better suited to the new style of play.

With Potter it took 3 seasons to get to 9th place and start a season on a winning streak - RDZ imposed a new system but it was still built on what Potter had developed - it turned out it wasn’t sustainable because RDZ’s system couldn’t absorb the fallout of a few top players moving on - which they will always do because they want Champions League level football and the wage structure of the Big Clubs.

Each manager we have had in the PL, has built on what the previous manager has developed. Potter built on Hughton, RDZ on Potterball, Hürzeler on RDZ.

We are a Club in continuous development and ‘transition’ - ’Reset’ to me implies starting over and I don’t think we have done that at all.

 

[Bozza]

I think, with Mitoma, it will be a bit like Alexis Mac Allister - he's been a model pro, good club servant, and as much as we want to keep him, we'll not stand in the way of him moving to a Euro-giant, particularly given his age.

Whatever Saudi clubs are prepared to pay is all but irrelevant if the suggestions are true and Mitoma isn't interested, at least not yet, and wants to test himself at the highest level.

I know we famously don't do release clauses, but there was clearly something in place to allow Mac Allister to move on for what looked like a relatively modest fee, although the add-ons will mean we end up with significantly more than the initial fee. Maybe there's something similar in place for Mitoma, or perhaps it's a gentleman's agreement with Bloom: you've served us well, so we'll not make things difficult for you to move on.

Sometimes when you love someone, you've gotta let them go.

 

[Freddo]

I think, with Mitoma, it will be a bit like Alexis Mac Allister - he's been a model pro, good club servant, and as much as we want to keep him, we'll not stand in the way of him moving to a Euro-giant, particularly given his age.

Whatever Saudi clubs are prepared to pay is all but irrelevant if the suggestions are true and Mitoma isn't interested, at least not yet, and wants to test himself at the highest level.

I know we famously don't do release clauses, but there was clearly something in place to allow Mac Allister to move on for what looked like a relatively modest fee, although the add-ons will mean we end up with significantly more than the initial fee. Maybe there's something similar in place for Mitoma, or perhaps it's a gentleman's agreement with Bloom: you've served us well, so we'll not make things difficult for you to move on.

Sometimes when you love someone, you've gotta let them go.

I think the MacAllister deal backfired on us, as the agreement was done before the World Cup. I don’t think anyone predicted him to do so well on the global stage that his value at least doubled. When the Liverpool transfer went through, it looked more like Liverpool had had our pants down, rather than us just being “too nice”.

 

[dazzer6666]

I think the MacAllister deal backfired on us, as the agreement was done before the World Cup. I don’t think anyone predicted him to do so well on the global stage that his value at least doubled. When the Liverpool transfer went through, it looked more like Liverpool had had our pants down, rather than us just being “too nice”.

Hardly backfired. Without that deal he would have gone for peanuts.

 

[Mancgull]

I think, with Mitoma, it will be a bit like Alexis Mac Allister - he's been a model pro, good club servant, and as much as we want to keep him, we'll not stand in the way of him moving to a Euro-giant, particularly given his age.

Whatever Saudi clubs are prepared to pay is all but irrelevant if the suggestions are true and Mitoma isn't interested, at least not yet, and wants to test himself at the highest level.

I know we famously don't do release clauses, but there was clearly something in place to allow Mac Allister to move on for what looked like a relatively modest fee, although the add-ons will mean we end up with significantly more than the initial fee. Maybe there's something similar in place for Mitoma, or perhaps it's a gentleman's agreement with Bloom: you've served us well, so we'll not make things difficult for you to move on.

Sometimes when you love someone, you've gotta let them go.

I’m almost certain we have a Gentleman’s agreement in place with Karou that if a CL team comes in with a reasonable bid we won’t stand in this way. By reasonable I think it will be c £50m which is obviously on the low side for a player of his talent but Karou is 28.

 

[Zeberdi]

I think, with Mitoma, it will be a bit like Alexis Mac Allister - he's been a model pro, good club servant, and as much as we want to keep him, we'll not stand in the way of him moving to a Euro-giant, particularly given his age.

Whatever Saudi clubs are prepared to pay is all but irrelevant if the suggestions are true and Mitoma isn't interested, at least not yet, and wants to test himself at the highest level.

I know we famously don't do release clauses, but there was clearly something in place to allow Mac Allister to move on for what looked like a relatively modest fee, although the add-ons will mean we end up with significantly more than the initial fee. Maybe there's something similar in place for Mitoma, or perhaps it's a gentleman's agreement with Bloom: you've served us well, so we'll not make things difficult for you to move on.

Sometimes when you love someone, you've gotta let them go.

Don’t disagree with any of that but a player is worth as much as another Club is willing to pay. That surely depends on demand - in Mitoma’s case that demand will be higher than McAllister imo - World class wingers are hard to find - top MF‘s much less so.

Either way, can’t see us selling him for £42 m which is what is being claimed - I can’t see it - not because we will stand in Mitoma’s way but because there will be several teams competing for him this summer.

 

[Bozza]

Don’t disagree with any of that but a player is worth as much as another Club is willing to pay. That surely depends on demand - in Mitoma’s case that demand will be higher than McAllister imo - World class wingers are hard to find - top MF‘s much less so.

I think Mitoma will sell for a fee lower than a lot of people think he's "worth".

We can but wait and see.

 

[Freddo]

Hardly backfired. Without that deal he would have gone for peanuts.

I really don’t think he would have. We had a 1 year option on the original deal so he still would have had a year left. We got a similar figure for Bissouma in the same situation.

 

[peterward]

I think Mitoma will sell for a fee lower than a lot of people think he's "worth".

We can but wait and see.

I hope we fight to keep him.

Alex Ferguson was famous for getting 1 more year out of star players he wanted to keep.

His contact is until summer 2027.

A payrise and implicit promise he can leave next summer is what I hope the club will do.

Minteh is raw, Adingra doesn't defend and nobody has Mitomas touch.

He won us the game v Liverpool and we'll be weaker without him.

#1MoreSeason

 

[macbeth]

No, losing our best players doesn't automatically lead to 'transition' seasons. It didn't with Bissouma or Cucurella or Trossard or Caicedo and Mac. What we have every now and again is a 'reset' season, where we decide the previous era of BHA has come to an end, and we adjust styles and squads and move into the next era. A bit like a reincarnation of Dr Who

Our first premier league era was under Hughton, solid defence, tricky wingers and a big guy up front. Our second started with the appointment of GP and ran through to Rome -posession football, building up from the back and probing away. And now we are in the third era with appointment of Fab, and still in that transitional first season but we can see signs of more direct, more power, higher defensive lines and so on.

Each of these eras isn't defined by individual players but by systems and types of players. Obviously there are stars within each team, but these leave and new ones arrive, it doesnt necessitate transition. We've got a greek striker and Korean whizz kid and Kadioglu and Boscagli and Yalcouye and Osman and Watson and loads of others we know next to nothing about who are all on the way in. Players churn, systems last. First era ended with staying up and a Cup semi, second ended with a European quarter and top half, were now on another journey.

That's how I look at it anyway

Let’s see. I take your point re the ending of eras but I would disagree that we moved seamlessly on from losing Ali Mac and Caicedo. Watching us the season after they left was incredibly painful, and it was obvious that the reason we were struggling so much was because we essentially had a massive hole in midfield.

The club might be able to get someone in who can give us close to Mitoma’s output, my point is just that there’s a significant chance that we’re going to be watching the team next season and thinking ‘there’s a massive hole here’ when we look at the left wing position, and it’s going to have to be something the rest of the team work out how to deal with, given the strategy for the last few seasons has quite often been simply ‘get the ball to Mitoma’, hence the transition, just like it was a transition when the team had to learn they no longer had the physicality of Mac and Caicedo to protect them against counter attacks

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

IMO - New managerial styles means ‘transition’ while existing players adapt and windows are used to change our DNA. It does not happen overnight and takes at least one or two seasons to develop - often with new players better suited to the style replacing existing players who can’t adapt and some existing players improving because they are better suited to the new style of play.

With Potter it took 3 seasons to get to 9th place and start a season on a winning streak - RDZ imposed a new system but it was still built on what Potter had developed - it turned out it wasn’t sustainable because RDZ’s system couldn’t absorb the fallout of a few top players moving on - which they will always do because they want Champions League level football and the wage structure of the Big Clubs.

Each manager we have had in the PL, has built on what the previous manager has developed. Potter built on Hughton, RDZ on Potterball, Hürzeler on RDZ.

We are a Club in continuous development and ‘transition’ - ’Reset’ to me implies starting over and I don’t think we have done that at all.

Sure, change the word reset, and yes, of course, continuous improvement, the point being that we are changing eras so are in a bit of transition, whereas Potter to RDZ was more continuing with the same.

Really just want to counter the idea that losing best players automatically = transition season.

 

[brighton_tom]

Sometimes when you love someone, you've gotta let them go.

I agree in part, but we will never achieve anything further to what we have if we are okay with letting the like of Mitoma, Pedro, Van Hecke, or Baleba go. There has to be somewhat of a fight to keep them with new contracts offered. If we want to win a trophy or qualify for the Champions league we need to go through more than a couple of seasons where we keep hold of all the best players we've accumulated.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

Let’s see. I take your point re the ending of eras but I would disagree that we moved seamlessly on from losing Ali Mac and Caicedo. Watching us the season after they left was incredibly painful, and it was obvious that the reason we were struggling so much was because we essentially had a massive hole in midfield.

The club might be able to get someone in who can give us close to Mitoma’s output, my point is just that there’s a significant chance that we’re going to be watching the team next season and thinking ‘there’s a massive hole here’ when we look at the left wing position, and it’s going to have to be something the rest of the team work out how to deal with, given the strategy for the last few seasons has quite often been simply ‘get the ball to Mitoma’, hence the transition, just like it was a transition when the team had to learn they no longer had the physicality of Mac and Caicedo to protect them against counter attacks

It was a pretty seamless transition for the first half of that season, great start in the league, won the europa group. Lost Mac and Caicedo but gained Gilmour, Pedro, and Fati for the briefest of moments. But it was an end of an era and post Rome we just floundered around until Fab came in with new players this summer.

Yes, we can never replace Mitoma, maybe never will, but we will have someone playing there who won't be useless. And we will improve in other positions, and invest the money received. We lost Mac and Caicedo but two years later we're going to be just 1-4 points worse off, even though they haven't been fully replaced, we have better players in other squad positions

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

I agree in part, but we will never achieve anything further to what we have if we are okay with letting the like of Mitoma, Pedro, Van Hecke, or Baleba go. There has to be somewhat of a fight to keep them with new contracts offered. If we want to win a trophy or qualify for the Champions league we need to go through more than a couple of seasons where we keep hold of all the best players we've accumulated.

I'm sure we will do that. But this may not be the year

 

[brighton_tom]

I'm sure we will do that. But this may not be the year

Why not? We currently have a great squad, and next year the newer signings will be further bedded in. We have some good options coming back from loans, and players like Kadioglu and Rutter coming back from injury. If we said to all the big stars 'sorry but nobody is being sold this summer, here's a fat new contract to compensate' then we'd only need a couple of signings this summer to have a really top squad capable of top 4. To me, it feels like this is exactly the time to be doing that. We're so close to achieving greatness. Lose Mitoma, Pedro, and Baleba for example and we then go into another season of trying to bed in their replacements. At some point as a club surely we have to go for it, and this feels like the perfect timing.

 

[Bozza]

I agree in part, but we will never achieve anything further to what we have if we are okay with letting the like of Mitoma, Pedro, Van Hecke, or Baleba go. There has to be somewhat of a fight to keep them with new contracts offered. If we want to win a trophy or qualify for the Champions league we need to go through more than a couple of seasons where we keep hold of all the best players we've accumulated.

How would you or I know what contract negotiations the club attempt?