đ”âȘïž Who are Florin Andone and Leon Balogun? - All there is to know about Brighton's latest sign
Itâs a time to be excited again for football supporters all around the country after the Summer transfer window officially opened recently, enabling all English clubs to buy and sell players until the middle of August. Brighton, as a club who have just retained their Premier League status, will be a team who will especially have a lot of care towards this period of time, and as an Albion supporter myself I have been and will be heavily impacted by it.
There have already been a few departures at Brighton, including the likes of Steve Sidwell, Uwe HĂŒnemeier and Liam Rosenior seeing the edit door, which donât get me wrong, is quite sad due to the fact they were all considered fan favourites, however, we can now progress further as a club without them. Brighton have already made three new signings, one being youngster Joseph Tomlinson who has agreed to play for the Under-23s from Yeovil Town. He looks like a decent prospect and someone who will deepen our talent in our youth ranks. The two other signings, though, are a lot more exciting, and thus Iâm going to give quite a lot of detail on my thoughts regarding them.
The most coveted name of the two is Florin Andone who today (May 25th) signed for the club on a five-year-deal. Andone is someone who the Albion have been after for a long time, proved by the fact the club offered for him on two occasions last season, with the highest bid of ÂŁ14m being rejected. At the time, Andoneâs release clause was around ÂŁ26.5m, which, in all fairness, is probably a little too pricey. At present, however, Deportivo (the club he has been at since 2015) has just been relegated and as a result, a relegation release clause of ÂŁ5.25m had become apparent. Luckily for us, not many other clubs were tracking the Romanian attacker, and after about a week of ongoing rumours and hints, the transfer was concluded earlier today.
What do I think about him, you may be wondering? Well, I believe that he is a fantastic signing for the club. Considering the fact we were willing to pay upwards of ÂŁ14m in as recent of a time as January, and the fact that we have managed to sign him for about a third of that price just proves what a good bit of business this is. ÂŁ5.25m for a player who has had experience playing against the Worldâs elite in La Liga and someone who has scored consistently in one of the planetâs most challenging leagues is the work of a miracle. I just canât emphasise enough how ecstatic I am with this transfer!
In his career, Florin Andone has made 204 professional club appearances, scoring 69 goals in the process. Striking one in every three may not seem too impressive to you, but when you think about all of the different clubs he has played for, you can see just how good this record is. He has performed mainly for CastellĂłn, CĂłrdoba and Deportivo La Coruña, all teams that are situated either in a mid-table position in a low-reputation Spanish division or at the bottom of La Liga. Throughout his whole career, Andone has had to deal with being in sides with reasonably poor service and as a result he just hasnât had enough chances to match the scoring of the elite. At Brighton, he is in a similar situation. Pascal GroĂ has been sensational since we signed him but unfortunately he canât serve our attack alone. Players such as Knockaert, Izquierdo and March are all decent, but when you compare them to the likes of David Silva and Leroy Sane, you can see just how far off of the pace they are of the top clubs. In simple terms, Andone will for sure struggle with the service he will be provided at Brighton, but the fact that he has experienced this so much before is a relief to me. It will finally allow for us to have someone in the squad who is capable of scoring at a consistent rate and someone who is able to finish the few chances that we do generate. Furthermore, at a height of six foot Andone will be able to challenge in the air and will therefore make the most of any half-chances we may create.
Iâm really excited to see Andone in the squad and hopefully he will be used often. Locadia, as we know, was neglected a little at the end of last season and I donât want the same to happen to the Romanian. Who knows... maybe we could see the two headlining our attack together next season... Weâll just have to wait and see.
The other deal that we got across the line this week was the signing of German side Mainzâs Leon Balogun as he put pen-to-paper on a two-year deal on Wednesday. The centre-half is a Nigerian international and at the age of twenty-nine has made 181 appearances in German divisions, impressing other clubs in the process. It wasnât even until the age of 26 or so that he did start impressing, however, gaining his first international cap at 25, which when you consider the context, seems reasonably late. As unusual as his career path may be, Leon Balogun is and has been a quality player for a few years now and is someone who I am quite excited to see performing in a Brighton shirt. He is someone who is very comfortable with the ball at his feet, which would allow for us to reduce the amount of times we play cross-field passes. Instead of kicking it fifty-to-sixty yards, we will be able to keep possession in a compact space. Furthermore, at six-foot-three he offers our defence added height and strength, allowing us to have extra stability at the back if needed. Moreover, he will help considerably with something weâve struggled with in recent times - defending and attacking during set pieces. Judging by the 14 goals he has scored throughout his career, he has a very good aerial ability which will make him able to convert chances in the box, and also clear the danger if the opposition generate their own chance on a set piece. Corners and wide free-kicks were especially an issue last season as we struggled to get a head on the ball, but Balogun, in thought, should be able to fix this, or at least help the cause somewhat.
For me, as a result of these aspects of his game being so good, the Nigerian centre-back will be a great addition to the squad, however, I believe that he shouldnât be in our starting eleven straight away. This is due to the fact the pairing of Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy was consistently spectacular last season, and if you broke them apart we would likely suffer with damage to our team chemistry. Also, these players have already had Premier League experience with us, and thus are more competent playing at this level. Of course, Balogun as Iâve stated is a great player, but whether he is good enough to make the cut ahead of our already amazing centre-half pairing is another story. In my view, we should stick with what we know, for now, at least.
More and more players are rumoured to be joining Balogun and Andone at Brighton & Hove Albion in the coming days with Reading defender Liam Moore probably being the target of most importance. None of the deals in the pipe works are anywhere near being finalised, though, so Iâm going to leave discussing these deals for another time.
If you have enjoyed my analysis regarding our new signings, albeit being quite lengthy, it would be great if you could send me some feedback via a direct message on Instagram @bha_today.
Iâd also be really happy to hear any thoughts you all have on the players we have bought this week. Share these opinions in the same way.
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