Chris Hughton, much the same as any football manager, would almost certainly prefer to have his 25 man squad finalised ahead of the Premier League season. Yet he knows the reality is this isn’t going to be the case, something he’s relaxed about.
Hughton, who doesn’t expect his business to be concluded by the time Manchester City visit the Amex Stadium, is well aware of the fact he’ll still have around three weeks to add to the ranks after Pep Guardiola’s side start Albion’s Premier League season.
There’s no need for Brighton to panic and start signing players for the sake of adding numbers, these have to be quality additions to improve the options to Hughton.
Albion’s boss doesn’t have an issue dealing up to, and including, the transfer deadline as he knows most clubs in the Premier League will be in a similar position.
He told the Argus: ‘I don`t think it`s a problem saying that. It`s teams in general. You have only got to look at the history of the transfer market and the amount of work that is done in the last month. You mustn`t panic. What is more important is that you get in what you want, not just filling numbers, and if it takes a bit longer you have got to accept that.’
Pascal Gross, Maty Ryan and Josh Kerr have so far been added to Championship promotion winning squad.
When Hughton finishes his business and then finalises a 25 man Premier League squad, a final selection must be made shortly after the transfer deadline, he will have to stick with those numbers until January.
Again, this isn’t a problem. Hughton added: ‘These are the things that once you enter the Premier League go with it. You have to work around them. Fortunately for us, what we mustn`t come away from is that it`s all about making sure we bring in players to give us the best opportunity but we haven`t lost many players. The starting position at this moment is our end position last season, which was second in the league – and should have been first. So it`s a good starting position. What we mustn`t do is panic, because there will be opportunities for us.’
Meanwhile, the Argus also reported goalkeeper Christian Walton travelled to Portsmouth, one of those linked with him along with Wigan and Peterborough, for ‘informal talks’ on Thursday.
